"I don't either. ...Jing Yi's fiancée can control cats. I ran into her outside their building and she demonstrated."

"Christ."

"So wrong or lying, I guess is the question there."

"I wish there was a clearly safe way to get information on Chris Parker, I don't know what their relationship is but it certainly is strange that she showed up basically out of nowhere and happens to be unhappily engaged to one of Roby's friends."

"And can mind control people and is living in Terrence and Jing Yi's flat. That also."

"So Terrence has two avenues toward getting his head screwed with and Jing Yi has one."

"--She also said the person in question is making a habit of betrayal. I'm not really clear which things that changes."

"Hm."

(Obviously she's wondering if it's Sal, because you can't just not wonder, that's how you walk directly into something you really should have seen coming. She doesn't think it is though? The first version of this thought was 'if it's Sal why would he tell me,' but if Oscar and Terrence were also there then obviously you'd want to tell the others as soon as you could, because of that very reasoning; the more stable version if 'if it's Sal, why ask Clapper that at all, when you could just as easily not?')

"Neither am I. I was going to wonder if there were obvious times for it to have happened but none of us have exactly been sticking together, that won't help..."

"...yeah, I don't have any better ideas than to continue keeping secrets from the boys until we have a better idea what's going on. Oscar's paranoia is going to be through the roof, that'll be fun."

"I'm not even sure what specific scenario the word 'betrayal' is pointing at. Is it something to do with Roby or Parker or Sano or Clare Melford or Donovan or honestly any of the deaths..." He sighs. "She said she wouldn't tell us who because it wouldn't result in enough drama and suspicion. I hope she's enjoying herself."

Yes.

"At least someone is, I suppose."

"Also on the subject of things Nessa Clapper said, do I remember correctly that you know anything about black liao? That's what she told Terrence to take."

"Takes you to the Dreamlands, if you can't go yourself or if you want to be awake for it."

"Sano had some in his back room when Oscar poked around but mostly it's very expensive and from Tibet, it's not easy to get ahold of."

"So if he wants some the most obvious way to get it is through Sano? Joy." Sal almost wants to be a fly on the wall for that interaction.

"I mean, I don't think he knows Sano has any, Oscar hasn't really been mentioning it... but also yes it's a way."

Updating towards 'Terrence is not going to get the Dreamlands back on his own,' she supposes.

That afternoon,

"...One of Roby's friends showed me a note from him." Oscar presents the letter for Sal and Inaaya to see.

"...So that's where DeVil's been hiding."

Speaking of, when you glance up, you see a piece of graffiti: THE KING WILL COME THIS WINTER.

Great, awesome, she hates it.

"So we have two weeks. ...I'm not coming up with any better ideas than being at Lake Mullardoch to stop them from doing whatever they're planning on doing, which is, obviously, a terrible idea."

"I promised Ruby we'd deal with it but I have no idea how. She seemed-- freaked out, but it's of course ominous nonsense to her." Good for her!

"There's only one person I can think of who I would believe could pull off just stopping them and I'm still not sure how far we should trust him at all."

"Also I don't think he's particularly available right now." Seeing as how he left for Japan.

"If Jing Yi wasn't down for the count I'd want to ask him how he and Evie were planning to deal with Parker."

If there isn't a complicated double-crossing plot going on there, which quite frankly there's a good chance there is.

"I tried to ask Ruby if there were other people who got the same invitation, but she just went on about how they've got a really special bond, there's obviously no one else."

"Honestly, if we could be sure Evie was on our side, it turns out she can in fact control intelligent beings, and I'd be very surprised if that wasn't useful at all. But the fact that she can do that and said she couldn't makes it even less obvious that we should believe her about anything else."

"...I really hope Terrence didn't get one."

"Yeah, uh. That's kind of specifically who and what I'm worried about. He is-- very sympathetic to Roby, and to that worldview."