Weekly Digest 60 - (#191 - #193) (Patreon)

Seasonal Hazards

The day started normally enough for Lori. Get up, wash her face to wake herself all the way, sit down on her bed and go down her list of reminders to imbue everything there—there was a mark on the water wheel in River's Fork since it didn't need to be run at the moment—go through the list again to make sure she didn't miss anything, take a bath, contemplate whether her clothes were good for another day or whether she should change—they were still good—and then head down for breakfast.

She was halfway down the stairs when she paused and frowned. The dining hall below sounded… strangely quiet, save for the sound of the bindings of airwisps circulating air and wind from outside the Dungeon. There was no din of conversations, no sounds of footsteps, no echoes of sounds running together and bouncing off the walls. In fact, it was it was so quiet her ears started to ring. Lori hesitated, the turned and hurried upstairs to get her staff, her footsteps suddenly sounding strangely loud.

Armed with her staff, a stone spearhead added to its butt using rock she'd pulled from the walls, Lori cautiously crept down to the first level of her Dungeon, keeping her back to the walls. The dining hall was empty, the bindings of lightwisps shining down on neatly arranged tables and benches that had no occupants. There were no people sitting, talking, playing games or napping. The kitchen was equally devoid of life. The long rows of stoves were bare, the stones where the heat rose up to the pots sealed up with wooden covers to keep the heat of the firewisps in the firebox contained. The new copper pots and the old stone pots had been put away, the taps with water for drinking and cooking closed up. The only sound was blowing through the dungeon.

Lori stared. What was going on? She'd never seen her Dungeon like this. Had she woken up too early? Was it still the middle of the night? Frowning, Lori turned and pushed one of the front doors of the Dungeon open, intent on going outside and finding out what time it was.

As soon as she managed to open a gap in the door, a blast of howling, utter cold blasted through the crack, slamming into her face like a bucket of freezing water. The cold was so intense it actually momentarily overwhelmed the passive warmth of the firewisps around her, and Lori jerked back in surprise, the doors closing shut again.

Lori stared at the doors for a moment, then looked up to the vent slots in the stone above the door that pulled fresh air into the dungeon. She raised one hand, and felt the freezing cold air blasting through the slots, cold that she could feel even though the warmth around her. It wasn't comfortably cool, as it usually was, but chilling and uncomfortable.

She leaned her staff onto the rack next to the door, placed both hands back onto the closed portal and pushed. The doors swung easily once she managed to get it open and give the wind another avenue to go around the door instead of pushing against it. The sound of the wind suddenly rose in intensity as she pushed to door all the way open until it struck the rock behind it. Beyond the door, the narrow stone passage was full of snow almost to the doors, rising up to about chest high at the open mouth of the passage. Cold wind slammed into her face, sending her hair flying and reminding her she needed to borrow scissors to cut it. Her shirt rippled under the onslaught as she forced herself to step forward, crunching over the snow that had spilled into the passageway a she tried to see out into her demesne.

Lori forced herself through the snow, then realized how stupid that was and bound the waterwisps in them, making the snow flow out of her way and compress into ice on either side of her. Fortunately, the snow at the mouth of the passageway was so packed it didn't collapse a she approached it, and she was able to bind the whole thing in one piece as her breath fogged the air. She reached out, claiming and binding more and more of the snow, before fusing them all together. Bracing the fused mass against the stone at the mouth of the passageway, she made the whole mass push itself outwards, clearing the entrance.

Beyond the passageway, a blinding white curtain of snow fell. The Um, the shelter and the baths were just mounds in the snow storm, their outlines barely visible. Past that, the houses where just white shapes with some glowing bindings of lightwisps at the corners. The snow was piled alarmingly high…

For a moment, Lori thought of going back in and getting her raincoat and winter robe. She was actually starting to feel the cold, like a mask growing on her face and climbing up her arms. Then she shook her head, reached out and bound the airwisps around her, binding them with the firewisps that would normally keep her warm and imbuing both, shrouding herself in a sheath of warm air. Water immediately started to condense on her face and arms, and she wiped it off in irritation as she stepped out into the snow, imbuing the warmth around her just enough to last her some time before she focused on the snow.

It would have been so convenient to just turn all the water into steam, but that would be problematic. The heat from the state change would have to come from somewhere, so as she turned more and more water into steam, the area surrounding the water she had converted would grow colder and colder as the heat was sapped from them by the evaporating liquid. As the temperature was already well below the point water would freeze, there already wasn't much heat to begin with. She could clear the way but create a path so utterly cold no one could safely pass through. And with the snow still falling, it would only be a temporary measure at best, unless she found a way to keep the snow from falling…

Oh!

Well, at least building material was plentiful.

