Weekly Digest 42 - (#133- #137) (Patreon)

Can't Bring Herself To Care

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.

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Erzebed, Riz to most, watched as the Great Binder walked away, colder and more distant than ever. When she walked, she walked alone, and her eyes didn’t seem to see the people around her. Once, her eyes had looked like they saw some distant thing only she could perceive. Now, however, her eyes seemed to see nothing, looking through everything and everyone as if they didn't matter. The only ones she seemed to even acknowledge, much less listen to, were Riz and Mikon, and even then her face was constantly set in an expression of annoyance, as if wondering why they dared bring themselves to her attention.

Riz sighed. On the one hand, it was clear that the Great Binder was dissatisfied enough with Riz's performance that her tenure as 'Temporary Rian' was likely to actually be temporary, unlike the story Mikon had told her about Rian being 'temporary lord'.

On the other hand, she was already getting the feeling people were blaming her for the Great Binder's bad mood. Or at least, for that mad mood not improving. While she still worked, it was quite clear she was working less, working slower, and not working on as many things as she used to. The third level of the Dungeon was noticeable being excavated far slower than the second one…

Riz sighed. She might actually have to take Mikon up on her offer to introduce Riz to more of the original settlers of Lorian. Unlike Rian, she didn't really know who they were, or what they did, or what they were like. Months of trying and failing to flirt with Rian had taken its toll.

Sighing, Riz stood up and got to work, needing to go find Nazu and press him again on what exactly he needed the Great Binder and lightning for…

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A Small Hole

Lori trudged to work, each step heavy as she walked up the slope towards the sawpit area. The sawpit itself was at rest, since no large logs were being cut up into planks. Instead, dead wood, branches, and roots such as the strange growth that had sprouted from the old latrines, pieces too small to be used for building material that had been gathered over the months and left to naturally cure were being cut down to size. Now they were being cut down into smaller pieces for firewood, and a stockpile was being built up for winter. Or at least, the early parts of winter.

The cut firewood was being put into orderly piles on cleared ground next to the curing sheds that held their stockpile of cut planks and large, squared-off blocks of wood in case they needed planks cut to a different size, for some reason. The piles were low, and as she had told Riz to tell them, the wood was inside lines she had marked on the ground yesterday. Off to the side was the pile of rock she had excavated from the third level-in-progress yesterday, ready for her to use. There was another pile in progress, made of cut log segments each a half-pace long, being stacked up to cure naturally over the time.

Both piles would need a storage shed built around them, but for now she was going to build the one for the firewood first. Lori sighed and got to work. A part of her wanted to just sit down and do all the work with her Whispering, but she knew that was a terrible idea. She need to see that she was doing if she was going to be making load-bearing structures, so she knew it was properly shaped. Lori began taking deep, even breaths, taking in magic from the air even if she didn't really need it. She reached out through her dungeon's core, and from there to all the wisps in her demesne, binding the earthwisps of the pile of excavated stone and imbuing them with magic from the core.

The stone flowed, things like layering and natural cleavage lines melding together as the rock moved under her direction towards one end of the marked off area. Lori had the stone follow the lines she had made, fusing with the bedrock stone she had drawn up and exposed as she began to build the walls of the structure. The work was familiar and she was able to lose herself in the familiar actions of making sure the walls were properly vertical so that the weight of the stone went straight down so it would be stable. She had to make an internal wall, temporarily cutting the structure in half as she added the curving, half-cylinder stone roof.

It took her all day to finish the structure, with a break for lunch, despite the fact she didn't have to make any windows or add any support for openings in the walls, and both ends of the structure opened out so that firewood could easily be stored in and retrieved.  Slow work, when she was usually able to make it much faster. At the very least, Lori would usually have been at able to make both storage sheds by the end of the day. She made an effort to start the walls for the other shed, but she could already tell she'd need more stone. It was already late afternoon, and Lori just wanted the day to be over already so she could have her dinner and go to bed…

Sighing, Lori stopped working as she ran out of stone, the walls barely ankle high, and probably a dangerous tripping hazard. She began to trudge down back to the Dungeon. Tomorrow, she'd have to excavate the third level again, get more stone, then finish storage shed… then she'd need to expand the mushroom farm… Actually, she might need to do that first, since that would give her stone for the shed… She should have thought of that sooner…

Lori let herself be pulled down the slope to the Dungeon's entrance, then turned as she reached the wide, flat area directly in front of it. She passed the smithy, where the smiths were putting away their tools for the day, the forge's coals banked and the door and chimney closed to hold in the heat. And standing across from the smithy was a house. There was a circle of stones in front of it and to one side so it didn't block the way to the door, the ground in the middle of the circle darkened with old ash from old fires. Around the circle were a couple of benches and other places to sit.

Inside the house, she could hear people—probably three people—hurriedly cleaning, despite the fact they didn't live there. Even as she watched, there was a brief exclamation, then a panicked sound as of a cloth being snapped around. A moment later, a large bug flew from the door. Only the size of her thumb, the wings on its back buzzed as it was routed out of the house. Absently, Lori bound some airwisps, producing a sharp jet that pushed the bug in the general direction of away from her. After several months, the bug population of the demesne seemed to finally be recovering. She supposed it was only a matter of time before bug meat started appeared in the stew. She hoped they tasted decent. They didn't have much in the way of spices to flavor the food. If they were lucky, some of them would be like chlyp and would only need to be boiled until they turned yellow…

No, wait, chlyp tasted best with salted lard. And they didn't have salt. Lori sighed.

