Weekly Digest 11 - (#33 - #35) (Patreon)

The Savant

"Healed? Your Binder healed all of them?" Rian said, sounding appropriately amazed at such a convenient occurrence. "Well, that's convenient. They'll be able to travel on their own, then."

Grem, however, looked like he'd been condemned to death. "Lasponin… you didn't…" he said pleadingly. "You didn't… not her… I hoped I was wrong, but… you actually got her to become the Binder?"

"It was necessary, Grem," Lasponin said. "Besides, Shana wanted to do it."

"She'll die, Las! She'll die like her father did, and all of you with her! She won't be able to do anything when a dragon comes again! Koshay couldn't do it, and he actually knew what he was doing!"

"We were dying! What would you have had me do?"

"What we discussed! Wait until we can find the demesne upstream and bring their Binder here to claim the core!"

"They'd be a stranger! How could we put ourselves under an unknown tyrant when we left to get away from exactly that?"

Well, they'd have to anyway once she killed whoever this woman was and claimed this demesne. From the sound of it, she'd be doing everyone a favor, if their previous Binder had been unable to protect them from the dragon. How had they survived then? Well, however they had, it had clearly claimed the life of their Binder. Really, killing this completely ignorant amateur would be a kindness and a mercy for these people…

"How did you even manage it?" Grem demanded.

"It wasn't easy, but I remember what my brother used to do when he began learning to be a wizard. All those colorful breathing exercises, at all hours of the day… and I was there when he made our dungeon. Helped him and Laven set everything up, and I was there when Laven took his place, saw what she did. It took us a while, and several tries, but we finally finished managed to figure how to do it yesterday afternoon."

"Yesterday af–" Grem choked. Rian winced, looking guilty for some reason. "So all you had to do was wait one glittering day…!"

"It's not like we knew you were coming!" Lasponin said. "You all left us to survive on our own."

"We'd have come back!" Grem said. "I didcome back!"

"Then no harm done," Lasponin said.

"No harm– you put an untrained person as the Binder of a demesne!" Grem said. "You might object to tyrants, but an incompetent is worse!"

"I'm there to help her," the doctor protested.

"You're a doctor, not a wizard!"

"Should I leave and let you two hash this out in private?" Rian asked.

The two turned to him, as if surprised to see him there.

"No need, Lord Rian, we are done," Lasponin said.

"We're not–" Grem began.

"Great!" Rian said, obliviously bright and cheerful and just a bit forced. It was strange, seeing him need to force cheer. Unnatural. "I was wondering if we could meet with some of the people who'd been injured and needed to be left behind? While we wouldn't force anyone, we have to go back home anyway since you all seem to be doing fine, and we wouldn't mind giving someone a ride to be with their family, perhaps make arrangements for the rest if there's more than our boat can bear."

"Technically, it's our boat," Lasponin said. "My brother made it."

"I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with you, but either way, can we leave that conversation for after we've brought people back together with their families?" Rian said. "Because I have a feeling the boat in question is going to be key in doing that."

They all seemed to have forgotten Lori was there. Like she didn't matter. Which was, of course, as intended. After all she was supposed to be just some runner, but it grated. Rian wasn't even looking at her for cues. Not that he should, because that would reveal their subterfuge, but still!

She hated it, having other people decide what she could do.

She glanced outside, wondering how she was supposed to identify who the Binder was as Rian and the doctor talked about… stuff, she didn't really care. Usually you could tell a wizard by the accessories they carried: staffs, charms, the fact most Deadspeakers smelled nice because they never let their skin rot, the odd grace and quickness by which Mentalists moved, that sort of thing. But those were all learned mannerisms from going to schools and becoming familiar with their power. A savant, an uneducated one, wouldn't have any of those signs. They'd look just like anyone else. All that Lori had to go on was that they were female and were the daughter of the previous Binder.

Lori blinked and frowned, glancing at the doctor. The doctor had made mention of a brother, learning… his niece then. It wasn't much, but it helped narrow things down. The man had pale white hair and eyebrows, and hair color ran in families. There was a one in three chance the woman in question would have pale hair as well, if she hadn't inherited her mother's hair. And if her father had also had pale hair… alright, it wasn't much of a way to narrow things, but it was something! Find a young, pale-haired woman, she'll likely have a high probability of being the Binder of this demesne.

Then, after figuring if it's the right person, kill her, then claim the core. She could do that. A healing savant, untrained? All would take was a stream of water. She was good at that.