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It took her a while to realize she could check on whether people were alive by focusing on her awareness of the wisps in the demesne and checking for voids. After all, it would probably be a waste of time trying to get to people who were already dead from cold or asphyxiation or something. Fortunately, when she concentrated, there were many such voids nearby, surrounded by airwisps surrounded by earthwisps surrounded by waterwisps, meaning they were probably inside the houses, so people were still alive and this wasn't a pointless effort.

With all her practice with making pipes, making arches and excavating tunnels in the third level while she was expanding it, binding the snow out in front of her dungeon's entrance passageway, and compressing it outwards to form a tube of ice through the snow was relatively easy. It helped that they didn't have to support thousands of sengrains of weight above them. She worked quickly enough that she was able to walk forward as her tunnel through the snow formed in front of her. It was a slowly, almost leisurely walk, but it was a walk.

If she didn't have to actively concentrate to shape and form icy walls around her to keep out the rest of the snow, Lori might have gotten impatient at the rate the tunnel formed. As it was, she was just annoyed at how slowly she was working as she tunneled towards the shelter next to the Um, where she could feel several voids of wisps and a large concentration of firewisps what was probably the shelter's fireplace. It seemed like they'd only lit one and had huddled around it, perhaps to use the other as an air intake.

Eventually she found herself facing the shelters thick wooden door, which glistened a bit wetly from the lightwisps she'd bound to the top of her head. She tried the latch, sliding it sideways to pull the bolt and pushing the door open. "Is anyone dead in here?" she called out as she stepped inside. The lightwisps inside still glowed brightly, the wooden covers that normally covered them at night when people slept pulled back as the group of people all huddled in front of the fireplace looked up in surprise. They were all covered in their winter robes, blankets and even bedrolls, all sitting together in groups of at least two to share warmth.

"Y-your Bindership?" someone said.

"Yes, yes, it's me," she said, waving a hand dismissively. "Did anyone die?" She looked around, but there were no body-sized lumps pushed to the corners, which was probably a good sign. Belatedly she realized people couldn't look at her properly with the binding of lightwisps over her head. She decided to keep it there. "No dead, then?"

Annoyingly, no one answered her questions. Instead, they all started making a din about how 'they were saved' and 'her Bindership saved us'. Lori rolled her eyes. Ugh, people. Couldn’t they just respond properly to a simple question?

"Put out that fire and get to the dungeon," she said. "It's warm there. If you have any tools we can use to dig, bring them, we still need to get to everyone else first—I said put out that fire! Do you want to waste fuel?"

Sighing, Lori stomped back outside to her tunnel, grimacing to herself. Ugh, obviously she couldn't delay this anymore.

Orienting on the stone she had given Rian that had a binding of lightwisps on it, Lori began digging another tunnel straight towards his house. She'd need to him to keep people away from her and to direct everyone during this emergency. Ugh, stupid storm! Why couldn't it have come in the middle of the day, when it was convenient?-! Really, the only thing worse would have been a dragon suddenly appearing!

Lori froze, but despite what her novels and the narrative convention of theater plays would have her believe, thinking that didn't somehow immediately make her aware of an approaching dragon. Letting out a sigh of relief, she went back to compacting the snow into ice and tunneling through it, trying to move as fast as possible… just in case.

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After a brief detour to grab her staff, seal off her room, and yell at the people in the dungeon to NOT get any food from the cold rooms since they weren't authorized, Lori was finally able to tunnel to the front of Rian's house. The doors and shutters were all shut, of course, but there was a void inside and a concentration of firewisps, which probably meant her lord was alive.

She opened the door and frowned. There was only a small fire in the fireplace, and Rian had dragged his bed dangerously close to it. Like the others, he was wrapped up in his winter robe, blanket and bedroll, facing the fire with his eyes closed.

"Rian, why is your fire so small?" she demanded.

The clump of fabric and padding jerked, and Rian's eyes snapped open. . "L-Lori?" he said weakly through chattering teeth.

"Yes, I'm here, I'm here," she said. "Get up, it warmer in the Dungeon. I need you to take charge of the idiots I just pulled out of the shelter while I try to get everyone else out of their houses."

He blinked at her, looking uncomprehending for a moment, then shook his head as if trying to clear it. "Right…" he muttered. "Right. Emergency… What's the situation?" By the end of the sentence he almost sounded like his normal self.

"There's a snow storm burying the demesne, so I woke up to find breakfast isn't ready yet," she told him. "I'm hungry, but unfortunately I don't know where the people who cook live, so I need to get to everyone to find them."

For a moment, Rian stared at her. "Ah. I see. And you didn't just grab some meat from the coldrooms and feed yourself because…?"

"I don't know where they keep the kitchen knives." She certainly wasn't going to use her own knife to cut up meat like that! She knew what she'd used that knife on!