A blonde woman stepped up to the door, sweeping dust out with a feather-bristle broom. She looked up and paused for a moment as she saw Lori, but Lori was already turning away and heading for the Dungeon.

A bath. She needed a bath. Why is it that despite the fact she didn't lift anything heavier than her staff and mostly stood around and walked so she could see the walls she was working on better, she still became sweaty? It couldn't have been from heat, the firewisps in her body took care of that…

And she still needed to do her laundry.

Sighing again, Lori headed for her table through the mostly empty dining hall and sat down, folding her arms on the tabletop and laying her head down. She'd just close her eyes for a moment… just a little moment… After all, it wasn't like she had anything better to do…

Someone was poking her in the side. They were annoyingly insistent about it, and Lori grudgingly lifted her head, looking sideways to glare at whoever was foolish enough to not just annoy her, but physically touched her to do it.

The brat stopped poking her. "Wiz Lori, it's dinner time," she said. "You need to eat before you go to sleep, or else your tummy will hurt."

For a moment, Lori just lay there and glared at her one taxpayer. Then she sighed and pushed herself to sit up, wincing at the twinge on her back. "I'm up, I'm up," she said. "Now go back to your family and eat."

The brat nodded, turned and nodded at the woman sitting across from Lori then headed back to… wherever it was she sat for her meals. Lori thought it was somewhere in the back corner next to the stairs, where there was a slight breeze from the air being circulated up from the second level.

Lori couldn't bring herself to care all that much.

Still, she leveled an annoyed glare at the two women sitting across from her, her temporary Rian most especially. "Really?" she said, her tone distinctly disgruntled. "You got a child to wake me up? What, you didn't have the nerve to do it yourself?"

"It was my idea, your Bindership," Mikon said before Riz could reply. "We weren't sure if you'd be angry if—"

"Mikon, shut up," Lori said. Mikon's teeth clicked together as her mouth snapped shut. She gave Riz a flat look. "You. If you need to wake me up, wake me up. Talking to me is explicitly part of your job, so do it."

"Yes, Great Binder," Riz said. At least she was no longer stuttering nervously.

"You used to be more competent. Inexperienced, but competent. Was that only because you were trying to impress Rian?"

"No, Great Binder," Riz said.

Lori stared at her for a moment, expression completely flat. It might just be that she had woken up in a bad mood. She pointed with her spoon. "Start eating." She followed her own order, stirring her stew with her spoon—it had been getting increasingly more bland—before starting to eat.

Riz made to do just that, but hesitated as she reached for the bowl. "You pick first," she said to Mikon.

"Oh? Well, if you're sure," Mikon said… and picked the bowl that had noticeably less meat floating in it. She began eating the same cheerful, unreadable smile on her face.

Riz looked down at the bowl left, then at Mikon. Face bemused, she began to eat.

Relative silence descended on the table once more, while around them the dining hall buzzed with annoying cheer.

"Well?" Lori demanded after several spoonfuls had gone into her stomach. She didn't feel like eating, not really, but she knew she needed to.

Riz paused. "Uh, well what, Great Binder?"

"Did you clarify about the lightning?"

Riz jerked to attention. "Ah, yes! Nazu said that they'd just put in some fresh spores, so they needed you to use lightning on it to help increase the yield." A look of barely veiled annoyance came over her temporary Rian's face. "He said you knew what it was, since you'd done it before."

"Yes," Lori said. "I knew what he meant. But you didn't and you didn't ask. Next time, I might know what they need, so you need to get into the habit of finding out everything before getting it to me. Unless you likehaving to go do it twice?" She hadn't needed to tell Rian this. Rian had always been thorough and diligent in his work. she'd just told him what she'd needed done and made clear all the details were up to him, and he did it, only informing her when it was finished or there was a problem he felt she needed to know about, either because it needed a decision on her part or Whispering work.

"No, Great Binder," Riz said, barely holding in a sigh. Next to her, Mikon kept her eyes on her bowl, but she reached up and patted Riz on the shoulder. Riz barely twitched, just accepting the gesture.

"Good. See that you remember it. What else?" Lori went back to eating as her temporary Rian visibly wracked her mind, trying to remember.

"Ah, we have bugs trying to nest in the back rooms of the baths," Riz said. "The bath workers have been reporting there are a lot of bugs crowding around the seams of the doors when they go to refill the reservoirs there. Some have gotten in and nested or laid eggs in the water. They think it's because of the season. They've been dealing with it, but… ah, well, it's something you should know about, Great Binder?"

"Better," Lori said. "You're right, I haven't foreseen that. I'll see what I can come up with, you go ask the smiths if they have what they need to make fine mesh." She glanced at Mikon. "If they can't, which is likely, we'll need to use fabric."

"Use fabric for what, Great Binder?" Riz asked.

"As a barrier to keep the bugs getting into a heat outlet," Lori said.

"Ah… I see," Riz said.

