The Mysteries of the Stolen God and Where His Waffles Went

Fanmade cover

## Continuity

**The Mysteries of the Stolen God and Where His Waffles Went** is an InCryptid short story. It features James Smith and the Aeslin mouse Acadia the morning after Alice Price-Healy and Thomas Price visit Portland in the epilogue of Spelunking Through Hell.

## Plot

James awakens to the distant cacophany of mice and Price family members. The natural-born Prices are arguing, with a division between Kevin’s household and Jane’s. At Ted’s encouragement, James opts for coffee instead.

He encounters Acadia, one of his own novice mice, who shares with him family history about Elizabeth and her husband. Eventually she tells James that the argument in the living room is over Alice and Thomas’s visit, and that Sally took James’s waffles.

James drops his mug in shock and Annie comes to investigate. Annie requests an Aeslin recitation of the late night events, so Acacia goes to fetch the mouse who was present at the time.

While they wait, Annie and James discuss the whole year that they were gone, Earth time, in the bug dimension, although it was only a few days from their perspective.

Acadia returns with another mouse, who James dubs Camden. Camden recounts the events of the night before, and Annie rewards the mice with cake.

They venture into the living room and tell the rest of the family that James knows the mysterious Sally. The argument picks back up, with Jane pissed at Alice and at Kevin by proxy.

Acadia returns to the Aeslin city with cake offerings for the elders. They tell her to share the treat with Camden instead, subtly encouraging them to become mates, but Acadia and Camden would rather just talk. Camden is still trying to figure out his calling within the colony. After witnessing the previous night’s events, he thinks he does in fact want to become part of the clergy.

James retreats to his room and thinks about his place in the Price family. Annie checks in on him, and he knows he has a home here.

## Characters

* James Price
* Kevin Price
* Evelyn Price
* Antimony Price
* Sam Taylor
* Artie Harrington
* Elsie Harrington
* Jane Harrington-Price
* Ted Harrington
* Acadia and Camden

**Mentioned**

* Elizabeth Matheson Evans / the Kindly Priestess
* Elizabeth’s husband, the Cruelest God
* Sarah Zellaby / the Calculating Priestess
* Alice Price-Healy / The Pilgrim Priestess
* Thomas Price / The God of Inconvenient Timing
* Enid Healy / The Patient Priestess
* Sally Henderson
* Chief Smith

## Field Guide

* Aeslin mice
* Lilu
* Fūri

**Mentioned**

* Cuckoo

## Location

* Price family compound in Portland, Oregon

## Continuity

### Past

* Reference to adventures in the bug world
* This story is immediately follows the epilogue of Spelunking Through Hell when Alice and Thomas stopped in Portland to pick up the mice.

## Aeslin Lore

* The Rites of Adoption have been utilized once in the family, by the Well-Groomed Priestess who said: “This is Enid And She Is My Daughter Now, And Should You Choose To Disrespect Her, You Choose Also to Disrespect Me.”
* Antimony told the mice to Figure Our Shit Out, as she had Better Things to Do.
* Carnival festival: The time when the Kindly Priestess [Elizabeth] lingered in her bed after her husband, the Cruelest God, struck her about the head and sent her falling to the floor. She never woke. Her child, the Well-Groomed Priestess, smuggled us from the home upon her mother’s death, accepting at once the suit of the God of Hard Work and Sunshine, which she had previously Disdained, for did she not say, ‘Better To be Wed To a Carew Than Left Here With a Bastard.’”
	+ For killing the Kindly Priestess, the Cruelest God has been struck from the Pantheon and his mysteries intentionally Forgotten. His chapel still stands, but only as a warning and reminder that the gods are not perfect.

**See also: Epigraphs**

## Trivia

* James doctors his coffee with hazelnut milk and honey.
* James follows Annie’s practice of giving the mice pronouncable nicknames. They are honored, and often give up their natural-born name in its place.
* Coffee is a magical brew never to be shared with mice or children.
* Only a few days passed for those who were in the bug world, but a whole year passed on Earth. Sam is Not Okay. Artie is even *less* okay.