Weekly Digest 15 - (#45 - #47) (Patreon)

Grem's Sentence

Rian had had two of the jars of travel ration stew opened and heated, so when they got back, there was warm stew to dip the bread in, and along with more meat-and-vegetable filled pastries that had been sent to them courtesy of Binder Shanalorre – a different taste from what Binder Shanalorre's aunt had made– they had a small feast. The stew was actually delicious again when eaten with the bread, and Lori sat back and enjoyed the sounds for the three men and one idiot eating. It reminded her of dinners in the dining hall back home, something normal to build her days around. Someone came by to pick up the bowls the food had come in, and they made ready to sleep

They had the same sleeping arrangement, Lori sleeping in the small room with Rian ostensibly guarding the door to her. The time the men didn't linger in conversation, as if afraid they'd be woken up again and wanted to get as much sleep as they could. Soon only Lori was left awake, listening to the sounds they made as they slept as she pondered Rian's question.

Why aren't you angrier at Grem for trying to use you?

She probably should be. Objectively, Grem's actions were horrendously offensive, and in defiance of her authority. He had initiated hostilities on his own initiative, without previous orders. He had used omission of information and incomplete information to prompt her to courses of action that he wanted. He'd manipulated her to his own ends.

He wouldn’t have been able to if she'd done the smart things, the reasonable things, the intelligent things. If she hadn't let her greed do her thinking. If she hadn't been so stupid as to not realize… no, to be willfully in denial of the fact he was taking advantage of her greed.

But he hadtaken advantage of her. Grem had taken advantage of her ignorance

For the first time, anger began to seep into her at the thought.

She tried it again. Grem had taken advantage of her.

More anger.

He'd taken advantage of her, lured her out of her demesne, put her in a vulnerable position, baited her along, all to set them up to kill a child he thought should die… it didn't matter whether she should or not, the fact was he'd made the decision and tried to inflict it on Lori. He'd tried to tell her what to do, to dictate her actions, as if he had any right to command a Binder…!

In the dark, a vindictive smile came over Lori's features…

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As they were finishing breakfast– just stew now– there was a knock on the door. Everyone looked up, wary. Rian pointed at Deil, then to one side of the door, pointed at Tackir, and behind the door, then grabbed one of the water skins that was still partially-full and tossed it to Lori. She understood, beginning to breathe in magic and pass it through the waterwisps in her body as the two men moved to where he had pointed, where they would be out of sight of anyone entering. She stuck her finger into the skin, and turned it to touch the water.

Only then did Rian open the door with a smile. "Binder Shana? This is an unexpected surprise. Um, people know you're here and aren't going to think we kidnapped you, right?"

"Yes Lord Rian, my people are aware," Binder Shanalorre said. "I am here to invite Binder Lolilyuri and yourself to arrange a transfer of personnel."

Rian glanced back at Lori, who nodded. "Um… sure. Just give us a moment, we need to put away the bowls." Rian said, finally stepping away from the door and moving with alacrity towards the food bowls, where he began hurriedly eating the food that was left.

Binder Shanalorre stood outlined there, and she nodded to Lori in greeting. "Binder Loliyuri," she said.

"Binder Shanalorre," Lori replied, hanging the water skin into her belt. "You mentioned a transfer of personnel?"

Shanalorre nodded. "Yes. In regards to those who will be traveling with you today and over the next month. I would like to speak to you about final arrangements. If you and Lord Rian will come with me?"

Lori stood, taking her staff as Rian finished eating, mouh still full but chewing quickly. He handed his bowl to Landoor with a muffled "You wash everything," and followed after her, sword at his waist.

The light of the sun cast the inside of the dome of woven branches in a cool, indirect light, and outside the tops of the hills were beginning to be bathed in luminance. Other huts had smoke rising from them as people made breakfast and got started with thier day. The four militiamen who'd been standing on either side of the door the way Deil and Tackir had been on the inside stepped back, still surrounding their Binder as the two of them came out of the hut and door closing behind. Shanalorre led the way, and they all followed after them.

