Demesne 71 - That Would Have Been Nice To Know (Patreon)

Though the woman deserved it, Lori had initially been glad when Shanalorre had finally healed whatever-her-name's leg, so she didn't have to listen to the piteous moaning, crying, sobbing, wincing, hissing and groaning anymore. After that, Shanalorre had stepped out with Lord Yllian, ostensibly to consider things, leaving Lori and the woman, her husband and a whole bunch of militia alone in her office to wait. The husband had sat down next to his wife when her leg had been healed, on the side closest to Lori, while the militia stood in the center of the room, glaring at both sides. Lori relented and grabbed the stool in front of Shanalorre's desk to sit on it. While she was annoyed that Shanalorre hadn't made a decisive proclamation immediately, she supposed the younger Binder had wanted to show she would not do things at Lori's convenience. Lori could respect that. If Shanalorre ever came to her demesne, Lori made a note to make her wait too.

As Lori sat, she hoped the tool she'd made for making wheels was still there. She'd made some before, in exchange for bread and some raw grain for them to try and grow in her demesne, but there was always a use for wheels. The tool wasn't much—basically a convenient rock she'd shaped to put the would-be wheel on so she could get it properly round—but if she had to make another one because some idiot had taken it to use as part of an oven or something… well, she'd make another one, but she'd be annoyed about it!

Shanalorre and Lord Yllian soon returned, and once more took her place at the desk. She nodded towards Lori, who hadn't stood up when the other Binder had entered, even though the woman and her husband had. Lori was amused to note that on their respective seats, she and Shanalorre were at eyelevel. She wondered if that was deliberate.

"I have spoken with witnesses," she said. "After sorting through inconsistencies and lies, I have come to a conclusion."

Shanalorre turned to Lori. "On behalf of myself and my demesne, I apologize for the unauthorized assault on your person. Lord Yllian, please arrest kozya Naineb and confine her to the stockade. I will decide her fate at a later time."

"What? NO!" the woman cried. "I didn't do anything wrong!"

"I have witnesses confirming you indeed antagonized and assaulted Binder Lolilyuri unprovoked, kozya Naineb," Shanalorre said coolly. "That is 'wrong', as every other child in my demesne knows."

"I protest," Lori said. "Why is this woman not being exiled? Given precedent, that is the established punishment for her offense of attempted bodily assault on a Binder."

The woman let out a scream and suddenly charged at Lori, only to find the militia in her path, trying to restrain her. They almost succeeded, at least until her husband weighed in on her behalf, knocking the militia aside, roaring about getting their hands off his wife. Lord Yllian moved to his Binder's side, pulling her behind him as he drew the stick he was wearing at his waist like a sword, calling for the militia outside.

Lori, unfortunately, had no one to do the same for her as her lord was currently asleep, on her orders. So when the woman managed to slip around the militiamen while they were preoccupied by her husband and come charging at Lori, she had no one to protect her.

Lori opened her mouth, and darkwisps inside her and airwisps around her head she'd been binding and imbuing came together, binding around each other before streaming towards the woman's face. The dark, smoke-like stream slammed into the woman, the darkwisps blinding her even as the airwisps made a loud snap. Blinded and hopefully disoriented by the deceptively sound gentle sound that Lori knew was a lot louder when it occurred right next to one's ears, the woman stumbled, and Lori rose and smoothly grabbed her stool by one of the legs in the same motion, swinging it up to slam under the woman's jaw.

As the woman stumbled, Lori moved sideways slightly to position herself, drew back her foot and methodically repeated the same stomp that had stopped the woman before.

There was a crack and another, more pained scream.

The woman's husband let out a cry, trying to push through the militia towards his wife, who'd once more fallen and was again clutching her knee. For a brief moment, he managed to push through, and knelt next to his wife, who was crying and screaming "This is her fault! This is her fault!" again and again, her face still blinded by darkwisps as the door opened to show more militia.

He was promptly tackled from behind by the militia he'd just gotten past, and who were promptly joined by the ones coming in through the door. His wife's cries gained a new dimension of agony as they all promptly fell in a pile on her and her once-more-ruined knee.

