Demesne 77 - Lori's Bored, So She Goes Seeling Again (Patreon)

After lunch, the general excitement of everyone at not having to work quieted. Some went back to the river for another dip, but many followed her previous example and took a nap. Some sat in the shadows of the aqueducts or outside the bath houses, talking, sewing, using knives to whittle at small pieces of wood, and in one instance weaving a hat out of some long strips of soft river grasses. Many curled up in the unoccupied benches and tables in the Dungeon, and she found that the finished niches in her second level had all been occupied, the children having moved their noisy game outside of the Dungeon to let people sleep. Other children had found what was left of her pile of snow and expended it on one another.

Some people were still doing things, though. A different hunting party had gone out for meat for dinner, and a few had gotten together to discuss the inadequacies of lunch and how they'd cook dinner to be much better. At least, that seemed to be their topic of conversation when Lori passed the group discussing with the seriousness of a major portfolio investment.

Lori, for her part, found herself with absolutely nothing to do. With Rian hopefully taking a nap on her orders, she couldn't even play sunk. The alternative was to take another nap, and she wasn't really that sleepy anymore. She could work, but… No. This was a holiday, sudden as it was. She was NOT working on a holiday. Especially one ostensibly celebrating her, even if she hadn't asked for it.

…

She really wished she had a book to read. Lori had spent her best holidays that way: curled up in her room, a book on her lap, pillows behind her, just… reading. When she'd been younger, she hadn't been able to. Her mothers had kept dragging her to places that were supposedly fun but never were. They were just a lot of tiring walking, noisy people, food she was only ever allowed one of, and more walking. At least when she'd gotten older she'd been able to tell them she had to read something, even if occasionally they'd still try to drag her out.

Lori let out a huff of both nostalgia and resentment, and focused on the present. Sitting alone at the usual table where she ate with Rian, surrounded by lots of sleeping, snoring people, with nothing to do but nothing… inactivity was turning out to be much more boring than restful. It was starting to be like those old holiday events her mothers had dragged her to, only without the food and footpain. The lack of both evened out, and it was still boring, and therefore felt like a frustrating waste of her time. The sounds of the few people still playing games—if at a more tranquil, less excitable pace, and with fewer onlookers—taunted to her, and a part of her regretted making Rian rest. With him so tired, if she challenged him to a game of sunk victory would sure be hers…

Wait, the brat knew how to play sunk! It was desperate, but Lori literally had nothing else to do. And she knew the girl's name and what she looked like anyway, so it was hardly like talking to people at all! Lori looked around, but while there were some spots of bright orange hair around her, a cursory inspection showed none of them were the brat. Maybe she was outside? Lori hadbeen outside when the brat had given her the bowl of food, after all.

Speaking of which, Lori really had to put away this bowl… ah, but they kitchen staff were on holiday…

She didn't have a wash rag, but there was a pile of ash for cleaning near the laundry area, so Lori threw some on her bowl, held her squeamishness as she rubbed it into the stains on the bowls by hand, then blasted it all away with water that was well below the force needed to cut through wood until everything had been scoured off. That chore out of the way—it wasn't work, it was holiday work! Normal logic didn't apply!—Lori continued on her way to find the brat so she could have someone to play sunk against.

The brat wasn't taking a dip in the river, nor was she sitting under the shade of the aqueducts. A quick in and out showed she wasn't in the bath house, the safer, warmer alternative to taking a dip in the river. Lori ignored the women seated next to each other who had moved apart when she'd come in. She couldn't prove they were touching and had no desire to look to find out. And if they were so thoughtless as to do it in a publically used pool of water… well, Lori didn't bathe there anymore, so that wasn't her problem.

She had thought to check the houses next, but after she'd gotten close she saw allof them had some sort of garment hanging from the door and backed away. Lori very much hoped the brat wasn't in one of those right then. Checking the outside dining hall revealed no brat, just a smaller amound of people either sleeping or playing quiet, thoughtful games. She turned right around when she saw the still unfinished houses also had some sort of garment on their doors, those that had doors. Those that didn't just had a something on a stick leaning diagonally across the doorway as a symbolic barrier.