"So…" Rian said. "Just to be clear, this is about Grem, right? Or are you taking people moving away very seriously and making paperwork for Lori and us to look over?"

"Yes, this is about Grem," Shanalorre said. "I will be informing him about his sentence and officially passing his parole to you."

Rian glanced at Lori, looking at her in concern. She made a gesture, telling him to mind his own business.

That made him smile for some reason. Her first, and currently only, lord was a very strange person a lot of the time. Useful, but strange.

"Regarding that matter, Binder Shanalorre, is it still your intention for Grem to live in exile?"

Shanalorre looked over her shoulder at her, nodded. "Yes, it is. I have not changed my mind. His punishment is still exile."

Lori nodded. "Understood. However, I must inform you that I have changed my mind. I have decided to void his citizenship in my demesne and have declared him exiled for treasonous actions, and deliberately manipulating me by use of misinformation and committing violence against another demesne while my representative. After you exile him, we will no longer be taking him with us."

Shanalorre stopped, then turned abruptly. "That was not our agreement," she said.

"No, it is not," Lori said. "However, I find it pointless to waste time transporting a man only to have to exile him at journey's end. However, if you do not wish him to be near your demesne, I am agreeable to transporting him to a point between our respective demesnes and exiling him there."

Binder Shanalorre stared at her. "He would die," she said.

Lori nodded. "As he is no longer under my authority, as a demesneless individual, such is neither of our concern."

"I had hoped…" Binder Shanalorre said slowly, "that he would have an opportunity to live somewhere else."

"That is, of course, your prerogative," Lori said. "However, that place cannot be my demesne. I shall not tolerate one who would subvert and defy my authority so blatantly. We will accept anyone else, but not him. With so many new people, we cannot spare the resources to either hold him prisoner, or the discontent or disorder that would be caused if we kept him as a penal laborer. He must contribute to reside in my demesne, and given his actions, any contributions he makes are suspect. So I will exile him. As this was not our initial agreement, I bring it up in case you have any objections."

"I… I…" Binder Shanalorre shook for a moment, bowing her head. She took a deep breath, then another, and another, falling into a rhythmic breathing exercise for gathering magic, a method wizards commonly used for calming themselves.

Lori guessed her uncle must have taught it to her, so she would have the magic needed to claim the core. It was simple enough you didn't actually need to know magic to teach it. after all, it was just breathing.

One last breath, and then stillness. When she looked up again, Binder Shanalorre was calm. "I understand your reasoning. Very well. I accept your offer of… of… of transport."

"Understood," Lori said.

"Um…" Rian suddenly said. Lori blinked, turning to look at him for the sudden interruption. Binder Shanalorre did as well. "Permission to advise?"

"Since when have you ever needed permission?" Lori said blandly.

"I probably deserve that, but I meant to Binder Shanalorre," Rian said. "If she wishes."

"What do you advise, Lord Rian?" Shanalorre said.

"Lorian is planning to send an expedition to Covehold, for supplies and materials," Rian said. "Once we have a suitable boat large enough that can carry both people and supplies, which… well, we still have to build it, but it shouldn't take too long. If you want him to go to exile somewhere he can actually live, if you're willing to wait, we can bring him to Covehold and leave him there. I mean, we'll be passing through here anyway…" He shrugged. "But that's just a thought."

Lori blinked at him, wondering what in the nine colors he was talking about before she remembered that he was in charge of that endeavor. She considered it. "I suppose that is an option. Though personally I would suggest we just exile him to the colors. More efficient, and you don't have to waste food on him."

"That is my decision," Binder Shanalorre said.

"I acknowledge that," Lori said. "If you wish to undertake this course, I'm sure we can discuss passage once our expedition is ready."

"Speaking of passage," Binder Shanalorre said, "thank you for returning the boat my father made that was lent to Grem and those who left my demesne."

Lori blinked, and her eyes started to narrow. "Are you referring to Lori's Boat?"

