Demesne 161 - The Importance Of Milling (Patreon)

Lori allowed herself to be swayed by Rian's argument to not make copies of every illustration in the book right then, as it would be a waste of time. He argued that they should focus on the illustrations of edible plants that were still in season, as otherwise there was no point. She supposed he had a point about that. And she'd need to be the one making the tablets for it, since the lightwisps would need to be bound to something else with wisps, and trying to bind it to airwisps wrapped around an object was inefficient when it came to imbuement. So perhaps he had a point in not doing all the illustrations.

He also suggested just putting the images on the walls of her Dungeon, or at least on the walls of the outside entryway, as both a decoration and a way for people to be able to quickly refer to them. They spent the next day doing that, moving the tripod with the frame on it and the darkwisps along the entryway corridor, binding the images to the stone walls. They weren't her flattest walls, but they were even enough, so the illustrations weren't so warped they couldn't be used for identification.

"Be sure to explain what those are for to people, all right?" Lori said, inspecting the almanac for damage as Rian put away the frame for later. The pages were surprisingly thick and sturdy, and the glue on the spine didn't seem like it would come off any time soon. She wondered how long it would last?

"Yes, your Bindership," Rian said.

"Now that we're done, go and get the farm on the third level started," Lori said.

"I can start talking to people and begin organizing it, but we'll have to wait for the threshing to be finished, which should be soon," Rian said. "Probably in a day or two. Then we can start on it after we have the holiday celebrating the end of the harvest."

Loi gave him a displeased look. "Another one? We'll never get anything done at this rate."

"I'll point out those rest days were your idea," Rian said. "Yes, Riz told me about those rest days you declared while I was gone. So you can't blame those on me, I wasn't even here. You have no one to blame but yourself for those. And anyway, celebrating the end of the harvest is traditional. You've seen how much work goes into it compared to the normal day-to-day work. People deserve a nice holiday after all that."

"Maybe it's traditional in other demesne, but in mine—" Lori began.

"Besides, we need to test that the grain is good to eat," Rian interrupted. "That's usually done by grinding it up into flour and making bread."

Lori paused.

"And since we have salt now, and know about plants that can be used to add flavor, the bread is going to be much tastier than what we had in River's Fork. And I'm sure we can do some things with the meat and fat we have to make the bread even better…"

Lori turned and gave him a level look.

"Or we could just act like it's a normal day like any other and just work and work and work," Rian sighed. "Yes, we should save all that bread for later, when we're too hungry and cold to enjoy it—"

"All right, all right, you can have a holiday," Lori interrupted. "But the bread better be good!"

"Your generosity is boundless, your Bindership," Rian said. "Truly, you're too good to us."

"Only because we don't have taxes yet," Lori said.

"Your thinly veiled threat of economic suffering is dully noted. May we actually have the beads for you to think it's a good idea to do it."

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The threshing was finished a day later. Lori spent that time assisting the stonemasons in making mill stones so they could make flour, when Rian had rather embarrassedly informed her at breakfast that they didn't have anything to make flour with.

"The grist mill to make flour was left at River's Fork because it was too heavy to move easily," Riz explained for Rian. "We were planning to go back for it once we found… well, here, but with everything that's happened…" She sighed. "Technically, it's commonly owned by the Golden Sweetwood Company, so we have as much right to it as the people still living there, but…" She looked away, seemingly embarrassed.

"But last time it was brought up, it got unpleasant and messy," Rian continued for her. "And people were getting heated on the subject, so I had them set the matter aside. We didn't have any grain yet then, and I always thought the plan was for us to make out own grist mill, since we came here without one…"

"I think that was less of a plan and simply the circumstances we left Covehold with," Lori said. "I was certainly never informed we needed such a thing." She paused. "You want me to make one, don't you?"

"If we don't have one, it'll take forever to mill down enough flour to make bread," Rian said. "We could use a mortar and pestle, but that takes longer, doesn't grind as much, and is much more work intensive. A mill stone is the better option."

She gave him a very flat look. "Rian, you seem to be under the misapprehension that I'll do anything for bread."

Rian shrugged. "It's a very necessary piece of equipment for the demesne. Vigas needs to be ground down into flour before we can really eat it. Otherwise the only other option is to boil it into a kind of tasteless porridge. Having once made the terrible mistake of trying such a porridge, I can confidently tell you there's a reason why humanity invented bread."

