Dream d3432-s: The Arch Holds the Wind

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where the arch at the entrance to Umbermarket stood without its gate. The stone was sound - I could see that from the road, where the arch framed the settlement's interior like a sentence with no last word. The iron hinges remained, bent outward as though the gate had been lifted rather than broken, and the gap they framed held only the movement of air.

Lano walked ahead of me through the arch. Her ears were up, her nose working at something the wind carried. I stepped through after her and felt the change in pressure - the way the stone columns still gathered the air and funneled it even with nothing to stop it.

The entry-keeper stood near the first row of structures, a ledger open against her forearm. She was writing as I approached, not waiting for me to speak. The clerk was already moving toward the far end of the settlement, where the antenna masts rose against a sky that had gone the color of old iron.

The wind picked up.

I heard it in the masts before I felt it on my skin - a low thrumming that climbed into a higher register as the first real gust moved through. One of the antenna cables strained at its stay. The generator shed's vents rattled. Somewhere near the cable trenches, water was already finding the low ground.

Lano stopped walking. Her ears went flat. She turned back toward the arch, then toward the masts, then sat down and barked once - short, declarative, not afraid.

The keeper came out of the generator shed with a length of cable in one hand and a look of attention rather than alarm. He moved toward the nearest mast without consulting anyone. The entry-keeper kept writing.

I opened my notebook from habit and held it without reading it. The rain began while my hand was still on the cover - first a few drops that darkened the stone around the arch's base, then more. The cable trenches filled before I could see it happen; I heard the entry-keeper note something, heard the clerk's voice from the far end naming a number.

The generator shed's light flickered once and held.

The arch stood behind me. The place the gate had held still held, just differently. I closed the notebook and watched the keeper work the cable stay, his movements steady, the storm still deciding what it would become.

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