That made Binder Shanalorre blink. "Wait, did you name the boat after yourself?" she said in tones of disbelief.

"It's a boat and it's mine," Lori said. "Hence, it's Lori's Boat."

"What are you, a child?" the child said.

"I'm an adult, obviously," Lori said. "You can tell by my height."

Rian, why are you putting your hand on your face?

"Um, may I speak to my Binder a moment, Binder Shanalorre?" Rian said. Lori gave him a look. Wasn't he supposed to be asking her that?

Still, she allowed herself to be pulled aside, giving Rian a look that said she expected this to be good.

"Look," he said, "I can already see where this is going. She's going to threaten to take back the boat–"

"Lori's Boat," she corrected.

"Really? Now?" Rian sighed for some reason. "She'll threaten to take back Lori's Boat, the two of you will bluster, at some point you're going to realize she's got a militia in arm's length and you don't, so you'll have to swallow your pride and what she wants, she'll say she wants a guarantee that we'll bring Grem to be exiled. Can we skip all that so we can head back for home well before noon?"

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As Rian had predicted, the price of finally ceding any remaining claims of ownership of Lori's Boat was a promise to assist in exiling Grem to Covehold at the earliest opportunity. Given that wouldn't be for some time, Lori was willing to agree, especially since the expedition was in Rian's charge, and therefore transporting Grem would be his problem. In the meantime, Grem would be help prisoner by River's Fork, and would be made to work for is food.

They finally left River's Fork at mid-morning, accompanied by a child who Lori vaguely recognized from that morning picking fruit, and his mother, who was clutching both her son and the boat with a white-knuckled grip. Their few belongings were loaded onto the barge, near the front to try and keep the prow from rising when they sped up.

"It's perfectly safe, I assure you," Rian assured her as he handled the rudder. "Just don’t stand so you don't fall off. And please stay down so I can see where I'm going."

The woman looked like she was seriously reconsidering her decision to reunite with her husband and the rest of their family as she pulled her son tighter against her side as he kept cheering for them to go faster, and held on.

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Home Is Lori's Demesne

The trip back to Lori's Demesne, Lorian, was slowed by the fact they were traveling upriver, against the current. Lori had to carefully increase the output of the waterjet, and then imbue it since the greater speed and increased load on the boat was using up magic faster. Thankfully, with the early start compared to their previous journey, they were able to reach the borders of her demesne by late afternoon.

There was nothing dramatic when Lolilyuri crossed the border back into her demesne. There was no sudden rush of strength, no more increased feeling of power than usual. She merely felt… complete. Like woman who'd been limited to one finger suddenly being able to use her whole arm. She breathed in deeply, feeling their airwisps all around her, the waterwisps beneath her, the earthwisps beyond that.

She felt the earthwisps in the bone of the water jet, and imbued them, binding them to her will. There were small fractures in the material, places where it was starting to crack. She bound the bone, reinforcing its structure. Then she imbued the waterwisps she'd bound to the jet.

Lori's Boat roared forward, the water jet pushed beyond the limits it had previously had.

"While I'm as glad to get home as you are," Rian said, voice slightly raised as he gripped the rudder in both hand, "I'm not so happy I could die! Can you slow down a little? I don't think I can make turns going this fast! "

Lori frowned, but reluctantly reduced the speed of Lori's Boat. "Better?" she asked.

"Barely," Rian said. "If you want to go this fast, you have you keep an eye ahead so you know if you have to slow us down." Still, he relaxed his grip on the rudder. "Well, we're home, at least. Ugh, I'm really looking forward to a hot bath and a change of clothes."

Ah, hot baths. Lori was looking forward to that as well.

The trip seemed so much faster with no one yelling in fear about how they were going too fast. It seemed almost no time at all before they rounded a bend and ahead was the familiar cliff-face and buildings of home. Smoke rose from the chimneys of the dining hall's kitchens, and from bonfires that burned in front of bath houses. The air was rich in the smells of cooking meat and stew.

