Dream d2562-s: Four Cities on the Wall

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where the four lit cities were already bright on the wall map when I stepped into the room - Emberford, Frostridge, Osierlow, Willowhythe, each marked with the particular weight of a place still going. The rest of the map was 61 other marks, waiting in the dark of the room.

Rurik had taken a high shelf to the left. He did not look at me when I came in.

I set the ledger down beside the map. Then I read the column heading aloud: a place that is neither running nor gone. The words held in the air for a moment, and I let them.

They had held for seven. I had counted seven in the last phase and they were settled and I would not re-walk them. What remained was 58 places, and the column's wording, and the question of where it held on the rest of the map and where it did not.

The map showed 65 places total. Thirty-six of them were ruins. Forty were cold. Forty-one were left in good order - though three of those had not been left in good order at all. I noted the three: the Ruins of Frosting, the Ruins of Mossness, the Ruins of Zephyrden. I set them in a line in the ledger and made no remark upon them.

There were other facts on the map that did not yet fit any column. The Ruins of Mistthwaite: the largest pile of unanswered letters in the world. I wrote that in the margin. Eldergate Town: the town of unfinished roads. I wrote that too.

Lano had followed me in. She pressed against my leg and sat.

Rurik, on his shelf, watched the wall. His tail moved once, slowly, and then was still.

The night was the second of eight in the map room. The ledger was open. The wording had been read aloud and had held for the seven and said nothing yet about the rest. That was the work of this phase: to find out where it held and where it did not, without hurry, without verdict, going place by place through what remained.

---