Weekly Digest 19 - (#57 - #59) (Patreon)

Minions Need Maintenance

Lori didn't even have time to bask in her victory against Rian in their game (yes! She won! She won, she won, she won! Ha!). The sore loser (she won!) had immediately run off to hide his shame at her victory and had gotten everyone to settle down for the meeting. One of the tables had been moved to the far wall, which Lori supposed was where Rian would put his notes and sit.

The meeting started after Rian finally stopped gesturing at her, stood up and dragged her over to the table with him. Well, all right, he asked nicely, but Lori felt like she was being dragged, and from the look on his face only a healthy fear of imminent death at her hands kept him from actively dragging her himself. Still, she could be a gracious victor and indulge him by sitting in front of her demesne while he talked.

"All right, settle down." Rian said, and people quieted. There was a much more relaxed feel to the proceedings compared to last time. For one thing, a lot of the children were ignoring what was going on and were playing games quietly, though a few adults– likely their parents– grabbed the game boards, pulling them away. "Now, before we get started, I would like to thank our kitchen volunteers who have been cooking for us all. Every morning, I, and everyone else, can look forward to a wonderful, warm and hearty breakfast, and later on lunch and dinner. Would you all please stand up? Let's give them all a round of applause."

The men and women in question stood, smiling in embarrassment as they were applauded.

"Yes, thank you all," Rian continued cheerfully. "If it weren't for you, I'd have to eat my own cooking, meaning I'd be a dead man." Lori recalled Rian mentioning he could cook, so this was clearly just flattery and an attempt at humor. People laughed anyway. "All right, maybe no dead, but I'd probably be wishing I was." More laughter. Lori tried not to hang her head in embarrassment, berating herself for forgetting her hat in her room.

Rian continued on in this vein, praising the sawyers, the new ropers, the weavers (despite her still not seeing evidence of their work), Gunvi the potter and his apprentices, the farmer raising their crops (which were looking very well now, though not yet ready to harvest), the chandler for all the soap, the latrine cleaners (despite it being a punishment duty), the doctors (no one had died, most had recovered, and even the ones with broken bones were just waiting for them to heal) who were now helping prepare meals to be more balanced, the scouts who'd laboriously mapped out the demesne's terrain (wait, they had those?), the hunters and tanners who were making leather and furs…

The pointless flattery went on so long Lori felt like taking a nap. She really wished she could have just called the brat over to play a game as Rian droned on. Of had her hat to cover her eyes so she could take a nap.

"– and of course the children, who've been keeping us old people alive every day by causing a minor genocide of the seel population," Rian said. "Without them, I'm not sure even the kitchen volunteers would be able to keep us alive."

The children stood up with great enthusiasm to be applauded, and Lori was amused to note at least one switched out one or two pieces on the board while the other player was distracted.

"All right then," Rian said. "Everyone can sit down now. We're going to get to the part everyone's been waiting for."

The longwinded pointless praise and empty flattery had lightened the mood, but even so there was an increase in tension at those words.

"We're happy to announce that the second level of the Dungeon is close to completion," Rian said brightly. "It still needs a few civilized comforts, but as it is, if a dragon suddenly appeared on the horizon tomorrow, no one will have to worry about being left outside." There was some small applause and sighs of relief at this. "Also, if a dragon does appear on the horizon tomorrow, it's definitely not my fault for invoking it, so please don’t blame me."

There were a few laughs at the mention of the silly superstition.

"On a related note, the petition for moving all the mushroom's everyone's been growing into the new level of the dungeon was denied," Rian said. "Now, before anyone gets up in arms about it, it appears I wasn't told that the spores from mushrooms could cause illnesses, especially prolonged contact. So no, we're definitely not going to store growing mushrooms in the same place that many of us eat breakfast, lunch and dinner. I'm pretty sure our doctors are just going to get mad at us for both wasting their time and deliberately putting ourselves in danger."

Lori saw one of those she vaguely recognized as one of their doctors– why were they making her think of haircuts?– give a curt nod. "Mushrooms are good to eat, some of them, but not exactly healthy to be breathing the same air as for long," he said.

Rian nodded. "And we're going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume this suggestion was made in ignorance and not the very subtle first attempt to assassinate Binder Lori, since she'd be living closest to said mushrooms."

Lori jolted upright, her eyes suddenly narrowing in a glare.

"Ah, from the way the people involved are paling, it looks like you really didn't know, or you're all really good actors," Rian continued, still sounding cheerful. "That's good."

"Give me their names," Lori growled.

The crowd sat very still, as if not wanting to draw her attention.

"Would you even know who they were if I did give you a list?" Rian said.

