Demesne 61 - The Map (Patreon)

Lori tried to make the best of things while she built the shoddy, stupid, inelegant, awkward aqueduct that future generations will probably hate or use for tourism purposes, and will be equally inconvenient in either case. It was simply enough, in regards to construction. The stone pillar in the river was anchored to the bedrock, and had a hollow tube where waterwisps drew water up to the aqueduct, with bars made of stone to keep at least seels from getting in. Once drawn to the top, the water flowed down a wide, deep stone channel. Half the water fell into a stone basin people could collect water from, situated next to the still-occupied shelters. The rest when up another pipe in another stone pillar, and would flow along another channel to its destination, next to the outside dining hall.

Building it, contrary to her expectations, had been the easy part. After all these months, using magic to make structures from earthwisps was literally routine. It was the water flow that was giving her problems. Without any sort of accurately calibrated measuring equipment, she could only make rough estimates, but it was clear that the further down the chain of aqueducts and basins she went, the longer it took for the basin to fill. The day after she finished the rainbowed aqueduct, she had to do a lot of climbing back and forth from the river to the topmost basin to compare the rates the basins filled as she adjusted the bindings on the waterwisps.

Weren't Binders supposed to be able to see and perceive all that happened in their demesne? Why couldn't she do that? Actually, now that she thought about it, how was that supposed to work, anyway?

She still wasn't completely satisfied with the flow rates she managed to get, but the last basin, the one near the homes still being finished– she had to admit, the former residents of River's Fork worked very quickly– at least filled at a rate that was reasonable. The flow was constant, since it was the best way to keep the water fresh, meaning she had to rig up a means of letting the excess flow out without having the ground turn to mud.

And so she had to make a poor mockery of her elegant, top-flowing aqueduct idea and make a series of drainage channels. The ones above the fields with all the wild vegetables and crops they planted she directed to a cistern for irrigation. Lori put in a big sign warning that the water was dirty and should be for irrigating only, not drinking, but it would not surprise her if people didn't bother to read it. She warned the doctors– well, she had Rian warn the doctors– to be ready for a sudden rush of indigestion and other digestives problems from people being stupid enough to drink tainted water.

The ones from the basins lower than the fields, she just made a straight channel back into the water, with a sign warning the water had been used and was not for drinking. Perhaps in future they could put a water wheel on it, once they had enough leeway to build other things.

"I hate water," Lori groaned as she lay with her face on the table, her hat next to her. She'd remembered to bring it with her this time, and it had been a big help with the sun so hot. "I never want to have to work with it again."

"Do you want me to get your pillow or something?" Rian said. "I've always thought that lying on that must be uncomfortable."

It would not be the first uncomfortable thing she'd had to make do with. Lori considered letting him go up into her room to get her pillow.

"I'm fine," she said instead.

"You know, every time you do this, you end up with the wood grain stamped onto your face," Rian said conversationally.

For a moment, Lori lay still. Then she blearily raised up her head and felt at her face.

"It's on the end of your nose too," Rian said with a bright, helpful smile that was probably mocking her on the inside.

Lori glared at him, pulled her hat, laid it down in front of her, and put her face down again.

"Good idea," Rian said. "I could use a break from playing against you."

"You're not getting a break," Lori said. "I'm merely taking this time to refine my strategy."

"Take all the time you need," Rian said. "Actually, that's something I wanted to talk to you about. When was the last time you had a rest?"

For a moment, she just lay there. Then she reluctantly turned her head so she can aim one eye at him. "I take a rest every night Rian," she said blandly. "It's called 'sleeping'. Everyone does it."

"Hmm…" Rian 'hmm'-ed. "Lori, I think you need a day off."

She wasn't going to be allowed to just wallow in her tiredness the way she wanted, was she? Sighing tiredly, she raised her head, laying her elbows on the table to support herself. "A day off what?"

"A day off work," Rian said. "I think tomorrow you should stay in bed, sleep until noon, and when you finally do come down you need to just eat and then do absolutely nothing else but resting. Or at least, do literally anything but productive work."

"That sounds like an unproductive waste of time," she said. "I still need to finish the next level of the Dungeon, get a water reservoir up and running, begin excavating for an in-Dungeon farm… besides, my bed is not nearly comfortable enough to make sleeping until noon enjoyable."

"Well, all right, if you can't sleep until noon, than do something different again," he said. "Go seeling with the children, climb the hill– actually, have even climbed the hill on top of the Dungeon?– or just walk around and see the place. Anything but work. You need the variety. It'll be good for you."

"I can't afford to rest," Lori said. "There's too much work to be done."

"Lori, you're the Dungeon Binder," Rian said. "If ANYONE needs to rest when they're feeling tired, it's you. No one wants you to get sick, after all." He gestured vaguely around them. "It's not like anyone can say you don't work, so rest when you need to. A little rest won't have the demesne collapsing into chaos and murder, and if there's a dragon tomorrow… well, the dragon would have shown up whether you planned to work or not."

Lori allowed herself to entertain the thought. Just… not working tomorrow. Sleeping until noon, as she had resolved to do all those months ago.

"There's too much to do," she repeated.