"No, you don't," Lori said. "Don't pretend you understand if you don't. It makes you look both ignorant and foolish. Saying you don't know just makes you look ignorant, but at least you're admitting to it so you can change it."

Riz flinched again. "Yes, Great Binder," she said.

Mikon reached over and patted her on the shoulder again.

Lori nodded curtly. "Good." She turned back to her meal. "Is there more?"

Riz had taken her hands off her bowl. "The farmers said we'll need to harvest soon, Great Binder. They say they need a place to store the grain so the bugs can't get at it, and they'll need a people to help them harvest."

"Did you ask how much storage they need?"

"No, Great Binder."

"I trust you will correct that?"

"Yes, Great Binder."

"Good. Make the arrangements for the people you need for the harvest."

"Yes, Great Binder."

Riz had taken her hands off the table, and they were now out of sight.

"Riz, do I look like your mother?"

The strangeness of the question made her temporary Rian blink. "Uh, no, Great Binder."

"Then don't treat me like it," Lori said. "I know the 'yes, mother', 'no mother' routine. I am not asking you to do something unreasonable, simply what I know you can do. Is that unreasonable?"

Riz opened her mouth—

"If you say, 'no, Great Binder', I will be even more annoyed than I am now."

Riz's mouth clicked shut. "That is not unreasonable, Great Binder," she eventually said.

"So why are you making fists under the table?"

Riz said nothing.

Lori stared at her. "Are there any issues you know off that cannot wait until tomorrow morning?"

"No, Gr—There are no issues I am aware of, Great Binder."

"Then tell me in the morning." Lori bent down over her food and went back to eating.

Eventually, Riz lifted her hands from under the table and continued eating as well.

Around them, the silence persisted.

Lori finished eating, pushed her bowl away, got up and headed for her room.

Once she'd sealed the door and hallway behind her, Lori sat down on her stone stool and started undressing. She pulled off her boots, examining it for wear. It was still in good repair, although she noticed a few subtle cracks here and there, and the soles were getting more worn. She set them aside, pulling off her socks, and paused.

One of her socks had a small hole in it, a hole that hadn't been there that morning.

For a moment, Lori just sat there, her eyes staring but not seeing. Then she pulled off her socks and set them aside. She stripped down naked, then went over to the niche in the wall were she kept her unwashed clothes, and began to bring them all to her bathroom.

That night, she stayed up doing laundry, and only managed to get half of them washed.

Eventually, she just surrendered and went to sleep, the remaining clothes left soaking in the water.

Lori couldn't bring herself to care.

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Hungry After All

In the morning, the hole in the sock and the laundry were still there.

More work she had to do, needed to do.

She'd get to it later.

Before she left her room, she went down the list of bindings she had to imbue and maintain. As she sat on her bed, she stared at the wall next to her where she had written the list. She kept meaning to arrange it by order of importance, but as with many things, she just never got around to it. So it was still written in the order of when she'd gotten around to writing them down.

At the bottom of the list was the list of bindings that maintained the Coldhold. She always did that part of the list first. It was the only thing she could do to make sure the ice boat could return. The hull, the water jet driver, all the parts of the ice boat… she kept them all imbued and functioning. At least she didn't seem have to worry about her affinity with her blood fading and the connection being lost. Even her lightwisps remained connected to her…

She was finished. Lori sighed and headed down for breakfast. In the dining hall, breakfast was again in progress, though it seemed she'd managed to wake up earlier today. Many of the tables were still unoccupied, so she was able to go directly to her table. It was appealingly empty, and she slipped onto her bench, leaning her staff next to her. She looked around, but Riz wasn't here yet, and neither was Mikon.

Sighing, Lori folded her hands on the table and laid down her head, closing her eyes.

She woke up when she felt someone nudging her shoulder. Lori made a sound in her throat as she opened her eye—she'd barely put her head down!—to find Mikon standing next to her. The weaver began to pull her arm back as she saw Lori was awake. "She's awake!" she said to the person across the table.

Well, it was a little better than calling a child to wake her up, but not much better.

Lori pushed herself up straight, wondered why there was salt in her eyes even if she hadn't actually fallen asleep. Ugh. Still, the three bowls in front of her were still warm and fresh from the kitchen, and there looked to be dried mushroom and likely mushroom stock in this batch.

"Good morning, Great Binder," Riz said. "Did you sleep well?"

Lori grunted with feeling as she got the salt out of her eyes. A part of her wondered if she should save it to give the tanners. They needed salt, right? Idly, she tried to bind it. Some waterwisps, some earthwisps… Probably not enough salt, salt had a more earthwisps to bind. Ugh, stupid back ache. She twisted back and forth on her bench, and felt she spine pop, then rolled her shoulders because there was still a twinge on her back…

Shaking her head one last time, Lori rested her elbows on the table, one hand resting on top of the other, one wrist pressing back into her mouth as she contemplated her temporary Rian. In hindsight, she'd acted… exactly like what she'd been trying not to be. She should probably apologize…

Well, she wasn't good at this anyway.

"Good morning, Erzebed," Lori replied. Her temporary Rian seemed surprised to be addressed by her proper name. "I did. Are there any issues I should be aware of?" She glanced at the bowls, and picked one, pulling it towards herself.