Given the way she immediately turned around, it was probably fair to say it worked.

She sighed. Well, at least no one was doing it in publ—!

Lori paused, then against her better judgement concentrated on her awareness of the demesne's wisps and the voids of wisps caused by people.

…

…!

Lori pushed away her awareness of the demesne's wisps. Why there? Why in the woods? People were within ten feet of each other, there was no way they couldn't see or hear each other, why…!

She closed her eyes and ran her hands through her hair. All right, just… ignore it. The way the woods were, any public indecency would be a self-inflicted crime. There were no victims, only perpetrators. She resolved not to act on it unless there was a traumatized child at dinner or something…

Still, checking for voids hadn't been completely unhelpful, and mostly disturbing. She'd felt a lone, upright void along the river, near where the children seeled. A small void. Child-sized.

Sighing, she did put the brat out of her mind to do the responsible thing and make sure the child wasn't unsupervised. Really, what were they doing there? Shouldn't they be enjoying the holiday or something?

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Lori found the brat perched on a rock overlooking the river, her seeling rod in hand, arm upraised and eyes staring into the water. Her skirt had been girded around her loins, and she moved carefully, deliberately, as she scanned the water around her.

"What are you doing here?" she called, raising her voice so it would carry.

The brat's head jerked up, but that didn't seem to affect her balance at all as she turned to look towards Lori. "Wiz Lori?" she said, surprised. "Why are you here?"

"I asked you first," Lori said.

The brat considered that and nodded. "Lord Rian asked me to get some seels for roasting," she said. "He asked me to get the biggest one I could so that there would be enough for everyone, but…" she sighed. In annoyance, from the look on her face. "None of the big seels have come near me, so I have to keep waiting. I wasn't able to bring one for lunch, so I'll bring one for dinner." She nodded, as if satisfied. "Your turn."

"I noticed someone was all alone near the river without any supervision and decided they needed to be stopped from getting into an accident that would get them killed," Lori said. "Especially since they were here without adult supervision, or even someone else to call for help."

"Everyone's busy having fun," the brat said, as if that explained everything. "So I came by myself."

"That's dangerous," Lori said. "What if you'd slipped and fallen into the river? Who'd be there to help you?"

The brat frowned. "I would have been fine. I'd done it before and I know what I'm doing."

Lori gave her a level look. "If you'd caught one of the big ones," she said, pointing to an enormous adult seel, at least six paces long, which she was fairly sure was NOT what Rian had meant, "how would you have carried it back by yourself?"

The brat opened her mouth. Paused. Frowned. Looked thoughtful. Huffed. "I'd have called for help," she said. She waved vaguely. "There are people at the fruit trees, trying to get more fruit. I could have just gone to them."

Lori sighed. This girl… She shook her head, and bound the waterwisps in the river. "Come here," she ordered.

The brat frowned, but did as she'd been told, carefully making her way over the rocks and onto dry land. She picked up her shoes and carried them as she moved to stand in front of Lori.

The waterwisps surged upward, bringing the water with it, and one particularly large specimen of seel adulthood was promptly lifted off the rock it had been resting on by the rising water, which also dispersed the only slightly smaller seels around it. before it could move its powerful body, however, Lori pulled the waterwisps around its body together, encasing it in ice. She waved her hand in a purely unnecessary gesture, and anothr surge of water brought the large block of ice ashore, sliding and grinding over the loose river rocks before it slowed to a stop. In addition to the big seel she'd been aiming for, she'd also partially caught another. It's head and a quarter of its body was stuck in the ice, leaving the rest of it to writhe and wriggle violently as it attempted to free itself.

"Is that enough, do you think?" Lori asked over the sounds of the fursh's tail slapping the ground and water in panic at its asphyxiation. She glanced at the brat, and was surprised to find them glaring at the captured seels with a look of… determination? Envy? "Karina?"

