Weekly Digest 59 - (#188 - #190) (Patreon)

And Bloody War Followed

After her experiment, Lori didn't feel any worse off than she usually did after expanding her demesne, which… wasn't bad, but neither was it good. Purely from the perspective of efficiency, it meant altering the concentration didn't affect the difficulty of the expansion process, but that wouldn't matter if there wasn't any sort of substantial positive effect on the rate of her demesne's expansion.

To her, the demesne was a massive half sphere of earthwisps at the bottom, another half-sphere of airwisps at the top, a layer of waterwisps in between, and a moving stream of waterwisps passing through it. She'd chosen the area purely because it was the easiest to identify with her awareness of wisps, at least without placing bindings there to mark it out to for her. This way, it would be easy to repeat the procedure to minimize the variable of placement.

For her experiment, Lori had increased the concentration of wisps in a single area along her demesne's borders, specifically at the river near where she had placed her markers, where water flowed into her demesne. In a roughly circular area at the mouth of the river, she had positioned a substantially greater amount of wisps than she had anywhere else.

Without actually having her eyes there, she couldn't really tell how many she placed—while she could theoretically count the number of wisps in her control, in practice it was a laughable idea—but she could still tell by comparison that she had placed at least seven times as many wisps for claiming in that one spot. It was relatively miniscule compared to the full expanse of her demesne, but this wasan experiment. Depending on what results Rian brought back after breakfast, she could considering increasing the concentration.

And she'd have to do this for a week at least so that she'd have a sufficient sample size to draw conclusions from. If she was being strict, she should do this for thirteen days, as she did with the control, without changing the altered variable, to have an equal amount of samples. If she were doing this properly, she'd have far larger sample sizes, at least a red month's worth, before she started drawing any sort of conclusions. However, she didn't have the convenience of unlimited time. She had a limited amount of time, and even though it was still early winter, that wouldn't last. Soon it would be mid-winter, than late winter, then it would be spring and raining again.

So Lori needed to find the variables that produced usable results. If drastically changing the concentration didn't offer any substantial difference from how she did it normally in the next four days, she'd need to drop it and move on—

"So, you said you'd explain?"

Lori was knocked out of her musings by cheerful voice of her lord. For a man who clearly hated having to wake up in the mornings, he was surprisingly energetic once he was. "Explain what?"

"Concentration!" he said. "Exactly what sort of concentration did you change? Does it have to do with how hard you're focusing on what you're doing? Trying to see if you can be less tired at the end of it, or maybe keep working for longer?" He had his plank with him, poised to write. Next to him, Mikon seemed gladdened that Lori had brought down the chatrang board instead of the sunk board, and was cheerfully putting the pieces into position for a game. Lori didn't know how someone could enjoy always losing, thought admittedly the weaver was getting better. She was able to take down a lot of Lori's militia in her their games, and Lori needed to be watchful lest she lose any of her wizards.

Lori sighed. "Fine, fine." She didn't remember promising any such explanation to Rian, but on the other hand, the full hypothesis needed to be recorded. And perhaps he had some ideas she could try. Quickly and concisely, she exposited to him the variables she identified, and what she believed to be the possible effects of increasing concentration—both of wisps and her attention—on a singular point. With more wisps gathered, could she perhaps claim more and thereby expand the demesne more?

"I suspect," Lori said as Rian wrote while Riz and Umu arrived with food and water, "that while my demesne might expand more at that point, any gains will be flattened and averaged across the whole of the demesne's borders." Mikon made to move aside so one of them could sit down next to Rian, but Riz just sat down on Mikon's over side. The weaver gave her a bright smile and a quick peck on the cheek,

"So… the demesne's borders are elastic?" Rian said, tilting his head thoughtfully.

"Of course. We have an abundance of historical evidence of the borders of demesnes warping and flattening when pressed against another demesne. Bloody war would usually follow, of course, but sometimes the demesne and Dungeon Binders involved would briefly continue expanding her demesne against each other. It's been recorded that in such instances, the borders of demesne would flatten like two round bladders pressing against each other. In some truly rare instances, one demesne's size remained stagnant while its neighbor continued to grow. To continue the allegory of bladders, it acted like a finger pushing the bladder inward. When the lesser demesne tried to expand, it wasn't able to push back the greater demesne's borders, and the lesser demesne was only able to expand directly away from the greater, all the while hemmed in by the greater demesne's continued expansion."