Rian frowned. "Wait, why is everyone cooking outside?"

"I have absolutely no idea," Lori said, keeping her smirk on the inside.

As Lori's Boat drew closer, people spotted them, and soon people were coming from… wherever they'd been previously to wave and cheer their coming. The crowd drew close as the boat moved to beach itself as Lori deactivated the water jet.

"Get back!" Rian cried. "Get back or you'll break your legs!"

Fortunately, they seemed to hear, because they stopped crowding in at the last moment, and they coasted on momentum as the boat slid up onto the riverbank. The bottom of the boat scrapped on the ground beneath, and they ground to a halt.

Lori gave the mob crowding around her boat and bland look and turned to Rian pointedly.

He rolled his eyes. "All right all of you, get back, get back, we need room to step down!" he called. "If you want to help, help us gets Missus Elina's things down and someone call her husband!" He stepped to the side of the boat with the assurance of someone that knew people would step out of his way, and they did. Then he turned and helped the shaky mother– presumably Elina– and her son find their feet and step over the side of the boat to the ground.

Rian then started pointing at the nearest people in the crowd and directing them to unload Lori's Boat as Lori stepped off the boat herself. The side she was on still had a little water on it, but it took only a moment to bind the earthwisps directly underneath her to raise up the dirt, mud and stone, and compress themselves into step for her to walk on. When people moved to crowd around her, she gave them a level look and crossed her arms over her chest, making her impatience clear.

"If I find any signs of shit or piss in my dungeon, all of you will be held responsible," she said levelly. Then she walked forward.

People parted before her as, with a spring in her step, she walked the last few steps home.

The gaping maw of the dungeon was cold and very, very dark as she walked towards it. Humming to herself, she reached into the sky and began gathering lightwisps in the fading afternoon, binding them to her will and making them glow brightly. The clusters of lightwisps drifted down to her as she entered her dungeon, and she scrunched her nose slightly as she smelled unaired woodsmoke, and a whiff of latrine. Many tables and benches near the entrance were missing, and there were small piles of char and ash, as if the remains of bonfires irresponsibly lit inside an enclosed cave with a low ceiling and not much natural circulation.

When she went to check, the bound lightwisps trailing after her, the latrine still had days-old human waste in it, but from the looks of it no one had used it in the last two days. She sealed the smell as best as she could behind a barrier of airwisps. The baths also held a mild stink of human waste, as if people had been pissing all over the floor. From what she could feel through the wisps of the demesne, the drain was clogged with… well, it wasn't liquid, so she could guess.

Really, she left for a little while and people started treating her dungeon like some kind of tavern…

Well, she supposed she didn't actually find signs of shit or piss outside of the latrine, so she wouldn't need to have everyone in the demesne flogged. Still, this couldn't continue…

She heard footsteps in her dungeon.

"Ah, there you are," Rian said as she walked towards her, one arm raised to shield his eyes from the lightwisps behind her. "So, I was sent here to petition you to bring back the hot water for bathing, the lights, and to make more ice for the food stores, the ice that's left is nearly melted all the way."

"Have they at least been putting food in the food stores, rather than just taking it out?" Lori said.

"Does the seel meat the children catch count?" Rian said.

She gave him a look.

"In their defense, our population sort of doubled," Rian said. "And most people have been busy clearing land for the new crops people brought from River's Fork."

Lori sighed. "We've been gone only a few days and everyone falls into chaos." She smiled. "How much of the cured wood meant for building was cut up for firewood so people could have light?"

"We're done one curing shed's worth," Rian reported, tilting his head. "But you knew that, I suppose."

"Not really," Lori said, "but I guessed." She nodded towards the charred remains of a bonfire.

Rian rolled his eyes. "Well, you've made your point, you do a lot to make this place livable and people should love and worship you. Can we have the hot water back now? Or are you going to keep the hot bath all to yourself?"

