Weekly Digest 45 - (#144 - #146) (Patreon)

To Keep Busy

"—and the smithy will be enclosed in the event of a dragon. Those are the improvements I'm making to the front of the Dungeon," Lori finished explaining. "Did you understand all that or do I have to repeat myself?" Riz had better be listening. Lori did not want to repeat herself, especially since she had explained so thoroughly.

Riz—and Mikon beside her, since Lori had been too busy explaining for them to have their usual game of sunk over lunch—both stared at the little stone model on the table. It wasn't to scale, but it sufficed to show what she was building. There was the passage to the dungeon, the wall of which she had been building that morning; the door and the level above it, where the air would come in through; the side passage that would contain the stairs to the level above the door and a passage towards the smithy area; and the bit in front of the door to keep abominations out.

"Ah… I understand, Great Binder," Riz said slowly.

Lori nodded in satisfaction. "I will be building the rest of the passage this afternoon, and we will hopefully be able to move the doors after that."

"If you say so, Great Binder. And… this is the final design?"

"Why wouldn't it be?" Lori said as she bent over to finally put all her attention on her food.

"Ah… well, if you say so, Great Binder."

Well, yes, Lori did say so.

She heard Mikon sigh. "Riz," she heard the weaver say as she scooped some soft, fatty tail meat into her spoon, "if you have something to say, tell her Bindership. You're supposed to be doing Rian's job. Rian would say something."

"He would," Lori confirmed, not looking up.

"Come on, her Bindership won't do anything to you," Mikon pressed. "Otherwise, who'd do things for her?"

"You," Lori said, glancing up.

The hand that had been patting—no, squeezing and rubbing, not just patting—Riz's shoulder paused. "Er, me, your Bindership?"

"Yes."

"Ah… thank you for warning me, your Bindership…"

Lori shrugged. "You already know how to do it anyway." She fixed Riz with a look. "What are you not saying? You don't like the plan?"

"No, no, it's an excellent plan, Great Binder," Riz said hastily. "It's just… Do we really need to move the door? I mean…" Riz pointed at the model, "You could just keep the door where it is, and simply seal this opening when a dragon arrives, when you make the pit. Besides, if you move the door, chokers might get into the dungeon, since this part is open to the smithy."

Lori blinked, then frowned. Oh. Her temporary Rian was right, wasn't she? The little beasts hadn't been a consideration when she made this plan. Still…

"You're right," she allowed. "Yes, best to leave the doors where they are." Well, she supposed she wouldn't need to move it.

"And if you're going to be enclosing the smithy," Riz continued, "the smithy itself will need to be bigger. As it is now, if the smithy is enclosed, the smiths won't have any room to work safely, even if you managed to pull out the bad air from the coals."

Lori frowned. "Why would the smiths need to work? The smithy will only be enclosed in the event of a dragon."

"I don't know, Great Binder. But if you need them to make anything, it will be very difficult for them to."

Lori stared at her. "I suppose that's a point…" She shook her head. "I'll consider it. Make sure to remind everyone knows I'm still working on the entrance and need them to keep staying away from the doors."

Riz nodded as Mikon sighed next to her. "Yes, Great Binder."

Lori went back to her food, her mind already on the changes she'd have to make. Well, it was no problem, she hadn't been looking forward to moving the doors anyway…

"There, see?" she heard Mikon say. Some movement in her peripheral vision allowed her to imagine the hand on Riz's shoulder. "She didn't do anything to you."

A sigh as Lori chewed. "No, she didn’t…" she heard. "…thanks…"

She heard patting. "Any time."

They ate in silence for a moment. Then another sigh.

"Great Binder…" Lori glanced up, wondering what her temporary Rian wanted now. "Do the doors really need to be closed?"

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Lori continued building after lunch. The doors were open, and Riz had the duty of keeping people away from Lori and what she was building. Well, at least her temporary Rian wasn't just sitting around and doing nothing. That had been mildly annoying to see while Lori had been working.

She continued work on the wall, raising it up higher and higher using stone from the pile. The higher parts weren't very flat and vertical, but it wasn't enough to structurally compromise the wall, and the walls would be arch-supported before it became load bearing, so it wasn't a risk. The wall rose over the afternoon, and it was more or less completed by the time she stopped for dinner. She considered it a day well spent as she stood back and viewed the wall from the side. Well, straight and flat enough, and it was fused to the bedrock, so the minor imperfections wouldn't be enough to make it fall over.

