Dream d2638-s: Held Against the Light

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where I was sitting at the returns table on the second night of eight, and the Keeper of the Ruins of Pewterlow came in just before the lamp needed trimming and set a sheet down in front of me.

I saw immediately what had happened to it. The hand that wrote it pressed too hard. The letters were cut into the paper, not torn but close. You could run a finger over the back and feel every number raised in reverse. I picked it up and held it toward the lamp. Lano, who had been asleep under the table, came out and sat at my feet to watch. The light showed the marks clearly through the sheet. The column for empty seats was filled in three places where I had left it blank. The column for hands remaining was corrected in two more. Every figure the Keeper had changed was legible. The meaning was not doubled or crossed.

I set it flat again and opened the ledger to the Ruins of Pewterlow. I copied the corrected figures into the column and noted the date and the office: Keeper, Ruins of Pewterlow, night 2 of 8. The Keeper waited until I had finished, then left without speaking. Lano pressed her nose against my ankle, walked three slow circles, and lay down again.

There are 43 ruins on the map and 47 cold places. Many of the sheets that come back have this quality: pressed too deep, as if the person writing is not sure the paper will hold what they mean. I entered the Keeper's figures. The pressing does not alter what was written, and what was written was correct. That is enough to enter it.

The Ruins of Mistthwaite is the place where the letters pile up with no one left to answer them. I did not go there. I sat at the returns table and entered what was returned, which is the work of the second night, and not all eight.

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