Lori watched warily, but it seemed like the militia would actually be able to handle this now. Still, she stepped back warily before examining the stool she was holding. The seat had popped off the legs slightly, but nothing a little light hammering couldn't fix. The demesne's woodworkers could probably take care of it.

"That's twice," Lori said, giving Shanalorre an unamused stare. "Both times unprovoked."

"Duly noted," Shanalorre said, looking with disapproval past her lord.

"Will she be exiled now?" Lori said. Beneath the pile of men trying to restrain the spouses, screaming that were almost words resounded.

"I wish you had not pressed the issue," Binder Shanalorre said quietly, almost too quiet to be heard over the screaming. "But yes. She will be secured with Grem and exiled to Covehold when the time comes." There was a pause. "Her relations are welcome to stay, though I find it unlikely they will do so."

"Why?" Lori said. "If they had wished to stay at Covehold, they'd have never joined the expedition to settle my demesne."

For a moment, Shanalorre and Lord Yllian gave Lori a look.

"What?" she said.

"I suppose that is a logical statement to make," Shanalorre said eventually. "But people are seldom logical."

"No, they're often idiots," Lori agreed. "Shall we discuss reparations?"

Shanalorre blinked. "Reparations?"

"Indeed," Lori said. "When a member of my demesne attacked you, we took immediate action and successfully prevented bodily harm to your person. That was not reciprocated in this instance. I had to defend myself. Twice. Reparations for allowing this to happen while within your demesne are necessary, to show you are truly regretful of the oversight."

The two of them stared at each other for a long moment over the sounds of the husband finally being subdued and the wife getting her knee looked at again.

"I've healed you," Shanalorre said.

"The payment for that has already been negotiated, and will be paid. I was in fact on my way to do so when I was attacked," Lori said. "This is a separate matter."

There was a mild commotion at the door as several militia dragged out the husband, and tried to get the wife on a proper stretcher instead of the improvised one Lori could vaguely remember she had been carried on. She was making it difficult for them not ceasing in her howling in pain and moving her leg.

"I see," Shanalorre said eventually. "Yes, I follow the logic there."

Lori did not smile triumphantly. This wasn't a stage performance, after all. "I've noticed you possess certain fruit…"

––––––––––––––––––

It was nearing dusk by the time Lori returned to the house where she had left Rian, now escorted by a pair of militia. She'd been able to finish the wheels, though she'd needed to rush a little to finish them in time. It had been necessary, since she wanted to be gone the following day after listening to Shanalorre's proposal and claiming her loot—er, reparations. Still, the wheels were symmetrical, round, with a hole properly sized for an axle. They were even the same size as the wheels she'd provided before, in case they were to be used as a replacement. All of them had been officially received by River's Fork in the person of… someone, so the debt for her healing was almost discharged. She'd only have to listen to Shanalorre's proposal now, and then she could go back to her demesne and never have to leave it again!

She tried not to remember she swore the same thing the previous times she'd left.

She collected some lightwisps before she stepped inside, and so she had a glowing binding of lightwisps on her forehead to provide her light to see by in the now-darkened house. Despite everything, there were still some unused houses in River's Fork. More than enough to suit any idiots that decided they didn't want to live in her demesne anymore.

She still wouldn't be taking them here by boat. They want to leave her demesne, they could walk for the privilege. She wouldn't stop them.

Rian was still passed out on the bedroll when she came in, the pillow he'd used to cover his eyes fallen half off his face. She unbound the lightwisps from her forehead and stuck them to the wall, adjusting their output to not be overly bright. Then there was nothing for it but to sit and wait for the food Rian had said he'd negotiated with Shanalorre. To have something to do, Lori looked through the bag that had contained her clothes, and now contained the clothes she'd worn while indisposed, pulling out two of the earthen jars of ration stew. They were both cold and slightly congealed from sitting in the bag all day, so she went outside to find a rock that was still warm from the sun to draw firewisps from.