Rian gave her a flat look. "Okay, how about this," he said. "The scouts finally finished transcribing the map of the demesne onto something bigger. Why don't you take the map and take a walk around the demesne to check it for accuracy before we make it official? After all, you'll probably want to check the map is correct and they didn't decide to hide a vein of iron ore so they can stake a claim on it later. It's work, but it'll be slow and not too intensive. Just you walking around with a map checking that everything is where it's supposed to be. You can even take the boat and see if the land on the other side of the river is accurate."

Lori frowned. "We have a map?"

"We have the best map currently possible," Rian said. "Some of the people who used to be in the militia were scouts, and learned how to draw good maps. I asked around, found out who made the best maps, and sent them to survey the demesne on both sides of the river. I mentioned it during the community meeting. Weren't you– no, of course you weren't."

"If you were telling other people and not just me specifically, it couldn't have been that important," Lori said. "If it were actually important, I'd have been the first to be told."

"I want to say the world doesn't revolve around you," Rian said, "except you're Binder, so it kind of does…"

Lori smiled. "Obviously," she preened. Then she frowned. "Why didn't you inform me there was a map sooner?"

"Because I literally just found out today," Rian said with a shrug. "This was the first opportunity I had to tell you. I'd have told you sooner, but you were acting depressed and moping on the table, so I had to make sure you hadn't worked yourself until you got sick first. Anyway, with the map done, it's only a matter of time before someone asks to scouts to show them their draft copies, and then we'll have people asking about owning land again. I told them to keep the map secret, but…" he shrugged. "Well, I'm resigned to it getting out eventually. After all, we have so little entertainment this will actually be something people will talk about, for lack of anything else."

He reached down beside him and brought out a large roll of thin leather. It had the look of seel leather, since it didn't have any of beast leather's distinctive bumps.

"Your Bindership, I bring you one map of your demesne," Rian said, putting the roll in front of her. It had been secured with a long leather thong. "Lori's Map, since I knew you were going to call it that anyway."

He was learning.

"Also, I think it's best you keep this, since I still sleep in the shelter," Rian said. "I don't think anyone would actually steal it, but I'd rather not leave it lying around."

She picked up the roll, hefting it. "Have you seen it?"

He nodded. "Cassan was willing to let us use some of his ink, and they used that to draw it, at least when it came to the major physical features they probably wouldn't need to alter, though the scouts drafted it in charcoal first, with his help. Elceena made Cassan bring a lot of ink with him before leaving Covehold. I suppose she was really looking forward to being a Binder."

Lori frowned. "Who?"

She watched as Rian's head dropped to the table like a toy cut from its string, no doubt imprinting the food grain to his forehead as he let out a groan. "The female corpse you have on ice," he said, still face down.

Lori blinked. "Oh. Was that her name?"

"Yes."

Well, she was dead, so no point remembering it. "Well, if it needs to be done… I suppose I can check its accuracy tomorrow."

"Do you want me to find someone to accompany you?" Rian said. "I think we found all the beast eggs that were in the demesne, but better to be sure, and there still might be an abomination or something hiding in the underbrush. Or even just bugs. Bug stingers are nasty. "

Lori considered that. "Very well," she said. "Not Landoor."

"You remember his name?" Rian looked surprised.

"He was too stupid to forget," Lori said. She put aside the map and began setting the sunk board on the table. "Is dinner ready yet?"

Rian was looking at the board and sighing. "Don't you want to refine your strategy a little more?"

"Go get dinner, Rian," she said.

"I really need to get you a different game," Rian muttered as he stood up. "Or a toy of some kind…"

He was muttering to himself as he joined the line for food– Rian never stood long, sine everyone knew who he was and who he was getting food for, but he always insisted in getting in line for some reason– as Lori finished setting up the board, idly looking forward to unrolling the map and seeing it herself once she was back in her room.

Rian came back with the food and let her choose which one she wanted as he considered the board, where she had already made her move. "By the way," he said, "I saw the aqueducts. They looked great."

"I suppose," Lori muttered, filling herself with stew so she wouldn't have to be filled with resentment at such a terrible design.

"I know you'll be busy resting and confirming the map tomorrow," Rian said, taking the stones form a bowl and making his move, "but what are your plans to finish it?"

She glanced at him, frowning. "What do you mean? It IS finished."

"Oh. I thought you were going to find a use for that spent water beyond just draining it away," Rian said. "Like a communal laundry area."

Lori paused. "What?"

"A communal laundry area," Rian repeated, putting down the last stone into a bowl. "You know, to take advantage of all that water that might not be drinkable but is still pretty clean. Don't you have people taking laundry into the women's baths to clean them?"

"I have my own bathroom," Lori said.

"Ah. Silly me, I should have realized you'd do that to minimize your contact with people."

"Yes, you should have," Lori said.

Rian sighed. "I'm probably a terrible person for suggesting this immediately after I just told you to take a rest, but would you consider having all that water drain into a cistern for people to specifically wash their clothes? Otherwise I can already see people washing at the basins, and while they'll clear up because of the constant flow, it'll make them undrinkable while it's happening."

"I suppose that would be as good a use for the water as anything else," Lori considered. "A dedicated wash area for clothes and…"

They both glanced down at their stew bowls.

"You know, we never really ask if–" Rian began.

"Don't. Let's not think about it while we're eating," Lori commanded.

Rian nodded.

They ate and tried not to think about it.