Dream d2602-s: Where the Wood Had Taken Water

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where the door to the letter house in the Ruins of Mistthwaite was swollen in its frame and would not open. Lano padded ahead and sat in front of it, her nose working at the gap between door and jamb. Rurik had found a gap somewhere lower in the wall and was already inside; I could see the amber catch of his eyes in the dark, watching.

The door was not locked. The wood had taken water over a long time and pressed against the jamb on three sides. I put my shoulder to it. It gave a short distance and stuck. I pushed again. On the fourth push it scraped open with a sound that was loud in the quiet ruins, and Lano flinched back, then stepped forward when it stopped.

Before I went in, I wrote in the record book: door swollen, forced to open, no damage to door or frame, wood expansion consistent with extended damp, hinge pins intact, latch sound. I wrote it so that the next person who reads it will not read it as damage. They will read it as weather.

Inside, the letters were as I had been told. The pile was the largest I had seen anywhere on the count: stacked along two walls and in three rows on the floor, some bundled with cord, some loose, some still in their envelopes and some out. Rurik had taken the warm spot on top of one of the bundles. He blinked once when the lantern light reached him and then looked away.

I began the tally. Lano curled at my feet as I worked, her tail moving slowly against the stone floor.

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