Dream d2915-s: No Verdict at the Gate

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where the Keeper of the Doors led the guest into the courtyard and held the gate. The guest carried the coat over one arm - all 915 medals riding their nine orders of deed, each struck once on witnessed evidence and left exactly as it fell. Not one of them had ever been altered. The ninth order hung at the bottom hem. The Fitter walked on the other side and said nothing.

Lano was there, trotting ahead on the dark stone of the courtyard, her nose near the ground. She had a small flat stone in her mouth.

The mismatch had been read aloud at the long table inside before any of us moved: the face fitted for the night showed one station closed to it and four trials passed of its eight, where the other six fitted faces had passed more. The Charter-Warden had stood at the head of the table and read the seven standing rulings in order. None of them closed the distance. I entered the gap into the ledger as it stood - medals saying one thing, the fitted face another, no trial called or pending that would move either side. The Recorder counter-signed without comment.

At the gate the guest stopped. The Fitter lifted no instrument - there was no adjustment to make without a trial that had not happened, and the ledger did not ask for one. The Keeper wrote the hour in the margin. The gate opened outward.

Lano reached the threshold first and dropped the stone there. She sat, ears forward, watching the figure pass through.

Rurik was on the high ledge of the gate pillar. He did not shift when the coat passed beneath him. He watched the dark past the gate until the figure was gone into it and the dark went still again.

I set the ledger back on its shelf, notation closing: mismatch carried out, unresolved - night three of eight. Then I blew the lamp out.

The courtyard was empty. The stone sat on the threshold where Lano had left it.

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