... "Do you have any idea who?"

"What happened?"

"Yes. I got invited out of the blue to the office of this this wealthy Japanese art dealer I've never met before in my life. He pours me some incredibly fancy tea and then tells me that if I don't stop trying to allow The King in Yellow to be performed, he'll kill me. Three days later, I was asking around the Royal Society about Ben Best - for the, the investigation, I wasn't even mentioning the King in Yellow - and some scoundrel comes up to me in the pub and tells me to stop what I'm doing and then broke my nose. I had to go to the hospital."

"...Wealthy Japanese art dealer."

Wealthy Japanese art dealer who wants to stop the King in Yellow. "Do-- you know what the scoundrel looked like, or--"

"His name was Ichiro Sano. I have his calling card around here somewhere." He gestures vaguely to the apartment at large. "... The dealer, not the scoundrel. The scoundrel was some gangly fellow. Had a chin that could cut glass, I recall. He ran right after the, the assault, when I would have been motivated to get a better look at him, unfortunately. "

"A tall man with a sharp face, you might say."

"....You might. You might say that." This is kind of occurring to Terrence also. "... I mean, a lot of people are tall and have sharp faces, to be fair."

"Still, it's something to keep in mind." She's just. Not going to mention her relationship, such as it is, with Ichiro Sano.

"Right. So, um, I mean, they only mentioned me and didn't seem to think I was working with anyone else, but, um. ... Stay away from either if you happen to be near the Royal Society or buying Japanese art, I suppose. ...I suppose that might mean there's a connection there, but it was quite awful, I'm, uh - reluctant to investigate myself." He shudders.

"For obvious reasons."

"Rather."

(Sal can't talk to Inaaya about what's going on with Sano with Terrence right there, but he can make meaningful eye contact about it.)

She makes eye contact right back. But also: Not now. "Well. Thank you for telling us, that's-- good to know."

Terrence makes his pleasant goodbyes. He has a lot to think about. 

In the hallway: "Should somebody mention to Sano that Terrence is under control and we are trying to stop all this culty murder business? In the event that he is actually tying to kill him?"

"I don't know. Maybe? ...It probably won't hurt anything to try again to actually have a conversation about it in plain language."

"He's fond of you. The rest of us he doesn't know and doesn't have a reason to protect but if he thinks you're getting involved in something bad he'll be gentle about it. I'll come along with you so you aren't in there alone. ...Not right now. If he's actually dangerous we shouldn't rush in. We should think about how to present things first."

"He's fond of me but I'm not sure that's... enough. How to present things-- honestly I think I should try making an appointment and just telling him, without trying to do subtext, that we're trying to stop the murders from continuing and I'm grateful he's trying to stop the King in Yellow. I don't think we're going to manage to present it better than just saying that."

"If he is sending people after Terrence I would like to present him in the best light. He's our friend, he's not working with anyone, he's helping us investigate the murders, he's recently discovered the truth of this stuff and is starting to realize some of what The King in Yellow has cost him, we are trying to convince him it's cursed. If you are threatening to kill him please stop doing that as it isn't helping the investigation." He sighs. "I'm not incredibly convinced of all of that myself."

"So part of what I'm worried about is that-- one, I don't know that we're going to get anywhere with convincing him the book is cursed, and two, I'm not sure Sano is the one threatening to kill him. There's no law saying only one person at a time can object to you poking into things."

"Yes. But if it is Sano we have the opportunity and arguably the obligation to sell him on this and if it's someone else we don't have any options I can see."

"Yeah, I'm not seeing any better options, just."

"I suppose we don't need possible conversation branches all planned out just to arrange things with his secretary, in any case."

"This is true." Tiny laugh. "...do you in fact want to go to the zoo and find out if the lion can talk."