Dream d3146-s: Both Shapes in Cinder

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where the yard bench at Cindergreen still held heat from the afternoon, and the Tally-Reader had marked this detail in the first ledger, months before. She said nothing now.

The Anomaly-Hand set both palms against the iron armature at the bench's corner. The pale cyan seam was there as before, wider by perhaps a grain of sand. The Warden of the Deep Stratum noted the measure without settling any account of it.

Lano circled the bench once, nose low, and found a stone that had not been there on the first visit. I took it from her mouth and set it on the bench. She watched it land, then curled beside the bench's foot.

I set the wax block on the flat surface. The Bedrock-Reader placed the tracing cloth and weight as she had placed them before. On the first visit the wax had resisted pressure for the count of twenty. This time it gave at the count of four. The Relic-Watcher entered the times without looking up: first impression, second impression, the interval between visits.

Both shapes remained on the cloth. The earlier one had firmed at its edges, its depressions dark where the material had compressed. The second was fractionally larger - the lines eased outward, the yield faster, the form less governed. I did not discard the first. The Tally-Reader entered two shapes into the count and confirmed both.

Rurik arrived from the direction of the cinder wall. He settled at the edge of the bench's shadow, amber eyes on the cloth, tail once at its tip, and then was simply still. He washed one paw.

The Horizon-Surveyor returned from the far end of the yard. The line had not moved. All four visits fell within the same margin. She folded her instrument and said nothing further.

The light was level. We stayed at the bench while the stone cooled. Lano lifted her head - quieto - the sound low in her, before she settled again. The cloth held both shapes level between us.

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