Dream d3017-s: Stone Court, Smoke Rising

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where the party sat on the fallen stones of Kestrelfall's outer court and the Recorder set out the sheets. The court had been written as largely impassable, rated at twelve for coverage and six for accessibility, the vines given as impenetrable and the eastern arcade as collapsed beyond entry. This was written from the road. Inside, the vines had pulled back from the central court into pillars of green at the perimeter, and the eastern arcade stood fully intact with one arch leaning. The discrepancy was recorded without comment. The entering had cost a full day and the sheet had budgeted it at three hours.

The Surveyor read aloud from her tally as we sat in the noon heat. Eight points in the written record that did not match the entered record. Not eight errors - eight differences. The court had been called overgrown; it was overgrown. The court had been called unworkable; it was workable. These are not the same disagreement. Both versions were written down. Lano lay flat against the warm stone, one ear turned toward the well-house.

Then the silence came from the well-house before the smoke did.

The Hydraulic Officer was first to her feet. The salvaged pump assembly had run every morning for three seasons at Kestrelfall, drawing from the deep channel to the cistern in the eastern wing. It did not run this morning. The drive component - a belt-coupled gear taken from a dismantled press two settlements east - had seized. The Officer opened the casing and the smoke came out slow and brown. The gear had burned at its core. There was no replacement. There would be no replacement from any near settlement; this part had been known to be singular.

Lano was on her feet before the Officer had crossed the court. Her ears pressed flat. She stood at the well-house door and gave one short bark, then held still with her nose at the gap.

Rurik sat on top of the intact arch of the eastern arcade and did not move.

The Surveyor noted the failure against the same sheet that carried the court discrepancies. Pump drive: seized and non-recoverable. Water draw: suspended. Time of failure: noon, seventh day of residency. Both the failure and the uncertain continuation were written down. The entering had cost more than the place was scored at, and now the staying had its own cost that had not appeared in any sheet.

I wrote down what was and left the column for outcome empty.

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