While the Zee-dreams don’t seem to be strictly related, they have some structural similarities, so I think there are benefits to analyzing them in parallel.
I hope it’s fairly uncontroversial that the Zee-dreams originate with other entities, not the player. (This is why they create Oneiric Pearls–remember that real pearls form around a foreign contaminant.) So it’s natural to ask: Whose dream is this? That seems pretty core to answering the dream.
In at least two dreams, the dreamer seems to be pretty far from humanity on the Great Chain. Probably why their dreams are so strong. So a lot of what we see is filtered into human terms, but it’s important to remember it’s symbolic. Moreso than regular dreams.
By contrast, I don’t think the regular London dreams entirely belong to someone else. They’re obviously affected by outside influence, but I don’t think they’re wholesale someone else’s experience. It seems to me more like your character’s own experience of seeing through someone else’s eyes.
Betwixt Us and the Sun (Northern Wind)
I start with this one because it’s the easiest.
This dream is from the Bazaar, about falling in love with the Sun. The first few scenes, about being small and dressed in rags, is the Bazaar’s insecurity about being lower on the Chain than the Judgements, and feeling out-of-place when interacting with them (and being well-traveled from the High Wilderness). The floor is patterned like a chessboard, because the Judgements move in the Great Game.
I don’t entirely understand the significance of the masks, and there’s a whole action just about looking at a chandelier, which goes over my head. Perhaps the White? It’s odd to me that in a room full of suns, the candles are blindingly bright.
The dance accelerates because of the Bazaar’s presence. This could be something about gravity and orbits and the motion of heavenly bodies. It could also be the messages delivered by the Bazaar, and how that makes the Great Game proceed. The ending, of course, is the Bazaar’s shameful declaration of love and subsequent flight into the Neath. It’s a little strange how far the Neath is, but maybe that’s just regular dream logic.
Upon a Painted Sea (Eastern Wind)
I know very little of Salt, so I can’t comment on Alpha900i’s explanation.
I can’t get a reading on whose dream this is, or even where on the Chain they are. It sounds like a dream from a tree. The protagonist greets trees and interacts with them, and puts down roots. There are instances where they are perceived to be swimming or digging, but I suspect this might be the dream being filtered into human terms.
This dream plays with infinities in time, but in A Dream of Sand it also plays with infinities of space. And there is another constant theme: Music, and vibration. The connection between these these is motion: that’s the relationship between time and space, and also what vibration is. I know "the song of Salt" is a thing, but the relationship to music also calls to mind the Rubberies for me. I think it’s significant the trees are treated as peers to the protagonist, who is an individual joining a large community of them.
The final dream is named "Green and Gold," which is reminiscent of Parabola. There’s also a parallel in consecutive sentences between sunlight and leaves, and octaves and tones. If one wants to be all literary about it, this is saying the trees are musical elements. This… actually makes sense to me. The whole dream is a musical movement, from the point of view of a part of the music. Everything is building up, and then holding steady in a harmony, awaiting the crescendo which is the avalanche. That still doesn’t pinpoint exactly who the dreamer is, but it’s something.
I Shot the Albatross (Southern Wind)
The presence of the actual, literal Mountain of Light is notable. Not a metaphor that represents the Mountain, but actually the Mountain. Hopefully the Mountain also represents the Mountain, and not some other thing.
Whoever the dreamer is, they must have a strong connection to the Mountain of Light. One thought is the Thief of Faces. Another idea, and this one is a bit odd, is that the dream actually belongs to the Mountain of Light, despite us experiencing it from a different perspective. Perhaps it’s a wish or fantasy of the Mountain of Light, enacting vengeance upon one who deserves it. Another thought is that it’s a dream from the Presbyter, related to their commandment about flying things.
I believe the Mountain is present in the second dream, and maybe even the first, even though she is not named until the third. The first two dreams involve hunger, which of course has the obvious connection, but appetites are many and varied in the Neath. The river in the first dream is iron-tinged, which makes me think it’s actually one of the rivers that flows from the Mountain, but the absence of other living things is strange. Doesn’t the Mountain give life? It’s odd.
Most of the dream, beginning even with the bird falling through the air leaving a trail of blood, repeats an expansion of the bird’s corpse. The dead bird, of course, is a sin. Is it the guilt felt by the dreamer which continues to magnify, or perhaps the consequences of a mistake made in desperation? The Mountain also gets steeper and steeper, making the trek harder and harder. The perspective of the dream is a pilgrimage towards penitence, which gets more difficult as it goes on, until reaching the ultimate punishment at the peak. The Mountain can’t reach out to punish those who offend her, so they must come to her instead. Also, again, odd: The presence of the mountain gives unnatural vitality, even moreso when directly implanted into someone; so does impaling someone on the peak of the Mountain kill them or not?
What strikes me in this dream is the malice of the Mountain’s gaze. I mean yes, the protagonist sinned. But the Mountain’s light is actually harsh and uncaring even from the second dream before the dreamer has begun. This is another thing which inclines me towards the Thief of Faces. Or perhaps this sin is actually a plan to convince the Mountain to let you approach, that you might achieve immortality.