Lori glared at him, but had to concede the point. She swept a look over everyone. "This had better not happen again," she said levelly.

"Yes, your Bindership!"

"Of course, your Bindership!"

"Please don't kill us, your Bindership!"

"It was his idea!"

"They were your mushrooms, you little uhog, I was just suggesting we keep them safe from dragons–!"

"All right!" Rian declare brightly.  "So, bad idea made with ignorance and the best of intentions. A dedicated mushroom cave will be excavated as soon as convenient–" he glanced at Lori, who made a negligent gesture "– eventually. In the meantime, people growing them are advised to not store them inside the house, or else you and your family will get sick." He looked around. "As soon as this meeting ends, I suggest stacking the wood outside and airing the house. If anyone in the house or nearby starts feeling sick, see one of the doctors immediately, don't just hope you'll feel better. Understood?"

There were murmurs and nods.

"All right then," Rian nodded. "Next order of business…" He checked the plank he was holding. "We've been getting complaints about messy latrines. Be reminded that in addition to emptying them, those on latrine duty are supposed to be keeping them maintained." He held up a hand. "I know, I know, it's hard to do without water, we're trying to address that. But that's no reason to smear the stuff where people have to sit." He glared out over the crowd, who glared back in agreement. "The sad thing is the latrine next to where the children seel never has this problem, and they're the ones who maintain that, so whoever this is, they're an adult. Supposedly." He glared. "So basically, calling whoever is doing this an immature child would be a grievous insult to the actual children, who've all been hardworking and responsible."

"So, Binder Lori willing," Rian said, glancing at her. She inclined her head slightly to show she was listening. "Effective immediately, latrine maintenance will no longer be a punishment detail."

There were some relieved cheers at that.

"Instead, latrine duty will become an official job, to be occupied by… well, who know who you are," Rian said. "They will officially be held responsible for the state of the latrines." He held up a hand as a few people started making discontent rumbles. "Not finished. Punishment duty will be assisting those in cleaning latrines, as it would be literally unsafe to have you assisting anyone else, and that includes the children. Yes, I know who's been doing it. If you don't clean up your act, and you can take that any way you want to, the next step will be releasing your names and having you be the one to take the blame for messy latrines from this point on, whether or not you actually did it."

He waited. No one said anything.

"Good, you're not actually going to say anything about how unfair that is and tell everyone who you are now," Rian said. "First smart thing you did. Yes, this means you'll still be doing the same job. Only this time, there will be someone to watch you to make sure you do it right. And this takes care of the water problem, as now there will be an assistant to go get water." There were grumbles of indifference verging on assent. "There is a latrine right now that someone thought would be funny to smear. By the time this meeting is over, it's going to be dried, caked on, ripe, and extremely unpleasant." Rian smiled brightly. "You know who you are. I know who you are. More importantly, the person you've just been assigned to– assignments will be given out later– knows who you are. Clean it up after this meeting." Rian turned to her. "Unless her Bindership has anything to add?"

Lori didn't know who she was looking for, so she didn't look out over the crowd. "If you do that to any of the latrines in my Dungeon, I will have Rian find you, and I'll drown you in shit," she said, examining her fingers and scowling in distaste at the thought of the sort of degenerate who did things like that for, apparently, amusement. "Are we clear?"

Silence.

"Good answer," Rian said brightly. "If this smart streak continues, I foresee good things in your future. Other ways to materially improve matters to reduce the, let's face it, yuck of latrine duty are being pursued. I'll let you know which one we decide on." Rian examined the various things on the table that's he'd written on and picked up what appeared to be a clay pot that had been a container of travel rations for their trip to River's Fork.

"Lord Rian!" someone called out, raising their hand.

"Yes?" Rian said cheerfully, looking up towards the person in question.

"Aren't you going to–"

Rian raised a hand. The man in question quieted, as if unwilling to interrupt him.

"In time," Rian said. "We've got a lot of things to go over. One thing at a time." He lowered his hand.

"But Lord Rian–!"

"Ah!" Rian interrupted. "Here it is. Booze."

The voice immediately went quiet.

"Good, I have your attention again," Rian said. "The weavers and ropers are tentatively going to be given a temporary workspace in the Dungeon, once arrangements have been made as to where. This will allow us to secure the necessary equipment so we don't have to try moving it in the event of a dragon. I don't know when we'll be ready to receive you, but it will tentatively be within the week." He glanced at Lori. She thought about it and nodded. "Right, a week it is. The move will be done in stages, so you'll have time to–"

There was a minor commotion, and Rian cut off, frowning and standing to get a better view. Lori followed his gaze, annoyed.

