Leo 23. A secret race of beings carrying on a hidden existence among humans.
They came long ago to offer help, but found few takers. Nevertheless the thought of leaving never occurred to them, for they were innately patient, and impervious to frustration, and had encountered such lack of receptivity countless times before.
They knew that sometimes, through mere co-existence, a seemingly imperceptible absorption would occur directly, out of the shared atmosphere, infinitesimally small in the short term, but cumulative in the ongoing, until pictures and ideas inevitably seeped in, even if only taking recognizable form over vast periods of time.
Their race was famous for its indirection – it had taken them eons to hone such a fine subtlety of approach. And now that such workings came so effortlessly to them, they could enjoy the simple tasks of their own daily life, invisibly interpenetrating with the lives of those for whom they waited.