Lori could do it. She knew she could. All she had to do was find them. Then she'd be able to claim this demesne.

"I'm sorry we'll have to impose on you for lunch," Rian was saying. "You really don't have to, we brought out own supplies."

"Nonsense, it's the least we can do," the doctor said. "And we can make the announcement about you willing to bring people back with you then. You can even spend the night, if you wish. No visitors' tax."

"That's very generous of you," Rian said, "But we might not all be able to accept. Our Binder is… mildly paranoid? They might opt to sleep alone on the boat in the middle of the river."

Lasponin rolled his eyes at Lori's perfectly reasonable measures of personal safety. "And this is the man you want leading you? Having power over you?" he asked.

"Paranoia is a good thing," Grem said staunchly. "Keeps Binder alive instead of dead and buried and people having to put incompetents in charge."

"My niece is not incompetent, she's merely untrained," Lasponin snapped.

"Yes, exactly. Not competent," Grem snapped back.

"I will be training her!"

"Oh, have you secretly been a wizard all this time? Doctors aren't Deadspeakers."

"I helped Koshay study to become one, I know as much as any man who is not a wizard!"

"Hah!" Grem declared. "You always wanted to be a wizard like Koshay! You can't do it yourself, so you'll live through Shana!"

"What sort of man do you take me for?"

"A fool who's willing to have his niece and everyone around him die just so he can feel important for a few months more!"

"Stop it! Don't fight, please don't fight!"

Lori's head snapped up, looking towards the curtained door, which had been pushed aside. A girl about the size and age of the brat stood there, with long, slightly dirty, pale white hair.

Pale white hair…

Grem moved surprisingly fast for a man of his bulk. He leapt at the girl, but the doctor was there first, and there was a scalpel in his hands, slashing at Grem's face. The bigger man snapped his head back, then raised an arm to protect his eyes and tackled the doctor. The knife went into the meat of Grem's bicep, and the rest of him slammed bodily into the smaller man, slamming the doctor into the wall next to the girl, knocking the wind out of him. "That's her! Kill her, now!"

The girl screamed, diving back behind the curtain, out of sight. Lori heard footsteps on the stairs leading up towards them, turned and barely recognized the four people who'd been following them. She leapt up, kicking the bench she'd been sitting on towards the open doorway, where it tumbled down the stairs and slammed into shins as Rian leapt up from his bench and–

–punched Grem from behind so hard his head slammed into the wall and bounced back. The next punch took the bigger man in the temple, knocking him to the side and away from the doctor as Lori stared at her subordinate in surprise. Indeed, the doctor was glancing back and forth with equal surprise, looking between Grem, Rian and Lori as Rian bore the larger man down, punching him in the head as opportunity arose and causing his head to bounce on the floor.

"You fuck! You coward! You knew, you coward! You knew she was a child!" Rian was yelling between blows.

The people coming up the stairs finally untangled themselves from Lori's bench, only to stop as Lasponin raised a hand toward them. Not the one with the scalpel, Lori saw, which was bloody.

As Grem's head bounced off the floor against, Rian managed to get his arms around the dazed man's neck, putting it in a triangular as he pressed down with both arms.

Pale white hair…

Realization came over Lori. Her head snapped towards the curtain door, in front of which the doctor was still standing. The doctor, noticing her glance, held up his bloody scalpel warningly. Lori ignored him, still staring at that curtain.

Eventually, Grem stopped moving, his face bloody from all the times it had bounced off a surface after being punched. Still, Rian didn't let him go, grimly holding on as he slowly began counting…

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"I apologize for that," Rian said as two former militia stood to either side of him, both casually holding short lengths of firewood that did very well for clubs. "I swear I didn't know he was going to do that." Grem had been dragged away, still unconscious, apparently to be taken somewhere he could be held.

"I'd like to believe you," Lasponin said, two other former militia standing behind him. A third was in front of the curtained door, armed with a naked sword blade. Rian had been divested of his sword, which was now leaning on the wall behind the doctor. Despite the fact they were all wearing simple trousers and shirts like them, with no identifying marks of any kind, they were definitely former militia, since they stood with watchful patience and held their clubs as if they knew how to use them.

"I did punch him repeatedly," Rian said. "In fact, I punched him more than you did."

"Yes, he might be concussed," the doctor agreed. "Despite my oaths as a healer, I can't really bring myself to care right now."

