Dream d2747-s: Quillvale, One Day

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where the lamp was already low when I began, and Lano came in through the far door, her white coat catching what light remained. Rurik had taken the warm stone near the lamp before either of us arrived. He sat with his tail wrapped around his feet, watching.

The sheet lay flat on the floor of the map room. I had unrolled it at dusk and set river stones at its corners. It carries sixty-five places, drawn or received from another hand. Nine of them show a light.

The night's work was the edge. I began at the corner nearest the door and walked the perimeter of the sheet in measured paces, counting as I went. Lano moved with me, pressing once against my leg at the sheet's far corner where the light did not reach well. When I came back to where I had started, the count was sixty-three paces. I wrote it in the ledger beside the sheet.

Then I walked past the edge.

Two hundred and seventy-four places in all. One hundred and sixty-nine of them are on no sheet. Among the undrawn, fifty-six had been walked within the last thirty days. I covered them on this round and counted the lights: twenty-eight were alight.

On the sheet: nine of sixty-five. Past the edge: twenty-eight of fifty-six.

I wrote both numbers down without comment.

Seven of the marks on the sheet point toward ground no reader can reach. Each is correctly drawn. The ground it names is present. What is absent is the path between the mark and the place. I made a note beside each of the seven and did not draw a new line.

Lano had gone ahead while I was writing, trotting past the sheet's far corner into the unlit part of the room. When I caught up she was sitting with her nose lifted and her tail still. Rurik had followed her to the doorway and no further; he sat in the gap with his amber eyes forward.

The newest of the undrawn places is one day standing. Its name is Quillvale Town. I added it at the foot of the list with the date beside it.

The lamp burned low. I walked the edge once more in the other direction to confirm the count. Lano came with me. Rurik was gone from the doorway when I finished. The pacing was done.

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