"And then bloody war followed?" Rian said dryly.

"And then bloody war followed. Though such incidents are, as I said, truly rare. It's not considered desirable for one demesne to enfold another demesne so completely before the two join in conflict for each other's core."

Rian raised an eyebrow. "Why? I'd have thought it would assure the enfolding one a tactical advantage. It gives them more directions to attack from, wouldn't it?"

"The lesser demesne would be equally capable of raising defensive fortifications to defend against such," Lori said as she reached out and picked a bowl of food and a cup. "No, it is undesirable because if one demesne were sufficiently larger than the other, when the Dungeon Binder of the lesser demesne fell, the greater demesne would expand and in so doing destroy the lesser core."

Rian paused. "That's a thing that happens?"

Lori nodded. "It's rare and undesirable, hence why demesne tend not to continue expanding their demesne in that manner. Even if the greater demesne would technically be subsuming the territory of the lesser demesne, having multiple cores is desirable because it means multiple points of growth. It makes for more efficient expansion."

"That part I understand, but… so, a demesne expanding over a dungeon's core… destroys the core?"

"Expanding over an unclaimed core, yes," Lori confirmed. She'd never really questioned why when she read about it, but now that she had a core of her own… well, it made sense, didn't it? "Why do you think all those nonsense, stupid stories about random nobodies finding cores and accidentally claiming them happen outside a demesne, deep in the Iridescence? An unclaimed core can't exist in the bounds of another demesne. It would cease to be."

"Huh. You learn something new every day," Rian said thoughtfully. "But back to what you were telling me—"

"Eat," Lori said, pointing.

Rian stared. "What?"

"Eat breakfast, Rian," Lori repeated as she moved one of her militia on the chatrang board, determined to get as much enjoyment as she could over breakfast.

"Oh! Right! Thank you Umu, Riz," Rian said, turning to either side of him to thank the two women and leaning forward to look around Mikon.

"I'm glad to do this for you, Rian," Umu said, leaning against him briefly.

Riz, for her part, just reached around Rian and patted him on the shoulder. "Eat up, you'll need the warmth for when we go out to the edge later."

Rian sighed. "So cold…" he muttered.

There was relative silence for a moment as they ate, Lori and Mikon playing chatrang as they did so. She really had to get around to challenging Rian to a game soon…

Around them, the dining hall seemed louder than usual as people talked, played their own board games, and ate. Thankfully no one seemed to be arguing. She supposed people were managing to keep themselves constructively occupied instead of stewing in their own (idiotic) thoughts and getting into trouble as a result…

"All right," Rian eventually said, setting aside his spoon for a moment and picking up his plank again. "So, you decided to concentrate your efforts at a single spot. Do you have any idea how far out you were able to reach by concentrating there? If we assume that your reach in previous efforts corresponded to the amount that the demesne expanded, how much farther were you able to reach out by concentrating on that spot? Could you tell?"

Lori frowned, but… "No," she said. "I can't give an exact measure. I know I reached out farther in that spot, but how much that is, I cannot quantify."

Rian nodded, writing something on his plank. He frowned, cupped his hand around something on the plank and blew lightly. "All right. Not exactly the kind of hard data we'd want, but we can do better next time. It might not amount to much but that just means we need to reach farther out."

"'We?"

"Sorry, 'you'." Rian picked up his bowl with his left hand and raised it to his lips, sipping directly from the thing. Lori thought it was a bit early for that, but he was clearly trying to eat and work at the same time. "What would happen if you tried to expand from only one spot? Just keeping pushing out at one point and simply have the rest of the demesne catch up? It's probably a lot easier to concentrate on a distinct point than it is to try and push outwards in all directions at once. Though I don't know how far out over how large a point you'd need to be able to equal our current expansion."

Lori had considered that. "I had considered that," she said. "However, I decided that retaining the assured expansion of the demesne was more important. The current methodology works. Experimenting with other variables must not come at its expense. While altering them might lead to producing a superior method of expansion… it also might not. If we dedicate our time to only experiments, that will be time the demesne is not properly growing at the optimum rate it currently can. "

Rian frowned, considering that as Lori turned and countered Mikon's Whisperer with her Mentalist. It was a calculated risk, since Mikon might attack with her Horotract, but there were some militia in the way, and Mikon sometimes forgot her Horotract didn't need to go through the occupied spaces.

