Demesne 193 - Taking A Rest (Patreon)

After the very late breakfast that some people kept mistakenly referring to as lunch—and the wonderfully warm, chewy, hot, succulent bread that annoyingly had to be rationed and didn't have any honey on it because was emergency rations that they were for energy instead of a celebratory sweet treat—Lori went to build something people could dump snow in to melt for water. She put it in the passageway, near the opening of the tunnel into the snow and right under where snow blew in through the gap above the tunnel's entrance and beneath the passageway's ceiling.

It was simple enough to set up, consisting of a long stone basin at waist height. The basin was divided into three separate chambers. In the first chamber, the only one that that was open at the top, was a layer of hot water with a binding of waterwisps and firewisps to keep it hot. Slightly above that layer was an opening into the middle chamber, where the water would overflow into. Within was a binding of waterwisps that turned water into steam, ensuring that anything that wasn't water was left behind to accumulate in the middle chamber. The steam rose within the sealed compartment into a hole at the top that led into the third chamber, where the steam was sucked in by airwisps and condensed back into water by more waterwisps and firewisps before being pumped down into the pipe that led to the reservoir in the dungeon to fill it.

It was, Lori thought, a rather elegant closed loop, if she did say so herself. The firewisps looped through all three chambers, moving the heat from the condenser back into the evaporator so that no new heat was created, meaning it used imbuement more efficiently and the water that fed into the reservoir did so at a reasonable temperature. She'd still need to decrease the heat later when she finally deactivated the thing, and she'd need to remember to keep it imbued as the storm continued, but all anyone had to do was to keep dumping snow into it, and it would melt the snow, cleanse it, and add it to their reservoir. She was finished by midafternoon, which included making a pipe from the Dungeon's emergency baths to dump the waste water from the drains into the second chamber so that they no longer drained into the drainage cistern in the third level.

"Be sure to check the reservoir and stop putting in snow once the reservoir is full," Lori ordered Rian sternly once she was finished building it and she had shown him how it was to be used so he could explain it to other people. "Otherwise the pipes will back up with water and overflow, the passageway will be flooded with boiling hot water, and I'll throw everyone involved out into the snow without winter robes to think about what they've done. Is that clear?"

"Stop when the reservoir is full, or else you'll do horrible things to punish us for our own stupidity," Rian said. "Got it."

Lori glared at him to emphasize how serious she was, then nodded. "Have any more problems come up? What stupid things have they done?"

"Unfortunately, people have gotten bored and started playing music," Rian said, and Lori twitched. "I'll have them stop when it gets dark. Well, dark-er." He glanced up towards the gap above the tunnel, where the overcast sky was visible. "Everyone else, I'm keeping occupied."

"Occupied how?"

"The latrines have been emptied out and the stuff sent down to the farm, the inevitable drip on the floor from that's been cleaned—don't worry, I had them use boiling water and soap—as many people as possible are checking over every plant we have in the farm, what little ropeweed fiber we still have are being spun into thread, and the carpenters are making more shovels, buckets, cargo litters since wheels won't do well on the dungeon's stairs, and more covered buckets in case the latrines have to be cleaned again and for when we have to dig out the snow after all this is over. Those who have no work to do have been encouraged to sit still and not cause trouble, hence the aforementioned music."

Lori grunted. "Good," she grudgingly allowed. "Except for baths in the bath houses, everyone is to stay in Dungeon tonight. Have them set up in the third level alcoves. We'll see about letting them go home if the storm's passed by then."

"They went straight there after we got them out of their houses," Rian said. "With your permission, I'm going to have people start moving their things from their houses to their alcoves as if this is a dragon. You know, just in case a dragon does show up in the middle of all this. And it will give people something to do to keep them occupied."

"Do it," Lori said. "I'll be in my room expanding the demesne."

Rian's eyes widened. "Wait, I'll go set up the clocks!"

Lori waved a hand. "Don't bother," she said. "You weren't able to measure this morning, so there's no telling how much of the expansion you'll measure is today's or yesterday's."

"Are you sure you're up to it? You've been working hard all day. Why don't you just take a rest and read your almanac or something?"

Lori waved her had again. "I'll be fine. Come knock on my door when it's time to eat." She paused a moment, and then added, "And don't set up your bedroll in the hall outside my room! Go downstairs and claim an alcove like everyone else!"

"Wasn't going to," he said. "That would just start weird rumors again." He paused. "More weird rumors."

"I don't want to know."

"Yes, that's probably wise."

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Despite herself, Lori had to stop trying to expand the demesne prematurely. The morning's work had left her tired in both mind and body, and she found herself unable to devote sufficient concentration to the task. Grudgingly, she ceased that day's effort, putting her bedroll back in order as she wondered what to do with herself.

