"The flame is what Heaven shows. The White is what hears. A sign nobody witnesses is a sign lost — and that is why for seventy-seven years there has not been an hour without someone standing before the candles." — Rule of the White Vigil, first article
3,000 women. Four to six years each. One for every hundred thousand inhabitants of the continent.
This is the mechanism the rest of the universe presupposes and never explains. The Clerical Order knows what it knows because these women listen, and every thing the Order knows cost months of one of their lives.
1. The fourteen flames
There are fourteen Vigil flames in the world. No more, no fewer, and not one of them lights itself.
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