The brat blinked, and the strangely dark expression was gone. "Yes, that should be enough for dinner, it think," she said. She grimaced. "Though it might be really fatty, though. I should catch another one—"

Lori made another unnecessary gesture. Her lord wasn't the only one who could do things for dramatic effect, after all. There was another surge of water, another seel lifted and encased in ice, then the ice was propelled to the riverbank. It slid and came to a stop when it struck the ice that was already there.

The brat glared at the block of ice with a seel in it like it had personally offended her, her lips pouting. It was all very childish.

"That should be enough," she said through her pout.

"Excellent," Lori said. "Help me get this back to the village so people can start preparing it for dinner."

The brat nodded. "I think we need more people to push them, though."

"Who said anything about pushing?"

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Lori used earthwisps to push the frozen seels—the tail was still flapping around—into town and in front of the dungeon, with Karina being her spotter to tell her if there was anything ahead. Not that she was in front of the blocks, of course. That would have been dangerous and irresponsible, having someone stand in front of a mostly-frictionless large mass as it was being propelled forward. No, Lori made sure the brat was well to the side and having her shout course corrections, which probably also did double duty to warn away people hiding in the brush that they were approaching. The brat gave no sign she encountered anyone, at least.

There was a stir as the blocks of ice, flapping tail and all, slid to a stop in front of the Dungeon, bumping a table on the way. People looked up and pointed, a few standing to come nearer.

The seels were still alive in there, Lori was bewildered to realize. They were still voids in her senses, so they were still alive, as if the still-moving tail wasn't a clue. Well, can't have that. Food was best dead and unmoving so that it wasn't inconvenient.

"How do you usually kill these things?" she asked the brat.

The brat moved to where the head of one of the fursh were, pointing through the ice. "You hit it there," she said. "You can break the neck there, in the small ones, and if you can't do that, it can also bleed to death."

Lori scowled. The ice was warped, and wasn't perfectly clear. She had no idea where the brat was pointing. "Will cutting its head off affect the flavor?" she asked.

The brat shook her head. "No, it will still taste the same."

Lori nodded, beginning to pull water from the river to her. "Stand back!" she called to no one in particular, habit and practice from several jobs taking over. "Water cutting hazard! Stand back!"

She moved to the side of the seels that was away from the river, the water from the river reaching her and arcing upward as she ascertained the cut she was to make. "Karina, get behind me," she said as she carefully took aim.

The brat dutifully did as instructed, and Lori pulled earthwisps to either side, forming depressions there as a wall of compacted earth rose in front of her to about chest height. A thought, and a narrow but weak stream of water began to flow from the mass she'd pulled from the river, and she used it as a guide to correct her aim. Once she was satisfied, she nodded, made sure again the brat was behind her, yelled out, "Cutting!", ducked down behind the barrier, and poured power to the winding.

What had been a weak stream became a cutting jet that hissed out like flowing sand. Water sprayed as the jet cut, and she began to angle it upwards, cutting through the seel's head. She didn't stop until she heard something fall to the ground. "Flow stopped!"

She and the brat peered around the barrier. The head of one seel lay on the ground, surrounded by the shattered ice that had encased it, blood trickling around it. From its body, more blood flowed from severed arteries and veins as Lori was treated to a cross-section of a seel's neck.

There was a lot of pale fat. She really hoped they wouldn't use ALL of it for cooking. She hated it when she got a fat-induced headache.

"Karina, could you find the ones who usually handle the seels after you catch them, if you will?" Lori said. "And tell them to keep most of the fat for the chandler. I'll cut off the other heads."

The brat nodded, staring at the decapitated dinner in morbid fascination, before turning to find… whoever.

Lori was already examining the partially trapped seel. This would be an awkward cut. It might be better to remove it into its own block, or else she'd damage the other one. She didn't want that. A sealskin that large would be useful.

She found herself humming a tune she'd learned in one of her old jobs—working as a water cutter at a metalworking shop—as she started extracting the seel so it could be decapitated properly…