Dream d2916-s: The Remainder at the Door

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where I stood at the edge of the lit doorstep while the Steward worked through the count.

The guests were lined in the courtyard below. The Steward carried a small lamp and held the ledger open against his arm, moving along the row and checking each coat in turn against the record of the fitted face for that order of task.

Lano was at the foot of the step. She sat with her nose pointed toward the lamp's warmth and did not move.

The Steward read six coats flush. For each of those six orders, the fitted face agreed with the row of struck medals: the trials had moved the face, and the deeds recorded in the medals had moved alongside it, and the ledger showed no gap between them. Six marks, one per flush order, set down in a steady hand.

At the seventh coat the Steward paused. The reading was not wrong, only specific: four of eight trials passed, a station the medals touched now closed to the fitted face, and the face re-cut on the most recent measure saying so plainly. The medals on the coat said what they always say. They cannot be changed. The face said what it had measured. It cannot be argued. The Steward wrote the count: six flush, one not. He did not comment further.

The Charter was open on the hall table inside, seven rulings standing. None of them concerned whether the gap would narrow. The gap is recorded, not remedied tonight.

I watched the courtyard clear. Lano trotted up the steps past the Steward and through the open door, ears back, tail low, following the warmth. I followed. The lamp stayed on the step a while longer and then the Steward brought it in and closed the door behind us.

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