Demesne

Over the next week, Lori once more fell into a routine. Two days of expanding the demesne, a day to do other work, then back to expanding the demesne. She'd also conceived of the idea of forming bindings of firewisps on the borders of her demesne to help continue encouraging Iridescence growth overnight, as well as binding large amounts of darkwisps that the night brought to give the Iridescence wisps to consume.

That latter seemed to help increase the growth rate somewhat, if only by providing more Iridescence to claim exactly at the edges of her demesne. She supposed if she looked at Rian's numbers, she'd probably be able to see for sure how much it helped increase the growth rate, but as she had no 'numbers going up' fetish or any no need to justify herself, the fact that the growth rate had increased was sufficient for her.

Really, it was irritating that she'd only thought to start expanding the demesne so late into the season. So much potential growth that she had allowed to pass her by… so much suffering in the heat… Perhaps next year, the demesne would be functioning so smoothly that she could devote summer to expanding the demesne. Although really, there was no reason why she couldn't do it on any day of the year…

On the days she wasn't expanding the demesne, Lori performed maintenance on the bindings she had placed around the demesne. She checked the water hub shed, making sure there was nothing dead floating in the water, and was glad to see there were no bugs or slugs. She also checked the water reservoir in her dungeon, glad to see that the water was clear, and that the unseen light she'd placed beneath the surface of the water—which she'd deactivated before going to check—seemed to be preventing growths from taking hold within the walls of the reservoir.

The chamber where the water was distilled and further cleansed by unseen light had to be deactivated and opened to shovel out the residue that had accumulated since Lori had last checked. She took the opportunity to enlarge the chamber slightly, since using the shovel she had to reach the back of the chamber so the residue could be scraped out was a bit awkward. It was only when she was finished and was cleaning out the insides of the enlarged chamber with water… that she realized could have just used water to get the stubborn residue out.

…

Anyway…

The overflow evaporation chambers next to the bathwater cisterns near their fields also needed to be deactivated, opened and cleaned out, the residue added to their compost pit. That chamber was much fuller because of the amount of bathing everyone was doing, even with how much they were watering the fields to keep the crops from drying out.

Perhaps she should make another outlet for the water, since their fields had grown larger… but not right now!

Beyond maintenance, she used one of the days to finally get around to another experiment she hadn't been able to get around to.

Lori looked at the molten, brightly glowing stone inside the large crucible of bound ice. The stone—she didn't know exactly what sort of stone it was, and she didn't care—had been molten for some time, and she finally deactivated the binding of firewisps within the material. Carefully, she added the shards of white Iridescence with a wooden spoon, dropping it onto the molten stone.

"I can't see if it's dissolving. The molten rock is too bright," Rian said as he tried to peer through the clear substance of the bound ice.

"I told you that you wouldn't see anything," Lori sighed. "Look away before you harm your eyes."

"Yes, your Bindership… ugh, I need a dark corner… can you see anything, though?"

Lori bound the lightwisps in her left eye before closing her eyelids so she couldn't be disoriented by her vision changing, and began forming the binding she needed. When she opened her eyes again, her right eye saw the normal colors of the smithy, while her left eye saw only gloom through which she was barely able to see the outlines of shapes. When she looked at the molten stone, the glow coming from it had been greatly reduced, and she could make out the detail of the liquid's surface… including how the samples of white Iridescence she'd poured on the stone were floating on the molten surface. "The samples are floating on the surface."

Rian sighed. "That's… basically failure right there, isn't it? The white Iridescence has always basically dissolved instantly in anything that… well, that it can dissolve into."

"We still haven't tested how it dissolves in oil," Lori pointed out.

"Do you want me to finally arrange that?"

Lori waved her hand dismissively. "It's not urgent. I really don't see the point of such a thing."

"It might make the oil burn hotter or brighter?"

She paused, considering that. "Is that really something we need right now? We're using the oil for soap, aren't we?"

"Soap and lubricant for the sawmill, water wheels, lathes and anything else that needs to spin non-stop."

Well, she had phrased that as a question. "Is it really a good idea to use oil that burns hotter or brighter for that?"

"Yes, it sounds like a disaster waiting to happen… it could result in an oil that lubricates better?"

"If you're that insistent, I'll give you some samples and you can test it yourself. Hand me my wand."

"Here."

Lori accepted the rod of anatass, and used it to stir the molten stone. Perhaps it only needed some agitation to begin dissolving the samples of white Iridescence. She didn't actually believe it, but it was a possibility. Pulling out her wand after stirring, she tapped the wand against the stone floor to dislodge the slag on the wand. Wait, did it count as slag if it wasn't impurities from smelting?

When the molten rock had cooled, it was immediately obvious the attempt was a failure. A sample of white iridescence was sticking out from the top of the molten rock, its sharp angles a contrast to the more rounded stone beneath it. It obviously hadn't dissolved.

"Well, there goes my dreams of transparent rock windows for everyone in the demesne," Rian said mournfully.