Rian nodded, shoulders shaking a little. "Right… right. I'll get up and join you as soon as I pack up my bedroll. I think I might be safer to sleep in the Dungeon tonight…"

Lori scowled as he confirmed what she feared. "Only for the duration of the storm," she said. "I'm not letting everyone else just live in my Dungeon."

"I'm sure that's well understood," Rian said as he hurriedly began folding up his bedroll and blanket.

"Good," she nodded curtly. She frowned, looking around. "Why are you alone in here?"

That made Rian pause in his packing as he looked up at her. "Why wouldn't I be alone? It's my house and I don't have any other family around here."

"Huh. I'd have thought that given how forward you've been, you'd have invited the three of them to keep you warm at night."

Rian gave her a flat look, then went back to folding up his things. "Well, I didn't. It wouldn't be appropriate."

She glanced down. "And the four of you probably wouldn't fit on the bed, I suppose." The bed she'd used to sleep in was narrow, meant for a single person, or two if they were being disgustingly intimate. Three people would already press it beyond its limits.

"I'll have you know that even when they do visit, they always go back home afterwards. In fact, I walk them home to make sure they get there safely. Can we drop the subject now? I thought there was an emergency on." He hefted the bundle containing his bedroll and pillow.

"Come on, then," Lori said, waving at him to follow her.

They had a long day ahead of them.

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Fortunately, No One Asphyxiated

Rian was far too useful. Lori hoped other demesnes only had lords less than a tenth as useful as Rian, because if they were even half as useful, killing their binders would be far too difficult when she finally had to.

Once he had finally managed to get warm in the dungeon—after she'd agreed to raise the heat some more—and put on his winter robe and fur wraps properly, Rian got to work, sending people down to the third level to get firewood.

"All the shovels are in the tool shed," he explained as he laid out the firewood on the table. They were all about a pace long or longer, slim and rounded, with no sharp edges. "So we need new ones. Tunneling through the snow instead of clearing or melting it was a good idea, but from here we have more people we need to get to."

Lori looked down at the firewood. "And this is for…?"

"Shovels," Rian said. "Shovel handles, specifically. You'd have to make it with stone, but we're in a hurry, and it's not like we're going to keep them for long. It's a bit too cold to be digging with our bare hands, and we don't really have any better shaped tools. Also, I'm fairly certain the carpenters will murder us for using their tools improperly."

Lori nodded. "They would." Most important rule in any profession, neveruse someone else's tools without permission. "And I'd let them."

Rian gave her an indecipherable look. "Anyway…" he continued. "We need tools, and then we can split up into teams. First you tunnel us close to the houses close by. Once we're there, you open a hole outside, and the shovel team will dig through the snow to all the houses close by, while you and I tunnel up to the houses on the rise. The old houses are pretty close together with little alleys between them, so they don't really need to dig that far, but it would be time consuming for you to do it, so we'll just throw people at the problem. They should be able to get to all the houses and the hospital. The houses on the rise are farther away, but their doors all face the same way in a line, so once we actually get up there, it'll be easier to dig them out. Once they're out, they can help get food ready and dig out the rest."

Lori frowned, pursing her lips. "How will the diggers deal with the snow that they'll displace without me?"

"Ideally, they should pile the snow up to either side to make walls," Rian said, "but if the snow gets too high for that and they actually have to start digging tunnels themselves, we can throw the snow into the cookpots and dump them in the baths. The baths' drains should take care of it, if they haven't frozen shut." He frowned. "Wait, no, not the cookpots. Too heavy when full, too small, the kitchen staff will murder us and you'll let them. A blanket or maybe a bedroll. We can lay it out on the ground and people can drag it by the corners to the baths." He glanced at her. "Uh, they haven't, right? Would you know?"

Lori frowned, checking on the demesne's water systems. The water hub had run dry, since the storm had probably dumped enough snow into the river to freeze the non-moving parts of it, and the water around the hub was sedentary enough to be vulnerable. The reservoir  in the dungeon was still full though, and not quite up to capacity. The pipes through the bedrock were all clear, however, and they were already well-imbued from this morning. The minor alteration to the waterwisp bindings that pushed the water through the pipes towards the waste water cistern to keep water from freezing despite how cold it got would consume the imbuement faster, but that was a minor problem overall.

"The pipes will function as intended," she said as she added more imbuement to the firewisps that heated the water in the baths, also altering the binding there. That was the most logical place to dump the water. "I'm altering the basins in the baths to produce more heat to melt the snow. Keep people from sticking their limbs into the water until I change them back." The firewisps were bound to waterwisps, so only the water should grow warm, but that would still be dangerous for her idiots. "And there's no need to waste a perfectly good blanket. We should still have some tent canvas somewhere, perhaps in someone's pack in the shelter. Use those instead."