It was the man who'd interrupted Rian. From the looks of it, he'd taken the game board that his daughter and another boy had been playing on, and was now hissing furiously at them.

"What's going on back there?" Rian demanded.

"Nothing, Lord Rian, just telling my daughter to put away her toys and listen," the man said hastily. He looked at his daughter and said, in a voice meant to carry, "you'll get this back after the meeting. You're here, so pay attention!"

Some of the other children in room who'd been playing during the meeting hesitated as the adults around them gave them 'there, you see?' looks.

It made Lori's blood boil.

"Whose board is that?" Lori demanded.

Rian, about to sit down, hesitated.

"Uh, what, your Bindership?" the man said.

"Whose board is that?" she asked, louder. The man was either deaf or stupid.

"It's mine!" the girl said.

"You're sure? It's not your father's and you're just borrowing?" Lori said.

The girl nodded. "I made it," the girl said definitely.

"Did you?" Lori asked.

The girl shrank back for some reason. Then, even more strangely, she turned to look at someone else in the crowd. Lori followed her gaze and was surprised to see her looking at the brat, who was nodding encouragingly.

The girl turned back to Lori. "Yes, your Bindership," she said. "I made it. I asked around for a piece of wood from the sawyers and carpenters that they weren't using, then I cut in the lines with a rock. It's mine."

Lori leveled her gaze at the man. "Give the girl back her stolen property."

The man stared at her as the murmurs became a buzz. "What? I'm no thief!"

"Literally everyone around you just saw you steal that girl's game board," Lori said. "I did as well. Are you calling me a liar?"

"I'm not a thief! She's my daughter, I was just taking away her silly game so she'd pay attention," the man said.

"And now everyone here has heard your confession to theft," Lori said. "As well as her testimony that board is hers. Flogging it is."

"Lori–!" Rian called, getting to his feet.

The man spoke faster. "Your Bindership, I respect you, but she's my daughter. As long as she's living in my house, she'll follow my rules, and that includes not playing when there's serious matters being discussed."

"Actually, it's her house, you're just living in it," Lori corrected. "The priority list was conceived according to who was actually actively contributing to the demesne. In addition to the people who'd been cooking all our meals and the sawyers cutting our wood, all families with children were housed purely on the strength of the fact their child has been providing the demesne with food by catching seels." She looked at the man holding the game board away from the girl. "So give that back, because the only reason you're not still sleeping in the shelters is because of your daughter. Technically, it's her house, you just live in it. She can live in it very well without you."

"I've been helping prepare our fields!" the man protested.

"And have we eaten anything from those fields yet?" Lori said. "Come back when we have bread. In the meantime, give her back her game board." Lori stared at the man until he complied. Then she turned back to the child. "Go back to your game. It's probably the only rest you'll get for a while."

The girl nodded, giving an awkward bow as she sat down again, inching just a little bit away from her father, who was still standing there. Lori ignoring the frustrated, aggrieved look the girl's father was giving her.

"That was why you had me reorganize the housing list like that?" Rian said next to her in a carrying voice.

"The children do good work," Lori said. "I'm not going to let them be taken advantage of."

"I'm surprised you didn’t threaten to flog everyone who'd taken a game board away for theft," Rian commented.

Lori stared at him, then bound airwisps to increase the volume of her voice. "Anyone taking a game board from a child that the child can prove they own is in violation against the law against theft and the child's right to own property. You have until the end of the day to return it or you will be flogged by the owner. Being their parent does not entitle you to ownership of the child's possessions. And be reminded that a gift is the property of the receiver to keep, not the property of the giver to take back. Children, if you have been stolen from, inform Rian after the meeting."

Rian sighed at the tumult this caused. "Why?!?!" he groaned, sounding aggrieved.

"Why what?" Lori asked.

"Just, 'why?!?!',"Rian sighed. "Why do you have to turn every parent against us?"

"Everyone has the same rights. That's what you asked for," Lori said.

"Yes," Rian groaned. "I did, didn't I?" He looked up at the ceiling for some reason as the tumult grew. Then he sighed and started banging his hand loudly on the table to get people's attention. It took longer than it usually did, which was very unusual "All right!" he cried. "Next is the matter of the complaints about the new houses being roofed!"

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Material Restitution

There was a restlessness in the air as Rian finally got people to pay attention to the next item in whatever unknown list he was working through. Lori ignored the looks people were giving her as she sat back town and went back to being disinterested, even as she enviously eyed the children who could at least play games during this boring, pointless meeting.

"All right," Rian said, sounding reluctant. "As you know, but some people might need reminding because they don't care to pay attention to the things going on around them–" For some reason, there were chuckles at this. "– there have been some complaints about the new houses in progress further from the river."