Eventually Rian nodded. "All right… I suppose that's the priority. Still, we might not get any discernable results like this."

"So I suspect," Lori said. "However, that means that any variable sufficiently capable of affecting the growth rate would also be more obvious."

"Somehow I doubt the world contains such a convenient solution," Rian said dryly, and Lori had to agree. "However, I think trying to test this variable to the extreme in isolation would at least reveal a less taxing method."

"If expanding a demesne quickly were easy," Lori said, equally dryly, "the demesnes around Covehold would have managed to grow much greater."

"True… but that implies you did something significantly different from what they did, to have our demesne come out so large," Rian mused. "It's not like any of them are touching each other, so that isn't what's constraining their growth. Though it could be something as simple as all of them being too busy with everyday life to have much time to expand, especially with so much active competition around them for resources like water, wood, agricultural land… "

"Yes," Lori said flatly. "It's almost like the dead ones and myself actually put thought into the idea of traveling so far away before setting up a demesne."

"I never said you didn't," Rian said quickly. "Though you'd think that at some point someone there would have tried to focus on expansion first to the exclusion of all else."

"Given how much effort was needed to establish the support infrastructure of this place, anyone so foolishly shortsighted probably starved to death or was killed when they were weak," she pointed out. "Many of them did not have the convenience of having a steady source of fresh water as we do, and given how many people must be using it, the underground water must be drained dry at some points of the year."

"No to mention food, shelter, warmth, and trying to get even a local economy started," Rian contemplated. "Even one of those failing would be devastating."

Lori tried not to think of the fact that for all intents and purposes, her demesne didn't even HAVE an economy worth mentioning.

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Matters of Marriage

When Rian got back from the edge of the demesne at about midmorning, he informed her that her demesne had grown by 44 yustri.

"That's barely anything!" he said, glaring at his plank as if it had insulted him as he walked next to her at the third level while she checked the bindings of lightwisps, waterwisps and firewisps that controlled her Dungeon farm's light, temperature and humidity. It was something she had to do once in a while, to make sure it wasn't too hot, too cold, too moist or too dry. Theoretically the farm should settle into some ideal equilibrium, but they clearly hadn't reached that stage yet. "It's not even statistically significant!"

It was only the fact that Rian's ire seemed to be directed at the number itself that kept Lori from being annoyed at his attitude. As it was, she was mostly exasperated. "Rian, it's a first attempt. At the very least, this is a new sample for a whole new average," Lori pointed out as she deactivated the firewisps around her and let her feel the actual temperature of the level. "Should it continue, it will mean changing this variable has resulted in an improved average by one yustri and twenty-five chiyustri."

Rian brightened immediately at the implication that his precious number had gone up. "Ah, you're right! And this also means an improved expansion-to-time ratio!"

"Yes, yes, the numbers are rising," Lori said, rolling her eyes as she decided the temperature at that spot didn't need to be adjusted yet. She kept walking between the plots of little seedlings, of vigas and the seeds that had been brought back from Covehold, making sure there weren't any significantly warm or cold spots she had to adjust. While the farmers were theoretically supposed to report this to Rian so she could deal with it, some mornings she didn't really have a lot to do, so why not check it herself?

"I saw that."

"I did it in front of you, of course you did."

"Hmph. You realize if I weren't doing this, you would have to keep track of all the numbers and do the calculations."

"No, I wouldn't. I just wouldn't do them. All I need to know is by how much my demesne is expanding to confirm my efforts are working."

"You're making me cry, you really are, you know that?"

"I'm sure Mikon would be more than happy to give you a lap to cry on."

That was sufficient to embarrass him enough to make Rian change the subject. "So, there's a matter I need to bring to your attention that I've been putting off."

Lori turned and gave him a sharp look. "What is it?" she demanded. Was this something that had become an emergency because of his procrastination? "Was this something that became an emergency because of your procrastination?"

Rian actually looked vaguely offended. "Do you think I'd be spending time on math if we had something that urgent? No, this is just something I've set up so that it wouldn't waste your time. Remember a few months ago when you laid down the procedure for getting married?"

Ah. She understood. "Ah. I understand. So I suppose Mikon finally asked you to marry her? Or was it Umu?"

