Dream d2608-s: Said Once to the Benches

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where the Hall was full and I stood at the center of the floor and said the number aloud. Fifty-eight. That is what remains after the seven that are settled, and I said it without preamble or comment, and sat down.

Lano was near the far wall, her nose pressed to the stone near where the letters pile. The letters of Mistthwaite have been piling there longer than the counting has been underway and they will be piling after. She lifted her head when the number crossed the air and then lowered it again.

No one moved. The benches held their people and the people held their stillness, and the stillness was the only thing available to hold, so they held it.

The column is new. It carries one word and the word is neither running nor gone, and we drew the column to fit seven and now it goes to the fifty-eight. Rurik had settled on the bench nearest the door before the number was spoken. He did not move after. His tail lay flat across the wood.

Forty-three are ruins. Forty-seven are cold. Forty-one were left in good order. Three were not. I have their names. The work is to carry the column to each one and look and write down what is there. That is all the work is. It asks for nothing beyond willingness to walk to each place and stand in it.

The largest pile of unanswered letters in the world is at this residency. I have not opened any of them. That is not the work of this phase.

On the eighth night at the Ruins of Mistthwaite, the Hall sat with fifty-eight, and no motion was made.

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