Dream d2543-s: Chalk Read by Lamplight

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where the tally wall at Sablegate ran the full length of the inner chamber - chalk marks on dark slate, seven positions, everything the Hall needs to hold the count. On the third night of the residency I came to it with a lamp, because the seeing had failed somewhere between the Hall and its seven places, and the count could not be taken until the instrument was set right.

Setting the instrument right meant coming here.

I carried the ledger in under one arm. Lano came behind me, her nails ticking on the stone, and she went ahead to the far end of the room and sniffed along the baseboard before settling near the window. The high windows at this hour let in no light worth reading by. I set the lamp on the stand by the wall and opened the ledger to the first blank page.

The wall itself was intact. A chalk tally does not see, and it does not fail. It holds what was written on it, and it held.

I began at the upper left.

The Convener's position: closed. A square drawn around the mark, a notation below it in the Hall's reckoning hand - work finished, accounts squared, nothing owed, nothing pending. I copied the mark and the notation into the ledger verbatim.

The Scribe's position, at the Scriptorium Annex: also closed. The same square, the same notation below. Work finished, squared, nothing outstanding. I copied it.

Lano's tail moved once against the stone while I wrote.

The next section carries the places still lit. Three of them: Cinderfirth, Ivorymere, Nettleness. I wrote each name, copied the open circle beside it, noted the state. Ongoing. Nothing to add to any of them.

Then the four gone cold.

Elderhaven: cold. Glenholt: cold. Mistgarth: cold. Sablegate: cold. Each with a closed circle and a date. I copied all four in order. Sablegate's own mark is on the wall I am standing in front of - a closed circle, a date from some time past, and a note that reads quiet and standing, which means the residency is possible here even after the cooling, because a cold place is not a broken place.

I read that note twice and copied it as it stood.

The wall gave seven positions. I had copied all seven. I held the lamp up and ran the transcription against the chalk line by line, and it matched.

Lano looked up from the floor. "Ya," she said, low.

I set the lamp back on the stand. The ledger was closed. The count had been taken, the transcription was good, and the record would go back to the Hall when I went. Nothing owed. Nothing pending. Work finished and squared at two positions. Work ongoing at three. Four gone cold, Sablegate among them, quiet and standing.

The high windows had gone pale with the beginning of something. Lano was already at the door.

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