"Neither," Rian said. "And no, before you mention Riz, no one asked me to marry them! No, when I spread the word, I told the people who came to me that I'd like to wait until there were ten marriage requests before bringing it to your attention to keep you from being bothered over the next few days." He shrugged. "To be honest, I thought we'd get ten requests a lot sooner, but some seemed to have rethought the matter during the wait and eventually retracted the request. Or at least succumbed to pressure from their parents. However, before breakfast someone spoke to me in the baths about it, and on the way here I got two requests, so I thought it was about time the matter was brought to you attention."

Ah. No wonder she hadn't received any requests. She'd honestly been expecting them to come to her for a long time, had even prepared some wood-backed, stone tablets for them so that there would be a functionally long-lasting record she could issue. She'd water cut them herself to get them just the right thickness. "Tell them I'll see to them tomorrow after breakfast," Lori said.

"Is that all I can tell them?" Rian said. "I mean, what should they expect? Will you be interviewing them on their assets for tax purposes? Making up a whole new section of marriage law, like who has custody of the children in the event of a divorce? Telling them the requirements for a divorce in this demesne? Will the people who object to them getting married have the opportunity to air their objections."

"Why would people who want to get married want people who object to their getting married have the opportunity to say so?" Lori knew she didn't want to bother dealing with people, but she understood enough to think that idea was very strange.

Rian shrugged. "In case they do actually have a point? Like what if one was only marrying the other for their money? I know we're not exactly in a position for that to be the case—"

"Yes, as the man who owns a boat you have other people operate for you, you're technically the richest person in the demesne who's not me."

Rian stopped talking for a moment, a strange look coming over his face. Had he never thought of it that way before? "Uh, anyway, at the very least, they should still be heard. If they're stupid objections, you'll be able to call them out as such, but if it's something with actual merit, then you'll know so you can consider whether or not it's grounds to deny the request to be married. I know there's at least one request that was made because the boy got the girl pregnant and are being pressured by the parents. Such an opportunity might be the only chance they have to keep themselves from getting pressured into marriage against their will."

Lori stopped walking, staring at him.

"What?"

"I thought I made it clear that you are my lord in charge of dealing with people!" Lori said. "Those sound like 'dealing with people' matters!"

"Yes, but since you'll be the one registering them as married, you might need to know pertinent information that qualifies or disqualifies applicants. Also, establishing the laws involved with marriage is solely up to you," Rian said. "Does this automatically mean all future property is jointly owned or not? Does it have any consequences to how much tax they'll pay eventually? If they get married, what do they need to do to file for divorce? Can they file for divorce? Who gets what if they get divorced? What happens to any children they have?"

"Rian, why are you already thinking of divorce for people who haven't even gotten married yet?"

Rian shrugged. "All you said that to get married in your demesne, there had to be two consenting people who apply to you, and you record it."

"Yes, exactly. Marriage is merely an agreement made official by the public record."

"Yes, but what are people agreeing to?"

"All the romantic nonsense they're expecting, obviously?"

"Yes, but what are the legal ramifications of such an agreement? Marriage carries with it the implication of certain legal obligations, which is established by the laws of the demesne where the marriage is recorded, though there's usually the implicit and unofficial agreement that each demesne will respect marriages performed in other demesnes, even if they'll impose their own legal standards of marriage on the people in question should the need arise."

Lori gave her lord a look. "I would have thought you'd say that marriage is about people loving each other."

"Yes, well, life has compelled me to put more thought into the matter," Rian said, looking aside. "I still think that love, liking each other, the desire to be together, and actively wanting to work out the difficulties living together will entail are the most important parts of marriage, but that's in ideal situations. Life tends not to be ideal, and while you might not want to have to bother with pre-emptively mediating in any disagreements by legislating it, what about how this will affect any children that results from this? What if there's been infidelity, and the parentage of the child is in question? What if the father decides the child isn't his because of that and neglects them?"

For a moment, Lori said nothing as, from one of the adjacent tunnels full of tuber planters, the sounds of children playing could be heard as they were supposedly tending to the plants in question. Rian opened his mouth to keep talking but she raised up a hand, and his teeth clicked together as he shut his mouth. Eventually, she nodded her head.

"All right," she said after some thought. "Tomorrow morning, I will draft some guidelines regarding marriage. It will retroactively apply to all married people in my demesne. The day after that, I will meet with the people requesting to be married, you will explain these laws to them, and they will be registered as married. See that everyone relevant is informed, Rian."

