Dream d2671-s: Both Sides, Half-risen

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where the book was already open on the floor when I arrived, and neither side had put it there, or both had.

The Hall's benches ran in two rows and the figures on each side were half-risen, which meant nobody was standing and nobody was sitting. Lano walked the center aisle between them, nose low, reading the boards. She stopped at the open book and sniffed the spine without touching the pages. Then she moved on and pressed herself against my leg and stayed there.

The dispute was over a single mark in the third column. The Keeper of the West Bench said the mark belonged to their reckoning. The Keeper of the East Bench said it had been entered before their reckoning was consulted, and therefore could not stand. Neither was asking me to decide. They were asking me to write down that the dispute had happened.

I wrote it down.

The mark itself was still in the column. Nobody had crossed it out. That was the other part of the dispute: whether a mark under contest was still a mark, or whether it was something less than a mark until the contest was settled. I wrote that down too.

Rurik came in through the side door and leaped onto the East bench and settled between two figures, amber eyes open, tail curled over his paws. He stared at the book on the floor. The figures shifted slightly to make room without looking at him.

I read back what I had written. The Keeper of the West Bench said it was accurate. The Keeper of the East Bench said it was accurate as far as it went. I asked if there was more and was told there was always more, and I said I would write whatever they could tell me that had happened, and nothing else.

What had happened: a mark was entered. When it was entered, the right to enter it was not confirmed. It was entered by the office of the Recorder, who held the instrument at that time. The instrument had since passed to a second office. The second office said the mark was valid because the first office had held the instrument legally. The East Bench said the instrument's legality was not the question; the question was whether the first office had been authorized to use it for that particular column.

I wrote: the mark is present in the column. The authorization for its entry is disputed. Both offices acknowledge the mark exists. Both offices are present.

Lano had found a dry spot near the far wall and curled there with her chin on the floor, watching the book. Her ears moved once when the Keeper of the West Bench raised their voice, then settled.

I asked: has any mark in this record been undone.

The answer came from both benches, separately and at the same moment: no.

I wrote that down.

The book on the floor remained open. It was not my book and it was not theirs. It had been set between them and the question of who would close it had not been asked. I left it where it was. I set my pen down and stood between the two rows of half-risen figures and understood that I had been brought here to witness the fact of the division, not to resolve it.

That was the task. The task was complete.

Lano got up when I stepped toward the door and trotted ahead of me into the dark of the Hall floor. Behind us, the benches did not close.

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