Dream d2483-s: Squared Before the Silence

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where I was in Sablegate again, the third of what I understood would be six nights here, standing at the tally wall. The chalk marks were old and careful. Each row accounted for something finished, nothing pending, nothing disputed. Lano was beside me, not a sound out of her, while I read down the columns the way you read a ledger when the figures are already closed.

The wall was divided by office. The Convener's column ran the longest, work ordered and disbursed across seven places, each entry initialled and dated. The Scribe's column beside it was shorter but dense, marginal notes folded into the tally, cross-references that pointed back to earlier rows and confirmed them. There was nothing unfinished here. That was what I kept returning to: nothing owed.

I knew, without anyone saying it, that the person who had opened half these tallies was not going to initial the closing marks himself. Someone else had done that. The closings were in a different hand, smaller and more deliberate, and they were correct. The work had been checked against the record and it was all correct. Things had been left in order. That was what the wall said.

Three nights ago the seeing had gone quiet in the Hall, all seven places at once: Elderhaven and Glenholt and Mistgarth and Sablegate itself, and also Cinderfirth, Ivorymere, and Nettleness, which were still lit, still occupied, still in use. The seeing had not failed in those places. The seeing had failed here. That distinction had taken a day to settle into the right words and now it was in the margin of the tally wall in small letters, dated and initialled by the Scribe.

Lano moved along the Sablegate row. The seat was still listed. Empty but listed. An office did not require an occupant to remain on the tally, only to have been filled and properly closed. This one had been filled and properly closed.

I stood there a while in the dim. The chalk was not going anywhere. The room was not going anywhere. The work was done and squared and the wall held the record of it, which was the only thing the wall was for.

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