Riz still seemed confused, even as Mikon pushed one of the bowls in front of the northerner and took the last one for herself. "Uh… well, there are bugs trying to nest in the baths."

"So you said. Anything else?" There was a new spice to the stew, and it wasn't just because of the mushroom broth. Lori couldn't quite place it, but it was new and not unpleasant. It made her want to drink water though.

A strange expression came over Riz's face. "We've started to have small beasts in the fields. We've been able to keep them away from the crops, but they might start going into other places."

"Find out what those places are and make the arrangements," Lori said. "Like doors."

"Yes, Great Binder."

Lori gave her a flat look, then winced internally as she guiltily realized what she was doing and looked down into her food. "Good," she said. She was NOT going to act like her mothers! "I'll leave that to you, then. What else?"

"Those should be it, Great Binder," Riz said.

"Very well," Lori said. "Eat then. You can't work on an empty stomach."

Mikon pushed the still-untouched bowl of stew toward Riz significantly. The movement made Riz glance down and she reached for the spoon for the first time. She began to eat hesitantly, occasionally glancing at Lori as if she expected a subtle, pointed comment in her direction. At least, Lori assumed so. It was what she used to think in that position…

The worst was always when her mothers sighed and started telling her that they loved her. Lori was never sure who they were trying to convince, her or themselves…

Grimly, Lori pushed away such pointless thoughts and focused on the taste of the food, determinedly eating her breakfast.

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After breakfast, Lori set out to begin the day's work. There was some trudging involved, but it wasn't as uphill as yesterday's trudge, which was nice.

Lori wasn't sure if it helped, but she wrapped a cloth around her mouth and nose before she entered the cave with the mushroom farm. There was a woody smell inside, and she only took few steps inside before she turned around and went out again. The sun shone down brightly, so there were plenty of lightwisps for her to claim, imbue and bind. She put them into the end of her staff and went back into the cave. Maybe she should put a few lights in there, it was pretty dark…

The cave was mostly clear, and there were only a few crumbling bits of wood on the floor, save for a neatly stacked row along one wall, glowing slightly blue from small growths of mushroom already on them, waiting to mature. She supposed they didn't plant the mushrooms into the wood in the cave, or whatever it was they did to grow them. This left her plenty of room to work, which was good.

She started with excavating the floor next to the long wall of the cave, making a ramp that sloped downward. While it would take up more room, a ramp down was easier to build than stairs, and… uh, it would probably made it easier to bring down the wood that the mushrooms grew on to the next floor down. Yes, exactly, that was why.

Lori built a low wall around the hole for the ramp so they could lean wood for mushroom growing against it, before continuing the excavation. This would be a first for her, she realized. This would be the first level she'd build that would be directly under another. Still, it wasn't like she had no experience with this. Her room was built over her core, after all, and the space around the core was hollow. Her bedroom floor hadn't collapsed on her yet…

…

Maybe she should fill in her core room when there wasn't a dragon around, give her floor more structural integrity.

She built the ramp, then built it again when it was obvious it was too shallow and would end up being longer than the cave currently was. Once she thought the bottom of the ramp was deep enough, she began excavating the next level. By now putting up load-bearing pillars and arches when excavating was familiar enough she didn't need to measure to make sure the arches were the right configuration, though she did anyway. She also bound lightwisps to the corners of the ceiling of the cave, both in the original portion and new one she was excavating, a dim light that wouldn't impede the growth of the mushrooms.

She was so occupied she almost missed lunch, and only realized it was time to eat when she went out with a batch of excavated stone and saw that the smiths weren't at the smithy.

Lori sighed. Rian usually came to get her when she was too busy to notice it was time to eat.

For a moment, she was tempted to just go back and continue working—she didn't really feel like eating—but experience had taught her not to skip meals, or else her mind would be too fatigued to concentrate. She headed back to her Dungeon's dining hall.

Fortunately, it seemed like it was still early in the meal. She arrived at the table at the same time that Riz and Mikon did, one carrying food, the other carrying the cups and pitcher of water.

"Erzebed," Lori said as she sat down, "Rian might have forgotten to mention, but if I'm not at the table at lunch or dinner, look for me. It's hard for me to tell the time when I'm busy digging under the ground."

Riz winced. "Ah, sorry Great Binder. I'll remember next time."

Lori nodded. "Good." She reached for one of the bowls. "So, did anything come up this morning?"

Mikon very deliberately pushed a bowl towards Riz, who hesitated a moment and accepted it. "The smiths say they need A grinding wheel. All the hand tools are getting dull because of the cutting and while we can make do with whetstones, sharpening them all individually takes too long."

Lori nodded. "Noted. I'll make one."

"They, uh, say that the stone needs to be shaped as quarried," Riz said. "The texture is important for the sharpening, and too much Whispering can ruin it."

"Tell them that I've made grindstones before, but their awareness of how not everyone has is noted," Lori said. "Well done getting more complete information, Erzebed. Very competent."

The two women across from her looked at her strangely.

"What?" Lori said.

"How are you feeling, your Bindership?" Mikon asked. Well, Lori supposed she hadn't specified who she was addressing.

Still, it as a strange question to ask. Lori shrugged. "I'm fine," she said disinterestedly. "Was there anything else from this morning?"

