[subject line goes here]

I'm having one of the frustrating book/brain problems that I have so often. Something is going on with one set of characters, something political which has the empress unhappy and her closest advisers on-edge. I need to know what this something is so I can elaborate on it, as I need this B-plot tension to drive the A-plot, and help establish a sense of ticking clock. Trouble is, they won't tell me what it is.

It feels like having an invisible elephant in the house. I can smell it, and sometimes hear it, and sometimes I bump into it or step in its invisible elephant crap. But I don't know the real shape of it or how to describe it.

Somehow I don't think my editor would be happy with a note say [invisible elephant goes here]...