"I suppose…" Lori said. She looked around. "Tomorrow, start formulating a schedule. If people are going to be using this place as a dining a communal area, then it will be communally maintained. The latrines will be physically emptied according to a schedule, the floors swept... that sort of thing. I'm sure not everyone is actually cutting trees or looking for wild vegetables or other needful things. Put them to work. They need to deserve the food they eat, after all." And she'd best drain the reservoir and start again fresh instead of trusting people didn't act foolishly while they had been out of her sight for that long.

"Yes, your bindership," he said wryly.

They both took a deep breath and sighed.

"It's good to be home," Lori said, smiling.

"Home," Rian agreed.

Closing her eyes, Lori restored the hot, running water in the baths.

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After the most crowded bath since she'd first built the things– people had apparently not misused it like the facilities in the dungeon, but had instead been manually carrying in water to bathe with from the river, so it was in a usable state– Lori found herself eating outdoors, on the tables and benches that had been dragged outside from the dungeon after the lightwisps she'd left had run out of imbued magic and the bonfires people had made for light had made the place too smoky to stay in. It seemed people had decided to make do until she returned, and there were a lot of temporary benches made from planks and rocks, which people were sitting on as they ate and chatted. The most of the newcomers from River's Fork didn't seem to mind the lack of tables, just holding their bowls in their hands and eating as they stood or sat, chatting with the people near them.

Rian appeared, two bowls of food in his hands. He sat across from her, putting down both bowls, and Lori picked one at random. The two of them began to eat.

They didn't say anything, didn't make plans for tomorrow, didn't talk about any of the work that would inevitably need to be done. They just ate, enjoying the stewed meat, wild vegetables, mushrooms, and other things that the late and lamented Binder of River's Fork had apparently identified as edible.

Behind Rian over at the next table, Umu, Mikon, and some vaguely familiar young woman all sat together– well, at the same table, anyway– staring at Rian's back with satisfied smiles.

As they finished their food, setting aside their bowls and leaning back, one of the children– the brat, Lori recognized– came by, holding two more bowls of full of some sort of yellow-orange vegetable mush, with new spoons in them. It took a moment for Lori to recognize it. It was that fruit the children had been keeping secret, the one that was sweet and mushy and runny.

"Lord Rian," the brat said. She made a jerky bow to Lori, as if she'd heard of it but didn't know how they were done. "Wiz Lori. Welcome back. Please have some happyfruit." Happyfruit? Seriously? Is that what the children were calling it? Well, she supposed the name fit. She'd certainly be happy to eat it.

"Thank you Karina," Rian said, smiling with charisma and sincerity and charismatic sincerity. "This… looks like a lot. Did you pick this yourself?"

A nod. "I went to find some as soon as I found out you'd come back," she said, her little chest puffing out proudly. "I climbed the trees and picked them for you myself. Then I peeled them and cut them up and put them in a bowl for you, so you'd only have to eat it."

Lori took the bowl in front of her and took a small spoonful of the mashed– no, 'cut up'– fruit. It was as she remembered. Yes, happyfruit was certainly a fitting name. "Thank you, Karina," she said. "It's delicious."

The brat beamed. Turning, she headed for the stew bowl, and started getting herself some dinner.

"Did you actually remember her name?" Rian said, staring at Lori.

"Why wouldn't I?" she said. "She's the only one who pays her taxes. Karina's been leaving me a fresh seel in front of my door as tribute practically every day since she learned how to catch seels. It's made good eating over breakfast."

Rian blinked, then turned and stared after the brat.

Lori took another spoonful of the mushed happyfruit. Later, she'd have to open up her bedroom again, get some air circulating so she wouldn't asphyxiate in her sleep. Tomorrow, she'd have work to do, getting her dungeon's facilities cleaned, reconfiguring them to be maintainable by manual labor, draining and replacing the water in the reservoir, expanding the dungeon so she'd finally have a more properly private area to herself, respiring all the bindings she'd allowed to lapse so people would feel her absence from the demesne…

Right then and there, however, Lori listened to the vague and non-specific sounds of her demesne having dinner, the distant sounds of bugs in the dark, and ate her happyfruit.