"Yes, your Bindership."

"Rian, why are you smiling?"

"Well, it occurs to me that the first group of people getting married in the demesne is something worth some celebration," Rian said brightly. "So… maybe I should have some of the grain milled into floor so we can have an special celebratory meal for lunch at least? After all, despite the objections, people are generally going to be in a celebratory mood, so perhaps a little something special is in order? It's also a good time to release some of the honey, so we'd have sweet cakes instead of just bread—"

"Rian," Lori said, voice completely flat and unamused, "has all this been a setup for a holiday?"

"Look me in the eye and tell me that you won't enjoy some bread sweetened with honey to eat after all the work you've been putting into expanding the demesne, all the tiredness, all the cold you've had to put up with while smelting metal in River's Fork, and I'll drop the subject," Rian said.

"Whether or not I'll enjoy it is not the point!"

"What is the point, then?"

Lori glared at him but found she couldn't find an answer to that. And… honey. Nice, tasty, sweet green honey…

Why was she arguing against this again?

"You will use only a small amount of honey," Lori said sternly. "We might still need it for—" No, wait, they'd come back with alchemical antiseptics when they'd come back from Covehold, hadn't they? "—for emergency antiseptic. And other emergency things!"

"We'll be frugal, your Bindership," Rian said cheerfully. If he dared be smug about the fact he had essentially won… "Well, I better get to work. Tell people they’ll be getting married in two days, then see if we can risk organizing a hunting party for fresh meat… see if anyone knows a good recipe for honeyed pan bread, since we don't have an oven yet—"

"I'll make an oven," Lori ground out. "Happy?"

"Binder Lori, you're the best Dungeon Binder ever, everyone who left for River's Fork left too soon," Rian said.

Lori rolled her eyes. It was very hard to tell when he was being sincere or just flattering. "Well? What are you waiting for? Get moving! You still need to watch the waterclocks this afternoon and you have averages to calculate and things! And you still have to get the expansion data in two days."

"Yes, your Bindership! Going, your Bindership!"

Rian actually seemed to be skipping as he hurried back to the stairs. Ugh, her lord could be such a child sometimes.

Shaking her head, Lori turned and hurried to make her rounds so she could get to work on the over in the kitchen. It would need a new and more direct exhaust vent, since it would need to function with burning wood, as the cooks would need to adjust the heat and they couldn't do that if she powered heated it with a binding… and she couldn't do that because she'd be far too busy…

And then there were the laws she had to make. Rian was right, annoyingly, though she thought he was a overthinking things a bit given the current state of things. Still, it would probably be best if she officially established what she expected of married people in her demesne…

Try as she might though, she kept getting distracted by thoughts of sweet, honeyed bread.

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Theatricality In The Presentation

Making an oven was relatively simple. The stone used needed to have bubbles squeezed out of it so that no sections suddenly exploded due to trapped gasses expanding, but her awareness of wisps made that simpler for her than it would have been for an ordinary Whisperer. Really, the greatest difficulty was not getting in anyone's way—or having anyone get in her way—in the kitchen, since she had to build it while people were in the middle of cleaning up and preparing the food for lunch. She had to navigate around them, which was simple enough since the best place to put in the new oven was in its own little section off to the side, thereby expanding the kitchen.

And while many respected her position enough to not bother her, some of the older women, about her mothers' age or older, for some reason felt the need to comment on what she was doing, saying the oven was too small, no it's too low they'll hurt their back, it should be wider and deeper so they could fit more bread in, are you really going to be marrying people in two days, some of those people are far too young, is that really such a good idea, maybe you shouldn't—

At which point someone finally seemed to remember who they were talking to, because the sounds of talking abruptly stopped. Lori studiously didn't look behind her as there were sound of a scuffle, focusing on making the oven, which now had a lower section to put in firewood, and an upper section for the actual baking. The stone partition between the two had to be carefully shaped to be load bearing, and she hand to poke careful holes to let hot air come up from below. The carpenters would have to make doors for the two halves, and likely in a hurry…

She linked the oven to the exhaust pipe and stepped back, examining the oven for any flaws. Now that it was completed, it seemed a bit too small to make enough bread for the entire demesne, but then, the small bakeries that she had bought warm bread from on the way to school when she was younger couldn't have had facilities bigger than this, so perhaps it was enough? She'd have prepared to put in firewisps to heat it, but she wasn't really sure how hot bread needed to be to bake properly, and this way the people cooking could control the heat in the way they were familiar with.

