In a grand yet tragically futile procession, the Order of the Second Eyelid, once a bastion of untaxed dreams, was interred yesterday beneath the clamor of tolling bells and the muffled cries of the Collectors. The event, attended by 4,873 Collectors, was marked by an unwavering solemnity, with audits paused only for each hour's chime, as citizens with copper-tinted skin peered through translucent eyelids, savoring the irony of watching a once-venerable institution dissolve into a mere ledger entry.
The order's last Master, humbly addressed as -sama during the more temperate months, left a bequest of seventeen fog-barrels and a napkin bereft of legible ink. Guild records indicate that the napkin, while deemed indecipherable, will not prevent a complete review of the improper dream taxation during the Festival of Dreams in Glorious October.
Citizens expressed their bewilderment at the proceedings. One lowly dreamer, Shariko Tanaka-san, lamented, "How could dreams, once as free as the clouds, now require copper coins to pass? Yet it seems our nightly visions now incur a considerable debt."
What remains of the Order is now a mere vestige, succumbed to the Nocturnal Levy that transformed the ethereal into a fiscal quagmire. No longer will the noble pursuit of reverie flourish without the iron grip of the audit, leaving a chilling reminder that in the grand ledger of existence, even dreams must pay their dues.
