Demesne 133 - Can't Bring Herself To Care (Patreon)

Lolilyuri woke up to a familiar stony ceiling, an old list of names right in her line of sight, written into the stone. She really should get around to erasing that one of these days, the names were no longer relevant, and she'd forgotten who they were…

She lay on her nice and comfortable bed and bedroll—it still hadn't begun to feel uncomfortable, unlike her old wooden bed!—and contemplated just staying there for the rest of the day. Her supply of reparation fruit from River's Fork was long gone, but like yesterday morning, she didn't really feel all that hungry. Really, it was tempting to just close her eyes and sleep…

Groaning, Lori forced herself upright, years of practice at getting up to meet the unfortunate demands of reality pushing her forward. Well, at least her back didn't ache anymore when she got up. Still fighting the desire to keep her eyes closed, she went to her private bathroom and poured some water from the reserve jug she kept there to wash her face. The cold woke her up enough that opening her eyes no longer felt distasteful and annoying, but merely inconvenient.

Sighing, Lori began to strip down for a morning bath. She’d have to do laundry soon, her trousers were getting stained and her shirts were getting uncomfortable. Leaning against the cold stone wall so she didn’t have to stand, Lori reached through her connection to her dungeon’s core and through that to the rest of the demesne around her. She bound the waterwisps in the deep pit that acted as her Dungeon’s emergency water reservoir and central water repository, forming a binding that made them go up into the pipe that led to her bathroom, heating it on its way up with firewisps…

After a nice warm bath and a change of new clothes, Lori came down to her Dungeon’s dining hall to find breakfast in progress. It was far harder to navigate between the tables with them full, but she managed it, skirting around the edges of the room so that there were only be a few tables in her way.

Her usual table seemed out of place with only two people sitting there in the midst of so many other, more occupied tables. Riz, currently acting as her temporary Rian, and Mikon were sitting at least an arm's length apart on the bench. Both were drinking from cups, as if trying to hold back their hunger with water. At the sight of her, Mikon stood up and headed for the kitchen.

Lori stepped over the bench on her side of the table and sat down, eyeing the remaining cup, which was empty. And dry, so it probably hadn’t been spat on. She reached for the cup and poured herself some water, tilting her head back as she drank it all down in one pull.

“Good morning, Great Binder,” Riz said. Even Lori could tell the pink-haired former militiawoman was barely restraining annoyance. “Did you sleep well?”

“I slept,” Lori responded. She hadn’t bought down her sunk board this morning. She hadn’t felt like playing. “Report. What happened that I need to know about, and how did you deal with it?” She shouldn’t have to say that, but her temporary Rian need to be prompted.

Riz sat up straight. "Well… we need more storage for the firewood… and more space in the mushroom farm… and the mushroom farmers say they need your help for the next crop. Something about lightning…?"

"What aboutlightning?" Lori said blandly.

Riz pursed her lips and sighed. "I'll go and find out what they want exactly, Great Binder."

Lori nodded. "Good." She made sure her tone implied that it could be far better. "Anything else?"

"N-no, that's all, Great Binder," Riz said.

"Riz," Lori said sharply, and Riz straightened again. "If there are any problems in my demesne, it's your job to find them in and take care of it. If there are no problems, try harder. Just because Rian never tells me everything because he deals with it doesn't mean he didn't know everything."

Riz sighed. "Yes, Great Binder."

Lori suppressed the urge to sigh herself, even as Mikon came back with three bowls of stew. She placed them on the table in front of Lori, who looked them over and picked the one with the most meat she could see. It was a bit lukewarm, but she simply bound the firewisps in the food, binding them to slightly increase the food's temperature. Most beginners tended to bind the firewisps to produce too much heat, boiling their water to steam. It took experience to bind firewisps delicately enough to make lukewarm into merely warm instead of explosively boiling.

When Lori put first spoonful in her mouth, it was as warm as if freshly cooked. Even if having it far hotter wouldn't have hurt her—at least not her own demesne, as the firewisps in her body regulated her temperature and by extension the temperature of anything she touched that could be bound—it was nice to have the food just right. At least something was…

Mikon let Riz pick a bowl next. Her temporary Rian's suspicion towards the other woman was still there, but it was more like a habit that she just couldn't let go of instead of anything she actively pursued. Mikon, for her part, didn't seem to mind her bowl had the least meat on it, eating the food with usual efficiency of someone with a day's work ahead of them. The three of them ate in silence.

"Are you doing anything later this afternoon, Riz?" Mikon said, deliberately not paying attention to Lori. Lori could almost like the weaver for that. She seemed to be the only one who'd realized Lori wanted completely and total non-involvement with everything and everyone around her unless Lori felt like it, and acted accordingly, completely ignoring Lori when unless informed otherwise.

Her temporary Rian grunted. "I'm always busy," she said, and Lori idly wondered how much of that was a blatant lie. "Why are you asking?"

"Umu and I are sweeping Rian's house later, and we could use a third to help pick up the bed so someone can sweep under it." Mikon's face was completely innocent as she asked, "Would you happen to know anyone who'd be willing to help us with that? We were hoping to get it done before dinner, while there was still enough light to see."

The face Riz leveled at her was vaguely accusatory. "…fine, I'll help," she said.

"Oh, you will? Wonderful! We'll see you then, shall we?" Mikon said brightly.

"You said Umu will be there. If it's just you, I'm walking away," Riz said.

Mikon tilted her head. "Of course she'll be there. I did saw we needed a third to lift the bed, didn't I? Even if you were strong enough to lift the bed yourself while I sweep underneath, it would be cruel to make you."

Riz still looked deeply suspicious, but grunted. "Fine, I'll help you two clean house."

"Wonderful!" Mikon said. "It'll also help me see how well ropeweed fabric does with wiping up."

Lori listened to all this with what she knew was even more disinterest than she usually did. Mikon's even more blatant flirting—compared to when she'd flirted with Rian—and Riz's even more determined… not obliviousness. She was clearly aware, but either she was deliberately misinterpreting or not interested but for some reason just didn't bother to directly tell the pink-haired weaver—wasn't eliciting the mild amusement or slowly escalating annoyance it should have. She knew this and just couldn't bring herself to care.

She should have been worried. Complete and total apathy about the people around her was one thing, completely normal and how she liked to live her life. Apathy about herself, however… she should have been concerned.

Lori couldn't bring herself to care.

She lingered over her meal, eating slowly, such that her food actually cooled. When Lori was finished, the dining room was quiet and sparse, and people were already cleaning the tables and floors. Mikon was gone, probably already downstairs in the second level with the other weavers, leaving only Riz sitting across from her. Wordlessly, Lori pushed her now-empty bowl away and stood, her heavy wooden staff banging on the table a little as she pulled it back from where it was leaning. Lori winced at the impact. It had been a while since she'd last been so careless as to let her staff hit anything.

Sighing, Lori headed outside. What was it she needed to do again? Firewood storage and… oh yes, expand the mushroom farm. She'd have to dig down, since she couldn't really dig deeper… that meant stairs… some pipes and waterwisp bindings to prevent flooding… a small obstruction at the entrance to keep water out in the first place…

The lethargic apathy was pushed back as Lori's thoughts turned to the work she needed to do.

Seven days, a part of her thought, keeping count. Seven day already, and still not back…

And it would be longer still…

Lori worked. When she worked, she almost stopped thinking about it.