Demesne 111 - Day Shift (Patreon)

The brat had been given a bucket of water and admonished not to drink from it, another bucket to catch the water that dripped out, some stones to count how many times the waterclock had gone empty, and orders to yell out the time before refilling the water clock. Lori had her sit where the people guarding the air slits could hear her but not be close enough to distract her. The brat had sat down, head bowed to stare at the fired pot, a binding of lightwisps at the bottom shining to help her make out the level of the water and the flowing stream easier.

"She'd probably going to sit like that all day if you hadn't told her she could take latrine breaks," Rian commented.

"Good," Lori said bluntly. "I don't want her getting distracted and losing track of time."

"For someone who's so concerned about their wellbeing, you sure give the children a lot of work."

"I'll compensate her," Lori said irritably. "Don't you have scheduling to do?"

"Don't you have someone to talk to?" he retorted.

"Do your work and go to sleep."

When she returned to the table, she found Riz eating there, with two sleepy-looking weavers sitting next to her. That was a good sign. The two blinked at her, hesitantly making to stand before Lori waved them to sit back down.

"All right," she said without preamble. "Do you have enough materials to weave?"

"W-what?" Umu said, rubbing her eyes.

"Weaving," Lori repeated impatiently. "You brought in the ropeweed fibers, did you not? Are there enough dry fibers for you to work?"

"Yes, your Bindership," Mikon said, managing to compose herself. "We have enough dry retted fiber for spinning, at the very least."

Lori nodded. "People need to be occupied so they don't get into trouble. Everyone else is to get their alcoves properly organized. Things neatly stacked, nothing in anyone's way. Then organize as many people as possible to start spinning, play board games, and keep the ones keeping dragonborn abominations out of the Dungeon fed and watered." She checked the dome. Still complete, still whole, still being imbued. Good. "Everyone needs to be occupied so they don't do something stupid, like make trouble or play music."

"W-what's wrong with music?" Umu managed to ask.

"It's loud, pointless, annoying, and it keeps me from sleeping," Lori said flatly. Dragon shelter parties were the worst. "No music."

"Yes, your Bindership," Umu said meekly.

"It will take time to set up, your Bindership," Mikon said. "We can get the other weavers and the spinners working, but I'm not sure everyone else will listen to us."

Ah. Right.

"Fine, I'll have Rian tell them before he goes to sleep and you can just keep them going," Lori said. "Riz, when you finish eating, find Rian and tell him, then come find me again."

Riz swallowed the spoonful she was eating. "Yes, Great Binder." She started eating faster.

Lori glanced towards the air slits, frowning as she concentrated on her awareness of wisps. "You two have breakfast," Lori told them. "I'll be back."

She stood, heading for the Dungeon's entrance.

The air slits had clogged. Now that the abominations were dead, they weren't complete voids anymore, but since all that was supposed to be in the air slits was, well, air, the dragonborn's corpses were obvious. Still, she couldn't clear them while people had spear stuck inside them. They might lose the spearheads.

"Back away," she said as she approached the air slits, binding the earthwisps making up the stone. The thick, syrupy golden blood was thick on the ground and dripping from the openings. "I'll clear it so we can get more air."

"You heard the Great Binder," the man Rian had spoken to— Kolinh?—said. "Back away, back away, let her work!"

It wasn't smooth, but it was vaguely coordinated as the two ranks of militia stepped back, pulling their spears out of the slits, each dripping with blood. Lori immediately had the earth slide and flow. The surface of the stone roiled and slid, moving towards the outside as fresh new stone that had filled the inside of the slits flowed out, showing a new, clean face. The movement was vaguely organic, like an undulating tongue, but it dumped corpses and blood outside. Those that became lodged inside were pushed out by little fingers of stone that protruded from the surface of the rock and interlocked to sweep them out, sometimes accompanied by a wet, bony snap.

Outside, strange cries called through the strange silence that still lingered, broken only by occasional too-brief gusts of wind, of loud crashing sounds as of falling rock, and the sounds of things falling from the air slits. Soon, the air slits became clear, and Lori rebuilt them, the stone slits forming into shape once more, slightly less bloody, and now with more air flowing through them again. The made the slits narrowed even as she added more of them, hoping to make it too narrow for the abominations to enter.  "Done," she announced as she added little fingers of stone in places to act as obstructions for beasts trying to get in. The curve she'd given it, she realized, had prevented the spearmen from pushing the dragonborn abominations all the way out.

"You heard the Great Binder, back into position!" Again, their movements weren't smooth, but there was no jostling or getting in anyone's way as the ranks of spearmen stepped back into place, spearhead just slightly outside of the openings as Lori double-checked the bindings of airwisps pulling fresh air in, and the stream of darkwisps that connected the dome outside to the core. Both were intact, thought the opening was now too narrow for the spears to poke into.

"Someone go and find the shovels," Lori ordered as she added glowing lightwisps inside the slits to outline anything trying to make its way inside. "Anything getting in through that will be too small to be dealt with using spears. Hopefully this means fewer things get in, though."

"Tovvy, you heard the Great Binder, go! The shovels should be downstairs somewhere," Kolinh said. One of the men fell out of line, handing his spear, useless as it was, to another man standing nearby, who took it and his place in line

"New time, call me if the air slits become significantly obstructed," Lori said. "Getting air in is slightly more important than keeping abominations out."