He paused. "I'll admit, it don't remember all the particulars of the complaint. There were a lot. So why don't we have Etwart explain them to us? Come on up here Etwart."

The man who'd so tasteless tried to steal from his daughter stood up, walking towards the front of their table, and in front of everyone else as well. He had the same look many people had, of having lost weight and only recently regaining again. His skin was sun-darkened, no doubt from working the fields as he'd so recently mentioned, and he had a small work knife at his wrist.

"Lord Rian," the man said, "something–"

"Stop," Rian said, and the man did, looking frustrated. "You don't need to explain to me, Etwart. I heard you the first time." Rian pointed. "You need to explain to everyone else."

The man Etwart hesitated, then reluctantly turned, facing the other people sitting in the benches of the dining tables.

"Well, go on," Rian said. "Tell everyone what you told me. I'm sure that it would be best if they heard it from you."

The man looked around nervously. Clearly he thought he'd be directing his words toward Rian, with everyone merely watching. Hadn't he realized he'd already be speaking in front of everyone in any case? Why did having to face them make any sort of difference?

"If you don't want to, you can sit down and we can move on to the next matter," Rian offered. "We still need to talk about the new bathhouse and the expedition to Covehold, so if you have nothing to bring up, please sit down."

The man hesitated a moment more, then turned to face everyone. "A-as I told Lord Rian, something needs to be done!" he said, his voice shaking and nervous.

Somewhere at the very back of the crowd, someone called out, "Speak up, we can't hear you!"

There were some more laughs, and the man flushed. "Something needs to be done!" he cried just short of yelling.

"About what?" someone else called out.

"About… about newcomers who've only been here a short time being treated better than the good people who settled this demesne and sweated to make it what it is now!" the man said, some actual enthusiasm in his voice as he got to his subject.

Lori found herself nodding. Finally. It was about time.

"While we live in little shacks, they live in large houses like rich townsfolk, and don't have to forage for food in the woods," the man continued. Wait, what? "They–!"

Lori ignored what he was saying from that point on, as he apparently hadn't been talking about her. Well, she supposed the ingratitude would continue. At least it wasn't total ingratitude. The brat paid her taxes. That was something.

The game board thief droned on, talking about nothing important as Lori wished she had her hat to cover her eyes so she could sleep. Maybe she could just dim the lightwisps?

She sighed and let her mind wander. Where would she put the mushroom farm? It would need to be connected to the main Dungeon so they could access it during a dragon– and winter, she realized– but it had to be separate. A door? Or would she just open and close the opening as needed? It would definite need a second entrance so it could be accessed from the outside without passing through the dungeon, so mushrooms could be brought in and people could tend to them. And it would need to be humid so the fungus could grow, without the humidity affecting the rest of the dungeon. And if she was doing that, she might as well put in a binding of airwisps to keep the spores out of the dungeon for the times the door was opened. Actually, the door might need to be made from bone, since a wooden door would soon have mushroom growing on it…

"All right!" Rian said, and Lori blinked, realizing she'd dozed off. "Thank you Etwart, that was… voluminous. I'm sure you left no opinion and thought unspoken. Why don't you sit down?"

Huh, how long had she been dozing? The board thief was sweating, and his voice was a bit hoarse when he said, "Yes, Lord Rian," and moved to go back to where he was sitting. Then had to find somewhere else to sit when he found some other children playing with his daughter, and watching the game as Lori discretely rubbed her eyes.

When she was finished, she found Rian turning to look at her. "So, how much of that did you hear?" he asked.

"Absolutely nothing," Lori said.

There was laughter at her words, but Lori didn't let herself be offended. Let other people waste their time with nonsense.

"All right, let me explain again," Rian said, then paused. "No, that would be too long. Let me sum up. You remember how you built the original homes before the dragon arrived?"

"That ones that took a strangely long time to get finished, yes," Lori nodded.

"Well, most of our original settlers live in such homes, except for the ones like we who still live in shelters because we don't have families or only have a spouse," Rian said. "And because we were all working like crazy so we don't starve, building the houses took a while, because we only had some of the carpenters and volunteers who'd show up if they felt like it."

Lori nodded.

"Then the dragon happened and some houses had to be rebuilt again, and there were even fewer workers because of all the other things we had to fix," Rian said. "Then the people who used to Live in River's Fork arrived. And while not any more experienced with building roofs than some of our people, they were willing to work, knew how to use tools, some had experience in the militia's engineering banners, and weren't already doing anything else. So thanks to them the houses were finally finished and the people on the list for them were finally able to move out of the shelters."