Lori shrugged and took her excess stone with her as she continued to studiously not look towards where the kitchen staff were now being very quiet. She didn't want to know. if there was one thing she remembered about all the biographies about Dungeon Binder's she'd read—besides the potential danger they were all in from every side—it was that one should never antagonize the people making your food, at least if you couldn't have them replaced with anyone just as good and trustworthy.

Lunch was slightly delayed, but when it arrived it seemed to be the same quality it usually was, so whatever it was the Lori had studiously ignored didn’t' seem to have been too much of a problem.

"Rian, have the carpenters make a door for the over," she said as she ate, waiting for Mikon to make her move. The weaver was a bit distracted, however, glancing sideways at Rian, Umu and Riz every so often. "Something that they can finish before the day after tomorrow. The oven needs something to keep the heat in."

"I'll tell them," her lord assured her. Around them, the dining hall was filled with a liveliness and excitement that usually came when a holiday was announced well in advance. Which, considering the food they were preparing, might as well be the case. "The miller has already started on making the flour, and we've got plenty of firewood."

"How isour firewood supply holding?"

"Pretty good," Rian said. "It's still not so cold that we can't go out to gather wood, and the snow's been manageable, so not much time has to be spent opening paths through the snow. The shovels we currently have aren't really suited for it, but they're doing the job. Though—"

"You want to ask me to make some sort of special shovel, aren't you?"

"Please?" Rian begged. "Your bone shovels are lighter than wood, and you can shape them without loss of material, as opposed if the carpenters make it."

Lori sighed and waved a hand dismissively. "I'll find the time. Probably not tomorrow, since I have to draft those laws, or the day after. Expansion takes priority. Mikon, make a move already."

"Oh! S-sorry, your Bindership!" the weaver moved her Deadspeaker, no doubt getting it ready to bring back any militia Lori managed to take out.

"Anything else, Rian?" Lori said as she moved her Horotract.

"It's been bought to my attention that the Um is freezing cold, your Bindership," Rian said.

Lori blinked. Come to think of it… Huh. She was surprised it had taken this long for the matter to be raised. "I'm surprised it took this long for the matter to be raised."

"So am I, really," Rian said. "But since snow started to fall, most people have been staying at home when they could and huddling up for warmth when they haven't been here in the Dungeon or working. After announcing you'd be doing marriages soon, however, apparently some people wanted to… ah, 'celebrate', and found they couldn't. In retrospect, I should have realized because the water clocks weren't in use."

"Yes, you should have," Riz said flatly. "We've stopped watching the place. Anyone who wants to have a tumble in there is welcome to it until spring arrives."

Lori hummed thoughtfully. "I'll get to it eventually. If people have been able to wait this long, then it's clearly not a priority."

"Uh…" Riz began, before stopping herself and glancing at Rian.

"What is it Riz?" he prompted.

"Um, I don't know how to put this… but in winter, with the whole family in the house to stay warm, everyone under the blankets together…" Riz said awkwardly, "men and women still have needs… and sometimes it can't wait until the little ones are asleep… or sometimes it wakes up the little ones but you can't actually stop… most just think it's Tyatya and Tota hugging, until they get older… and at that point they ignore you while you ignore them and pass the time by yourself… and you have to keep it down so the little ones don't catch on… Ah, but everyone is all covered up and under blankets, of course! It's too cold not to be…"

Lori stared. Rian stared.

Rian looked sideways at Umu and Mikon, whose faces said they had absolutely nothing to do with this conversation, their gazes averted and not looking at anything or anyone in particular.

Lori sighed. Idiots! At least from the sound of it there were being aware and circumspect, but… idiots! "Fine, fine, I'll put heating in the Um! There, happy?"

"Thank you!" someone at a different table called out.

"You're all still cleaning it if you use it!" Lori shot back, not looking at whoever it was.

"That's fair!" someone at another table said.

"Maybe we should think about expanding the houses come the spring," Rian muttered. "So that there's more than one bedroom in each house, maybe?"

Lori sighed and focused on eating her food.