It had taken a lot of stone, but not so much that Lori would need to resume excavating the third level for more stone before she finished. Tomorrow she'd be able to make the opposite wall, then she'd construct the raised level for the air intake. It wouldn't be needed now, so at best it would just look like a strange balcony over the demesne's front entrance, but she'd be able to start adding stone to the outside for a more permanent protective bulwark against dragons.

All in all, she'd done a good day's work, and tomorrow she'd have another day's work ahead of her, and the day after that as well. Plenty of time for her to find more work to do, or for Riz to bring new work to her attention. If she was lucky, she wouldn't have to think about Rian being gone at all beyond the part of the morning she spent imbuing the bindings on the Coldhold…

For a moment, she panicked as she wondered whether she'd remember do that today, closing her eyes and going over the distant-feeling bindings of her blood that existed outside of the demesne, before she sighed in relief as she realized they were properly imbued. She imbued them more anyway, even the blocks of ice for preserving food. There… seemed to be one less of those than she could remember from last time, so Rian had properly chipped off the blood and passed it through the evaporator. They'd still had a lot left…

"Great Binder?"

Lori's eyes blinked open, and realized she'd started leaning on the wall at some point. She focused her gaze on her tem—on Riz. "What?" she said sharply.

Riz winced, but held her ground. "It's time to eat," she said. "You still have some time to refresh yourself."

Lori stared blankly at the woman, then looked around. The sun was low and orange, the lightwisps she'd bound to the outside of buildings starting to visibly glow as the area slowly darkened in twilight. "Yes. Fine." She stood up straight, running her hands through her hair. It was getting a little long again. She'd have to borrow the scissors from the doctors… "Thank you," she said curtly, turning and heading towards the Dungeon.

Her temporary… assistant fell into step beside her. "Great Binder…" Riz said hesitantly, then lowered her voice. "Are you all right?"

Lori didn't bother to look at her. "I'm fine," she said flatly, stepping into her Dungeon and turning to climb the stairs to her rooms. She was halfway up and binding the stones that barred to way up so she could pass through before she realized Riz was following her. She turned and frowned down at her. "What?"

"It's just… you were standing there with your eyes closed for a while, but you didn't look like you were sleeping," Riz said. "Rian never mentioned anything about that. I was wondering if it was something I should be concerned about."

"There's no cause for concern. I'm fine," Lori repeated. "Now stop following me, I'm about to seal off the stairs."

Riz stayed where she was as Lori moved the stone back into place, climbing back up to her room alone.

Once she was inside, Lori sat down heavily on her bed, her posterior coming to rest on the wooden frame rather than the spun cords that wove through the otherwise empty space in the middle. Her head drooped down and fell into her hands. For a long time, she just sat there, staring at the stone floor and concentrating on her breathing. Eventually, slipped into the familiar breathing exercise for taking in magic that every wizard is taught, and she let the almost instinctive movements calm her.

"Stupid Rian," she muttered. "Get back here already…"

She sighed, then pushed herself back up to her feet. Dinner. She just had to eat dinner. She'd already been here for some time, so she'd take a bath later…

Lori went down to her Dungeon’s dining hall to find dinner about to start, with people lining up to get food. It was far harder to navigate between the tables with them so occupied with people, but she managed it, skirting around the edges of the room so that there were only be a few tables in her way.

Her table had the expected two people sitting there. Riz and Mikon were just sitting down next to each other on the bench, the former carrying three bowls of food, the latter three cups and a pitcher of water. Lori sat down on her bench quietly and pulled one of the bowls towards her. She started to eat, focusing on her food.

"Great Binder, the farmers say we need to harvest soon. In the next three to five days, they say. The grains are almost ready, they said," Riz said.

With an effort, Lori tore herself away from the obscured depths of her bowl. "What?"

Riz hesitated. "Ah, I said that we need to harvest soon, Great Binder."

Lori nodded in acknowledgement, then shook her head to clear it. Right, work. She had work to do. responsibilities. Something to keep her occupied. "Have you made the arrangements?"