"It's not that bad with honey." Riz said. Rian turned and stared at her. "It's a lightweight food that you just add water to, and having the colors grow into it a little actually makes it softer and easier to eat once you boil it."

Rian turned to Lori. "See? It's so bad getting iridiated is actually an improvement." Riz shrugged but nodded in agreement.

"And how exactly am I supposed to build one of these mills?" Lori said.

Rian gave her a look. "While I appreciate that you like building all the things made of stone yourself, maybe this is something we should leave to our stonemasons? I mean, it would probably be faster if you shaped the stone yourself, but they've made these things before and would know the best way to make them."

Lori blinked. "I thought stonemasons built buildings and things?"

"They also shaped stone," Rian explained patiently. "And while having them do it by hand would be time consuming, if the stone they were working on was somehow softer than… well, solid rock…"

Lori began to scowl at him.

"It'll be just like assisting the potter with the kiln or the smiths with the forge," Rian said. "You just sit there and glare at what they're working on while you make your magic. You don't even have to talk to them."

Well… that sounded… tolerable. But still! "Why was one of these not made earlier?" Lori demanded. "If it was known how vital it was and that we didn’t have one, then why was no effort to make one happen sooner? Why wasn't I informed of the need?"

Rian winced, looking guilty. "That… was an oversight on my part. I accept responsibility for this mistake. There were… a variety of factors involved, but as lord, it was something I should have dealt with sooner."

Lori leveled her glare at him. "See that such an oversight doesn't happen again," she said. "After all this clamoring for a holiday, and now you tell me that we're lacking something that should have been made much earlier…?"

"I know, your Bindership," Rian said. "As I said, it's an oversight on my part. I forgot to mention it before I left. I'll do my best to set it up today so that all you need to bother yourself with is softening the stone so that it can be shaped. You don't even need to pick out the stone in question. Just make it soft and then harden it when they finish."

Lori continued to glare at him. "You wouldn't have made a mistake like this before," she said, letting her gaze sweep over the women on either side of him. Umu stiffened, while Mikon paused in the middle of considering while bowl she should move next. "Are you letting yourself get distracted?"

"I just got back, and this is an oversight that's been going on for a long time."

Lori considered that. "Fine, I will hold you responsible for this." Rian nodded. "But don't think I'm ignorant of the fact that Erzebed is equally culpable, since she should have known to tell me we needed one of these mill stones, especially since she obviously knew the demesne didn't have one."

Next to Rian, Riz flinched and Mikon reached up and draped an arm around her, squeezing her shoulder.

"Or the culpability of the one who was distracting Erzebed," Lori continued.

Mikon's hand twitched, but didn't move, simply continuing to stare at the sunk board intently.

"Your Bindership, you've already officially made this my fault," Rian said. "Can we move on to the logistics of getting one built, please?"

Lori swept her glare one more time, then nodded curtly. "Very well. Make the arrangements with the stonemasons, and I'll see if the almanac has anything I can use. And your holiday will be delayed until this is finished, for however long that might be. And it will be the last holiday we hold, understood? From then until winter, we will be concentrating on storing as much food as possible, preparing the winter crop and Dungeon farm, and all the other work to prepare for winter."

"Yes, your Bindership," Rian said. "I won't let it happen again."

"See that you don't," Lori said, then glanced at Mikon. "Well? Are you going to make a move or not?"

The pink-haired weaver hastily reached out to make her move, continuing the game she and Lori were playing.

The almanac did, in fact, include how to make a mill stone for flour. Specifically, it had a simply diagram for such a mill in one of its sections, though it was less an exact design than some general directions for making one's own. Naturally, it was easiest with Whispering, but there were also some notes on how to do it with Mentalism, such as recommending holding the stone in place with thoughts while shaping it by hand, since stability is more important when making the grinder. Well, that wouldn't be relevant to her, but it was a useful note to remember when she finally learned how to use Mentalism.

The section in question was relatively short, and she managed to finish it with her breakfast. The writings also made it clear that, yes, this was one of the things best made by a stonemason who knew what they were doing, but this section of the almanac had apparently been written for those who didn't have such skilled laborers nearby, since it still included enough diagrams for Lori to try building one herself. It wasn't unlikely. Perhaps some foolish group had set up a demesne and hadn't had a mill stone or a stonemason to make one for them?

Well, they had stonemasons, and so were fortunately not in the same terrible situation as those hypothetical idiots.