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The next morning, everyone wakes up to discover two things.

The first: Jing Yi is asleep and can't be woken up no matter how much he's shaken.

The second:

Newspaper clipping reading: MURDER OF LUNATIC AT HEREFORDSHIRE MADHOUSE  A Wye Valley asylum inmate was brutally murdered on Thursday in the oddest circumstances. The dead man, Alexander Roby, was being considered for release from the asylum after having been successfully treated for his mental disorders.  Roby was an inmate at St. Agnes' Asylum for the Criminally Deranged in Weobly, Herefordshire, under the care of Dr. Leo Aarons. He was admitted in October 1925 after the murder of his father, Herbert, and his sister, Georgina, a crime still unsolved. His brother is the banker Dr. Grahame Roby of Coutts and Co.  Police say that the murder was excessively violent and was perpetrated with a knife that was recovered on the scene in the possession of a second inmate, notorious "Lesbian Killer" Valentine Donovan. Donovan is the prime suspect for the killing but police are also anxious to contact two nurses at the institution who are missing. The men are Thomas Clarke, of Leominster, thirty-four years old, who is of medium height and thin build, cleanshaven, with blue eyes and blonde hair; and Montague Edwards, also of Leominster, forty-one years old, Indian, of medium height and build, cleanshaven. One or both of these men may be wounded.

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Terrence, who was up late last night reading the King in Yellow, is even less well-prepared for this than he might normally be. He would not normally be well-prepared for this. He tries saying the man's name, saying it more urgently, shaking him, yelling his name. He gingerly lifts the blanket to try and see if Jing Yi's been, like, stabbed, but... no? Okay, this is fine. Uhhhh. This is fine. Is this magic? This seems like magic.

This is fine. Ummm. Think, Terrence. Think.

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What he's going to say to Terrence, he has no idea. To be honest, he slept terribly last night, for reasons that seem even more embarrassing now. But it seems like Terrence might need someone to talk to, and Jing Yi seems like a terrible candidate. 

Oscar knocks on the door to his room.

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AAACK. Terrence jumps a foot in the air and opens the door.

"Oscar! Thank god."

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He doesn't seem like he knows yet.

"What's going on?" Oscar asks.

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"Jing Yi's in a coma!"

Terrence points, helpfully.

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Jing Yi is indeed unconscious.

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"I can't wake him. I - I don't know why - I don't know if this is ..."

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"Can we take him to a doctor?" Oscar asks. "Or if not... Inaaya?"

Why now of all times, he wonders.

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"I... think Inaaya might be better. I mean, I don't know. But my guess is - uhh, that a. A conventional doctor wouldn't be able to help." Terrence tugs at his shirt collar, fretful. "Based on - well, just context clues. But I'm not sure that Inaaya knows a damn thing either. Oh, dear."

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"Inaaya knows a lot of things." It comes out a little more defensive than he intended. "I can check to see if she's awake if you'd like to stay with Jing Yi?"

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Terrence doesn't notice.

"Oh, to hell with it. He's out like a light, I'll go with you."

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Is he going to have to pantomime to Inaaya that Terrence doesn't know about Roby. Or is he going to haplessly watch Terrence find out.

"Alright," he says.

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They find Inaaya's room empty!

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Did she leave a note or anything?

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Nope! Just completely forgot that was a thing that a person might do.

Sal's not where they left him either, though. Presumably wherever they went they went together?

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Weird. Did they poison Jing Yi and bail????

...No, probably they didn't.

But did they????

...No, probably they didn't.

Terrence wrings his hands.

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Poor Terrence. "Maybe we ought to wait here?" Oscar suggests. It's not like he has any better ideas.

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Meanwhile--

Dr. Aarons is having a very bad morning.

He looks like he got almost no sleep.

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"We're sorry to interrupt you so soon after... well. I hope you'll agree afterwards that this was worth your time."

Inaaya came up with this plan and seems to be leading it, but they would've discussed on the way up the best way to present things; does she want either of them to lead things off or handle certain topics so she isn't spearheading this, or just chime in when they have something relevant to say?

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She can spearhead it, since she's the one who's presenting any kind of proof.

"I'm going to make a very strange claim and I'd like to present you with the evidence for it first," she says to Dr. Aarons. "Is there an object you can hand me that you know the history of, can guarantee that I don't, and don't mind me finding out?"

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"Certainly. Should it be some sort of unusual history?"

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"The harder it would be for me to guess, the better."

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"Hm, I think I have something around here..."

"Perhaps this will do." He pulls out a necklace with a cross from a drawer.

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Why is there a necklace in a drawer-- you know what, doesn't matter.

She takes the necklace, and goes blank like she's having an absence seizure.

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