The Haunt of Danzig Ruin

The Dream Plain

           The daunting task of burying the Danzig sisters began with laying Rosemary's body onto a a light curtain Petrich had removed from the open window. It was to be Rosemary's funeral shroud.
Petrich lifted the shrouded Rosemary easily given her scant weight. He carried her where Crinoline's ghost led him, with Nora bringing up the rear of the bizarre funeral procession. In her right hand Nora held another folded curtain. This was for the body of Crinoline Danzig, who lay in a crumpled heap at the foot of the giant oak tree. On Nora's left she held the doll against her left hip. It was still wrapped tightly, but no longer writhing, for the most part.
             "From now til the threads are utilized, do not have the doll out of your sight." Crinoline had warned. So, near them the doll remained.
Once in the garden, under the ivy, Petrich found a spade. Thankfully the garden soil was soft and the two graves were dug. Meanwhile, Nora walked about the garden with Crinoline, gathering favorite flowers to cover each fresh grave.
"Your master's patience has been to his advantage." remarked Crinoline as they gathered. "I know certain things in death that I could not have known in life. I can see his choice of an assistant is nothing less than perfection."
"That is very encouraging. Thank you." Nora replied, with a grateful smile, "Please, if you would, tell me what to expect, being in the Dream Plain."
Crinoline looked far across the blooming garden to where Petrich sat under the ivy beside the two finished graves. He had leaned himself up against the trunk of a young tree, earth smudged bare forearms rested on drawn up knees, his head bowed in exhaustion.
"Come," Crinoline urged, "Just there is a well. Fetch a bucket of the water and take it to your master to drink. Then we shall discuss the Dream Plain."

*. *. *

What Petrich understood of The Dream Plain he explained to Nora as they rested in the garden's golden afternoon.  Crinoline helped fill-in the aspects Petrich had yet to learn, and even corrected some misconceptions. This was a character trait Nora admired the most about Petrich. He did not claim to know all things. On the contrary, he graciously humbled himself to listen to others with more expertise.
             As the day faded, Crinoline took Nora to her mother's suite. Once there she showed Nora to the gigantic bathroom.
"Feel free to run yourself a bath. Use all the toiletries you wish." Crinoline eyed Nora's height and shape. "You are not too far from my mother's size. There is plenty of clothing available in the wardrobe."
Nora frowned. "I. . . I should not steal your mother's property!"
Crinoline smiled sadly. "Please do not consider it stealing. Besides, even when my mother was still alive, she had much more than she could ever use. This is what Rosemary attested to, anyway. I had no choice but to believe her. I never laid eyes on the woman that I am able to remember."
And with that, Crinoline left Nora, to attend to Petrich and his access to another private bath. When they finally met one another again, it was in a dining room with a grand meal laid out for only the two of them. This was good, for Nora was beyond famished.
"Ultimately, it is all still a dream." Petrich said, pointing out that the food was more familiar fare than what would have been served two hundred years before. Even the clothing presented to them was the traveling fashion of the time, and yet, it suited their personal style and comfort.
Nora agreed. It was as if this was what they would be wearing and eating if she were trying to imagine (dream) life two hundred years ago. They were close but with characteristics of their own modern time.
"Are you frightened?" Petrich asked.
Nora carefully considered the question. "Not quite as much as I thought I would be. What frightens me most is the fear of forgetting to return home again. Just as Crinoline said of other scribes in the past who never returned."
Petrich nodded. "Yes, but I believe Crinoline has safeguarded us against that. She gave us a mission, an extremely important one. One that cannot change anything of the past, the dead remain dead, but will, at least, break this forsaken curse when completed."
"True." Nora agreed, looking at the doll, seated on its own chair, moving its limbs ever so slightly. Oh how Nora wished it would become still, so that her skin would stop crawling everytime she looked upon it. "But I am wondering what it will be when it is recreated? It will be a completely new document, but of what?"
"I've no idea." Petrich answered, "We shall have to practice patience. Crinoline said we will know in time. But first there is a lot to learn of the basics."
Nora smiled and placed her hand on his where it lay on the table. "I almost feel guilty, having this time, just us in such comfort.  I worry for Fitz and Leon."
Petrich took up her hand, and lightly kissed it in his gentlemanly manner. "They are none the wiser." he reminded her. "And I promise, we shall see them again, and with us will be a recreated, uncursed document."