"Yes, Great Binder," Kolinh said.

"As soon as Rian gets back organizing the rest you should be changing shifts so you can eat and get some rest as soon."

"Looking forward to it, Great Binder. We'll yell if the air gets blocked again."

Lori nodded. She suspected she'd be responding to a lot of yelling the rest of the day. She'd have to think of a better configuration for the air slits before it was her turn to sleep.

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When Rian finally came back after declaring the shift schedule had been organized and would start as soon as the brat called out the first eighth of a day, he'd looked mildly exasperated when told he also had to organize everyone to start tidying up their alcoves—"At least let it wait until after they've had breakfast!"—and then get them to do something so they'd be out of the way and out of trouble.

"Don't you think they can work out that they're supposed to do that by themselves?" Rian said tiredly. He was sitting next to Umu since the three had already been sitting down together. It was the farthest he'd ever sat from Lori while sharing the same table.

"No," Lori said bluntly. "It's far more likely some idiots start playing music and all this becomes a dragon shelter party."

"I'm pretty sure it's not sundown yet—"

"There will be no music. Arrange it."

"Is this your cunning plan to get me so tired I actually do fall asleep?"

Lori gave him a flat look, then ignored him. "Riz, take a nap," she said. "I'll wake you if I need anyone and you can properly go to sleep when I do."

"I… can?" Riz said.

"Yes. You're my temporary Rian right now."

Both Riz and Rian got a strange look on their face.

"You mean temporary Lady, right?" Rian said.

"I said what I meant. Get to work before the eighth of the day is up, Rian. Riz, nap while I don't need you. That's an order."

"Yes, Great Binder…?" Riz said, looking very confused. She looked down at the table and hesitantly began folding her arms in front of her to lay her head down.

"You can lay your head on my lap if you want," Mikon offered as she ate her breakfast. "I'm more comfortable than the table. Just let me finish."

"You're supposed to be doing something," Lori said.

"Most people are still asleep, your Bindership," Mikon said. "Surely it's best to wait until after breakfast, so they've fed and watered and are more amiable?"

Lori gave her a flat look. "Fine. After breakfast."

"That's very kind of you to offer, Mikon," Rian said.

Lori couldn't help herself. "If she'd made you the offer, you'd have just said she didn't have to, gotten embarrassed and acted awkward and ungrateful."

"Well, I can't stay here, I have to go and get the awake people organized to start tidying their alcoves after breakfast," Rian said hastily. He slid off the bench and headed down towards the second level. There was a rising murmur of conversation there, as of people trying to be quiet but the acoustics were against them and all the talking was building up to a din.

Lori wished she had something more to eat, but alas she was full. Sighing, she got to her feet as well. "Riz, nap. Mikon, Umu, after breakfast."

"Yes, your Bindership/Great Binder," the three said, not at all like a chorus. They overlapped quite dissonantly, really. As she walked away, Mikon moved down the bench a little, looking at Riz and patting her lap with a smile.

Slowly, the day, such as it was, began.

The brat eventually called the first eighth of the day, and Rian barely managed to get his last-moment assignment finished in time. Despite everyone being told to put their things downstairs, Rian had stashed his things at the entrance to the vault corridor. Rather than waste time trying to get him into one of the alcoves downstairs—Lori suspected none were left unoccupied—Lori just had him sleep in the hallway leading to her room—after she sealed off the room itself, of course. She even dispelled the lightwisps illuminating the hall so it wouldn't be bright.

While the kitchen had spigots to control the water coming from the reservoir, the bath had no such control, and so Lori had to go between the baths to refill the water—people were being annoyingly wasteful with it, in her opinion—clearing the air slits, and building better defenses outside the Dungeon. Clearly this dragon was creating more and more aggressive abominations, so she had to make it harder for them to reach the air slits. When she concentrated on her awareness of the wisps, there was a disturbing amount of voids falling on her demesne.

She had to build the new defenses unseen, but that was almost commonplace now, considering the amount of pipes she'd made up to this point. Creating a basic moat in front of the dungeon, especially a pit beneath the air slits, was simple in comparison. She displaced the stone onto the bulwark in front of the Dungeon to make it thicker, and in the process raising the air slits three paces above the bottom of the moat. That helped keep abominations away significantly as they avoided the deep pit there.

Just in case this eventually proved insufficient, she also put a binding of airwisps over the pit to keep the air in and set a binding of firewisps at the bottom to cook anything that fell in there should the abominations become more aggressive again. Hidden under the dome of darkwisps over her demesne—which was still holding, she was glad to see—Lori didn't have to worry about the bindings being worn away or affected by the dragon.

As the day progressed—the brat called the second and third eighth of the day—it seemed the pit was sufficient, which meant she didn't have to clean the air slits after the fourth time, and they were able to keep getting fresh air, albeit air that smell of charred sweetness. Given how the smell was from the blood of the abominations boiling once it left their bodies, they probably didn't have to worry about dustlife riding in the air. Unless it was twisted, unnatural dragonborn dustlife, in which case they were dead already because she didn't know enough—or any at all, really—Deadspeaking to deal with the things.

Lori had lunch as the brat called the fourth eighth of the day. She certainly felt hungry enough for it to have been half a day.

Another half a day to go. She could do this. She'd done it before.

…

Perhaps she should plunge the Dungeon into darkness again, she didn't remember people being this loud last time…