"Yes, Great Binder, people are ready to help with the harvest as soon as we know what it is," Riz said. "The sickles have been sharpened and are ready to use, though I'm told we'll need more next year if we're going to bring in a bigger harvest in a timely manner."

Another nod. "Good. Then take care of it. I'll have things to do, and there doesn't seem to be anything I'm needed for." She'd already made the storage for it some days ago, after all. Lori bent back down towards her food. "Anything else?"

Quiet, murmurs, and then a sigh. "Uh, will you be playing chatrang tonight?" Riz sounded embarrassed as she said that.

Lori paused again, then glanced up. Riz looked like she'd just sighed, while next to her, Mikon was studiously pouring herself a cup of water. The weaver raised the cup to her lips and drank.

"Not tonight," Lori said. "I don't feel like it."

Riz blinked, and she and Mikon exchanged looks.

Lori was suddenly struck very strongly by the memories of her mothers doing that fartoo many times during dinner. That same confused, unsure look, one that usually firmed before one of them suggested a terrible idea and Lori was forced to go along with it because they insisted…

Riz opened her mouth, and Lori already felt herself getting ready to stop, a remembered anger building up in her chest…

"All right, Great Binder," she said, and Lori's anger suddenly stumbled, tripping in confusion. Riz continued, no longer looking at her, but at the woman next to her. "Just asking." Her gaze was more… emphatic.

Mikon sighed, and Lori's remembered, imagine anger disappeared, and she wasn't in front of two women raising her, just two women who sat across from her at meal times. Riz was focusing on her food, apparently having nothing more to say, and Mikon looked… disappointed? Like… she'd actually been looking forward to playing…

"Just one game," Lori found herself saying. "After dinner."

Both women looked up, one confused, the other hopeful.

But Lori was going back to eating. Eating was something to do… and after eating, going up to get her board was something to do… and after that, setting up a game and beating Mikon was something to do…

Around her, the sounds of the dining hall blending together were a familiar murmur. If she didn't look at who was in front of her, everything almost seemed normal…

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The Harvest

The next day, the opposite wall went up. It was slightly faster since it was just slightly shorter than the opposite wall, since she'd need to make the side passage towards the smithy and stairs to the… all right, it was basically a balcony. Since the opening of it didn't lead directly to her Dungeon, it was currently a bit useless, but once a dragon arrived and she made some reconfigurations…

Well, hopefully it would work.

Admittedly, having two freestanding walls on either side of her Dungeon's entrance did look a little strange. Thankfully, it didn't change the amount of air being pulled into her Dungeon, though she had to move the kitchen's exhaust outflow vent, since when she was finished, the current vent would be inside her Dungeon's air circulation, which defeated the purpose of having an outflow vent.

Building the balcony was a bit nerve-wracking. For one thing, she had to build it over the current entrance of the Dungeon, so this time she was very definite about there being no entry allowed in and out of her Dungeon while she was building. At first, she was concerned about supporting the balcony properly since, now that she looked at it, she couldn't be able to make supportive arches since the side passage meant there was a gap in the wall. She had to move the balcony two paces further down so that she had solid wall on their side to make supportive arches to bear the load of the balcony's floor. After that, building the stairs to reach it was simple, though she had to remove a portion of wall she'd build already.

The day after that was the harvest.

There was an excitement in the air when she came down for breakfast. People seemed to be up much earlier than usual, and she'd almost have thought today had been declared a holiday…

"No, I haven't declared today a holiday, Great Binder," Riz said. In comparison to everyone else, she looked tired, as if she'd gotten up earlier and hadn't wanted to. Mikon was off getting food for them. "Rian said not to have that until after the harvest was brought in and stored."

He had? Oh right, Lori vaguely remembered telling him to tell Riz that…

She sat down heavily, her mood heavier than it had been when she woke up. "What do I need to do?"

Riz frowned, tilting her head to think about it. "I… honestly can't think of what might need your help, Great Binder. Maybe the drying, but—" Riz suddenly groaned. "Glittering rainbows… the chokers. The colors-tainted chokers… I just realized. Great Binder, we will need your help. Normally, we'd leave in the vigas in the fields to dry in the sun, but with the chokers, and how it's getting colder… We'll need your held to dry them. I'm not sure, I'll have to talk to the farmers first, but it looks likely."

"So thoughtful of you to give me time to prepare," Lori said blandly.

