Dream d3164-s: Warmth Left by the Unseen Stair

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where the seed room at Nettlefield held its warmth close to the west wall, the one that bordered the unseen stair. The heat came from below, from whatever the stair descended into, and the Bedrock-Reader pressed a palm to the stone and said nothing.

The field keeper had come in ahead of us. Two trays rested beside the wall - shallow, wooden-framed, filled with a fine dark medium that held the heat differently from the soil outside. They sat level, carefully placed. The keeper moved away without speaking, leaving the trays to their warmth.

Lano moved to the nearest tray and lowered her nose to the edge of the wood, not touching the fill. Her tail moved once - slow, attentive. Then she circled and lay down against the base of the warm wall.

The Anomaly-Hand circled the room. Along the join between the wall and the floor, pale cyan lines traced the seam in three places, not continuous but returning. I marked the interruptions. The Tally-Reader counted the tray-lengths along the west wall and entered the number without rounding.

Rurik had come through a gap below the door frame. He sat on a shelf above the trays now, amber eyes tracking the cyan seams. He blinked once, slowly, and did not move.

The Relic-Watcher stood at the far corner where a low iron armature rose from the floor - three uprights, no crosspiece, nothing attached. The Relic-Watcher made a note. The Warden of the Deep Stratum stood beside them and did not. The armature was not explained by anything the Warden carried in the log, and the Warden settled no explanation.

The Horizon-Surveyor went to the single window. The line where the surveyed sheet ended was visible past the ridge, unchanged from the last visit. The Horizon-Surveyor measured again, carefully.

A third tray had been in this room before. It was not here now. Against the wall, a lighter rectangle in the stone marked where it had rested. I entered that absence in the outgoing account. I did not enter a reason.

The warmth in the room was consistent, coming from below, from the unseen stair. The two trays held it. Lano did not lift her head. The seeds, if seeds were present, had not yet broken the surface.

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