"Yes Rian, I'm aware, I was there," Lori said impatiently.

"So of course, we marked the next group of houses for these people who'd done so much for us by helping other people build their homes," Rian said.

"Yes Rian, I was there as well, I built the colored walls," Lori said. "Why is this worth wasting my time about?" Everyone's time, really, but her time was what was important, since it was hers.

"Well, since the next group of houses they'd be building would be their own, they decided to put a little more effort into it to make it nicer," Rian said.

"Yes Rian, you've already explained this yesterday," Lori said, getting annoyed.

"I'm explaining for the benefit of the children who might not know," Rian said.

Lori was about to retort they were smarter than that and weren't listening, but she saw the brat paying attention and relented. "Fine, what happened next?"

"Well, then some people became jealous that their own house wasn't as nice," Rian said.

"Of course," Lori said. "The houses were never meant to be nice, they were meant to be livable. If they want their house to be nice, they need to put in actual effort. As it is, I don't think any of the houses are currently ready to face winter. Did people even remember to put in windows?" Murmurs rose at that.

"Not that I can recall," Rian said mildly. "However, some people have raised an excellent point. The new houses are consuming more wood than the old ones, since more building material is being used for all the added features, which is unfair allocation of resources."

Lori considered that. "Who are the sawyers and the ones cutting down the trees for the sawyers?" Lori asked.

"You want their names?" Rian sounded surprised.

"No, of course not, what would I do with their names?" Lori said. "I asked who they are."

"I don't see how I can do that without telling you their names."

Lori sighed. Sometimes, her lord was just useless. She decided this was one of the rare times she wouldn't try explaining so he could handle it for her. "Everyone who works in the sawpits and those who have been part of the logging group in the last month, stand up," she said.

There was a tone of confusion to the noise people were making, but one by one various people who looked vaguely familiar from her time curing wood in the storage sheds stood up.

"As the ones actually doing the work in cutting, gathering and sawing the wood in question being used, do you agree with the opinion that it is unfair the new houses are consuming more wood?" Lori asked. "If you don't, sit down."

The men and women all looked at each other, and one or two hesitantly almost sat down before standing back up again.

Lori almost rolled her eyes. Groups could be so stupid. "Very well. As the ones being directly impacted by this, and consider yourself aggrieved, you deserve to be compensated." She turned to Rian. "The ones who did the work on the roofs and are the ones doing the building on the new houses. Do they have a leader, someone in charge?"

"That would be Captain Kolinh, retired, formerly of Lomabuyar Demesne's militia engineering banner," Rian said. "Kolinh, would you please stand up?"

A man stood up who also looked vaguely familiar, and Lori was at least able to recall him from those planning meeting Rian had insisted she had with the masons so she could make a more structurally secure Dungeon. "Yes, Great Binder?" he had a softer, more relaxed voice than Grem.

"Engineer Kolinh," Lori said. "In order to repay these men and women for the added work they will be putting in to provide materials for your construction, you and your group will, at their request, provide assistance in renovating their current houses, within limits." She ignored the buzz of conversation that arose as she pointed at the people still standing. "Those limits are that the modification must be based one of the finished constructions– I assume that the homes are not all identical?" Kolinh nodded. "– based on one of the finished constructions. In short, in exchange for the materials they provide, you will provide labor to assuage their envy. But ONLY upon request."

She gave the sawyers and loggers a look. "Your renovations will not begin until their homes are completed, at Rian's discretion and scheduling. I suggest you take the time to consider with your families if you really do want or need to live in the shelters again for however long it takes for the renovations to get done. Is that clear?"

"Yes, Great Binder." "Yes, your Bindership."

"Wait!"

Lori looked towards the sound of the protest. "What?" said sharply.

"What about the rest of us?" a man demanded. He was also vaguely familiar looking.

Lori tilted her head in confusion. "What about you?"

"What about the rest of us? What about our houses?" the man persisted.

Lori gave him a long, level look. "You are not being affected by the work being done. You're not a sawyer, who has to cut more planks, or a logger who has to cut more trees. You are not impacted by this. Therefore, you have four options," Lori said flatly. "You accept the house you're living in now, that you didn't have to build. You ask Engineer Kolinh and his workers nicely in a few weeks, and arrange with them to have your house renovated after some exchange of services, provided they're willing and have forgotten who you are." Lori paused. "Somehow I doubt that, people waste so much effort remembering faces. I could reduce your house back to dirt and rocks, recover the wood used on the roof for something else, and you can live in the shelters again, knowing that I am annoyed for having wasted the time. Or you can move to River's Fork, which have many unoccupied houses last I checked. Perhaps if you're lucky, they'll still be available. Does anyone else want to come forward and declare their greed?"