"Ah, we don't need you now, Great Binder," Riz said. "That step happens after we actually harvest the stalks. You'll have time. Some of the vigas lodged, so we'll have to do those by hand… we'll have to stick all the stems in the storage shed so they'll dry without getting eaten by chokers or bugs… " She exhaled heavily and stood up. "Excuse me Great Binder, I need to find a farmer and talk to them… hopefully the winter crop will do better."

Lori blinked in surprise. "Winter crop? We're planting in winter? I thought it was too cold for that?"

"It's… I'll explain later, Great Binder," Riz said, sounding exasperated. "Why don't you ask Mikon, she should know." She walked away, muttering to herself.

Lori stared after her, then shook her head, sighing. Rian would have done it sooner…

She sat back waiting. Eventually, Mikon appeared, carrying the bowls of food. She put down the bowls, looking around. "Riz?" she called, even if the woman in question was clearly not around. She didn't look towards Lori.

Sighing again, Lori reached for one of the bowls. Without looking at her, Mikon moved it away from her hand.

Lori stared, then frowned and reached for another bowl.

Mikon moved that away too.

Lori's frown deepened. "Mikon…" she ground out.

"Oh, your Bindership! Do you know where Riz went off to?" Mikon said, finally looking at her with a cheerful, unreadable, and now very annoyingsmile.

"She went to talk to some farmers," Lori said flatly. "She also said you could explain to me why we'd plant crops in winter. I thought it snowed in winter. Don't the crops get buried?"

"Yes, but that doesn't really hurt it," Mikon said. "They just grow slowly under the snow until spring. And it makes them less likely to get eaten by bugs, beasts and slugs."

"How informative. Can I eat now?"

"Of course, your Bindership. The kitchen is over there."

Lori gave her a look that said she was not amused.

Mikon smiled, then pushed all three bowls closer to her. Lori reached for one, and it wasn't moved away from her. She still pulled it close before eating.

The weaver looked around one more time and sighed, finally deciding to sit down. She pulled one of the other bowls toward her, took hold of the spoon and paused.

Lori let her take a moment to take in the frozen bowl of stew that had been perfectly warm when it had been grabbed.

They sat like that for a moment, Lori eating her nice, warm stew.

"I'm… sorry for teasing you, your Bindership?" Mikon said hesitantly. "Please forgive me?"

Lori kept eating for a few moments more, then let the firewisps spread back across the weaver's stew, bringing it up to as hot as her own stew.

Mikon sighed in relief, but stirred her stew for a moment and tentatively tested it before she started eating.

Lori, for her part, had always wanted to do that. Well, something like that. If she was being honest, what she'd always actually wanted was to make someone explode or at least set them on fire and hear their screams of pain as they burned to death… but now that she actually had the personal power to actually do it, that seemed… excessive. Besides, Mikon was… she was… well, not as annoying as other people.

Besides, Lori was able to beat her at board games. That merited keeping her around.

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Lori had never seen a harvest before. She had grown up in the central city of Taniar Demesne, right outside the Dungeon. While there are had been work available to a student Whisperer in one of the city's many farms, the work had been imbuing and maintaining bindings that allowed for farming indoors, not actually picking the food off the plants. She actually didn't know who picked the food. For all they knew, it was done by some specially modified undead with multiple arms, or some sort of mechanism powered by bound tools.

In her demesne, right after breakfast, it was done by a lot of people.

It wasn’t everyone. The doctors and medics weren't involved beyond a few of them standing nearby in case of injuries. The kitchen staff weren't there, with the former busy washing the detritus of breakfast and preparing for lunch. There were also those going outside the demesne to hunt beast, or catching seels at the river. And Lori, of course. After all, she was the Dungeon Binder. She didn't have to do anything she didn't want to.

Also, she didn't know how to do it.

But most everyone else—the smiths, the carpenters, the loggers and sawyers and those who crossed the river to cut ropeweed—were at the fields behind the houses. The planted fields had grown slowly over the year, planted with wild vegetables they'd found and tubers and other plants and, eventually, grain. The grain had been partially-grown plants from River's Fork that had survived the dragon first dragon that had passed over it, and had been transported by the people who'd left that demesne and finally found their way to her own. There had been a lot of those plants, and while they had lost some when the second dragon of that year had passed over her demesne, it hadn't been a significant fraction.