"What a coincidence," Rian said. "Despite my responsibilities as his lord, I can't bring myself to care either. See, we're a lot more alike than we are different. I'm sure this will lead to a beautiful friendship in future."

Lori sat at the back next to the door, only one former militia standing guard over her. She tried to ignore the woman, but it was hard. She had a really annoying intent stare, and kept rubbing her shins for some reason. Still, Lori kept taking even breaths, drawing it in and letting it out in a calm fashion.

"Recent events have cast doubt on your kind desire to reunite families, lord Rian," Lasponin said.

"People can have more than one reason to do something," Rian said. "In fact, it's preferred. And I'll admit, the fact we were told there was an unclaimed demesne in the middle of nowhere was a consideration for our Binder, or else they'd never have left. And Grem knew that too." Rian titled his head. "If we'd gotten here sooner, would you have let us claim the dungeon instead of pushing it on a child?"

"So you admit you were here for the dungeon," Lasponin said.

"Our Binder was here for that," Rian said pointedly. "I literally just said so. I wanted to see if I could help."

"Do you consider trying to kill our Binder help?"

"Again, I was hitting him more than you were," Rian pointed out.

The doctor grunted, unable to really deny that inconvenient fact. "You could still be in league, trying to get us to drop our guard."

"Drop it more than having you up against the wall while one of us could have run past you?" Rian said, nodding towards the curtain door.

"Are you threatening my niece?" the doctor said.

"Okay, I'll bring up 'punched him more than you' one last time," Rian said. "We're a civilized people. We don't hurt children."

"Grem did," Lasponin said.

"He tried. And wasn't he from here originally?" Rian said blandly. "Look, the fact is, our Binder could have killed yours at any time and didn't. Grem aside, we came here with peaceful intentions. We wanted to help. If the Dungeon had been unclaimed, we'd have claimed it, gotten the rainbow death out of everyone's systems, and worked out a way to co-exist as a people under the same Binder. When we saw it was claimed, well, our Binder was disappointed, but killing was never part of the plan. We came here to help reunite people with their families, if they wanted to."

"You're obviously lying," the doctor said. "No one can be that naïve."

"What does your Binder say?" Lori suddenly said.

Everyone turned to look at her.

"She's there, right behind that curtain, listening to what we say," Lori said. "I can see her feet." Everyone looked in time to see the feet shuffle back. "What does she think? Doesn't she get a say in deciding the fate of the man who just tried to save her?"

"Shana is too young to have to decide this," the doctor said.

"But not too young to be a Dungeon Binder, obviously," Rian said. "Not too young to be responsible for keeping everyone in her demesne safe."

"I'm her uncle!" Lasponin snapped. "I decide things for her."

"Oh?" Lori said. "I thought you didn't claim to speak for your Binder?"

The doctor opened his mouth–

"Uncle," a small, scared, but surprisingly firm voice said.

The curtain was pushed aside, and a young girl stepped out. She wore a simple, faded brown skirt and undyed blouse, and her boots were worn and had obviously seen long use. Pale green eyes regarded them, but she took a deep breath. "I'll take it from here."

Lasponin frowned. "Shana–"

The hand of one of the former militia– though now that Lori thought of it, they might be shedding the 'former' part of that title soon– placed a hand on the doctor's shoulder. The doctor looked in surprise at surprisingly firm eyes.

Reluctantly, he stood aside, leaving the bench in front of Rian empty. The girl took a deep breath and sat on it as the militiaman with the sword moved to stand beside and slightly behind Rian, and the two that had been willing to flank the doctor from behind suddenly stood between the lord and the young Binder.

The girl coughed nervously. "You are… Lord Rian of Lorian Demesne?"

"That's right, your Bindership," Rian said, somehow managing not looking awkward at having to show respect to a little girl.

"On behalf of River's Fork demesne, I greet you, Lord Rian," the girl said. It sounded like something she was repeating, like a line from a play. "I am Dungeon Binder Shanalorre."

Lori coughed.

Rian turned his head ever so slightly in her direction, but kept his gaze on the young girl. "My apologies, your Bindership… or do you prefer 'Great Binder'?"

"Um, either is fine," the girl said.

"Then I must apologize, Great Binder," Rian said. "But it's not me you should be talking to."

Glancing warily back at the militiaman standing behind them, Rian stood, leaving a vacant bench in front of the girl.

