"We what!"

Are we just telling Terrence this? She guesses empirically he's going to be there regardless. Yeah okay they're just telling Terrence this.

"Oh, I do love a ritual."

"Zounds. Do you have it? Can I see it? How do we have it?"

Not a delightful reaction, Terrence.

Sal thought they established they were telling him this but it might have gotten lost in communication somewhere. Oh well.

"You know, I didn't realize how happy I would be that we're the ones telling you until just now."

"Why would - oh." Terrence pauses. "Well, yes," he adds, helpfully.

Who has the invite. "So we're clear, this is not so much a fun get-together as it is someone getting stabbed several times by the side of a lake while surrounded by hundreds of those monstrous bat things."

At least we get a chance to... dissuade him of his enthusiasm. Not that it's worked before. The type of magic here is really bad for reasoning.

"...okay." There's not much to say to that, other than a) going is a horrible idea and b) well, I'm in if you're all in.

".......Was that in the invitation?" Now he's really confused.

"No, it wasn't. I did a spell that granted me a vision."

"Oh. Congratulations." He is confused but sincere.

Now he's just boggled. Oscar, staid bookseller Oscar, knows and does spells? Surely that must somehow be stepping on the working class and increasing state hegemony.

Only if you strongarm him into it!

"I don't recommend practicing magic," says Oscar somberly.

"Roby sent the invitation to Ruby, who gave it to Oscar, I'm not actually sure who has it now. --The reason we're going is to stop them, obviously, like Sal said it's not a fun social jaunt."

"...I'm going to strongly recommend we don't take Ruby."

"And I'm pretty sure Ruby wouldn't come if we wanted her to, so that works out."

And why do you have an opinion on this? Wait, Ruby mentioned Jing Yi. How do they know each other?

A mystery for another day he guesses.

"I mean, of course. If they're going to kill someone - or, or harken in some kind of harpy murmuration to menace England - that's no good at all."

Skating right by the question of Jing Yi and Ruby's acquaintance!

"What else happened. Oh, Sal and I tried to explain that magic exists to Doctor Aarons, he didn't believe us, we gave him a copy of our notes, probably something is going to happen with that but I'm not sure what and I'm not sure I care."

"As he is a Man of Science, I don't think he would believe in that. ...unless he worked out how to cast a spell. Not sure what would happen then."

"They are going to kill someone," Oscar says.

Terrence is so naïve about the broader magic user community! It's not just a book club for jaded academics.

(Oscar, did we not less than a week ago talk about how your cat taught me everything I know about Babylonian epic poetry.)