Reflections on Patience

Want to guess what's happened in the last week? (...Or however long it's been?) I'll give you a hint: it's directly related to why I haven't posted any sooner.

If you said "nothing", give yourself a cookie.

We're still on the run, and still avoiding both sides. We still hear the whispers if we stay in any one place for too long. We're burning through money at a ferocious pace - travel does that - but we're not in danger of running out. (If this keeps up, though, we'll have a sample of spare change from every currency on the face of the planet.) On the plus side, both sides seem to be avoiding us, too - as in, our fellow worshippers won't come near us - and nobody has conjured anything new to send against us. We haven't had any word back from the Elders, and (because of the Whisperers) we don't dare make any detailed contact with the Snake Cult.

Claire wondered again this morning what was taking the Elders so long. Since the explanation is fresh in my head, let me write it down here as well. It's basically two things. First, this is an unusual situation for them. Sure, every once in a while an outsider learns more about us than they should know, or one of us slips up and says something that we shouldn't. When that happens, the Whisperers come, and bad things happen, and then there isn't a problem anymore. Alternatively, someone decides to leave us, but (if they're smart) they keep our secrets. In that case, the Watchers step in - and again, bad things happen, and then there isn't a problem anymore. Our situation is more ambiguous.

I'm guessing, but I think I have a pretty good idea of why the Elders haven't moved to destroy us. For one thing, while I obviously did Say Too Much, Claire is a member of a group that already knows something about these matters. And while we're currently at war with them, we have in the past been allies. The Whisperers still consider that a violation, but they can be a little... simple-minded. Secondarily, I haven't actually turned renegade; we're on the run from the Whisperers, but I haven't renounced my oaths. And we've successfully escaped the Whisperers for something like two weeks, now, which I'm sure the Elders find both frustrating and intriguing.

The other half of the equation has to do with the Elders themselves. They are, as the name suggests, old. Some of them are very old - centuries, if not millenia. I don't mean that they're necessarily hidebound; you don't survive that long if you're not adaptable. It's just that they're not hasty, either - and "hasty" apparently takes on a much broader meaning after you've watched a couple of centuries flow past. Then there's the issue of getting in touch with all the necessary powers and authorities, and in all likelihood some ritual divinations to help guide their decisions, and... well, you can see why this might take a while.

So it's a bit misleading to say that nothing has happened. I'm certain that any number of things have happened - and are still happening right now. What I really mean is that nothing conclusive has happened.

That won't stop either of us from getting impatient, but at the moment all we can do is gripe about it.

Reflections of a Deranged Cultist is a work of fiction. No secretive, nigh-immortal, occult beings were consulted in the creation of this post.