Now, all those plants had matured enough to be harvested. They were low, thick-stemmed plants, visually significantly different from the crops Lori had seen in her student days, but that didn't really mean much. Deadspeaking could be used to cause significant physical changes to organisms while they remained, technically speaking, the same plant. And she'd already seen that the late Binder Koshay had been quite ready, willing, able and experienced in using Deadspeaking to alter plants.

Given these had initially been planted when he'd still been alive, she would not be surprised if he had Deadspoken these plants. It probably explained how they had been so hardy and survived such harsh treatment. If the seeds from this plant were planted, the resulting plant was unlikely to have the same appearance as its parent unless Binder Koshay had been very thorough in his Deadspeaking, but something like that took several successive generations of testing to ensure that the changes had stuck.

Lori stood next to the third bath house as she watched people getting to work. Some people were using strangely-curved blades to cut bundles of grain near the base, but most were using more familiar belt knives to cut much smaller groupings of grain. The harvesters were moving in a way that seemed practiced. The stems were cut and then left behind, and other people would follow after to gather them into bundles larger bundles, securing them what seemed to be cords made from ropeweed.

She frowned as she saw children among those working in the fields, but they mostly seemed to be among those gathering or tying up the bundles. Those few she saw among those cutting were among the older ones, who even she was willing to admit were not quite children anymore. At the very least, none of them seemed to be complaining. On the contrary, they were among the most enthusiastic workers. The few whose expressions she could see worked with an almost exaggeratedly intent expression, taking the work before them very seriously. The brat was one of those, and she was also one who was using one of those curiously curved, hook-like blades.

Lori found it… something—she didn't know if it was ironic or not—that the brat had not been allowed to use a knife to gut seels but had been given a substantially bigger blade for harvesting.

The rate of the work was surprisingly intense. She'd have thought that people would move at the same pace they'd moved when she'd seen them cutting and gathering ropeweed, a methodical pace that had seemed like they were working fairly hard to her.

The pace she saw now made that seem almost relaxed. People moved like they intended to harvest the whole field that day, or possibly even before lunch. The field wasn't very big—it had been originally the area that they had cut the trees from when they'd been making planks for the roofs of houses, benches and dining tables—but it was still substantial, and since it had been planted, the field had grown from more trees being cut down, with only isolated happyfruit trees that hadn't been cut down because of their fruit.

Honestly, it was tiring to simply look at, and Lori was just sitting and watching them go about it. And that was just their original field. It would probably be even more tiring to look at in the future, since they had more cleared land now.

Still, it was a satisfying sight. And if all went well, she might finally get some more bread in the near future.

Hmm, bread…

Lori sat back on the stone block she'd raised up and watched, already thinking happy thoughts of basic baked foods.

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The Best Kind Of Advice

The harvest took two days. Despite the rapid, almost unreasonable pace, they didn't finish on the first day. Lori had almost thought that Riz would ask her to bind lightwisps in the air so they could continue working in the dark, but that hadn't happened. Instead, people started carrying the bundles off towards the storage shed she'd built, a stone structure in the same vein as the curing sheds that she had built against the side of the cliff face since she couldn't safely build inside it. Looking at it now, she thought perhaps they'd need more space…

Honestly, Lori felt tired just watching everyone work. They didn't really stop for lunch. The hunting parties had come in with beast parts, and people started setting up fires to roast them. People would stop to get some food, and then quickly go back to the field to work. Fortunately, Riz remembered to bring her food, carrying a bowl of roasted meat to her… and not giving her a spoon or fork to eat it with. At least eating it with her fingers wasn't too difficult using firewisps to keep from burning herself, though it did leave her hand oily. But the bath house was right there, and a little wood ash mixed into the oils on her fingers washed it out nicely.

At dinner, the dining hall was subdued, with the sort of quiet Lori associated with the time just before the last exam of the week, before it was finally over and everyone could relax, as everyone resigned themselves to their fate. It wasn't a perfect comparison, since there was no panicked studying or anyone coming down with panicked screaming fits before a Deadspeaker either forcefully calmed them done or some Mentalist picked them up and tossed them away, hopefully on something soft, but it was close.