Her gaze swept across the tables, wondering if anyone was actually stupid enough to stand and be recognized. Fortunately, no one left in her demesne appeared to be that stupid, not even Landoor. "Very well. You may all sit down now."

They sat.

"Look everyone, I know it seems unfair, but can you really fault people for putting more effort into building their own home compared to working on someone else's house?" Rian said. "This isn't a competition, it's about making sure everyone has a roof over their head and their own space. If you want your house to have a second floor and balcony too, why not ask and find a way to work it out?" Rian paused. "After, you know, apologizing a lot and meaning it, if you need to."

A few people shuffled at that, looking aside.

"We can't have any grudges here, people," Rian said. "I know it's hard bordering on impossible, but we just can't. There are three things keeping us all alive." He held up three fingers. "The demesne. The fact that Binder Lori actually knows how to work for a living. And that everyone here works together and shares. This demesne will literally die if any of those three things stops working." He fixed his gaze on them. "Can you imagine how much worse off we'd be if Binder Lori suddenly stopped doing everything she's been doing for us? No lights. No stone buildings. No hot, running water. We'd have wood, sure, but it would all still be green without Binder Lori around to cure it. We wouldn't have ropeweed, because the children might still not have mentioned it. We'd have no winter supplies, since we wouldn't have ice and cold rooms to store food."

Yes. Praise her, praise her!

"Imagine if people stopped working together and only did things for themselves," Rian continued. "If the children all kept the seel catches for themselves instead of giving it to the community to share? If those with saws and axes didn't let anyone else use them? If Binder Lori only built things for herself and left all of us to live in tents and whatever sticks we can pick up and rip out of trees because people aren't lending each other their tools? You all remember living in tents, right? I sure do. The shelter now might be like living in a cave, but it's a dry, warm cave, full of people I trust not to rob me or hurt me when I'm asleep."

Ugh. Go back to praising, Rian.

Rian stood and gestured, in full 'dramatic hero speech' mode. Lori kept herself from rolling her eyes. "I trust you. I trust everyone in this room. I trust the sawyers to keep cutting the wood, because they know everyone needs it. I trust the children to keep going out, day after day, and bringing us back seels to eat as long as the seels are there to catch. I trust everyone to wake up every day and contribute to the demesne however they can. I trust Binder Lori to watch out for us in her own way, especially when she thinks we're being idiots who need to be looked after." All right, Lori had to roll her eyes then. Useless thespian. "I know some ways of thinking are hard to shake. That if someone is getting more, you think it means you're getting less. That we have to keep track of what we're 'owed', and if we don't get it then we feel cheated. I know it's hard. It's hard for me too, since it's how I was raised. But setting that aside and working together is how we built this demesne."

"And if you can't do it," Lori interrupted, because the dramatic speech was getting long, "then River's Fork is downriver. Can we get on with this, Rian? The matter's been settled, so move on."

For some reason, Rian looked up and sighed. "She's just taking care of us, in her way," he said.

"No, I'm impatient and want a nap," Lori said. "Get on with it."

"See? Sleepy and still wants to get work done. She really is watching out for us," Rian said brightly.

"Get on with it!"

People laughed at Rian being scolded for his slander as he referred to his notes. "All right, now that the house thing is settled, I have an update on the third bathhouse…"

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Post-Meeting Details

"Well, I think that went nicely," Rian said happily as he carried his various planks and rocks with notes on it down to one of the alcoves she'd made in the new level while people put the dining hall back to the way it usually was and people got started cooking lunch. So close to midday, with not enough time to get any substantive work done, people were taking a cue from the children and resting, enjoying the free time until they had to work in the afternoon. She would transcribe the notes on the things into stone tablets later, once Rian had gone over them to ascertain what was worth preserving. "You didn't actively have to actually threaten anyone with death, I think people are going to get along better now, except for the selfish ones who would be hard to get along with and any case, and you basically legally emancipated every child in the demesne and explicitly made them majority homeowners over adults." Rian tilted his head thoughtfully. "I'm not sure I want to count that last one as too much of a win."

"They contribute to my demesne, why would I consider them as less important than any of the already unimportant people?" Lori said.

"You can't fool me," Rian said. "Or else you wouldn't wait until no one but me can hear you before saying things like that. Aren't you worried I'll quit after you keep saying I'm unimportant?"

"If you quit, I'm revoking everyone's rights," Lori said. "That was the agreement. I don't care about it but you do."

"Oh yes. How silly of me to forget," Rian said. "Well, I'm still happy with this. Though it does bring up a few things I need to talk to you about."