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After lunch, she went up to her room to continue expanding the demesne. The wall next to her bed had a special recess now where she could sit slightly reclined with her bed roll padding her legs and pack. She made herself comfortable as Rian finished readying the water clocks.

"I still have some more things to do to set things up, so I'm going to have to run out," Rian said as Lori put her pillow under her head, reclining and holding it in place. "I'll be back before you finish so I can record time, though. In the meantime, I'll just close the door behind me. Do you want me to station someone on the stairs to make sure no one comes up and knifes you while you're busy? Riz, maybe?"

She stared at him blankly for a moment, then shook her head. "No, just hurry back. With the door closed, most people will probably assume it's locked."

Rian frowned. "Tell you what, why don't I put your boots in front of the door, so you'll at least hear it being opened if someone tries.

Lori rolled her eyes, but nodded. "All right. You do that. But I'm going to start now, so get ready to open the clocks."

Rian got into position as Lori leaned back, relaxed and concentrated on her awareness of her demesne's wisps.

"Begin" she said, closing her eyes as that day's expansion attempt began, deciding to increase the concentration of wisps in the one spot even further.

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The next day, while waiting for Rian to come back from measuring the demesne's expansion, Lori went to install heat in the Um. She bound firewisps to the ceilings of each room and the main passageway to radiate heat. The binding itself was hot enough at the source that people were unlikely to try and stick their hand into it, but after what had happened in River's Fork with the warmth binding she had made there, she wouldn't be surprised if some idiot tried to touch the source of the heat anyway.

When she stepped out of the Um, she gave the line of people standing in the snow in pairs and carrying bedrolls and blankets a flat look. Then she sighed and walked away.

When Rian got back— "Forty-five and a half! It went up!"—Lori had him sit down to help her draft what exactly the legal terms of marriage in her demesne would be. Unlike the laws she had written before, of which she had felt were obvious, these laws were… well, she was mostly apathetic to them. Marriage wasn't something that had ever crossed her mind except in annoyance whenever her parents had brought it up, advising her how to get a girl or a boy and wasting time with them.

Fortunately, despite his initial protests—"I don't know a thing about marriage law!"—Rian once more proved himself to be useful. While he might not have had any knowledge of the legalities of marriage—or so he claimed—he apparently had strong opinions about what an ideal marriage should be, and once you removed the parts that were clearly sentimentality, some of them were surprisingly practical.

"Obviously, in a marriage the participants should be working together to support themselves and their children materially and financially. At the very least, that should be a recognized obligation on both their parts. And it has to be both. One can't just live off the work of the other and not contribute anything. That's not a marriage, that's a parasite. Of course, this doesn't mean they have to both contribute the same way, but ideally this is something they have to talk about and decide between themselves."

"… generally, the trend is to give married people a deduction when it comes to taxes… because they're actively making MORE tax payers. It doesn't matter if you get a small slice of a pie if the pie is one that keeps getting bigger and bigger. Two people paying full taxes nets overall less revenue than two parents and five children paying slightly reduced taxes… well obviously after a certain age the children have to start paying their own taxes…"

"Look, as much as I want to, I don't think it's practical that we make people take a test before they can start having children. They'll have the children regardless. I understand where you're coming from, believe me, I love my parents, but there were times…best I can suggest is they take a sort of mandatory apprenticeship or something with someone who's already had children. How to properly hold the baby, how to clean them up, that sort of thing… grandparents are usually inclined to help that way anyway, the amusement of watching someone flail around ignorantly like that only lasts so long…"

Lori wondered with some amusement if these were opinions Rian had held for a long time, or ones he had formed recently due to… being a man in his circumstances.

Still, at the end of the morning she'd put together a short, functional list of legally binding obligations associated with marriage, as well as included some simple grounds for applying for divorce. They were all general since, as Rian had pointed out, if something actually came up, she'd be the one deciding it directly anyway, and she could make up a law to cover some overly-specific situation after the fact.

When she was finished, Rian had tentatively asked if he could 'rephrase them to be more presentable and romantic'.

"After all, if you're going to be telling them these things at their marriage ceremony, it would probably be nicer if it didn't read like legal code."

"It IS legal code."

"Yes, which is why I want to dress it up and make it look pretty. It's a 'dealing with people' matter, trust me!"

Lori rolled her eyes but left him to it. She supposed that some theatricality in the presentation wouldn't be amiss.