Lori stood. The militiawoman moved to bar her way, but Rian was suddenly there, smiling at her, keeping her from Lori as the Whisperer walked past him and sat down on the vacant bench. Lori was aware of the man with the sword behind her but…

Well, Rian was there. She trusted him to act heroic should it be needed.

"Greetings, Binder Shanalorre," Lori said as the doctor and militia stared at her in dawning comprehension. "I am Dungeon Binder Lolilyuri of Lorian Demesne." What had that phrase Rian had used been? "We come in peace."

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She Remembered Someone's Name!

The girl Shanalorre was staring at Lori curiously. "You're a wizard?" she said. "Like Tota and Tyatya?"

"I am," Lori confirmed, ignoring the two militiamen in front of her who were hefting their clubs nervously. She kept her breathing even and circular. "Though I'm not sure how 'like' those two I am. I was a Whisperer before I became a Dungeon Binder."

Shanalorre frowned slightly. "I thought Dungeon Binders were supposed to be more… scary?"

"Do you feel scary?" Lori asked. "Because you're a Dungeon Binder too, unless I misunderstood the conversation leading up to all the violence."

The girl– the Binder– lapsed into silence.

"So," Lasponin said, "you lied about your Binder."

"Binder's orders," Rian shrugged. "Have to do what my Binder tells me. It's part of living in a demesne."

"Living under a tyrant," Lasponin said.

"What a horrible way for you to describe your niece," Rian said. The little Binder flinched.

"Shana is not like that! She's different!" the doctor snapped.

"Stop it!" the young Dungeon Binder interrupted, and the man subsided, especially when all the other militia looked at him pointedly. She turned back to Lori, trying to look brave and mostly looking constipated. "Why did ninong Grem do that? Why did he hurt uncle? Did you tell him to? Tell the truth!"

"I didn't tell him to do that," Lori said. Telling the truth wasn't a problem, in this instance. "He did that on his own. He wasn't trying to hurt your uncle. He was trying to hurt you. Your uncle was just in the way."

The girl– Shanalorre, her name was Shanalorre, don't forget– flinched again. "You're lying. Ninong Grem would never hurt me. He's nice!"

"You said to tell the truth, so I did," Lori said. "Even if you don't want to believe me, that doesn't change the fact I told you the truth."

The look of constipation progressed to a look of painful diarrhea.

"That being said," Lori said, "as his Dungeon Binder, though I do not endorse his actions, I must ask what you intend to do with him."

Shanalorre frowned, not seeming to understand. "Do with him?"

"He tried to kill you," Lori said. "Under your legal code, is this an act of assault or is it attempted murder? Will you have him beaten? Flogged? Exiled? Executed?"

The younger Binder looked more horrified with every word. "B– no! No one is beating ninong Grem! No one is hurting anyone!"

"So you're pardoning him then?" Lori said.

"He's not going to be pardoned," Lasponin interjected.

Lori glanced at him, then looked back at Shanalorre. "Does he speak for you?"

Shanalorre glance at him, then back at her with confusion. "He's my uncle," she said.

"But does he speak for you? Does he make the decisions for you?" Lori pressed. "Is he the one in charge? Or is this your demesne?"

"You're trying to trick her into saying what you want," Lasponin accused.

"And you're interrupting a conversation between two Binders, one of which is your ruler," Lori said. "Don't be rude."

Rian made a small series of coughs.

"I don't understand what you're asking," Shanalorre said.

"It's simple," Lori said. "Are you going to be punishing Grem for what he did? For attacking your uncle and trying to hurt you?"

"Ninong Grem didn't try to hurt me," the girl said. "He just… I don't know what he was doing, but I'm sure he wasn't trying to hurt anyone! Ninong is nice!"

Lori opened her mouth to speak further, but a hand came down on her shoulder. She glanced at it, recognizing the hand as Rian's, and frowned at him.

"Maybe this isn't a good time to talk about this," Rian said, sounding surprisingly gentle. "Binder Shanalorre… have you had lunch yet?"

Lori gave him a look that asked if he'd taken leave of his sanity.

There was no comical grumbling or gurgling noise, but the young girl raised a hand to her stomach.

Rian made a show of looking outside as the militia tensed. "It… looks like it's almost lunch time," Rian said. "Perhaps you should go eat and talk to us when you're feeling better? We can wait until you're at your best to talk. Take all the time you need."

The girl hesitated as Lori kept frowning at Rian.

