(no subject)

[condemns_to_live]

The key to power...is patience.

Comments

[the_cupbearer]

You're also not entirely right, and I'm not sure you are entirely aware of that part.

[condemns_to_live]

Then do explain. I have a moment.

[the_cupbearer]

Part of keeping power is patience, you are correct. But the vast majority of gaining it and exercising it is dependency. Power, practically speaking, is a function of having others dependent on you, in whatever form that happens.

Titles, offices, and even to some extent military prowess, are all only as powerful as the strength of dependency others place on their exercising. I can give you a piece of paper that says you are the god-emperor of all humanity, and it means nothing unless a fairly large chunk of that humanity is entirely dependent on you to provide for them.

[condemns_to_live]

Part of gaining it, as well. Maintaining it an entirely different proposition.

[He regards the other, carefully. Smarter than average, perhaps. Certainly more than can be seen on the surface.]

But how...enlightening.

[He'd already known that, of course. He'd never held an official title, always existed outside and beside the Peacekeeper hierarchy. Which had by itself been quite the blessing - even those with more authority than him weren't sure of their position.]

[the_cupbearer]

I'm willing to bet you've already been thus enlightened. [ Ganymede is easygoing enough; he doesn't have to be the first to tell him, nor the most efficient. It's only conversation, after all, and as amusing as it may be, it is nothing deeper. Yet. ]

So tell me, what prompted the talk of power? Gaining it or losing it?

[condemns_to_live]

I have suffered both in my time.

[He sits down, leaning back, pausing a moment as he thinks.]

I did use it towards greater ends, when I lost it. Then regained it. Galaxy-spanning conflict requires it.