Demesne

Shana ate at the table behind Binder Lori during lunch, as the children she was responsible for always needed her attention after coming back from River's Fork, and she had to make sure they ate and remained within acceptable limits of behavior. The latter was more for the benefit of the other tables around them, as Binder Lori didn't really seem to care how loud the children were, but adults would use the pretext of 'disturbing her Bindership' to try to get the children to behave. Best to just avoid all that before Binder Lori took umbrage at people trying to usurp her authority or however she was likely to interpret it.

In addition to the children, Koyan and Kayas also ate with her, helping her deal with the children so she wouldn't been overwhelmed. Most of the time it wasn't needed, but Shana could only direct her attention in so many directions at once, so their assistance was invaluable.

Thankfully, this time such assistance wasn't really necessary, and they were able to eat lunch without incident. Well, no more incident than was usual for lunch.

"No, Yoshka," Shana intervened, "Don't put so much stew on your spoon. Only a little bit so it doesn't drip. If you waste food, mushka will get angry at you."

"Aww…"

Behind her, Binder Lori and Rian were discussing the progress of the day's work on the sawmill's foundation. From the sound of it, while most of the foundation had been set in place, the top-most layer would need to be leveled to Binder Lori's satisfaction.

"You know, given how much stone would need to be leveled, could I suggest having the stonemasons and maybe the plasterers do the work for you instead?" Rian said. "Just as a test?"

"…who or what is a plasterer?"

"You don't…? Ah, probably not much call for a Whisperer in the field of plastering. Plasterers… well, they plaster walls, which helps in insulating it from the cold, as well as giving it a plumb, smooth look that you'll probably like. Usually they use specially formulated mud, but their tools should be sufficient to shape softened stone, provided it's sufficiently soft."

"I'll consider it."

"Could you finish considering by the time we finish lunch so I can tell them whether they're working or can spend the afternoon indoors where it's nice and cool?"

Normally, Shana would have spent the afternoon helping Wizard Taeclas in the dungeon farm, imbuing the meanings she'd tamed, but with the recent harvest most of the dungeon farm's plots were empty of crops. The soil had been tilled and fertilized, and grain had been cast on the plots, so they were waiting for them to sprout and take root before putting any further meanings on them. All the other crops in the dungeon farm had already been tamed with meanings, even the tubers.

Short of going back outside and working in the heat, there was little Shana herself could do. And despite Binder Lori clearly intending to work through the afternoon, the older woman had no problems with the heat, and she seemed to have made some shade for those working on the sawmill. Even Karina wouldn't work in the heat of the afternoon, and she was very devoted to getting food for the demesne.

…

Well, Karina wouldn't work in the heat of the afternoon anymore, but as soon as it wasn't so hot Shana knew she'd be right back at it.

Still, Shana looked for Wizard Taeclas in case the Deadspeaker needed her assistance to imbue anything. She found her in one of the second level's alcoves, sitting on the floor next to some branches of various lengths and thicknesses, a bucket of dead leaves, another basket of straw from the recent harvest, and a mallet that seemed to have been borrowed from the carpenters. A cloth was spread out in front of her. Sitting on a bench in the alcove, Rybelle was using a short length of cord to bundle together lengths of straw from her own basket, most likely to make a broom. All over the second level, people had similar baskets of straw next to them as they made brooms and brushes.

"Wizard Taeclas," Shana greeted.

"Oh, hello, Shana! How are you? Did you have a good lunch?"

"I am fine, and lunch was adequate. Thank you for asking. Do you need any assistance? Actually… what are you doing?"

"Well, my lovely wife here is making brooms, and when they're as tightly bound as she wants, I'm going to fuse them together to cut down on cordage," Wizard Taeclas said, looking lovingly at Rybelle, who smiled back. "While I'm waiting for them, I'm seeing about something to help keep the sun off me when I'm working out in the fields in the morning. I could make ones for you and Karina too, if you want?"

That piqued Shana's curiosity. "How can I help, then?" If Karina was going to insist on continuing to assist her in the mornings, then the least Shana could do was get her something to keep the sun off.

"Are you sure? Wouldn't you rather play?"

Shana sighed. "I am not a child, Wizard Taeclas."

"You are, though?"

"I am also one of the few Deadspeakers we have available. Please, allow me to assist. Anything you do will go much faster if I take care of the imbuement."

"Well… I suppose… but if you want to take a nap or something, then just tell me and go, all right?"

Shana nodded. Truthfully, she did want to take a nap, but if there was something that needed to be done... well, she could delay her nap until later. "What do we do?"

"Well, first off, help me start putting these leaves on this cloth."

It was not simply a bucket of dead leaves. Rather it was a bucket of wet leaves, as the bucket was also filled with water.

"Why?" Shana felt compelled to ask.

"Leaves start becoming brittle because they dry out," Wizard Taeclas explained as they began pulling out leaves from the bucket. They were wide—a little smaller than Shana's palm—and fairly thick, but had already yellowed. "I've been soaking these leaves for a couple of days, and now we're going to fuse them together using Deadspeaking. Here, let me show—oh, right." Wizard Taeclas sighed. "Well, no matter. As I said, we'll be fusing them together. Since these leaves are dead, the meaning is going to be fairly simple. So what we're going to do is…"

Wizard Taeclas held several leaves in her hands, letting the water on them drip back into the bucket as she concentrated. Shana noted that the Deadspeaker was holding them such that she was touching the leaves along their edges, clearly claiming and taming the life in the leaves. After a few moments, Wizard Taeclas handed the leaves to Shana and reached into the bucket for another handful.

