Dream d3648-s: The Bag Beside the Door

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where I stood in the corridor just off the main passage in Dunnebarrow, the kind of corridor that angles toward a working room, and a woman was at the far end of it, her silhouette cut out against the open doorway.

She had a travelling bag on the floor beside her left foot. It was the kind of bag that had been repaired more than once - the stitching at one corner thick and uneven - and she was not unpacking it. She was looking at something on the shelf across from her, one hand resting on the bag's strap without gripping it.

The light was from a lamp somewhere behind her. It made the doorway warm at the edges and left the corridor in cool shadow where I was. I could hear the building settle - wood contracting in the night air, a faint breath from somewhere lower.

She lifted a jar from the shelf, turned it in the light, set it back. Not a decision. Just looking.

Lano came up from behind me, her nails quiet on the stone floor, and stopped at my heel. She looked at the woman too, nose working in small movements.

The bag had not been opened. This was the second night I had watched this room from the passage - not because I was watching, but because the route from the upper storage ran past it, and the lamp was always on when I passed.

The woman bent and moved the bag a few inches, setting it more squarely against the wall. Then she straightened and went back to the shelf, this time running her thumb along the edge of a flat box.

The jar she had turned in the light held something dark. I could not tell from the distance what it was.

The lamp made a faint sound - not a pop, just a small settling, the way oil lamps settle late in an evening. She did not look at it.

I went on down the corridor. Behind me, I heard the bag's strap brush against the stone as she moved it again, or perhaps set something on top of it. The lamp held.

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