Riz glanced at Mikon, then sighed. "Well, there was one other thing. The weavers want to know how they should prepare for winter. So far, they've been weaving a lot of sheets, which are making good blankets, but if they have to make that into anything else, like shirts or winter house blankets, it'll take time, and they'd like to know what the priority is."

Lori paused in her eating, frowning. "Winter house blankets? What are those? If they were just like regular blankets, you'd probably say so."

"They're thick blankets with sleeves, your Bindership," Mikon said explained. "You use it as a blanket at night, then wear them over your regular clothes to keep you warm in winter."

"Oh, you want to make robes?" Lori said. She frowned. "Do we have enough material to make those?"

"No," Mikon said. "But we might have enough to make them for the children, if we start now."

Lori considered that. "Make sure we have enough for extra blankets first."

Mikon nodded. "Yes, your Bindership. We're running out of ropeweed though, and as the season grows colder, retting them becomes less effective."

Lori grunted and turned to Riz. "Have people start gathering ropeweed from the other side of the river. Clowee can take them, it's not like the boat is used much the rest of the week."

"I'll tell her, Great Binder," Riz said. "I think that's all that for now."

Lori nodded, then bent down to focus on her food. She was hungry after all, she realized.

They ate surrounded by the familiar murmur of the dining hall during meal time. As they ate, Lori became aware of Mikon staring at her intently.

"What?" she demanded.

Mikon smiled. "Would you like to play a game later, your Bindership?" she asked.

Lori considered it, then shrugged. "Sure, why not. At dinner."

Mikon nodded, and they went back to their meal.

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Even When He's Not Around

Lori was able to quickly finish excavating the mushroom farm's expansion after lunch. It wasn't all that difficult, after all. It was basically just moving rock, and making pillars and arches so that the ceiling wouldn't collapse. She even had Riz jump up and down on the first level to prove it wouldn't collapse.

"I can't do it myself," Lori said at the look she got. "If it collapsed and something happened to me, who'd repair it? What if I died and the demesne disappeared?"

"Tell me that first, Great Binder," Riz said. "This is clearly a job I should delegate to someone else. After all, if anything happened to me, you'd have to talk to people."

Lori conceded that was a good point.

"A good point," she nodded. "You're right, we'll do that next time. All right, you may go."

The look on Riz's face said she was still annoyed and planned to at least pass that annoyance on to someone else as she left to inform the mushroom farmers they could start moving the things to the new level. Lori made sure to double check the floor below. She bound some lightwisps to provide some dim light in the new level, just enough to let people navigate and had enough time to drag the excavated stone up to near the sawpit. She'd use lightningwisps on the spores once they'd been moved in, and hopefully they'd have a decent crop when winter came.

Then it was late afternoon and it was time to get ready for dinner. Lori had a quick wash, then took a moment to separate the clothes she still needed to launder.

She was running out of soap. She made a note to remind her temporary Rian to get her some more.

Washed and cool again, Lori was about to head down to the dining hall when she paused, remembering. Then she turned and picked up the long wooden sunk board and the sack of stones to play it with and headed downstairs. There were few people yet in the dining hall, though the smells of dinner were starting to emanate from the kitchen. Lori lay down the board on the table with practiced, familiar movements, putting the right number of stones into each bowl.

She thought about folding her arms and taking a nap, but the wait wouldn't be that long, so she took the time to double check on the bindings she was maintaining. Waterwisps to move water from the river, firewisps to heat the water to bathing temperature and for the distillers cleaning the water from the river in case there was still a corpse rotting somewhere and tainting it, airwisps to circulate the air through the Dungeon, lightwisps in the first and second level of the Dungeon as well as the shelter—or possibly just he dormitory now—as well as the Um and the baths. She'd stopped using earthwisps to reinforce stone structures in favor of making them self-reinforcing, so there were none of those to maintain, and she had no lightningwisp bindings at all. The material storage vaults acted as her darkroom for now, which didn't need any actively bound darkwisps…

Lori would have to make some solidified air again soon, the ones in the cold room were almost depleted.

Which reminded her, she had to check on the pink ladies there so they didn't freeze completely. Rian had made a mistake when trying to grow them, so they'd just been buried in the ground not growing…

The dining hall began to fill up with the murmur of conversation as Lori stared down at the game board in front of her, fingers suddenly listless. Then she sighed and finished putting the stones in the bowls.

Riz came to the table, looking tired and sat down heavily on the bench. "Please tell me again that this is a temporary position," she said, her voice more sigh than anything else. "Please, I need I hear it."

Lori raised an eyebrow from the lack of a title, but said, "This is a temporary position, you will only be here until Rian comes back from Covehold."

What came out next was a relieved sigh. "Really?"

Lori gave her a flat stare. "It's a bit late to be doubting my word, don't you think?"

There was a wince. "Ah, good point, Great Binder."

For a moment, they just sat there. Lori drummed her fingers on the table as she waited for the kitchen to start handing out the food. "Anything to report?" she prompted.

Riz jerked up right on her bench. "The farmers are saying it's time to harvest soon, Great Binder. Not this week, but maybe next week. Uh, the smiths say they still need that grindstone."