The stew they had for dinner had a lot of roasted meat in it, likely what was left of the beasts from earlier, and Lori had to wonder if anything had made it into the cold rooms for long-term storage. Across the table from her, Mikon looked tired. Lori vaguely remembered seeing her on the field, tying up bundles of stalks. Next to her, Riz looked absolutely exhausted, barely opening her eyes and chewing with great effort, as if it was almost too much of a bother to move her jaw.

"So," Lori said with only partially forced cheer. A part of her was taking perverse enjoyment in being the one to force herself on someone who obviously wanted to be left alone and just rest. "What happens next?"

Riz slumped at her words, and she clearly forced herself to look up at Lori. Next to her, Mikon sighed and patted on the shoulder, giving her what was probably meant to be a reassuring squeeze. Lori had never really found those reassuring, herself. "What, Great Binder?" she said, her tone clearly wishing Lori would leave her alone.

The perverse enjoyment was there however. It probably wasn't fair to Riz, taking out on her all the times in her life Lori had just wanted to be left alone, except one of her mothers, some teacher, one of her mothers, some random busybody, one of her mothers, some classmate, one of her mothers, or both of her mothers had intruded on her to inflict some pointless nonsense, like 'are you all right' or 'did something happen in school' or 'stop sitting there' or whatever it was… but honestly, Lori didn't care. "What happens next, after everything's been cut up?"

Ah, that resigned look as Riz came to terms with the fact that Lori was, in fact, talking to her and not likely to leave her alone. She knew those people were just deliberately annoying her! 'Important to socialize', 'want to be friends', 'blocking the way'… hah!

"Um, well, the stalks need to be dried so that the vigas can be threshed," Riz muttered in a 'why is this happening to me' tone of resignation. "Then it's winnowed… then after that it can be stored."

"And all of that will be done tomorrow?"

Riz shuddered. "No, no, only the harvesting will be done tomorrow. The vigas has to be dried first."

"Ah… and how will it be dried?"

Riz sighed. "Well, usually it's left out in the fields to dry in the sun, but with the chokers and the coming winter, and how the farmers want to make a winter crop and need to ready the field quickly, they can't do that… so…"

"So?" Lori prompted.

Riz sighed again. "Uh, Great Binder… can you do something to help dry the grain?"

"I probably can…" Lori said, humming in casual thoughtfulness. "How dry does it need to be?"

Riz stared at her. "W-what?"

"I've never dried grain before, so I don't know how dry it needs to be," Lori said. "Find out, will you?"

Riz closed her eyes, head drooping. "Yes, Great Binder," she said in resigned exhaustion.

"But that can wait until the day after tomorrow," Lori said with almost Rian-like brightness. "Remember to take a bath before you go to sleep." Despite the air circulation she'd engineered to make sure that the air in her Dungeon never went bad, tonight there was a distinctly sweaty pungency to the atmosphere. Lori glanced at Mikon. "Go with her. She looks like she might fall asleep and drown if she's not watched."

Mikon, who'd been frowning slightly, blinked. There was a brief pause. "Yes, your Bindership," the weaver said, nodding to Lori. " Don't worry. I'll make sure your temporary Rian doesn't just fall asleep in the water. I'll even make sure she gets home."

Lori nodded. "See that you do." She glanced at Riz. "Erzebed, tomorrow don't tire yourself out so much. You're an officer, not a glitter crawler. Temporarily, at least."

"Ugh… Yes, Great Binder…" Riz said tiredly. "Can I eat now?"

"Yes, go ahead." Lori said, waving a negligent hand. Her sick fun over, she focused on her own food. The beast meat was a little tough, but very juicy. Today was probably the least work she'd ever done in favor of watching people do work. Across the table, Riz looked relieved to finally be left alone, while Mikon hummed as she ate her dinner, a cheerful, unreadable smile on her face.

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The next day was more of the same, for everyone else at any rate. Lori, however, went back to building the new addition to her Dungeon. In hindsight, she should probably have worked on it yesterday as well, but… well, she'd never seen a harvest before.

But now she'd seen one, so now it was back to work. With the balcony-like air intake in place, she put in the ceiling and roof over that. That meant more arches, since it would have a lot of stone above it to be able to withstand dragon scales and islandshells falling on it during dragons. Well, small islandshells, anyway. If a full-grown islandshell fell on it, it was probably rubble. But that was a problem for when an islandshell actually fell on her Dungeon's entrance. For now, her problem was it not falling by itself.

