Demesne

As Rian had promised, there was stew ready for them, and some bread as well. Both were no longer warm, but after how hot it had been in River's Fork, Lori had no objections to that.

Umu and Mikon had already finished eating by the time they'd arrived, but the two lingered as Rian and Riz sat down to eat. Taeclas—thankfully, she was wearing her head cloth today—and her wife had left, already finished eating.

"So, a few matters came up when I was talking to Yllian," Rian said. He was glancing over her shoulder for some reason, before nodding in satisfaction. Lori glanced behind her, but saw nothing but the table that the children who lived with Shanalorre ate at. It was empty at the moment, the children already finished with their meal and doing who-knows-what down in the second level. "He says that with the multiple harvests that Lidzuga was able to help them make, their food stores are finally growing instead of only holding even. Yllian says that River's Fork can afford to support a few more people now."

"I should hope so, since they have to support the miners."

That made Rian pause for a moment. "Ah. I think they meant the minors, as well as additional people on top of them."

"So we can send more miners? Good, the shelter can hold more, and it will get us copper faster."

Rian sighed for some reason. "As a result of this added capacity, Yllian said they can afford to welcome the children back home, since they have enough food to feed them now. So he asked me if it would be possibly for the children to return to River's Fork."

Ah. That's what Rian was talking about. "Ah. That's what you're talking about. Next time, just say it properly. Very well, inform Shanalorre and make what arrangements you need to."

Rian paused as if waiting for something. "Is that it?"

Lori frowned. "Is there anything else that needs to be done regarding them?"

"No… no, ah, just wondering if your orders were complete. I'll, ah, inform Shanalorre."

Lori stared at him. Then she pushed back her chair and stood up, the better to lean over the table and pat Rian on the head. "Good work, Rian. It took several months, but you've finally remembered to address Binder Shanalorre properly without being reminded. Keep up the good work."

He gave her an incredulous stare as she sat back down and went back to eating. Next to him, Umu, Mikon and Riz started snickering. "Are you mocking me?"

"Why would I do that? Remembering names properly is very difficult."

Rian continued to stare. "I honestly can't tell if you're serious."

"I'm Lori."

The two stared at each other for a moment more. Lori's face was completely impassive.

"So… anyway… Now that Lidzuga is no longer on probation, and we've seen that his boats have been of acceptable quality, I was wondering if I could modify one of the boats we have."

Lori hummed. "I was considering having him cease making boats. We're running out of space to keep them."

"That's… true, but hear me out first. What if you had a dedicated boat for making beads?"

…what? "….what?"

"Your old shed is deep inside the demesne's boundaries now, and you haven't had time to build a new one," Rian said.

"Yes Rian, I am intimately familiar with the situation. Stop expositing things I already know and need no reminder of."

"Right… well, skipping ahead then, we have a lot of boats now. Why don't we turn one of the boats we currently have into a mobile work shed? Being in the river is far safer in terms of keeping away from beasts. Or if that's too unstable, then you can just beach the boat at the border, and then push it out into the river if a beast gets too close."

That… would actually be useful. The boats they had could fit her bead-making equipment, and that was all she really needed for mass bead production. Though the boat would need things…

"I'll need a roof," Lori said.

"I'm sure that we can figure out some kind of solution. It shouldn't be too hard to put up some sort of awning, and—hey! The roof doesn't even need to be material! If you had places to anchor them, you could put up a roof of darkwisps, right?"

Lori tilted her head thoughtfully. "That could work," she agreed. "With no risk of beasts, having an immaterial roof will be sufficient to keep most of the heat off, and I can use the same anchor points for bindings to keep me cool."

"There you go! Lidz is going to make two more boats, so it's not like we'll be lacking for long. What do you say?"

It would be convenient… and the beads would already be on the boat, so no need to carry them around! "What would it take to convert one of the boats to this?"

"Well, it would depend on what sort of roof you want. Binding or physical?"

"At the moment, a physical roof is unnecessary," she mused. "All I will need are some posts I can embed stone into as anchor points."

"On the other hand," Rian countered, "summer should be ending soon, so it will start raining again. Not regularly, but you probably don't want to get wet… wait, I know. We still have a lot of straw from the harvest. How do you feel about a thatch roof? Would that might be enough to make a rainshade?"

She stared at him. "What is thatch?"

"… it's a method of roofing that uses straw, grasses and in some cases sufficiently big leaves. It's not very durable, at least compared to plank roofing, but it's lightweight and relatively quick to make, so it can keep the sun off you without being heavy enough to make the boat top-heavy."

Lori considered that. "Fine, see to it, although until the rain starts, it doesn't need to be prioritized. For now, some posts to act as anchor points for darkwisp bindings will suffice. How long will it take?"

"Well, the carpenters will be the ones to assess that, but… three days? A day to examine the boat and plan out what they're going to do, another day to cut up all the beams and set them in place, and maybe a third day for Taeclas to fuse everything together for added strength. The thatch roofing will probably take a little bit more time to complete. Unless it starts raining, we can get it done during the days you don't use the boat."

