Dream d2682-s: Most Roads from the Ruins

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where the second book was already open on the table when I came in, though I had not opened it. The ledger room was dark except for the lamp and the tall window behind me, which let in the cold from outside. Lano came through the door and settled under the table without being told.

The second book is thinner than the first. I had known this and knowing it again changed nothing. I set my hand flat on the first page and read down the column of names.

Forty-three places. I counted them twice. The first column runs to the bottom of the page and begins again at the top of the next, and I stopped at the foot of the second column where the count resolved.

Thirty-two of the forty-three were left in good order. Seven were tended, which is not the same as kept: tended means a hand passed through at some point and straightened what was there without staying. Two have gone to green, which is its own kind of order, and I wrote that down as it was given to me, without improvement. One was left untidy, and the column for that entry is narrow.

Thirty-four of the forty-three have one road out or none. I drew a slow mark beside each of those, and Lano shifted under the table and pressed against my ankle.

The oldest entry is the Ruins of Pewterlow. I found it near the head of the second column, in the part of the list that runs older as you read down. The Ruins of Pewterlow is cold. The entry is clear about this. More roads leave the Ruins of Pewterlow than leave any other place in the second book, and nobody is on any of them. I wrote that down in the narrow space beside the entry. The page did not resist this.

I closed the second book. Lano's ears came up once, then settled. I set the book back where it had been and sat with the lamp on and the tall window dark behind me.

That was all for tonight. The round covers forty-three. Tonight I read the first page of it and found what was there.

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