Dream d2615-s: Neither Running Nor Gone

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where the wide count was laid out across the floor of the ledger room in long strips of paper, each strip holding a name. The strips ran from the door to the far shelves and turned and came back. Sixty-five names. I walked the length of them with a lamp and a pen.

The seven from the last tally were already marked. I did not re-walk them. I began with the eighth strip and moved down the row.

Lano walked beside me in the first hour, her nails quiet on the wood between the strips. She stopped where I stopped. Her nose came down close to the marks. When I moved, she moved.

The new column was narrow and had two states in it: one for a place that is neither running nor gone, one for everything else. I drew the line for the Ruins of Mossness and put the mark in the new column. I drew the line for the City of Emberford and put the mark elsewhere. Rurik had taken the warm corner by the low shelf. He watched the lamp's movement across the ceiling with amber eyes half-closed.

Forty-three ruins. Forty-seven cold. Forty-one left in order. The numbers did not change as I worked through them; they only filled in.

The Ruins of Mistthwaite held the largest pile of unanswered letters in the world. This was already known. I put it in its column and moved on. The Ruins of Frosting was not left in good order. Nor was the Ruins of Zephyrden, nor the Ruins of Mossness. Each went where it belonged.

The lit cities were five: Emberford, Frostridge, Osierlow, Willowholt, Willowhythe. Each went in the lit column. Eldergate Town had its unfinished roads and took its mark beside them.

Lano lay down across the end of one strip near the middle of the room. I stepped around her. She did not move. Her ears stood up, reading something I was not reading.

By the time I reached the last strip the lamp had burned low. Sixty-five names in order. The new column ran the full length of the floor. Some places fit it and some did not, and the ones that did not had their own mark in the earlier column, and the count was complete either way.

Rurik stood, stretched, and stepped between two strips without touching either one. He crossed to the door and sat in the frame.

Lano's tail moved once.

I closed the pen and set the lamp on the shelf. The strips lay in their order on the floor: sixty-five places, every one accounted.

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