Carabas

There's this man who's gotten himself into some trouble, and I've offered my help in solving that problem. Alternatively, I've told him to speak with a woman who works for me, and she'll help him disappear for a while. When he doesn't come to meet me, I check in with that woman, still in the alley where I'd told the man to meet her, behind the building where she works as a maid, still in her uniform. She tells me the man didn't show. She looks worried. I'm annoyed. I think the man's making a poor decision.

It reminds me of another time. I see a building on top of a lake, a massive black arch. I'd made a deal with a woman that had led to the creation of this structure. She sees it as an architectural wonder and a symbol of her power, influence, capability, something along those lines; I see it as something impermanent. Like Ozymandias. I think of it as foolish. And I thought she would have realized that now that her deal's played out; I'd expected she'd want to make a new deal, to change course, I was looking forward to it. But when she does come to me for something else, it just compounds her original mistake. I'm disgusted but give her what she asks for.

(Fragments: I noted down 'veve' and 'garden party' and went back to sleep. I can't remember what either of those were about.)

3rd person, following a lady's maid in a castle. She's with her mistress, a blonde woman, very angry at the master of the house right now, a man with very long black hair and a very deep voice, and the master sends the maid away to go wait for a delivery of fabrics, from which the materials for the mistress's new wardrobe are to be chosen. The servant does as she's told, thinking of how hard it is for her mistress to adjust to her new husband and the customs of the empire, and while she waits for the delivery she weaves some threads into Scholar's Knots, a game for the mistress to unravel later, to calm her down. She makes the knots that represent the Emperors, and then, although they don't traditionally go together, she makes the knots for the Richards kings, which she thinks her mistress will appreciate. As she weaves she thinks, as a way of welcoming the mistress into the empire, welcome to your first thousand years.