"Doesn't it always?" she said.

"You were the one who wanted to be the Dungeon Binder of a demesne," Rian said. "Did you think it was all board games all the time?"

She stopped. "Board games?" she said.

Rian shrugged. "I don't know anything you like doing for fun besides your new obsession with sunk." Sometimes she wondered about his accent. It made him pronounce words strangely. "I mean, you don't seem the type to just sit around with a glass of pretentiously expensive drink and look at yourself in the mirror."

"Sit around with a drink and look at myself in a mirror?" she repeated again. "Is that what you think Binders do?"

"I think it's what people think Binders do, when they only listen to the stories and don't stop to consider all the administrative work that does with being the head of the government," Rian said.

"If people only listen to stories, they probably think Binders spend all their time conveniently dying and losing their dungeon's core for some lack wit story character to somehow fortuitously find and bond," Lori retorted.

To her surprise, Rian chuckled. "I can't argue with you there. But still, it was a good meeting. Hopefully people will be able to work out their differences among themselves in the future instead of complaining about it and getting angry with each other. "

"You're just happy because you got to give another heroic speech," Lori said.

Rian blinked at her. "What? I wasn't giving a heroic speech. I was just telling people how things were!"

Lori stopped and stared at him.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" he said.

"Never mind," she said, rolling her eyes and not needing to worry about hiding it.

"Never mind what?" Rian asked, looking confused. "Lori, never mind what?"

"If you don't know, I see no need to inform you," Lori said.

"The most terrifying words a woman can say to a man, short of 'I'm going to rip off your balls'," Rian said. "Fine, don't tell me. But if I don't know, you can't blame me for not knowing! Because you didn't tell me! Whatever it is!"

"Noted," Lori said dryly. "Come on, I want to take a nap, all this nonsense made me sleepy."

"Having trouble sleeping?" Rian asked, tilting his head.

Lori thought of her hard bed and the seeming hours she lay, there staring at the stony ceiling, trying to get any magic besides Whispering to work! "The meeting bored me," she said. "So I want to nap."

"Well, sorry if it didn't hold your interest," Rian said, rolling his eyes. "Should I arrange for a snack intermission in the middle next time."

"Yes, that would be nice," Lori agreed. She yawned. Yes, she definitely needed a nap. "Wake me up when the food is ready," she said, heading for her rooms.

"How?" Rian said behind her. "You don't exactly have a door bell!"

Her nap was quite enjoyable, and she woke up in time for lunch.

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"All right," Lori told him at dinner as she started setting up her game board after an afternoon of excavating, adjusting water flows and temperatures, and curing wood. "Tell me."

"Tell you what?" Rian said as he sat down to wait for the food to get ready, massaging his hands.

"Tell me what new thing you think we need that's going to keep me from having a wooden cup of pretentiously expensive water and looking at my shadow on the wall," Lori said.

Rian took a moment to consider that. "Huh. We really don't have anything to drink besides water, do we?" he mused. "We don't really have enough fruit to make juice. I don't know if anyone has a mirror either…"

"If you don't tell me now, I'm going to ignore you if you try to bring it up tomorrow," Lori said. "I already need to finish the Dungeon's new level and make a mushroom farm."

"So, we need a bridge," Rian said briskly.

"A bridge," Lori said blandly.

"A bridge," Rian confirmed. "The river cuts the demesne in two. Half the resources are on the other side and there's no easy way to cross. At the very least, if we can get a bridge up we'd be able to collect the edibles, ropeweed and trees on that side, and we'd also be able to use it as more farmland." He considered. "Actually, it might be good to make the other side our industrial area, give the tanners and other people someplace distant from food preparation and living quarters to keep their chemicals.

"I don't think I have enough stone for that just now," Lori said.

"At the very least, we could at least put in a dock, so we can use a boat–"

"Lori's Boat."

"Aboat, not necessarily that one," Rian stressed, "to cross between sides. Or are you seriously going to call every boat we make 'Lori's Boat'?"

"What's wrong with it?" Lori challenged. "'Lori's Boat' is a fine name."

"I'm not going to argue with you about this," Rian said, which was the first sensible thing he said, "but regardless of a way, we need to see about making an easier way to cross the other side. It's not like we can just wade across. It's too deep for that, and just swimming across won't let us bring along necessary equipment." He tilted his head. "Maybe you can use magic to make a tunnel of air under the water so we can just across?"

Lori stared at him. He stared right back.

"You're serious," she said blandly.

"No, I'm Rian, we've been over this already."

"You want me to magic to make a tunnel of air," Lori repeated.