She eyed the chatrang board on her table, next to the plank with the numbers, then let her gaze drift towards the sealed, airless alcove where she stored her used clothes. She supposed she could do her laundry. That had been piling up recently and… Lori turned and checked the alcove she kept her clean clothes. Yes, she was down to one last shirt and trousers, though she was still good on socks, loin cloths and chest wraps. She still had to wash her bedroll and blanket as well. She'd been putting that chore off for a while, since the last time she'd done it had been so frustrating. And speaking of chores, she still needed to cut her hair…

On the other hand, she was tired, it had been a long and irregular day, and all those were still work.

She eyed the chatrang board again, gave up, and decided to indulge herself.

The board and its pieces in hand, Lori headed downstairs. She was met with the sounds of singing, dancing and music, and almost turned around again. The dining room seemed more crowded than usual, but she supposed any crowd at all after lunch was strange. Rian had apparently neglected to mention exactly how many people lacked something productive to do. While she saw people sewing holes in clothes, most were sitting around tables talking, playing board games, and…

Lori watched in some bemusement as someone sat at a table with a blanket wrapped around them while someone else stood behind them and worked on their head with scissors. She supposed she wasn't the only one who'd decided they needed a haircut, then. Actually, given that there seemed to be a line of people sitting nearby waiting their turn…

Shaking her head, Lori reminded herself it wasn't sundown yet—she paused, turned and checked out the passageway, and yes, it wasn't sundown yet—so they were still allowed to play music. At least it wasn't everyone contributing to the dim, as if competing to see who could make her go deaf. She headed down to the second level, were it was somehow less noisy. Oh, there were still the sounds of th carpenters working, cutting and shaping wood, using the lathe and moving wood around, but it was a familiar, productive sound, not the loud, pointless din of music.

Others seemed to find it equally comforting. Many of the alcoves were occupied to some degree, and people had laid out their bedrolls in the niches and benches and were napping. A few were spinning thread in a leisurely fashion, rolling the threads into balls, or wrapping the thread around spools. The looms and the spinning wheels were untouched, however, as if none of the weavers really wanted to work…

Lori found Rian in an alcove at the far end of the second level by following the binding of lightwisps on the stone she'd given him. The alcove was one near the stairs leading down to the dungeon farm, and stood relatively isolated, the nearest occupied alcove five spots away. Huh. She'd have thought he'd have chosen an alcove near where everyone else was.

"I'd have thought you'd choose an alcove near where everyone else was," she said.

He looked up from the plank he was balancing on his lap, a piece of charcoal in hand. Umu and Mikon sat to either side of him on the wide bench, both spinning thread as they leaned on him, while Riz napped with her head on the pink-haired weaver's lap, her booted feet extending over the edge of the bench. "Oh, hey. Done with work?"

"Not in any fit state to work, after today," she clarified. "What are you doing?"

He held up his plank as if she could actually see what he'd written from where she was standing. "Doing the math on your expansion-to-time average."

Lori sighed. Anothernumber he'd obsess about seeing go up. Lori could, intellectually, understand how important it was, but Rian seemed to expect day-by-day massive improvements! She had barely begun experimenting on what factors affected the growth rate, an experiment this storm had interrupted. "Well, do I quickly. I've come to challenge you to chatrang. Or lima, if that's your preference." Next to him, Mikon brightened at the mention of chatrang.

"Me?" Rian said, sounding bemused.

"It's the board you had made. It's about time you got to play on it. Now stop doing math and pick a game."

Rian glanced at his board. "As you command, your Bindership," he said cheerfully, tucking the plank under the bench and leaving the charcoal next to it. "Though I'm not really very good at chatrang."

Lori smiled. "Wonderful. That's the best kind of opponent." She glanced at the weavers to either side of him, and Riz still snoring softly on the bench, then shrugged. She bound the earthwisps in the stone in front of Rian, pulling a block up out of the ground as she made an equal volume next to it sink down. Putting the chatrang board on top of the block, Lori raised a seat for herself to sit down on, pulling the stone from under the bench behind her.

"What, an opponent that's not any good? Where's the challenge in that?"

"I'm not looking for challenge, I'm looking for enjoyment. And the most enjoyable part of any game is winning. Thus, facing someone who is easy to beat is the most enjoyable sort of game."

"I… can't really think of how to refute that. Huh. Do you want to go first or should I?"

"You go first," Lori generously allowed as they began putting down the pieces on the board.

Rian nodded. "Mikon, which pieces do what again? I remember that Dungeon Binders do everything and the Horotracts can skip over spaces, but the rest…"

"No helping hi—" Lori paused, glancing at Mikon. "On second thought, feel free to help, it probably won't make much difference."

"Confident, aren't you?" Rian said. "We'll see if you still feel that way after Mikon and I defeat you!"

"Not so loud, Riz is still taking a nap," Mikon said reproachfully.

"Oh, right. Sorry Riz."

Riz just mumbled something and covered her eyes with her forearm.

Rian reached down for the militia and hesitated, thenglanced at the pink-haired weaver next to him. "How many spaces can the militia move again?"

"You can do it Rian," Umu encouraged him. She didn't sound very confident

Ah, Lori was going to enjoy this…