Lori nodded. "I'll leave it to you, then. I will be going back to River's Fork to begin excavating a water reservoir for the dragon shelter, and I'll need a carpenter to go with me. I need two doors made, and they need to take measurements."

"I'll set it up. Anything else?"

She pointed at his plate. "Eat."

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Lori was at her table in her room, the various alloy samples they had made arrayed in front of her when there was a knock on her door. She stared at the wooden barrier, daring it to do that again—it can't be Rian calling her down to dinner, lunch hadn't been that long ago—when there was another knock. Now that she was paying attention to it, the knock was noticeably softer than the ones employed by Rian or Riz.

For a moment, she considered just ignoring the knocking—there was a third set of knocks—but she wasn't Rian, who liked to use procrastination as a problem-solving tool. Sighing, she got up, her face already setting into a glare as she walked towards the door in her tsinelas as there was a fourth set of knocks.

"What?" Lori said as she opened her door. She blinked when she saw no one there, then looked down.

Shanalorre stared up as her. "Great Binder," she said without preamble. "I have been informed that the children will be returning to River's Fork soon. Is this correct?"

Lori stared at her for a moment. Ah, yes, Shanalorre was the children's caretaker, wasn't she? The Dungeon Binder supposed she should have also remembered to inform her. "Yes. The state of River's Fork's food supplies is such that it can safely support additional people, so it's safe to take the children back. I apologize for not informing you earlier, but you were absent while we were eating."

"I… see. When will they be transferred back to River's Fork?"

"You will need to coordinate with Rian. The children are your responsibility, after all. However, you will probably need to wait until the Coldhold returns." Their largest boat was currently gone, sent to gather more salt, and it would be a couple more days before it returned. It was the only one with the capacity to carry all the children as well as their things, as well as the safest vessel to carry them. "It is the only one of our boats with the capacity to carry all the children as well as their things, as well as the safest vessel to carry them."

Shanalorre nodded slowly. "The Coldhold should be back in two days if it maintains its usual travel time. I will inform the children so they can make preparations to leave." She paused briefly, staring up at Lori. "I am honestly surprised you have not found a reason to continue retaining them as hostages to ensure the compliance and obedience of their parents in River's Fork."

A mix of feelings filled Lori. Outrage, wariness, acknowledgement, even a small amount of approval… it was a reminder that for all Shanalorre's compliance and unobtrusiveness, the other was still a Dungeon Binder. While Lori would never consider using the children in that way, it was clear Shanalorre wasn't so limited. For all her deficiencies, Shanalorre had still been dutiful in caring for the idiots of her demesne back when she had ruled, and as the caretaker of the children had no doubt worried that Lori would do as a Dungeon Binder would have.

"Anyone idiotic enough to not comply or obey would not be stopped by the fact I hold their children," Lori said. "Besides, they're children. I would never hurt them or bring them harm. I'm not their parents, after all." Shanalorre twitched, staring blankly up at Lori for a few moments, and she waited patiently until the other Dungeon Binder's left hand rose and slapped her cheek hard, blinked, and shook her head. The other Dungeon Binder's strange idiosyncrasies were familiar to Lori now.

"I… see. Thank you for explaining, Great Binder." Shanalorre gave her a bow. "I apologize for disturbing you."

"Yes, you did." Lori waved a hand dismissively. "Get going, you no doubt have preparations to make."

Lori watched to make sure the other Dungeon Binder left before she went back to her room and once more locked the door. Should she be worried that Shanalorre was planning to take the demesne's children hostage against Lori? The thought was extremely concerning. The children trusted the other Dungeon Binder, and she was ideally positioned to act…

No.

Lori dismissed the concern. Shanalorre was many things, but she wasn't an idiot. Overwhelmed, under-equipped, under-staffed, ignorant and ineffectual she might have been, the other Dungeon Binder had never been an idiot.

Besides, Shanalorre was already barred from sharp objects, such that she was limited to digging out her garden with a blunt stick. If she tried anything, the brat would just knock her over.

Lori went back to her table, casually slipping off her tsinelas as she sat down and resting her feet on them. She went back to the alloy samples. In addition to the flattened blocks of alloy, there were also the lengths of wire that had had been drawn, with the sole exception of a wire of earthwisp alloy. The alloy had been too hard and rigid to be drawn into a wire, and all attempts had ended in failure. The smiths had suggested that it would be possible to draw it hot, but Lori had told them not to proceed with that test at the moment.

The wires that had been drawn were all very fine, and a note from Rian informed her that copper was a poor metal to test for greater ductility, as copper was already a metal naturally well-suited to be drawn into strands. That being said, there was also an added note that the smiths had found the airwisp alloy, waterwisp allloy, and lightwisp-airwisp alloy to be easier to draw into wire, especially at the smallest hole of the draw plate. The draw test would have to be repeated with a metal that's more difficult to draw into wire…