"It was never likely, Rian. If it was that easy to acquire transparent building material, we'd be using lightwisp-alloy stone instead of glass."

"Given how the metal alloys are just as easy to make and yet don't seem to be in use, I doubt that."

Well, she supposed he had a point there.

She cleaned up after the failed experiment, giving the smiths the smithy back.

At the end of the week, Lori was just finishing dinner when her head snapped up, and she tilted her head as she felt the wave of magic that seemed to push on every wisp in her demesne. Sitting on the short bench next to her Shanalorre did the same, as did—Lori glanced at her head cloth—Taeclas across from them. A moment later, as the feeling came again, the three of them turned to look in the same direction.

Sitting next to Taeclas, her wife immediately paled.

Calmly, Lori reached for her cup and took a drink of water. "Rian, there's a dragon coming. See to it everyone takes appropriate action. I will be packing, and then I will go outside to sink the Coldhold into the river."

Rian sighed. "And here I was hoping all my work was done for the night. I'll have the men strip everything they can from the ship."

Lori reached out through her connection through her core and increased the output of the lightwisps anchored to the outsides of the houses to provide greater visibility as she went upstairs to pack up her bedroll, pillow, and other things. This time she was bringing the almanac so she had something to read!

With her packing done, she went outside. There were still people removing things from the Coldhold, so Lori turned her attention to the smithy, and used stone from the stockpile to close up the open wall that she had been opened when the summer started getting too hot to keep the smithy enclosed. Once that was done, Lori redistributed the rest of the stone to reinforce the entryway and front of her dungeon, then added all the additional stone to the binding of earthwisps that reinforced the stone of the hill above her dungeon, as well as all the stone structures in her demesne. When she'd come back from the first dragon of the year, she had simply never deactivated it, so she didn't have to reform the binding now. She did have to add the new wood storage shed outside of the sawmill, as that was the newest stone building in the demesne.

By the time she finished, the Coldhold was finally empty, everything that could be better utilized in the dungeon during the dragon's passing removed. Besides the Coldhold, there was only one other boat at the docks. Lori looked about in confusion. While the other wooden boats had probably been carried into her dungeon, Lori's Ice Boat was also gone. Had they actually dragged it into the dungeon rather than wait for her to liquefy the ice so they could dismantle the wooden frame?

Well, Lori supposed they were in a hurry. She was blinking tiredly as she proceeded to use the stone set aside for the purpose to surround the Coldhold in a box of stone and sank it into the river to protect it from damage from the dragon's passing. It had been a long day of expanding the demesne, and she had been looking forward to getting to sleep.

That done, she went up to her room to fetch her things. The entryway to her dungeon was full of people rushing in and out, their arms full of pack, bundles of clothes, bedrolls, blankets and other things, but they made way for her as she strode in. She gathered her pack, bedroll, pillow, and the sack of emergency beads, and was about to step out when she remembered to grab her almanac. Lori carefully folded a shirt around the book before putting it into her pack and grabbing her staff.

She found Rian waiting for her at the dock, a basket full of straw waiting next to him. Riz and Mikon were with him, the latter fussing over the former and looking worried. Riz seemed awkward as she spoke to the weaver, while off to the side four of her friends were already seated on Lori's Boat and smirking.

"Bring the good wisplights with you," Rian said as he gestured at the straw-filled basket, seemingly ignoring how Mikon was trying to stuff a towel into the back of Riz's shirt. "You'll need these more than we will."

Lori hesitated, then nodded. "Fine. Put them on the boat."

"I took the liberty of sending all the boats we have to get the children out of River's fork and back here," Rian continued as she started putting her own effects into the boat. "Told them not to wait for you and just get the children here." He paused. "I also told them to bring Lidzuga and his sister here."

She nodded. "Good. I'd rather not have to worry about him trying to take advantage of any distraction to kill me." Reading while trying to stay aware of what was happening around her defeated the point of reading. "Why are you including his sister, though?"

He sighed for some reason. "Because he's unlikely to come along without her, it's a dealing with people thing." Ah. No wonder he sighed. That sounded quite unreasonable. Rian looked up at the sky above. The stars twinkled above them, and all four moons were out in their various phases. "Any idea how long before the dragon arrives?"

Lori shook her head. "It's still seems to be distant. Not for some time yet, I think."

Rian nodded. "If there's time, I'll have everyone try to uproot what we can of the crops and transferring them to the dungeon farm."

"Use your discretion. You're good at that. I'll provide you with some light. Signal me when I should seal off the dungeon." Lori carefully stepped down into Lori's Boat, seating and carefully balancing her staff and pack on her lap.

"Be careful, all right," Rian said as Riz finally disengaged from Mikon and hopped down to take her position next to the boat's steam jet driver bound tool. "Try to get some sleep before the dragon arrives."

Lori felt another pulse as all the wisps in her demesne and in her body moved as if struck by an invisible wave, weak as it was. It felt no stronger than when she'd started feeling the dragon's approach at dinner. "I think that won't be a problem."