Demesne

After the holinight, it was back to work. While the new wood curing and storage shed had been raised, it still lacked doors on either end. They weren't needed at the moment since most of the planks cut were going straight to roofing the sawmill, so that as all right.

Unfortunately, Lori had to remove the darkwisps over the fields, as Rian and Taeclas—according to the headcloth she was wearing—pointed out that it would block the light the crops needed. She'd considered keeping the shade on anyway and simply adding lightwisps to the binding to reproduce sunlight, but eventually decided that was a far too complicated binding, and far too inefficient to maintain on a regular basis.

The demesne went back to its previous routine, and Lori returned to expanding the demesne, but this time on her new schedule. Two full days of expanding the demesne, and then on the third day she stopped to rest, or at least do less intensive Whispering, such as placing the binding to keep humidity out of the new grain storage she'd made in the second level, as well as drawing out the moisture that might have made its way in already. She'd also dragged a few seels out of the river to be butchered and added to their food supply. While their supply of meat was holding even, it was still depleting, and there was no reason not to replenish it. Then she'd gone back to expanding her demesne again for two days. She hadn't felt any impending headache, but then again she hadn't really felt anything when she'd expanded the demesne for a week.

On the day she was supposed to rest, Lori debated adding a third day to expanding the demesne. She'd been fine for a week, so surely it was fine if she added one more day, right?

"So, are we going to River's fork today or tomorrow?" Rian asked.

Lori blinked, glancing up from her breakfast as her flow of thought was interrupted. "What?"

"River's Fork. Or, well, Lidzuga, really. He's the Deadspeaker you assigned there? The probationary period you set ends… well, today. I figured we should talk to him to make it official." Rian tilted his head to the side slightly. "You didn't forget, did you?"

"Of course not," Lori lied as she frantically tried to recall what Rian was—ah right. Had it been four weeks already? "I was simply preoccupied and hadn't yet checked the tally I was keeping track of."

"Ah. As expected of her Bindership, not forgetting the important things," Rian said, nodding. "So, to sum up what he's done, Lidzuga has managed to get three harvests of River's Fork's crops, adjusted the meanings on all the trees, done repairs on all the houses, built two boats and I hear he's got a third finished now, and set up the second fruit orchard. The last time I spoke to him before the harvest, he said that the second orchard was already starting to grow flowers. The trees might actually have fruit by now, so he might be due a half-day off."

"Just like everyone else, then?" Riz said under her breath next to Rian, making Mikon laugh.

Rian's arm moved as he gently nudged her with his elbow. "So, back to the original question, are we going today or tomorrow?"

… well, today was supposed to be a rest day anyway. "Today, after breakfast," she said. "Be sure to bring your bow." Today is going to be the day that they finally spot that typhon beast early enough that they'd be able to shoot an arrow at it!

"By the way, about the drop hammer…"

"Is it ready to be installed yet?"

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about. The smiths says they need more room around the drop hammer."

Lori blinked. "What? Why?"

"Well, they say that they need a forge near the drop hammer so they can work the metal, and there's not nearly enough room for one in the space allocated." Rian paused. "Also, it was brought up that having an open forge near so much sawdust—" He cut off Lori's hand snapped up to slap against her face in frustrated realization. "Ah, I see I can stop explaining."

"We'll have to make new plans for the drop hammer," Lori said. "We'll need a second water wheel."

"A water wheel for the river, or are you going to make something like the lathe the carpenters have?"

Lori paused. That… was actually a good idea. If nothing else, it meant they wouldn't have to build a new structure along the river. "Give me time to think about it."

"You're thinking about it, not considering it?"

"That's what I said, isn't it?"

Rian nodded with a serious look on his face. "Riiight… Well, beyond the location —or lack thereof, now—the components of the drop hammer are ready and usable. The miller said he has no problem with the gristmill beyond it being a little cramped, although now that we're not putting in the drop hammer, I suppose that means we can make the milling room bigger. Do you think you can make the walls for it?"

Lori looked at him suspiciously. "Why…?"

"It'll be a while before the sawmill can spare the planks for the interior walls, and until the walls are in place, we can't use the gristmill there unless you want sawdust in your bread." Rian paused again.

"I don't want sawdust on my bread," Lori agreed.

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They did not spot the typhon beast and were unable to shoot an arrow at it.

"We'll get it another time," Rian said as they entered the boundaries of River's Fork's demesne. Riz and three of her friends were ladling water on themselves against the heat, while Lori gathered the water pooling at the bottom of the boat to apply to herself before throwing it over the side. They were riding Lori's Boat Three, which for some reason had only one outrigger on its right side. Admittedly, it didn't seem to need a second, and the lack of an outrigger on one side made it easier to get on and off the boat.

"In this heat, it's probably thirsty a lot, so there's a good chance we'll see it as we're leaving."

Lori didn't reply, simply sitting in dignified angry silence.

