I Aten't Blocked

[caper_est]

Finished Chapter 14 some time ago, and have been chugging through the diplomacy and broke-scabbed sorrows of Ch15, at on average just over 500 words per day.

Currently I and my protagonists are stubbing our toes on what I like to call the Bush Test.  This goes as follows:

If your opponents appear to be stupid and contemptible, and yet your best-laid plans keep ganging agley whilst they keep walking off with all the cheese, consider that they may be at least situationally smarter operators than you are.

A villain I pretty much conceived as a human slime mold is presently demonstrating to me how he got to be an old villain.  The diplomatic sub-plot is turning out more fascinating, in a slightly queasy way, than I expected.  The words flow on, but less and less am I certain as to where they're really heading.  Their final sea I know, but not so well these flood-plains or that delta.