...

"Thank you for talking with me. I wish you the best."

"You too."

Sal and Inaaya meet up in a park on the way home from their respective adventures. 

"Two things. One is that Terrence has been having very odd dreams. --And Oscar as well, I think. They agreed to write them down for me but my understanding is that you know more about dreams than I do."

"I know more about some very specific subset of dreams, and I don't know whether Terrence's thing is connected to the Dreamlands at all. Oscar I can look into probably. What's the second thing?"

"The other thing is that I would like to take a look at Der Wanderer but seem to have developed a slight phobia around strange books, and thought I'd ask if you could either take a look with me or tell me to man up and do it myself. Especially since -- I don't remember if you heard. William Way, the one who had a vision of his own death while reading Der Wanderer a few years ago, just died in the same way he foresaw."

"Yes, I can do that. Updates from my end, Sano didn't want to tell me and Oscar anything, but according to Oscar he's got fifteen copies of the King in Yellow in his back room, along with some magic drugs-- not that Oscar knows they're magic drugs, I just recognized the name. And I kept trying to say in subtext that I was glad he'd stopped that play but I'm not sure we were speaking the same metaphorical language."

"Without the context of him stopping the play I'd want him to stop dating Simone immediately but given that context -- not actually sure."

It is still so weird that Simone dates men. She's not saying that out loud.

"He also told us not to talk to Parker under any circumstances, said he was dangerous and sometimes violent and clearly had something else he wasn't saying, and Carter said the whistling sound when he killed the tramp was exactly the same as the whistling sound from the night of the Roby murders. --and Carter has my thing with dreams. Or he used to. Apparently he-- grew out of it, and desperately wants it back. I'm not sure that's relevant to our other problems but."

"Making Parker both more interesting to contemplate and more terrifying to consider tracking down. ...Huh. I guess if nothing else that could be further proof of your claims, in the unlikely case he ever feels well and cheerful enough to put up with my questions. We'll need to borrow the book from Oscar's but--"

"Anything else.... oh, I didn't actually get the whistling noise thing from Roby's neighbors, I asked the local stray cats, but I figured 'neighbors' was close enough for government work."

They may walk in the direction of Oscar's. "Terrence doesn't quite believe in psychic phenomena but he doesn't quite not anymore. He said that Talbot Estus said he put on the play exactly as it was written and appeared differently to different people due to the play's powerful effect on the mind, which is an answer to a question I didn't have about something I didn't notice. I can't exactly tell you everything about his theatrical obsession, there's been too many little details since it started, but if we start at the thing freshest in my mind his bedroom is covered with drawings of the Yellow Sign."

"...that seems bad!"

"It certainly doesn't seem good."

Here is Oscar's place. He doesn't seem to be here but he said Sal could borrow the book and either someone will let them in or he will figure out the door.

In fact, a very harried-looking woman opens the door. "Yes?"

"Sal Digby, friend of Oscar's. Is he in? He said I could borrow a book of his."

"He's out doing-- something, I don't know what--" A child starts sobbing in the background. "--You can come in and get it."

The house is incredibly messy, in the way of houses when there are two children and no one has time to clean.

They locate Der Wanderer. It is mildly embarrassing to be causing this woman trouble but this just motivates him to get in and out faster and quieter.

She is FED UP WITH ALL OF THIS.

That is so valid of her. Sorry for the trouble Mrs. Latz and thank you for letting us in bye.

Now they have a copy of Der Wanderer.

"Can I get you anything? Tea, food, a blanket..." He's aware that this is hard for Inaaya and people don't generally like getting asked favors with nothing in return but this isn't the usual dynamic of his bolder moments in life.

"I'd take food or tea if you're having some. It's not usually particularly bad, for what it's worth."

Sal gets her a plate. (It's not a lot of food but it is a concerningly large fraction of the observable food in the place.) "If you don't mind then I won't mind."

Here is book. Let us consider book.

...yeah that is kind of concerning. She can try to pay him back later.

Deep breath. She puts a hand on the book.

Aid me, Kaiwan. I, a dreamer, seek a vision from red Aldebaran and black Hali. I make the Sign. Bless me that I may bespeak the end of the day.

She has no idea what that means but when she comes back to herself she's shaking again and there's something hot on her face.