Why was Rian muttering about 'adorable'?

When they arrived at the dome, Lori saw sheaves of grain being dried in the sun outside, while other sheaves were being threshed—they also had the large saw-like comb—and winnowed. Outside the mine and dragon shelter was a large pile of loose rocks, no doubt the result of the copper mining. Well, it would probably be useful if she needed to build anything—

"This place is going to need a lot of work when the next batch of the Golden Sweetwood Company arrives," Rian commented as he started maneuvering the boat to the dock, making Lori twitch. "They'll probably need something like the shelters you put, and definitely need to expand outside of the dome—"

"Rian, stop talking," Lori ground out.

"Shutting up, your Bindership. Though we really need to talk about this before—"

"You're still talking."

Rian finally stopped talking as they pulled alongside the dock. One of Riz's friends stepped off the boat and onto the dock, and another threw her the boat's rope to secure it. By the time that Lori managed to step off the boat—she was used to stepping onto the narrow ramp between the boat and the outrigger, which was higher than stepping up from the bottom of the boat—Yllian had made his way to them. The man was sweating intensely, and Rian actually grabbed the boat's ladle to scoop up some river water, which he offered to the man.

Yllian took the ladle gratefully, taking off his hat and pouring the water over his head before putting his hat back on. "Oh, Great Binder, that feels good…" the man sighed.

"Yes, I know," Lori said blandly.

Her lord blinked, then coughed awkwardly. "Ah, sorry for my language, Great Binder."

"Perhaps you should resort to other forms of swearing," Lori said dryly. "On your own time. Where is—" she reached into her pouch to check on the rocks there, "—Lidzuga?"

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When Lidzuga arrived, Lori was examining the boat being held up on trestles that would no doubt become Lori's Boat Four. She hated the design. Instead of a nice, neat box, the two long walls were at an angle outwards, and the bottom dipped down in the middle to form a triangular shape. It actually needed to rest on the trestles upside-down because otherwise it would keep flopping from side to side. Off to the side, tree branches were in the beginning of being fused together to make more panels.

"It looks terrible," Lori said.

"It's meant to be self-righting," Rian said, "And it's supposed to be a boat, not a box. Besides, it's still symmetrical."

Well, she supposed there was that. "Well, I suppose there's that…"

"Lo—Rian?"

"Ah, Lidz, there you are!" Rian said as he turned towards the Deadspeaker. "I believe congratulations are in order."

"Oh, thank you, but accelerating the crops isn't really anything," the Deadspeaker said in the tones of someone wanting to hear praise. "This is our third harvest, and—"

"Uh, no not that," Rian interrupted. "Though yes, good job in getting the demesne a third harvest, that's two more harvests than we would have managed without you. I meant your probation. Congratulations on reaching four weeks."

"Pro—oh! Oh, that's today?"

"That's today," Rian confirmed. "Congratulations of getting through your probation, even if you didn't manage to build all the boats in the time you had available. However, of the boats you did deliver so far, we have no complaints, and Yllian has only good things to say about all the Deadspeaking work you've been doing. How's the progress on the second fruit orchard?"

"Actually, I've managed to get some of the trees there to start fruiting, although the trees themselves are a bit stunted because they've been growing for only… three weeks? I had to use grafts and transplants instead of growing from seedlings, but Tae said that's not really a problem. She said that shorter trees are easier to pick."

"Um… while I wouldn't impugn on Tae's good name, she sort of… hates trees."

Lidzuga blinked. "Really?"

"Not fruit trees, or so she says, but she had a whole list of things she doesn't like about them—" Rian glanced towards her. "Uh, I'll tell you later. Just… probably take a moment to think about it before taking her advice about things like that."

"Um… now that my probation is over…"

"Yes, you can have days off," Lori said. "Or at least half days off. As you've no doubt learned by now, there are things that have to be done every day, so a full day off cannot be a regular occurrence."

Lidzuga grimaced, but nodded. "Yes. While Shanalorre—"

Lori just barely managed to keep herself from speaking.

"—handles imbuing everything, some of the trees still need little adjustments, even with the bound tools you've set in place to keep them cool your Bindership."

She nodded. "However, we had an agreement. As soon as I can confirm that fruits are growing in the second orchard you've established, with the completion of this third boat you will be due half a day off for… well, whatever you want to do. All I require is that you inform Yllian the day before you take a day off so that he knows you will not be completely available. Have you settled on a specific topic of research yet?" When last they'd spoken, he'd seemed to have vague ideas about cataloging local plants, beasts and bugs, but that was unfocused and time consuming. The sort of research one conducted when they had a sponsor who wasn't too insistent on results.

"I… haven't really had a chance to think about it," the Deadspeaker said. "I've been so busy…"

"May I suggest not using your half day off to do that thinking?" Rian said. "That's just a sad waste of what you've managed to earn."