He shrugged. "I don't know your limits. For all I know, you could, you just haven't thought about it."

"Air goes up in water, Rian," she said. "Any airwisps I push into water would…. Well, it wouldn't last."

"And if you used magic to have the water sort of create a tunnel?" Rian said, making a vaguely lewd gesture in the air with his hands.

"Which force do you want to hear destroying this tunnel, the weight of the water pressing down on it, the insufficiency of tension and cohesion, or the fact the air in the 'tunnel' would be buoyant and try to rise?" Lori said.

Rian shrugged, not seeming to care he had been shown to be ignorant. "I didn't know, so I asked," he said. "You can blame me for thinking about it, the way you can drag around water like a toy on a string."

Lori coughed. "Yes… well. While I am, of course, very powerful and certainly impressive, somethings I just can't do quite yet. Perhaps when I've learned Horotracting."

"I'll look forward to it," Rian said. "Well, if we can't have a bridge, then can we have a better road? You don’t even need stone, just compress down the roadways we have right now to be more durable."

Well, that was certainly doable, but… "Why?" she asked.

"Dragon preparation," Rian said. "Our cured wood is stored a long way away from the Dungeon. If we had a road leading straight to the Dungeon from that area, than in the event of a dragon, we could… well, maybe not bring in allthe wood, but at least a fair amount so we'd have a strategic reserve for repairs after the dragon leaves. That way, we'd have material to build with while new wood is getting cut."

Lori considered that. "That sounds reasonable…" she mused. "And it won't be too difficult to make enough wheels for them to have some kind of cart to move the wood with."

"And the same road can be used to transfer crops to the Dungeon for storage," Rian said. "Well, uprooted crops, anyway, if the dragon appears in the middle of the growing season, which it very well might. But the road first. It'll make everything much easier."

"I can do it tomorrow, it will only take a little compressing, and maybe a layer of stone to keep it in place," Lori said.

Rian nodded. "Now, have you thought about the aqueduct? I know it's a lot of effort, but an open, gravity powered system– magic to get the water where gravity can pull it down not withstanding– would require the least maintenance, and the sun-exposure will be better for keeping the water clean than running it through an enclosed pipe. And with the new houses, we definitely need a way to get water up there, especially for when the third bathhouse comes up. We could sink a well, but…"

"Someone would throw shit into it," Lori said.

Rian sighed. "Yeah… at least this way, if someone throws shit into the water, the flow will wash it out a lot sooner."

Lori shuddered at the thought. "I'll consider it," Lori said. "It doesn't need to be a single raised aqueduct. Perhaps multiple low aqueducts, staggered along the way, each subsequent one rising to a higher level."

"At least the elevation isn't too high," Rian said. "Less risk of it falling over in the event of a dragon."

That hadn't occurred to Lori. "Of course," she said. "That's why I thought of it."

Rian nodded, completely believing her. The gullible fool. "Smart. Glad you thought of it before it did," he said dryly.

He yawned, covering his mouth for some reason. "Well, I think that's it, besides the boat will be using to get to Covehold, and I need to wait until enough of the houses are done so we'll have more people free."

"Do you really need to wait?" Lori inquired, genuinely curious.

"We need the workforce," Rian said. "They don't know how to build a boat, true, but they can work together, they know how to use tools competently, and they can do heavy lifting, which is really important because we don't have any cranes for lifting things. If we're going to brute force a solution to the boat problem, then we need brute force."

"Well, try to get it done sooner rather than later," Lori said. "You were the one who suggested bringing Grem to Covehold and leaving him there. Don't be the one delaying things now."

"Yes, yes, make it my fault," Rian said, rolling his eyes.

"It is your fault," Lori pointed out. "Otherwise we could have left him to die in the middle of nowhere."

"So noted," Rian said. "Don't worry, we'll get it done. Though my optimistic estimate we'll be able to do it before winter is looking less and less likely."

He glanced towards the kitchens. Lori followed his gaze, and saw the food was ready and being handed out. He stood up. "Well, I think that's enough for now," he said. "This was nice. I'm glad you thought that discussion was important enough to warrant not playing games while we talked."

Lori blinked, then glanced down at the untouched game board in surprise. "One game!" she immediately demanded.

"We're having dinner together, of course we'll be playing," Rian said, rolling his eyes. "Really, can't we play something else?"

"I don't have a board for anything else," Lori pointed out. Really, he got her this board, he should know that.

"You could borrow one," he pointed out.

Lori gave him a level look.

"Right, that would involve talking to people, got it," Rian said, shaking his head for some reason. "You better hope I never get sick or else you're going to starve to death."

He went to get their food.