"And I'm glad of that." He smiles fondly. "I don't want to keep you a secret, anymore than we need to keep Parker off our trails.

Anyway, I don't think I'd last long doing 'So sorry, I need to go spend some time with this mysterious woman I talk about like she hung up the stars, who mysteriously has a kid who looks like me.'"

She laughs. "It'd be a bit obvious."

"All my acting subtlety, undone by my own wife--"

"Soon I won't have to keep us a secret from anyone."

A few days later, they're on the train back to the asylum.

The cops have not come to investigate Sal as a murder suspect yet. It is now as safe as it was previously to be seen with these people.

(Or so he is telling the part of himself that is stupidly terrified of the consequences of poking one's nose into things.)

Jing Yi had at one point been looking forward to this trip, where he could explain how Roby was Very Safe and should be let out. But now... Convincing Dr Aarons he's dangerous is going to be even more difficult.

Terrence is wringing his hands. He is torn AF.

If Sal has to privately throw Terrence under the bus to keep Roby off the streets so help him God he will do it.

Sorry Terrence but sometimes people who like your favorite book turn out to be a danger to the people around them. Inaaya would try to say it doesn't reflect on you or the book but in fact it totally does in this specific instance reflect on the book.

He's not sure what to say to Roby about how opinion has turned against him and so he'll probably be indefinitely imprisoned as a menace to society... But it seems worse to not show up.

"Do we have any plans for what we'll tell Dr Aarons? Seeing as showing up to an asylum and ranting about evil obelisks may be a touch unproductive?"

Terrence sighs. "I get the sense you all have made your minds up," he says, aloud, lowly, "and that I probably won't be able to sway it. But - well, to be honest all the same...

We don't know what Roby's involvement in the deaths was - although he sure appears to have had some - we don't know much of anything, save that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our philosophies. But we were called here to determine if a man is insane, and he does not seem to be insane. I feel dreadful."

That's your argument? Of course that's your argument.

"He doesn't seem insane, but that didn't mean he's safe."

"Whether or not he's insane, repeatedly killing people and not showing any signs of intending to stop is about as good as reasons to imprison someone get. He doesn't have to be insane, and we don't have to have dreamt of all the things in heaven and earth, for it to be a bad idea to let him out."

"We don't - we don't know that he killed people. Or - or for what reason. We do know that there are evil sorcerers afoot all over the place. Maybe he was -

...I don't know, I just don't like the idea of committing a man indefinitely who may well have more reason for what he did than we do."

"He's obsessive, incoherent, distrurbed, he is viewing all reality through the lens of a single work. All of which are individually seen but all of them together paint much less encouraging picture."

That Terrence Markham experienced a major shift in personality several months ago associated with an all-encompassing fixation upon a single book to which he has been ascribing world-changing and someone mystical properties, and that any of his arguments that Alexander Roby's very similar behavior is perfectly normal are deeply tied up in his own internal experience of what from the outside was an objectively abnormal development. If Sal possesses any courage whatsoever to say any of this to Dr. Aarons.

"Also, he confessed to the murders, and we have no reason to believe it was in self-defense except that you desperately want it to have been."

"The real trick would be if we could coherently present the case for how the murders were committed."

"We could say we don't have proof, as such, but that we keep finding him associated with unnatural deaths."

"What do you mean desperately? I - we've also been associated with unnatural deaths! He - he wouldn't have been able to say that an evil sorcerer did it, or what have you. Maybe he was trying to hide from someone. I just - Hrmgm."

He grumbles and looks away, squeezing his hands, aware that he is losing this argument.

"Well, if he wants to convince someone an evil sorcerer did it, now's his chance."

"Do we want to tell him that we... know?"

Terrence looks up. "I - think the least we could do is give him the chance to explain himself. If he has nothing to say, then - then you're probably right."

"...I mean, if we get the chance to speak to him at all." :(

"...Depending on how much he is or will be able to do or communicate I'm not sure how much information about us he should have."

"Terrence might be safe. Terrence has the best case for claiming to be on his side."

"I mean, if he starts telling Aarons we all believe in evil sorcerers, is anyone going to believe him?"