Dream d3171-s: Seven Ribs, No Crown

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where the causeway ran to a single plank-width of stone, and on either side the fen opened in flat plates of black water, still as pressed cloth. The Tally-Reader walked ahead of me, her count a murmur that did not carry.

Low stone ribs rose from the water on the east side, seven of them in a rough arc, spaced unevenly, their tops worn to a pale grey with no sheen. They looked like the beginnings of vaulting, cut off before any crown was placed. The Relic-Watcher stopped at the causeway edge and studied them without moving closer.

Lano went to the edge and pressed her nose to the stone, then lifted it to the air over the water. Her tail did not wag. She stepped back.

The Anomaly-Hand crouched near the third rib where it broke the surface. The pale cyan line ran along its base, almost a quality of the water rather than the stone, faint enough that it vanished if she looked directly at it and reappeared at the edge of her sight. She held her notebook open and did not write yet.

Rurik slipped between my legs and went ahead on his own, finding a wider flat stone at the far end of the arc. He sat on it and fixed his gaze on the largest rib. He blinked, once, slowly.

The Bedrock-Reader read the causeway stones with her hands flat and moving in small arcs. The Warden of the Deep Stratum stood at the midpoint between water and sky and entered the faint resistance that hung in the space where the ribs would have met, if anyone had ever finished them. She settled no explanation.

There was no wind. The water moved once, briefly, near the largest rib: a slow bubble that rose and flattened without breaking.

The Horizon-Surveyor called the measure from the far end. The surveyed sheet ended thirty paces north at a line of sedge leaning uniformly away from the fen, as though wind blew there always from one direction. Here there was no wind.

I recorded the condition as dormant. The Tally-Reader's count reached forty-two. She waited. I noted the number.

Lano settled on the stone beside Rurik. He did not move away.

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