Dream d3054-s: The Hand at the Margin

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where I sat at a rough timber bench in Irongreen and opened the logbook to the page marked for this hamlet. The Tally-Reader leaned over my shoulder, not correcting anything, only watching the count.

The entry line for the forge trade was blank. I had walked past twice that day and seen it working - bellows drawing, metal cooling in rows on a rack - but no license, no charter, no entry on the district sheet. The Relic-Watcher set a small armature on the edge of the bench, one pulled from the refuse heap at the forge's back wall. She did not name it. I picked up the stylus and began to sketch it into the margin.

Rurik came through the low door and jumped to the far end of the bench. He sat there, amber eyes on the piece, tail moving once and stopping.

The Horizon-Surveyor said: the sheet ends three furlongs east. Beyond it the bedrock runs under two more forges and a structure the Bedrock-Reader calls a smelting house but cannot date. None of it carries a mark on any sheet I have read.

Lano padded in behind the Warden of the Deep Stratum, nose down along the base of the wall. She stopped at a joint in the timber flooring where a faint smell came up from below - charcoal, or old rust - and sat.

I finished the sketch. The armature had a distinctive crossbar the other examples in the district did not share. I noted its dimensions in the margin column and drew a bracket around the entry to signal unlicensed. The Tally-Reader moved his finger along the row and said nothing.

The Anomaly-Hand brought a candle closer. In better light the crossbar showed a pale bloom in the metal, not discoloration from heat - something in the casting. She pointed at it. I noted it inside the bracket.

Outside, the forge still worked. Rurik blinked once toward the door, then looked back at the piece on the bench.

The logbook stayed open. The entry stayed bracketed.

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