Surprisingly, one of the militiamen said, in a soft, gentle voice, "He's right Shana. You shouldn't make decisions on an empty stomach. Why don't you go down to see Enna, she'll be finished cooking lunch by now, she'll get you a bowl."

"Um… well…" the young Binder said, glancing at Lori.

Lori opened her mouth to press the issue, but Rian's hand squeezed gently but insistently on her shoulder. She gave her lord an annoyed look, and for some reason he shook his head. He leaned down and hissed, "Trust me, let her eat."

She gave him a look intended to express her annoyance at his behavior but said, "We will be willing to wait on your pleasure, Binder Shanalorre." Well, no reason not to eat. And she could check just how much food her irresponsible lord had just pointlessly given away for nothing.

Two of the militiamen went with the young Binder, and she held their hands as they went down the stairs. They'd both left their improvised clubs behind, not that they would be any use to Lori.

Lasponin glared coldly at them as he returned to the seat his niece had vacated. "I don't know what you're trying to pull," he began, "but–"

"Why are you talking to us?" Lori said, giving him a puzzled look.

That seemed to confuse him. "I have every right to–"

"No, you don't," Lori said. "Your Binder has made it perfectly clear you are merely her uncle, and not someone she has authorized to speak on her behalf or represent the demesne in any way."

"I'm her uncle!" he said. "My niece is my responsibility!"

Lori turned to one of the militia left. "Is that supposed to mean he has some sort of authority to unilaterally deal with the Binder of another demesne in place of his demesne's Binder? I'm from Taniar Demesne originally, and so I don't know what traditions and governmental structure your demesne's governance is based on."

The doctor glared at her, obviously angry at being ignored, but before he could say anything more the militiaman Lori had directed her question at laid a hand on his shoulder, giving him a warning look. The pale-haired man turned towards the militiaman in shock.

"While we, of course, understand that Grem cannot go unpunished for his actions," Rian said brightly, "as his lord, I am obligated to ensure he receives the due process of a hearing or trial, and a chance to explain his actions before the one who would judge him. As it would be improper for us to interrupt your Binder's meal, could you please relay this message to her? I wouldn't want her to feel threatened or come to any misunderstandings due to our proximity."

"I will consider it," the militiaman said stiffly.

"That's all I ask," Rian said. "We'll both stay here so you don't have to worry about us roaming around and causing trouble for anyone."

"This is my office," Lasponin said.

"Oh," Rian said. "Will that be a problem? Is a patient due to arrive soon and you need the space?"

"We appreciate your willingness to cooperate," the militiaman said. "We will have food sent up. Please do not attempt to leave until our Binder has decided on what to do."

"Thank you! That's very nice of you," Rian said. Lori couldn't see his face, but he was probably doing his friendly, sincere smile. If anything, the militiamen just looked at him even more suspiciously.

It was slightly gratifying that she wasn't the only one who found his easy smiles so suspicious, but this was a very inconvenient time for it.

The militiaman left to pass the message on, at least.

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"Why?" she asked him intently. Her glare should have been making his already tanned skin even browner.

Rian pointed to the militiamen– including the one with the sword– still in the room with them. "Should be really be having any sort of conversation right now?"

Lori glanced at them, standing across the room but obviously watching the two of them, and dismissed them. "Why?" she insisted.

"Wow, we're really having this conversation here and now," Rian said. "Why what, then? You'll have to be more specific."

"Why did you initiate a premature end to our conversation with Binder Shanalorre?" Lori said.

Rian blinked. "Did you actually remember her name?" he said, sounding amazed.

"Of course I remember her name," Lori said, rolling her eyes. "It's one name, how hard is it to remember one name?"

"You actually remembered someone's name!" Rian gasped. He clasped his hands together and looked upwards for some reason. "It's a miracle! Or possibly even maturity! Our little Lori's growing up…"

"I'm almost certain I'm older than you," Lori said, giving him an annoyed glare. She had even odds of it, certainly. Either she was older or she was younger. Good odds.

"Does that mean that when we get home, you'll start remembering everyone else's name t–" Rian began.

"That's not one name, that's a hundred names," Lori said. "Besides, it's not like it matters if I remember any of them."

Rian sighed. "Ah, so close… still, it's progress! If I can get you to remember a new name a day–"

"That's your job, I'm delegating it to you," Lori said flatly.

"Too late!" Rian said, sounding bizarrely happy. "You've learned how to remember names, I'm not going to let you get out of this one!"

