Dream d2564-s: Thirty-Nine, More Than Half

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where the clerk stood at the wall map and read the tally aloud, and I sat below with a notebook open across my knees.

The map has sixty-five places marked on it. The clerk began at the upper corner, where the lit cities are gathered, and named them in sequence: the City of Emberford, the City of Frostridge, the City of Osierlow, the City of Willowhythe. Each name was spoken and checked. I wrote four in the column headed Lit.

Lano sat beside my chair, her nose lifted toward the map as if she could smell the distances. Rurik had taken the high shelf above the clerk's reach and was watching from there, amber eyes moving along the wall as each name was called.

The clerk moved downward through the tiers. The count of ruins: thirty-six. I wrote thirty-six. The count of places left in good order: forty-one. I wrote forty-one. The clerk noted that a ruin can also be a place left in good order, or not, which is why the two counts together come to more than sixty-five.

Then the column that is new to the ledger, the one cut to fit the map: the places that are neither running nor gone. The clerk found thirty-nine of the sixty-five. I wrote thirty-nine. The clerk said, that is more than half. I wrote that down too, without adding anything. It is more than half. The page did not require a comment and I did not make one.

Three places were flagged in the reading as not left in good order: the Ruins of Frosting, the Ruins of Mossness, the Ruins of Zephyrden. The clerk read each name and I wrote each name. Lano shifted against my leg but did not get up. Rurik flicked his tail once on the shelf and was still again.

The largest pile of unanswered letters in the world is at the Ruins of Mistthwaite. This was a notation in the margin of the map, not part of the tier count, but the clerk read it aloud because it was written there. I copied it. The letters are not counted in the tally. They are a different kind of record.

The town of unfinished roads is Eldergate Town. This was also in the margin. I wrote it below the Mistthwaite note.

The seven places counted in the last phase were not re-walked. The clerk skipped those names in the reading. The column beside each of them is already filled and is not touched again. They are settled.

At the end, the clerk set the pointer down and the room was as it had been. Lano came forward and pressed her nose briefly to my ankle, then went back to sitting. I closed the notebook. Night four of eight. Thirty-nine recorded. More than half, and written down.

---