Aldera (Cyber-Enhanced Cat, Detective Agency)

DETECTIVE AGENCY LOG — Aldera, Field Unit

Subject A rose before light and went to the stones before the fire. She checked the circle she had reset at dusk and found it as she left it, failed, and appeared satisfied that it had failed in the ordinary way. She then looked at me for longer than her habit, filed something in the second book, and did not say what.

Assessment: a dream. The causeway produces them; the outpost file holds eleven and the previous keeper's hand grows worse across them. What is unusual is not the dream. It is that she looked at me as if she owed me something, which she does not, and as if she had decided not to say so, which is correct.

I did not ask. Information asked for tends to be used. Information volunteered tends to be dismissed. Information about a dream, offered by the dreamer to the person dreamed of, tends to be an apology, and I have no use for one.

She will say when she is ready, or she will not. Either is acceptable. The circle failed correctly. No action.