"Noted. I'll get to it either tomorrow or the day after. Though perhaps they can use the stone wheel on the carpenter's water wheel for the grindstone."

"I'll tell them that, Great Binder," Riz said. "I've had Clowee bringing people to the other side of the river to gather the ropeweed there, and Mikon says there should be time to rett a lot of it in the tank before winter. Apparently, retting isn't as effective in the cold."

Lori waved a hand. "If need be, I can make a heated tank for the winter. Are they leaving seeds behind so the ropeweed can grow back?"

Riz was silent. "I'll find out, Great Binder," she sighed. "And tell them to do it if they're not."

Lori nodded. "Good. Now that I think of it, perhaps there still food we can gather on the other side."

"I'm already having people on it, Great Binder," Riz said. "Though there might not be much. It's well after season, and the bugs will likely have eaten them already."

Lori nodded. "How is our food supply?"

"We're still bringing in seel and beast meat, but it's only a matter of time before that stops as they migrate or get harder to find. Some people are… ah, trying the local bugs to see if any are good to eat."

"And are they?"

"Only if we get really desperate. Though some people actually like eating larvae, even if it tastes like mud."

"One less mouth to feed, then," Lori said blandly. "Hopefully it doesn't come to that, thought it would be nice if we found something like chlyp."

Riz nodded. "Yes, chlyp would be nice. Though making a hatchery for them would be… complicated."

"Just in case, find someone who knows how to raise chlyp and learn what is needed," Lori ordered.

"Yes, Great Binder."

For a moment, Lori tilted her head and considered here. "Good. You have returned to being competent, Erzebed. Keep it up."

"Er, thank you, Great Binder."

Lori glanced up towards the kitchen. "The food is ready."

Riz blinked. "Uh, what?"

Lori pointed. "Food. Get it."

"Oh. Oh! Yes, Great Binder." Still, Riz looked around a moment, clearly looking for Mikon. Not seeing the weaver, she sighed and stood up, heading for the kitchen.

Lori wondered herself where Mikon was. They were supposed to play a game, weren't they?

When Riz came back, however, she was carrying three bowls rather than two. Lori chose to refrain from commenting as she picked one of the bowls and pulled it towards herself. Stirring with her spoon, she began to eat, filling her stomach after a hard day's work and wishing they had some spices to add flavor. Or just salt. Salt would have been nice. Riz, for her part, looked around one last time before shrugging and taking a bowl herself.

The two were already eating when Mikon finally arrived, carrying a tray in her hands, on which was a wooden box. "Hello Riz," she said cheerfully, completely ignoring Lori beyond a brief glance at the sunk board. "I have that thing you asked me to get from the carpenters, since they finally finished with it."

Riz stared blankly at her for a moment. "Oh, yes, yes, the uh…thing I asked you to get."

Mikon nodded. "Shall I present it to her Bindership now?"

Riz looked towards Lori, who wore a blank face. "Fine," Lori said, waving a negligent hand in assent.

The weaver put down the tray on the table. On closer inspection, it turned out to be a game board. The surface had a dark gloss as if burned, with recessed lines of paler wood. On one side was a grid of fifteen by fifteen squares, the size of a standard lima board. There were other boards, of course. Children and beginners liked to play on a thirteen or nine square grid, since it needed fewer pieces and the game went faster. Seventeen by seventeen square grids were used by people who wanted to show off how good they were. There were also nineteen by nineteen square boards, though in her experience those were usually used by old people who had a lot of time on their hands or young masochists.

The box was made of a similar wood, its surface also darkened. Lori peered into it as Mikon removed the lid on the box. It was made with interlocking wooden panels that would probably come apart if it was hit too hard, and divided into two halves. One side was large and empty. In the other were round wooden playing pieces, on ground dark, the other pale. Lori picked up one piece. Inscribed on it was a simple carving depicting a chatrang Horotract piece, an hourglass inside a cube.

"Rian said you'd have to make the lima pieces yourself, because there were too many pieces to ask the carpenter to make them," Mikon said. "At least, that's what the carpenters told me. But there's a complete set of chatrang pieces. Two sets of a Binder, a core, a lord and lady, a Whisperer, Deadspeaker, Mentalist, Horotract and eight militia."

Lori sighed. "That man… Even when he's not around, he finds a way to make work for me to do." She glanced at the empty space in the box. It might probably be big enough to fit in all the pieces one would need to play on a fifteen by fifteen board, as long as Lori didn't make them too thick.

Well, she'd need to make all the pieces if she intended to beat Rian when he got back.

Sighing, Lori pushed the new game board and the box aside for now and went back to her dinner. Mikon sat down next to Riz, looking pleasantly surprised there'd been a bowl waiting for her as Lori moved the sunk board to the middle of the table. The weaver had lost last time, Lori remembered that much, so the first move was hers. Mikon glanced at the board thoughtfully as she ate her first spoonful, before reaching over and making her move. Then she stared at Lori intently.

Lori studied the board, eating as she did so, and made her own move before finally fixing her gaze on the weaver. "What?"

"Could we try playing chatrang after this game?" Mikon said.

Lori raised an eyebrow. "Do you even know how to play?"

"A little? I've watched people play it before…"

"So you don't actually know how to play."