…

"Youtell everyone what happened to Grem," she told Rian.

Rian rolled his eyes. "Yes, your bindership," he said.

"But tomorrow," she said. "You can put that off until tomorrow."

"Joy," Rian said blandly, and ate his happyfruit.

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Finally Back At The Dungeon

"I'm never, ever, ever, ever leaving my demesne again," Lori groaned as she laid her head down on the table, listening to the sounds of people settling for dinner. "For any reason!"

"That's what you say every time we go to River's Fork," Rian said with annoying cheer that made her want to tear his face off with her bare hands.

"I mean it this time!" Lori declared. "I don't care what Shanalorre offers me to make repairs, I'm not going back there!"

"Hmm…" Rian hummed in a way that implied he had a smirk on his face. "Well, that was the last trip. It took most of a month, but all the people who got wounded when the dragon passed over and had to be left behind are back with their families now, and you've finally finishing raising those supports for the trees that got damaged so the dome's less likely to collapse. Except for having to stop by there when we head for Covehold, our balance sheet with River's Fork is even. So you don't have to go back there unless you want to."

Lori sniff. "Why would I want to?" she said.

"The bread?" Rian suggested. "They manage three whole harvests before the dragon happened, so they'd got a lot of grain for it." He gave her a challenging look. "How's that deadspeaking coming along?"

"I'm working on it," Lori grumbled.

Rian sighed dramatically. "I still think you should have worked out a deal to get Shana–"

"Shanalorre," Lori corrected.

"– to teach you," Rian said. "At least learn how to heal. If anyone gets seriously injured, you're going to have to bring them to River's Fork for treatment."

"We're not going to ask River's Fork to heal our people for us," Lori said stubbornly. "We have more doctors than they do, we'll be fine. Especially since all the people not worth keeping left."

"You realize we lost one of our big saws because Missus Naineb's husband was one of the sawyers and didn't think living in a demesne where the Dungeon Binder had threatened his wife was a good idea, right?" Rian said.

"Not worth keeping," Lori repeated staunchly. "They're Shanalorre's problem now." Twenty three people, about four families, had left as word had gotten out about River's Fork Demesne's existence, and how its binder was a child, leaving group by group.

"If they made it," Rian said. "I still don't think it was right, making them walk to River's Fork when we could have brought them along with us on the boat."

"Lori's Boat," Lori corrected.

Rian rolled his eyes. "Yes, that. They could get hurt out there walking to River's Fork. We saw beasts along the river."

"They want to leave my demesne, they can. They have feet, they can use them," Lori said dismissively. "We can barely make the whole trip back and forth in a day, I'm not going have Lori's Boat be slowed down by useless dead weight."

"Are you ever going to get tired of doing that?"

"Doing what?"

"Referring to your boat by name. You don't need to use a proper noun ALL the time."

Lori actually raised her head form the table to look at him. "What's a proper noun?"

"A basis for grammar jokes," Rian said.

"What kind of sad person makes jokes about grammar?" Lori said, confused.

"The kind of sad person who tries to feel they haven't wasted their life." Rian moved, probably to look around. "I'll go get our food. You try to wake up some more."

"I'm perfectly awake," Lori protested.

"Lori, your eyes have been closed during our entire conversation."

"I don't need my eyes to be open to be awake," she declared, but reluctantly raised her eyelids. She hissed. "Why is it so bright?"

"Apparently, it's what happens when a Dungeon Binder makes light with their eyes closed," Rian said, getting up. His hair had grown long over the last few weeks. So had hers, come to think of it. She had to borrow a pair of scissors again. "Fix it, please?"

Lori grunted, changing the binding on the lightwisps so they would be so bright.

"Thank you," Rian chirped annoyingly as he headed over to get them breakfast.

Lori sighed and laid her face on the table again.