Shana took the handful of leaves in one hand, overriding Wizard Taeclas' claim on the meanings on the leaves, and began imbuing them. With her other hand, she started laying out leaves on the cloth—"The cloth is to keep the wet leaves from sticking to the floor!"—putting each leaf down so that their edges overlapped slightly. She moved unhurriedly, both to give the leaves in her hand more time to be imbued and so that she could place each leaf down precisely.

Once Wizard Taeclas had made several handfuls of leaves with meanings on them, they changed roles, with Shana taking the handfuls of leaves and imbuing them while the Deadspeaker began putting down the leaves Shana had already imbued. Once Shana had imbued all the leaves, the two worked together to put down leaves on the cloth.

When most of the cloth had been covered by a layer of leaves, Wizard Taeclas rested her hands on the layer. The Deadspeaker started taking deep, even breaths—

"Oh, right," Wizard Taeclas said suddenly, sounding chagrinned. Her breathing returned to normal, even as her face changed into an expression of concentration as her hands began to slowly slide across the sheet, pressing the leaves down on each other. Where her hands pressed, the leaves flattened and stayed flat, fusing against each other. Under the Deadspeaker's hands, the leaves quickly became a single large sheet. The sheet wasn't completely uniform. The veins that had been on the leaves were still there, standing out on the surface of the sheet, and the sheet was thicker where the leaves had overlapped.

Wizard Taeclas carefully pulled up the corner of the sheet of leaves, separating it from the cloth. "All right, that should be enough," she said cheerfully. "Now to try and make a frame for it…"

The sheet of leaves was carefully placed on some of the slender branches so that it wouldn't stick to the floor as the excess water dripped out.

Constructing the frame as Wizard Taeclas imagined it was less intensive. After choosing which of the branches she would use, she bundled up some of the more slender branches together, tamped them down, then laid the bundle on its side and pressed her palm against the tamped down end. The branches were slender enough that she was able to touch all of them at once when she did so. After a few moments, Wizard Taeclas picked up the bundle again, tamped down the opposite end, and pressed her palm against that.

"All right Shana, your turn," the Deadspeaker said. "It doesn't need much, just enough that I can stick them against each other."

Shana nodded, pressing her palm on the branches as the other woman had done. Unfortunately, the difference in size between their hands meant she needed to use two hands. Overriding Wizard Taeclas' claim, she imbued the meanings for a count of five slow breaths, then removed her hand.

Wizard Taeclas touched the ends of the branches, testing the level of imbuement before nodding. "A bit more than necessary, but that's fine." Tamping down the bundle of branches, they repeated it on the other end.

Taking four of the imbued branches, Wizard Taeclas took a longer, thicker branch and laid it on the floor, then pressed the end of one of the slender branches to the end of the longer branch at a right angle. Holding it in place with one hand, she pressed a finger to the end of the slender branch. It took longer to fuse the wood together than it had taken to do the same to the leaves, so Shana took the opportunity to stand and walk back and forth to ease her legs.

Eventually, the four slender branches were fused to the end of the longer branch in a slightly lopsided cross shape.

"All right!" Wizard Taeclas said, carefully laying the wooden construct on a bench. "Now, let's get the leaves!"

The sheet of leaves was carefully removed from the branches it was resting on and laid down on the cloth again, where Wizard Taeclas rested both hands on the sheets. Slowly, her hands moved, moving across the surface. Her hands made one circuit over the sheet before she removed them. "All right, Shana. Could you imbue this too? You only need to put in as much as you did on the branches."

Shana nodded, resting one hand on the sheet. She suspected that Wizard Taeclas was perfectly capable of imbuing the meaning on the sheet—which seemed to encompass the whole sheet now—and was mainly doing this to allow her to be involved. Still, it was a productive way to pass the time, so Shana didn't mind. "Done," she announced.

"Thank you," Taeclas said, standing up and picking up the fused branches. "Could you please hold this steady?"

Shana remained seated, holding the fused branches upright by the thick branch and doing her best to do as Wizard Taeclas had asked as the Deadpseaker picked up the sheet of leaves. From her point of view underneath, Shana watched as a corner of the sheet was carefully pressed to the end of one of the extending slender branches with one of Wizard Taeclas' fingers while the Deadspeaker's other hand adjusted the orientation of the sheet.

It took a while as Wizard Taeclas adjusted the sheet back and forth before finally fusing the sheet to the end of one of the slender branches, and carefully pulling the sheet taut to fuse it to the end of the opposite branch. Shana did her best to hold the branch steady as the Deadspeaker secured the sheet to all the branches.

"All right, that should do it!" Wizard Taeclas said cheerfully as she fused the sheet to the last branch. "Not bad for my first rainshade. Well, sunshade, technically. I'm not sure it will work well in the rain. Here, let me take that so you can stand up."

Shana let Wizard Taeclas take the sunshade, and got to her feet. The Deadspeaker happily held the… sunshade, and Shana could see how it could be used to, as the name implied, shade one's self from the sun and its heat.

Though…

"It looks like it would be difficult for Karina and I to use while also handling the lattice pole," Shana commented.

Wizard Taeclas paused. She stared at the sunshade in her hands. "Maybe if you should wear it on your back?" she said. She did not sound very confident.

"How?" Shana asked.

Wizard Taeclas stared at the sunshade some more and sighed. "I… might have to rethink this idea."

"Flowerpetal, if you're done with your little project, could you fuse these bundles together please?" Rybelle said.

"… yes, moonlight," Wizard Taeclas said. She glanced at Shana. "Uh…"

"Shall I return when you have rethought your idea?"

"I'd be thankful, yes."

Shana left to take a nap.