Lori decided to just ignore this nonsense and get on with her question. "You still haven't answered me. Why did you end my conversation with Binder Shanalorre?" she said.

Rian sighed. "Lori… her father just died, remember?"

Lori blinked. "How do you know that?"

"Her uncle is the doctor. The doctor's brother was this Demesne's previous Binder. Now, she's the Binder," Rian said, saying each sentence simply and slowly, as if explaining to a child. "Unless there's a way to stop being a Binder I don't know about, which I admit there very well might be… "

"Ah," Lori said, suddenly feeling foolish for forgetting the obvious, especially since she'd thought of looking for people who might have been related to the doctor.

"It took me a while to realize, but it seemed unkind to push the girl, given that," Rian said quietly. "The fact her uncle seemed to be in charge of her implies something happened to her mother too, recently or otherwise."

Lori grunted. She turned to the militia who'd been listening. It was hard not to, given they were right there. "Is that in fact the case?"

They all stayed resolutely silent.

"If you stay quiet, this one might end up assuming the little girl is fine after all and start pushing too much, saying thoughtlessly painful things that she otherwise wouldn't if she happened to know for a fact the girl's just lost her father and–" Rian said brightly.

"Yes, she's the late Binder Koshay's daughter," one of the militia, the woman who'd been glaring at Lori, said. "There, you know."

"Thank you very much!" Rian said brightly, then turned to Lori. "She's hurting. Let's be not-terrible people and keep from pushing her hard?"

"Why are you phrasing it like that?" Lori said, annoyed.

"I know you're not a terrible person, but you do sometimes need reminding," Rian said. He was actually giving her an encouraging look.

Lori rolled her eyes. "Idiot. As if I need to be told."

"I've learned to not simply assume with you," Rian said.

She glared at him. He just kept on smiling.

They both sat down to wait, the militia watching them with unrelenting eyes…

"Want me to tell you a story?" Rian said brightly.

"Don't you dare!"

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Winter Plans

Eventually, as promised, food was sent up to them for lunch, since aside from Grem's actions, they were apparently still considered guests.

River's Fork demesne had bread.

That alone made all this worth the trip.

"I might have to leave your demesne," Rian said, staring down in salivating wonder at the baked good in front of him. "No offense, but Lorian isn't being completely fulfilling for me…"

"Those are terribly ungrateful words," Lori said absently as she licked her lips, taking in the smell of bready goodness. It was flat bread, dough heated on a hot, flat surface with nothing to make it rise but the air that had been mixed in from kneading, and it smelled wonderfully fluffy despite it.

"I have a right to my opinions," Rian said, reaching over and waving his hands over the still-warm bread.

"No, you don't, that's not on the list," Lori said, already finding she would miss the smell and sight of this bread once it went through her mouth and into her stomach.

"Well, I have the right to travel, and I'm thinking of traveling here," Rian said.

"Remember that list is contingent on you being my lord," Lori said. "You negotiated it that way."

"Curses. My path to bready paradise is thwarted," Rian said.

"You people are weird," one of the militiamen having their own lunch said.

Lori, and Rian, both ignored the obviously incorrect people as they stared at the meal before them. In addition to bread there were boiled vegetables and tuber not unlike what they had in Lori's Demesne, bread, grilled seel and beast meat, bread, some sort of fruit, and bread. It was laid out on wooden bowls not unlike what they used themselves back home, save the absence of bread. Because there was bread.

"If you just keep staring at that, the bread's going to get cold," one of the other militiamen said.

That finally got them to start eating.

As Lori ate, she watched Rian. He'd washed his hands with a little of water they'd been provided and had put meat into the middle of his bread and rolled it up, forming a tube. He was eating it lengthwise like some kind of sausage. She supposed that was more efficient than tearing off bits of bread and pilling stuff on it, but it looked vaguely childish. The militiamen seemed to think so, glancing and snickering among themselves.

Still, it took little time for their plates to be cleared of food. Rian even offered to wash the dishes, an offer that was declined as one of the militiamen took everyone's plates away.

"So," Rian said as they settled back to keep waiting. "How do you think everyone's doing at home?"

"They've probably taken this opportunity to play music into the night," Lori said, maintaining her breathing. A light breeze began to waft around her, cooling her face. "Though I'm more concerned that the sudden inrush of new people will be straining our food reserves, not to mention how it affects our supplies for winter." She gave him a flat look for that. "Particularly in light of wasteful use of said reserves."