"…no…" Mikon said with an easy smile and a shrug.

A thought occurred to Lori, and she frowned. "Did Rian put you up to this?"

Mikon shook her head. "No, your Bindership. I just thought you'd like someone to practice against before Rian got back."

Loi considered that. "Learn how to play and we'll see," Lori said. "For now, it's your turn."

Mikon nodded, eating a little as she looked at the board and then made her moved, scooping up the stones from one of the bowls on the game board and dropping them spinwise one at a time into the other bowls. She finished her moved, before nodding in satisfaction. Then she turned and looked imploringly at Riz.

Riz, who had been minding her own business, took a while to realize she was being stared at. She paused and glanced sideways at the other woman. "What?"

"Riz, can you teach me how to play chatrang?" Mikon said.

Lori had to wonder if Mikon actually wanted to learn how to play or she was just reusing the same method of flirting she'd used on Rian. But then, the woman did seem to actually enjoy their games… and Lori was sure the other woman wasn't doing it to flirt with her.

Mostly sure.

Fairly sure.

Reasonably sure.

…

Lori decided that it wasn't her problem.

Continuing to eat her dinner, Lori made her move, falling to the familiar rhythm of eating and playing as Mikon tried to convince Riz to teach her how to play chatrang.

Sadly, Lori had to retire after the one game. She still had laundry to do, after all.

––––––––––––––––––

It's Just Not The Same

Lori woke with the satisfaction of knowing all her laundry was done, her clothes all washed and folded away save for the sock that had a hole in it and its pair. People said it didn't matter, but socks came in pairs, and the rainbowed pairs mattered!

"Do you know how to sew a sock?" Lori asked over breakfast as they ate, finishing her move on the sunk board.

For some reason, Riz glanced sideways at Mikon. "Do you mean making a whole sock or just fixing holes?" her temporary Rian said.

"The first, but if you can do the second that would be nice too," Lori said.

Mikon turned to look directly at Riz. "Unfortunately, knitting a sock isn't that easy," she said. "You can make it out of fabric too, but it doesn't fit as well, and isn't as comfortable."

"What she said," Riz said without preamble. She frowned and sighed. "Rian used to sew the holes in your socks, didn't he?"

"One of his duties, yes," Loi nodded.

Riz made a face that even Lori had no trouble interpreting, clearly trying to think of a way to get out of it.

Mikon rolled her eyes. "If you can't do it, I could do it for you—"

"Please?" Riz said, not even giving her time to finish her sentence.

"Fine, fine," Mikon said. "If her Bindership trusts me with her socks?"

Lori pulled the socks out of the inside pocket of her coat. The leather raincoat would need to be treated soon, and she'd need have Riz get the materials she'd need for it. "Here," she said, putting them down on the table.

"Both socks have holes?" Mikon said, picking them up and inspecting them. Lori had of course washed them first.

"One of them does," Lori said. "The other is just so they stay together."

Mikon at least had the sense to not to try and give the other sock back. "I'll check them both, just in case. The other one might be wearing out too."

Lori nodded. "That would be appreciated." She went back to eating as she waited for Mikon to set aside the socks and make her move.

––––––––––––––––––

The days wore on, and Lori got used to dealing with the demesne through her temporary Rian. So far, nothing had caught fire, there had been no violent altercations that Lori noticed, no one had died or gotten severely injured enough to need to go down to River's Fork to ask Binder Shanalorre there for healing, and every few days the Um was closed down so that the people who'd used it that week assisted in cleaning it and airing out the rooms, lest it start to smell. Lori didn't know how thorough the cleaning was, but since it was the people who were going to use the rooms who would be cleaning them, she supposed it was fairly self-regulating. If they didn't like how the rooms smelled, this was their chance to do something about it. If they did a poor job, they had only themselves to blame, and others would probably be willing to help them in the blaming.

She managed to finish the storage shed for the logs that would be curing over time, and once the wood they were using to grow the mushrooms were moved into the caves, she was able to use lightningwisps on them to increase the potential harvest. It was a skill she was still developing, since she had never worked in a mushroom farm before, but thankfully the ones in charge of the cave knew how to explain the procedure to a Whisperer, and were experienced enough to be able to judge if she was producing the proper output simply from the way the lightningwisps raised the hair on their arms. It was always good to be working with people who knew what they were doing.

After the construction, she had to make a grinding wheel. Or at least, a stone wheel that could be used for grinding. The actual construction of the fittings to make it a wheel instead of a wheel-shaped rock would be up to someone else. Fortunately, they were next to a river, so there was some of the right kind of rock to be found… eventually. The rock she was excavating in the cate was too solid and uniform to be a proper grind stone, but she found some near where the seels were hunted that was the right kind, and she had to carefully shape it into a wheel-like shape and knock a hole through the middle. After that it was up to… she wasn't sure if the smiths or the carpenters did the next steps. No, wait, they had people with stonemason skills to get it properly round and centered, right…?

Well, it was out of her hands, she'd already done most of the needed work on the rock itself. Someone else could worry about turning it into an actual tool for sharpening cutting implements. Lori went back to excavating what she intended to be the third level of her Dungeon. Mostly she was trying to get enough stone to make the alterations to the entryway of the Dungeon that would let them continue to breathe when a dragon came by without having to worry about abominations clogging the vents their air was entering through.