The last few weeks had been…busy. She'd spent the next day after arriving from River's Fork restoring the bindings on the lightwisps, waterwisps firewisps, and airwisps she'd allowed to lapse while she was gone from the demesne, and left the inquiries of why Grem wasn't with them to Rian. According to him, there had been general disbelief from the probationary citizens, until the next batch of people from River's Fork had shown up and confirmed their story.

Some people had voiced their opinion that Grem was right for trying to kill Binder Shanalorre– a least, that he had the right reasons– but thankfully hadn't taken it beyond that and asking Rian to bring along letters to friends remaining in River's Fork, trying to convince them to move to Lori's Demesne, Lorian. Given they didn't have a papermaking industry of any sort and seel skins were too useful to be used for mere letter writing, Rian had to lug around a huge sack full of rocks, leaves, beast bones and occasionally planks with charcoal writing on it.

Lori had also reorganized her dungeon. The latrines had been altered so that people could manually empty them, and people, usually those with no other useful skill, had garnered some sort of minor punishment from their parents, or just people who didn't have anything else to do and had to make themselves useful. Lori wasn't sure how it worked– Rian was in charge of that– only that people on latrine duty were allowed to skip the line for the baths.

Despite how unsanitary she thought the whole thing was, pools of warm water in the bath houses were surprisingly popular, though she had to bind more wisps so that the water in the pools would be gradually replaced to keep them become breeding grounds for disease. The third bathhouse– which Rian was actively designing so it wouldn't be 'an underground tube with stalls' as he called it– was due to be built, and in the meantime, there were 'shower stalls', outdoor stalls were a raised stone aqueduct constantly sent down a stream of water like a waterfall. Lori supposed it was a good stand in for real showers, since she didn't have the patience, time or inclination to make individual stone piping and shower heads. Rian was surprisingly imaginative about things like that.

There was a thump, and Lori reluctantly opened one eye. Rian was back, holding two bowls of breakfast. It was… well, it was still stew, but the new vegetables and such they had available to them now meant it was a different kind of stew. She was amused at the look of distaste on Rian's face as he looked at the vivid blue cubes of some sort of cut up gourd vegetable, before his face settled in resignation.

"I would never have pegged you to be a picky eater," she said, reaching for one bowl, then grabbing the other one at the last moment.

"All species are picky eaters, lest they eat something poisonous to them," Rian said loftily. He grabbed his spoon and began to eat.

Lori stared at him. "Are you actually holding your nose so you can't taste the food?" she said. "What are you, a child?"

"I'll eat it, but I can't pretend to like it," Rian said. "Life is too short for that kind of self-deception. The best I can do is be thankful it's keeping me alive." He had to stop eating to breathe, since he was still holding his nose. "Ugh. Why did these have to be edible?" He gave Lori a pleading look. "Can you please exclude this from the dungeon's farm?"

She allowed one side of her mouth to twist into a smirk. "I rather like it."

"I choose to believe you're just saying that to annoy me," Rian said flatly. "Consider it successful. Besides, it wouldn't be efficient if we're farming for the winter. Roots and tubers grow much faster than gourds."

Lori made a face.

The two stared at each other.

"How about we just agree to never to cook for the other unless it's meat?" Rian suggested.

"Excellent idea," Lori nodded.

They went back to their food, one enjoying breakfast much more than the other.

"If you hate gourds so much, why are you eating them first?" Lori asked, gesturing at the pile of blue, mushy cubes in Rian's spoon.

"Better to get rid of them first so I can enjoy the meat," he said, putting the whole spoon in his mouth, chewing quickly, and swallowing.

"If you choke, it'll be your own fault," Lori warned.

"That's a risk I'm willing to take," Rian said.

"Well, I'm not. Eat slower and chew more."

Rian rolled his eyes. "Yes, mother."

They ate, Rian at one point reaching for his cup of water and visibly washing his mouth out. At least he had the good taste to swallow instead of spitting it out.

"So, what's on your agenda today?" he asked, getting started on the meaty, leafy, and rooty bits of his stew.

"You realize just because you ate the gourd bits doesn't mean its flavor didn't soak into the stew?" Lori pointed out.

