Dream d2604-s: Into the Fourth Hundred

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where the pile at the Ruins of Mistthwaite was taller than I had reckoned, and the method was to count it a hundred at a time.

The table ran the length of the receiving room. I stood at one end with the pile at the other.

Lano followed me in from the outer passage. She walked the length of the table once, nose down, then settled near the wall where she could see both me and the door.

The first hundred came out cleanly. I set them aside and went back for the second. Rurik arrived somewhere in the second hundred - I heard the soft landing before I saw him take the high sill above the table. He settled there and did not move again.

The second hundred took longer. Several letters had been folded thick at the seal and had to be set apart and recounted. I stacked the second hundred beside the first and went back.

In the third hundred I counted aloud, very quietly, to keep the number in place. Lano's ears lifted when I reached seventy. I kept counting. The third stack joined the others.

When the fourth hundred was finished the pile was not finished. I counted what remained: thirty-one. Four hundred and thirty-one in total.

I wrote the number in the ledger. Below it I wrote Emberford's high measure, three hundred and eighty, for the record to hold both.

Lano stood and pressed her head against my knee. I said "quieto" to no one in particular. Rurik tucked his nose beneath his tail.

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