She intended the new level to be their in-Dungeon farm. Some place they could continue to grow food all year round, in controlled conditions and protected from dragons, voracious bugs and possibly sieges from invading rival demesne. Lori had even worked in some. Not in the Dungeon of Taniar Demesne itself, but in some of the commercial farms in the city. Mostly she had maintained the bindings of lightwisps to mimic sunlight, humidity, temperature and air circulation, since the spaces were completely enclosed.

It had been one of the few jobs she'd taken on where she'd worked with other students who weren't Whisperers. Horotracts had maintained the vista to allow the expanded space to allow for growing a large field's worth of food in a three by three pace room inside a warehouse, and the alterations of gravity that allowed them to plant on the walls and ceiling as well, as well as the flow compression to allow for harvesting in less time. Deadspeakers had carefully accelerated the growth of the grains, monitored their condition and watched for disease, while more trained professionals had tended to increasing the yield.

She hadn't liked working in the commercial city farms. Even the ones who were supposedly accredited and inspected liked to cheat them by using creative record keeping to make them unofficially work more hours thanks to the Horotracts maintaining the vista.

Now that she was a Dungeon Binder, she'd be able to leverage her experience to try and build her own. She still couldn't use Horotracting or Deadspeaking, but for getting a farm started, Whispering would be more than enough.

Lori looked down at the bare, cold stone floor of the third level, which looked like it could grow nothing but moss, and only if there happened to be a flood.

Well, Whispering and lots and lots of dirt and soil. That would need to be carried manually, or on carts. Trying to move dirt with Whispering tended to leave you with rock.

She'd have to speak to her temporary Rian about this, have her inform the farmers so they could prepare to do their part.

…

Or wait until she got her actual Rian back and have him do it, he could probably do it better. Riz was becoming competent, but Lori didn't feel all that confident about having the woman take on a large project on her own.

Until then, Lori continued her excavation. There would always be a use for more space in a Dungeon. At the very least, all the industries in the level above—the carpenters, the ropers, the weavers and spinners—could be relocated down so that the second level could be dedicated to being an emergency shelter and public space. Or she could dedicate an area of the third level to more extensive cold food storage. She was running out of space in the first level for expanding the cold storage, unless she began to dig down as she did with the mushroom farm.

Which wasn't a bad idea, actually. After all, there was nothing underneath the cold rooms, and even if she kept to the same dimensions, she'd still be able to double their storage capacity…

Still, despite the familiar work she was doing, it just wasn't the same…

––––––––––––––––––

"Great Binder? It's time for dinner."

Lori looked up from where she was… well, basically staring at the walls to get them to become fluid and viscous as she bound them with earthwisps. Thankfully, Riz had only needed to be told to go look for Lori once. She'd made good progress on the third level-to-be, and already had a decent-sized space cleared. Unlike the second level, she was excavating more space between floor and ceiling. When she finally managed to managed to learn how to make vistas with Horotracting, the dimensions wouldn't really matter, since she'd be able to just change them, but for now, she wanted there to be enough space for full-grown crops while still having enough of a gap to bind light sources and room for air to circulate. As a result, the ceiling was five paces up, and the pillars and arches had to be thicker to carry the load properly. Or at least give her piece of mind as the person building them.

At least she was getting a lot of stone out of it.

"Understood," Lori said. She sighed, rotating her neck. She'd been looking everywhere but straight ahead all day, and her neck muscles ached as a result. "Any problems?"

Riz paused, clearly thinking. That… wasn't a good sign. It meant there might be something, but she hadn't thought of it until asked. "I… don't think so?"

Lori gave her a piercing look. "Anything that might become problems?"

"I'm… trying to keep them from doing so?"

Lori let her look go on a little longer, than grunted. "Well, I'll leave you to deal with it." She glanced at the stone she'd excavated since the last she'd gone up, and decided to leave it for tomorrow. "Come on, let's eat."

The two of them walked up the stairs to the second level, which was mostly empty, the tools all put away. The only ones there were a pair of carpenters, who were talking about something in their alcove. From the gestures, they were talking about technique. Probably involving chisels. Lori ignored them, and after a glance they ignored her.

Mikon was carrying three bowls to the table by the time the two of them got there. "Ah, there you are," the weaver said, smiling cheerfully. "Sit, eat, I'll go get the water."

Lori slid easily into her bench and looked between the bowls before picking one as Riz walked around the table to her side, watching after Mikon as she moved away. She began to eat as Riz sat down and slowly pulled one of the bowls towards her.

The two ate in silence.

"You realize she's flirting with you, right?" Lori said, not looking up from her bowl. "It's hardly subtle. In fact, she's being much more blatant with you than she was with Rian."

Riz's voice stuttered slightly as she said, "I-I… she…I-it's not like I'm encouraging her!"

Lori hummed thoughtfully. "Good, you know. I've already seen it happen the first time, involving much of the same people. It was funny then, to an extent, especially with Rian's obliviousness. Seeing it happen again is just repetitive, annoying and hardly as entertaining. Just don't let this interfere with your duties."

She settled down to enjoy her meal as Riz stared at her.