She was careful not to stand under the arches as she built them, making an arch so she could extend the upper part of the incomplete wall over the side passage, letting her enclose the back of the balcony with more arches until she was able to meld the stone with the cliff face itself. The arches and structures were solid, but she couldn't help but worry…

After that, it was all a matter to making arches to support the rest of the roof between the two walls. She almost ran out of stone, since she had to make raised pillars to stand on so she could get up high enough to properly build the arches. It was only as she almost finished did she think to find out if the demesne had any ladders. The remaining stone from the pile, she used to add bulwarks to the outsides of the walls so that the pressed inward and helped support the arch on top, keeping it from pushing the walls outward.

Riz brought her lunch again, another bowl of roasted meat. She was clearly feeling much better, since she remembered to bring Lori a spoon this time. By the time Lori finished with the walls and had reduced the stone pile to something barely taller than she was, it seemed the harvest had finished, the fields cleared and stalks bundled together.

The dining hall was still subdued at dinner, but it was filled with an undercurrent of relief. The exam was over, and everyone could just pass out and stay in bed sleeping all day, unless they were unfortunate enough to have some sort of assignment still due.

Even Riz was looking much better. She still looked tired, but she at least had no difficulty keeping her eyes open this time.

"Erzebed," Lori said as they waited for dinner to be ready.

Riz sighed resignedly. "Yes, Great Binder?"

"Tell everyone to rest tomorrow," she said. "No working unless they feel like it. Tell them they should just stay in bed and sleep, or go swimming, or just rest."

Riz blinked. "Everyone, Great Binder?"

"Everyone," Lori said. "that probably means no one will be cooking breakfast, lunch and dinner, emptying the latrines, or cleaning the baths, but if they're tired, they should rest. They can just complain about all those things not getting done the day after."

Riz chuckled. "I'll… tell everyone, Great Binder. They'll be glad to hear it."

"I'll help," Mikon volunteered. "Then we can go to the baths afterwards."

Riz sighed in relief. "Thanks. I appreciate it."

Mikon reached over to squeeze her shoulder as Lori rolled her eyes. The weaver glanced up towards the kitchen, where people were starting to line up to get their food. "I'll go get it. You sit down and rest."

Riz didn't argue, doing just that as Mikon rose to get their food.

"You're being quite competent, Erzebed," Lori commented. "You're not Rian, but you're being as competent as you were when he was around."

"Uh, thank you, Great Binder?"

"And I'm glad to see you haven't let the flirting between you and Mikon get in the way of your duties."

Riz blinked at her. Slowly, her eyes widened, her mouth opening slightly. She glanced down at her shoulder as if seeing it for the first time. "Wait, that was… no, that wasn't…" Her eyes opened wider. She groaned, and let her hands fall down into her face.

Lori stared blankly at her. "Did you… stop paying attention, or something? It wasn't like she got any more subtle."

"I was busy," Riz said, her voice muffled through her hands. "Oh, Great Binder…"

"Yes?"

Riz twitched. "Er, not you Great Binder. I was… uh… "

Oh. Lori thought about it, and decided she didn't care one way or another. "Well, be careful when you use it as an expletive," she said. "I'm right here, after all. It might get confusing"

Riz nodded, looking embarrassed.

Briefly, Lori debated giving her advice. Her own mothers had given a lot of advice when she was growing up, theoretically for exactly this sort of situation.

She decided against it. All the advice had seemed bad then, and just thinking of them, they didn’t' seem any better now. How was 'showing an interest' or 'being encouraging' supposed to help, anyway?

Still, she did have something practical to say. "Mikon's help… has been invaluable to you, hasn't it?" she said.

"She's the reason I'm managing to get everything done," Riz groaned, sighing. "I don't know how Rian did it…"

"If you need her assistance, then you'll simply need to resign yourself to the fact that you're going to have to accept the flirting," Lori said. See, this was advise: a workable, practical solution to a problem… such as it was. "You've managed to so far."

Riz groaned again.

"It's only until Rian comes back," Lori reminded her. "Then you can reject her advances and focus on obsessing over Rian."

Riz groaned a third time.

Yes, a workable, practical solution, the best kind of advice.