"We'll be fine," Rian dismissed. "Winter isn't for another seven blue months. That's plenty of time to stock up on food, and figure out keeps."

Lori blinked at that, and the militiamen perked up as well. "How do you know that?" she asked.

"I asked around Covehold while I was there," Rian said. "Didn't any of you? It's been a while, but we should have at least seven blue months left. Six at worse, they said something about the winds possibly making it come early."

Lori twitched. "Why don't you bring up important things like this sooner?"

"I thought you'd know," Rian protested. "How hard is it to ask how long we have until winter?"

Lori gave him a look.

"Yes, I remember, you don't like talking to people and they probably didn't sell calendars marking the seasons, but still!"

"Seven months, you say?" one of the militiamen said.

"Close enough?" Rian shrugged. "I don't exactly have a calendar either, I've just been making a mark on the wall for every day I've been here. Had to start all over again when the dragon knocked the wall down, so I might be off by a day or two, since I'm still not sure how long the dragon took too pass, I was too sleep-deprived and asleep…"

"Yes, weren't you supposed to be keeping me awake so we wouldn't die horribly?" Lori said blandly.

"We're alive, aren't we?" he said. "Besides, I responsibly waited for all the weird sounds to stop in the middle of your ranting before passing out." He frowned suddenly, leaning forward to peer at her. For some reason he stuck a finger in his mouth and held it up in the air, while she leaned back, disgusted. Eventually he set it down, wiping the finger on his trousers. "Huh… anyway, we have time. We might need a bigger, dedicated cold storage room for it though, some place where food goes in but doesn't come out until winter. It's a good thing we have you, Binder Lori. Otherwise we'd have to build it by hand, and we wouldn't be able to make the ice that would let foods like meat keep for that long."

He said that last in a bright, happy voice that seemed a touch insincere to her ears. Was he mocking her?

"Which reminds me… with all the people who've move in from River's Fork, we might need a new bathhouse," Rian said thoughtfully. "Do you think we can have a different design, maybe pools people can soak in hot water in, or a nice steam room? I've had some design ideas I've been wanting to run by you, and I was wondering how hard they would be to implement…"

"What design ideas?" Lori asked warily.

"Well, pools for people to soak in, for one thing," Rian said. "I figure with a few changes of features, we can make the baths a proper social center. You don’t notice since, you know, you use your private bathroom, but a lot of people like to linger in the baths and chat after a long day of tramping through the woods looking for wild vegetables, trying to grow the wild vegetables we've transplanted, putting up roofs, tanning seel and beast hides, cutting wood, cooking for everyone and not urinating in public, people just want to relax and chat, and with a few minor changes to the design of the baths, they'd be able to do that."

"Baths are for bathing," Lori pointed out.

"Look, just trust me on this, all right?" Rian sighed. "A nice, steamy bath will do wonders for morale, especially when winter comes and we have rain at best or thick snow at worse. When that happens, even you won't want to stay in that cave you call your bedroom and will want to go out into the nice, hot baths and soak in the nice, hot clean water. Ooh, and speaking of winter preparations, do you think we can set up a farm in your dungeon?"

"A… farm?" Lori said.

"Yeah, you know, somewhere we can plant small wild vegetables and tubers indoors so we can augment our diet with fresh vegetables in the winter," Rian said. "A little heat to simulate the climate, a little magic light to make the plants think they're in sunlight, and we'd be able to use the dungeon to grow crops all year round, like the big demesnes! Then we won't have to be dependent on scavenging plants for food!"

Lori opened her mouth to protest… and paused. She tapped her lips thoughtfully,

"It'll be a lot of work, but we'd have six months," Rian said. "Plenty of time to prepare so we don't die horribly over the winter."

"I suppose…" Lori said, digesting the thoughts slowly in her head. "It should be doable, with a proper schedule." She sighed. "Fine, get me some drawings of the designs you're thinking of for the baths. Though it'll be your job to keep people from fornicating in there."

"What, you want me going into the baths for women?" Rian said.

"Deputize someone if you have to," Lori said.

"Not gonna do it yourself?" Rian smirked.

"I'm the Binder, I would literally have other things to do," Lori said.

Rian sighed. "Maybe I can ask Riz to do it, she'd probably have peacekeeping experience," he muttered. "Ugh, we're going to have so many issues to deal with when we get back, aren't we? I have to check the progress on making thread, need to see how the furs we've been gathering have been doing… I think you were waiting for something so you could finally make wire?"

