Dream d2758-s: Light Through the Broken Arch

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where I stood at the gateway of Osierthwaite and took the measure of it. The western pier had come down, one whole section of it reduced to a low rubble heap at the verge, but the arch that remained still stood, and the road ran under it without obstruction and continued out the other side into the dark. I wrote that down. The road is not blocked.

Lano pressed close to my ankle while I stood there. Her nose worked at the air on the far side of the threshold.

The drawn country accounts for sixty-five places. Nine of them carried a light when I checked. I did not go looking for the lights; I recorded which ones showed and set the ledger back in its case.

The country itself holds two hundred and seventy-four places. A hundred and sixty-nine of them have never appeared on any drawn surface. Among those unrecorded places, fifty-six had been worked within the last thirty days. I held that figure and made no observation about it. On this round, fifty-six places past the edge were walked, and twenty-eight of those showed a light. I entered the counts and moved on.

Seven marks on the drawn country point at ground a reader cannot reach from any entry I know of. I copied the marks accurately. I wrote nothing beside them to explain the situation.

The newest place standing past the edge is called Quillvale Town. It has been there one day. I set it down in the margin with the others, in the same hand.

Rurik slipped ahead through the arch and stopped in the middle of the road on the far side. He sat down and looked back through the gap. His amber eyes caught what light there was. Then he turned and looked forward again, into the unrecorded dark, and flicked his tail once.

Lano did not follow him through. She waited at the threshold with her ears angled forward, her breath visible in the cold. I stood between them and completed the entry for the gateway: pier west, collapsed; arch, standing; road, clear; passage, unobstructed. That is what I found. I wrote it down and closed the ledger.

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