"Ignoring that!" Rian said. "Agenda? Please? Still working on the dungeon?"

Lori had devoted herself to that in the past weeks, when she hadn't been dragged with Rian to get people from River's Fork to Lori's Demsne, Lorian. With the increase in their population– even with the people who'd gotten it into their heads they'd rather live in River's Fork– they needed a larger dungeon that would accommodate the entire population comfortably– that is, comfortable for her– when it inevitably happened again. Making the lavatories manually cleanable and moving them to the front of the dungeon near the entrance was only part of it.

After the first near-collapse, Rian had gathered every stoneworker, everyone with any sort of masonry or building experience, and even two former militia engineers, and had sat them down with Lori so they could discuss how to prevent such a thing from happening again. Fortunately, Lori had not been hurt, but was clear her strategy of binding the earthwisps to greater cohesion to reinforce the stone wasn't working as effectively as she wanted when she had the weight of a whole hill to bear.

Regular pillars, with arching supports to transfer the weight to the ground, were now to be found in her dungeon. They didn't need to be that close together, but they were apparently needed to prevent any more collapses. She'd also been advised not to put floors of the dungeon directly beneath each other. They'd had to make a small, earthwisp-formed model of her plans for the dungeon so she could be advised about the design.

So far, there wasn't much. Just the original open space, which had some of the tables and benches returned to it for people to eat, the so called 'treasure room' where the metal materials not actively being used was stored, so that they wouldn't need to move it there again in case of a dragon, the long-term storage cold room next to the kirchen area where food was only supposed to go in, and not out until winter, the more open pantry and everyday cold room that thy tried to keep stocked with at least a week's worth of food in case of another dragon, the lavatories (and she still had to figure out where the contents would go in a dragon situation), and the pit that was the reservoir, which she'd drained (removing anything loose in it with the water), and partially sealed off as a dark room. She had plans for a larger, less accessible reservoir, but that, along with everything else, were still just plans.

What she HAD done was to build an isolated set of rooms for herself, where she'd moved her private bath, private lavatory, private bedroom, private study, private living quarters, private treasure room– consisting of the gold and other metals and materials the dragon had shed, at least those no one else had been able to drag off because it was too big– private ventilation, and a long hallway and private stairs that she could block off with stone for privacy and security. She'd dug upwards, putting her bedroom just above the pillar of stone hiding the dungeon's core, near the front of the cliff face, so that she wouldn't have to walk far to leave, as well as put it just that bit further up from floods. Rian had declared it 'paranoid on a self-entombing level' and had advised her to devise a way to escape her own rooms in case someone decided to besiege her.

Half the second week had gone into building just that.

"I'm going to get started on digging out the second level of the dungeon," Lori said. "Hopefully it won't flood, but…"

"But if it did, at least we'd have a new reservoir," Rian said cheerfully.

"Right. Sure. That," Lori said, as if that had always been plan.

"Once that's built, are you going to open up a second entrance?" Rian said brightly. "So that people can evacuate into the dungeon faster?"

Lori coughed. "Of course I am. It wouldn't be an efficient evacuation if people get bottlenecked by the dungeon's entrance."

Rian nodded, seemingly satisfied about something, thought Lori had no idea what. Maybe he was just being strange again. "Well, if you need help, you know where to find everyone," he said. He blinked and tilted his head. "You, uh, do remember who all the engineers and stone masons are, right? I mean, you probably don't know their names, but do you at least remember their fa–"

Lori hurriedly finished her stew. "Well, time flows, I have to get to work," she said hurriedly, grabbing her staff and binding the nearest group of lightwisps to the end of it. "Need to go on digging, and you need to supervise people building houses and things!"

"You have a terrible memory, Lolilyuri," Rian said blandly.

"Can't talk, dungeon needs to be built!" Lori declared, heading for the corner of the dungeon where she'd decided the stairs down to the next level would be.

"See you at lunch then, I guess…" Rian shrugged, and finished eating his breakfast.