"A draw plate," Lori said. "You talked to the smiths about lending me one of theirs, remember?"

"Oh, right," Rian said. "I suppose that'll give you something to play with in the winter, since we'll all be stuck indoors anyway. Maybe I can get the carpenters to carve board games so the rest of us will have something else to do… "

Lori sighed. She glanced out the window. The sun looked like it had barely moved. "How much longer do we have to wait?"

"Traumatized little girl," Rian said, not looking outside. "Dead father. Don't rush her."

Lori sighed.

"Take a nap," he said. "I'll wake you up if anything happens. Somehow, I don't think anyone's in a rush to get things moving right now."

He glanced towards the militiamen, who all looked back stoically.

"Yeah, take a nap," Rian said. "Who knows how long this'll take? Best you get rested for when someone finally talks to us instead of being exhausted waiting."

Lori glared at him. "I'm fine." She didn't plan to be asleep unless it was behind stone walls or in the middle of the river. Still, she did sit back and lean against the wall, facing the militia, who faced her back. "We'll continue waiting," she said, getting comfortable in her seat.

Still, there was no harm in resting her eyes… just a little. She didn't need her eyes to listen for people coming at her, after all…

Lori sat back, closing her eyes to rest them, concentrating on her hears to hear the slightest noise…

Someone nudged her and her eyes shot open alertly, blinking at the hand resting on her shoulder. She glanced up at Rian. "Whugh…?"

"So, it turns out the local Binder has an aunt as well as an uncle," Rian said. "And she's been spending most of the afternoon getting her niece settled down from being upset. But now she's free, and while she's not exactly claiming anything on the Binder's behalf, she wants to talk to us about what happened to her niece and husband. Purely as family, I'm told. She's not blaming us– yet– she just wants to hear the sides."

Lori blinked several more times, purely because her eyes had become so well-rested they needed to get the blood pumping into them again. The cloud of airwisps she'd been surrounding herself with all day was still there, imbued and ready to act at her will, whatever it may be, though the imbuement was less than it had been when she'd sat down to n– rest her eyes. The light outside was more orange than yellow, and they definitely wouldn't be making it back to her demesne even if they started back right then. "Ugh… I see. All right then, let's go talk to her…"

"How kind of you to make time for me, Great Binder Lolilyuri," a female voice said, and only then did Lori noticed there was someone else with the militiamen too. "I hope you enjoyed your nap?"

"She's here, by the way," Rian said brightly.

"Yes Rian, I can see that," Lori said. She stood, and if the movement was slow, it was definitely not because she'd been awakened form a nap– she'd merely been resting her eyes– but because her posterior had fallen asleep and numb. She casually straightened her shirt as she stood, back straight and unimpressed. "You are Dungeon Binder Shanalorre's aunt, then?"

"I am," she said in a tone the made Lori twinge inside, just a little. It reminded her far too much of when her mothers were scolding her. Her face seemed naturally set in a severe expression, dark green hair pulled back in a bun. "And I am here to find out why my husband is covered in bruises and why my only niece came back home upset." She didn't raise her voice, didn't scowl extravagantly, didn't say anything that wasn't perfectly reasonable. She just sounded determined. Lori had to forcibly resist the urge to start looking down at her feet. She frantically tried to remember this woman's name, came up blank, panicked for a moment, then internally sighed as she remembered she hadn't been told yet.

The doctor, Las… Laspodin? No, Lasponin, that was it… he had given Lori the impression for trying to be the power behind the core. Trying incompetently, but trying. This woman gave the definite impression of being the power behind the trying to be power behind the core. Lori firmed her resolved and reminded herself she was a Dungeon Binder, and a learned wizard, who'd gone to school and been recognized as a wizard by her peers. She knew exactly how to deal with this woman's mother-reminiscent intimidation!

"Lord Rian here was speaking to your husband and can give you a full account of what transpired," Lori said, reaching behind her and pushing a surprised lord in front. "Rian, tell Binder Shanalorre's aunt everything she needs to know, as you were the closer witness between us." This was definitely a 'talking to people' situation, and that was Rian's job. He should deal with it.

Mercifully, the woman turned her gaze toward Rian, who shuffled nervously. "Very well, then. Lord Rian, was it? Tell me, then, why my husband and my niece were attacked this morning…"