Dream d2890-s: Six Flush, One Standing

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where the register closed before the hanging began - the last tally already ruled in its column, 915 struck entries across 19 names in nine orders of deed, and the peg-wall still bare.

Seven fitted measures lay in their order on the worktable, one cut for each station the house weighs by trial. Night eight of eight. The final night. Lano had found the space beneath the Charter table and lay with her nose to the floor, watching the hem of my coat move.

I began with the six that had nothing to say. Each went to its peg in order: the fitted measure held against the coat it would meet, the coat's medals read from the register - struck once, on witnessed deed, never altered - and the entry made. Six times the tally matched. Six times the book received: station, trials passed, medal count, no discrepancy recorded. Rurik had taken the high shelf above the third hook and sat with his amber eyes half-closed, blinking slow while the work went below him.

The seventh I held longer. Four passed from eight trials, where the others had passed more. One station had been barred to it at the prior reading; the closure stood in the register already, predating tonight. When I took up the coat that carried this station's medals, they said a different thing - two struck in the order of the seventh station, both on witnessed deed, neither altered since the day of their striking. The fitted measure and the coat's record did not agree on the current count.

I hung the seventh on its peg. I took up the pen and wrote the discrepancy into the book: station seven, trials four of eight, station closed noted, agreement with coat: no. The Charter's seven standing rulings hung framed over the table. None of them covered this case. I did not ask them to. The medals cannot be re-struck to fit the measure; the measure cannot be re-cut without a trial not yet held. Both stand as they are. The disagreement is recorded and that is all the house requires of this night.

Lano rose from beneath the table when I set the pen down, pressed once against my boot, and lay down again. Rurik dropped from the shelf without a sound and went out through the doorway ahead of me. I took the candle from the table and followed, and the seven measures stayed on their pegs in the dark.

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