She got strange looks from the militia there, but so what?

Rian was still asleep when her food arrived—bread, another bowl of fruit that was so pretty and colorful she wanted to douse it in sweetbug gold mixed with water and call it a jewel, as well as what seemed to be pan-seared seel meat—which she ate with enjoyment. Especially the bread. Ooooh, the bread.

She was in the middle of eating when Rian finally woke up with a groan. "Bread?" he groaned.

"Good evening Rian," Lori said, trying to ignore his post-waking erection, no matter how funny it looked. "Your dinner is ready." She pointed at the jar of rations she'd used firewisps to heat when she'd seen him start rousing.

"Hmm?" he said, sitting up and rubbing his eyes. "Oh, did you save that bread for me?"

"No," Lori sad blandly, taking a bite of the last piece of bread.

"You're a terrible person for not finishing that sooner and actually letting me hope I was getting bread," Rian said, looking grumpy.

"Would you rather I make the stew cold again?"

"Thank you Binder Lori. Your kindness and graciousness to your people knows no bounds," Rian said, bowing dramatically. "Please don't make me eat cold food, it feels disgusting in my mouth."

Lori nodded, pushing the warm jar towards him. Then she sighed, tore a 1/16th piece from her bread and put it on the plate the bread had come in, pushing it towards Rian.

"Awww, you do care. How nice," Rian said, even as he plucked the piece of bread like he was afraid Lori would take it back. It… wasn't an unreasonable caution. She was already regretting doing that. "So, what did you do while I was asleep, and do I have to worry about anything."

"I made the wheels, so we can leave tomorrow," Lori said. "Also, a reminder that we have to uphold our end of exiling Grem to Covehold."

Rian sighed. "I know, I know. Well, at least nothing happened while you were out. That's good."

"Oh?" Lori said flatly. "What are you afraid might have happened?"

"Well, you might have been attacked," Rian said. "I mean, they weren't here the last time we were because they were trying not to die on the bath next to the river from Lorian, but even just from the boat to where Shana—"

"Shanalorre," Lori corrected.

"—right, where Shanalorre treated you, you were getting a lot of nasty looks from people I recognized who'd moved here from Lorian. Maybe they think you tricked them into moving here or something. There was this one woman, Missus Naineb—don't know if you remember, you drowned her in the ground once as an example—"

"You exaggerate," Lori said, finally remembering the woman. "She sank, but didn't actually drown. Drowning involves lungs filling and preventing air from coming in, which didn't happen."

"—well, actually drowned or not, the woman blames you for how bad her life is, from what she was yelling," Rian said. "I think Elceena promised her land and that's why she and her family joined the expedition. She was actually throwing rocks at you, her husband had to hold her back…"

"Ah," Lori said. "Well. That would have been good to know sooner."

"You didorder me to go to sleep, my generous and caring Binder," Rian said.

Lori nodded. "So I did. And now it's my turn to go back to sleep."

So saying, she took off her shoes and lay on the bedroll that had just been vacated. It was still warm and squashed form having Rian lie on it, but it was muchsofter than her laundry, and she had to keep herself from groaning…

"You know that's my bedroll, right?" Rian said.

There was a long pause.

"Your Binder thanks you for your sacrifice and assures you that you will be compensated," Lori said eventually.

"I'll hold you to that," he said, sitting down on the other bed. "Well, go to sleep then, you had a long day and a long illness. I'll make sure no one kills you in your sleep. It's not like I have anything else to do."

Lori nodded, not getting up, She raised up her head, fluffed the pillow, and settled it in place.

Then she sighed, breathing out darkwisps to block the light from reaching her eyes.

"That's creepy," Rian said conversationally. "You look like you're smearing your soul on your face."

"Noted. Now be quiet, I'm going to sleep. Unless you brought the game board?"

"Shutting up, your Bindership. Good night and pleasant dreams."

For a long while, Lori lay in darkness and quiet.

"Rian?"

"I'm still here."

"Thank you for saving my life."

"It was a group effort. But you're welcome."

She fell asleep.