Dream d2572-s: The Margin at Willowhythe

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where Willowhythe's yard was still running past the ninth hour, carts crossing each other at the gate, figures with torches moving in lines between the stacks.

We came in from the west. Rurik slipped under the gate, found the top of a crate stack, and settled, amber eyes sweeping the width of the yard. Lano walked in beside me, nose up, then down, then working the base of the nearest stack.

I had three nights' figures already: Emberford, Frostridge, Osierlow, Willowholt. Counted at the same method, same hour, same column headings. What I needed here was the gap.

The yard took three passes to count. Lano trotted the outer aisles on her own circuit, ears rotating, not barking. Rurik held the crate top and watched. I worked section by section, closing each one with a stroke in the ledger.

The total came to more than the other four cities combined. I stood at the east wall and wrote the margin in its own line, below the total, separated by a ruled gap. The margin was the number that answered the question this phase was built to answer: where, and by how much.

Lano came back and sat at my boot. She barked once, short, at nothing visible above the crates. Más.

I closed the ledger. The yard did not slow.

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