Dream d2651-s: Surplus at the Gate

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where I stood at the gate of Pewterlow Town on the seventh night and did not go in.

The gate was closed from the inside. Through the bars: a lamp on a table, three figures over a book. The Mark-Keeper in the center, two hands flanking. The column moved forward. The tally moved forward. Nobody looked up.

Lano sat at my heel. After a while she put her nose between the bars, sniffed once, and pulled it back.

I had come here to hand the count across - to set the method in front of whoever held the mark and show them how the columns ran. That was the purpose of the phase: not to take a record, but to teach one. But the book was already open. The hands were already working. The lamp was already lit.

I stood outside and watched. That was all.

At some point the Mark-Keeper lifted a hand and turned a page. The Tally-Reader read a number aloud and the second hand wrote it without looking up. Three people working as though they had always worked this way, which they probably had.

I wrote in my own book: Pewterlow Town. Hands: three. Instruction: not taken. Walker: not admitted. Walker: not needed.

A fact about the place.

Lano pressed close and sat very still. In the lamplight through the bars her white coat went gold.

I did not knock. The gate did not open. I turned away before the lamp moved from the table, while they were still working.

Night seven of eight.

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