Rian nodded, looking relieved. The idiot had been planning to have them use his blanket, hadn't he? Despite the fact that he seemed to be the person most sensitive to the cold. Idiot. A most useful idiot, but still an idiot. "Right, better idea. That will keep everyone working and out of mischief." He sighed. "I suppose we'll have to push the marriages back a little. Good thing the flour keeps well." He made a face. "We might have to use that flour to make some quick bread. Easier and faster to make than our normal food, and we'll need it since no one's eaten yet."

"Do it. That's what emergency supplies are meant for."

They both went to work, Lori heading down to the third level to get stone for the shovels, and Rian to get everyone organized and in a state to work. Fortunately, the Dungeon's latrines were clean, and while they didn't have ready food, they had drinkable water. That would have to be enough for now.

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The stone shovel heads weren't her best work, needing to be actively reinforced by a binding of earthwisps to not break from their own weight, but it was enough. Rian had advised that they be flat and wide, almost like tablets, tapering down to narrow edges to since it was just as important to cut through the snow as to dig it out. The shape of it had compelled her to go and get her stone-shaping tool, which was a shaft with a flat board at the end. The tool was added to their list of assets.

Rian had informed the idiots they had on hand of the plan while Lori opened up the Dungeon's emergency baths so it was ready to use, directing the drainage of the baths towards the Dungeon's farm's cistern. She also adjusted the basins in the emergency baths to reduce the amount of water in them, creating an artificial scarcity that would hopefully discourage people from being wasteful with it. Ugh, would she need to create a distillation facility to recover that water and put it back in the reservoir. She might have to, when they had more people, if only to make the water last longer…

Once someone managed to retrieve some tent canvas from the shelter—apparently people had been using them as a simple partition, providing the illusion of rooms and privacy—everyone was ready to start digging. In addition to shovels and her stone-shaping tool, others were carrying some of the planks Rian used to write notes on. The flat boards weren't much, but Rian had said they needed every tool they could get, especially once they had more people to help dig. Lori had also laid down a binding to circulate air into the snow tunnels, pulling it in from the passageway to the dungeon. Some people had been left there to keep clear the passageway and the gap over the tunnel clear so they wouldn't run out of air.

They started in the middle of the tunnel to Rian's house. Orienting herself using the bindings of lightwisps on the outsides of the corners of the houses, Lori began to bind and move the snow towards her destination, leading the way at her slow walking pace. The snow just opened up in front of her, flowing up to make walls. Since she wasn't bothering to make the ice perfectly transparent, it was streaked and full of bubbles, but it was enough to occasionally allow them glimpses at the storm outside.

Through the ice, the sounds of the storm were muted, but it clearly still raged. The tunnels behind them were already being covered over in snow, and she could feel that the snow ahead of her was now about the height of her sternum, though it was a bit hard to judge accurately given the amount of waterwisps in the air. As she walked, she tried to keep an eye on which way the wind was blowing. Fortunately the direction seemed to be consistent.

Soon enough, tunnel ahead exposed the corner all of a house. "We're here," she said, turning the tunnel. A little walking soon had them at the house's front door.

As Rian knocked on the door to let the people inside know they had arrive, Lori walked a little farther, eventually coming to the gap between the house and the one next to it. As planned, she proceeded to open a hole in the tunnel into the little alley, careful not to turn the snow into ice as she pulled back the tunnel wall. Immediately there was a howling wind and a moderately cool wind on her face. Others without such bindings raised hands to their faces, but grimly stepped out into the snow, tools in hand. Armed with the heavy stone shovels, her stone-shaping tool and Rian's planks, they quickly began dig through the snow as the door of the house behind them finally opened.

"L-lord Rian?" she heard someone say as she continued tunneling to the front door of the next house.

"Good morning," she heard Rian say. "Sorry to get you out of bed like this, but because of the storm we're moving everyone to the dungeon. Have everyone get their blankets, bedrolls and pillows and head down to the second level, all right? Just do those, don't bother with anything else for now. You can get anything else you need later once everyone's settled in."

"Y-yes, Lord Rian! Thank you, thank you!"

"Don't thank me, Her Bindership did all the hard work. Oh, and can we borrow your house? We've got people digging to get to the other houses, but they need someplace to warm up."

"Y-yes, of course, Lord Rian! A-as soon as I get everyone to the Dungeon. I'll come and help too."

A laugh. "Get warmed up first and use the latrine. And maybe get something to drink. You'll need it."

Another laugh in return. "Yes, Lord Rian!"

Lori rolled her eyes as she reached the door of the next house. Reaching up, she thumped her fist on the door. "Open up!" she ordered.

She waited impatiently, tapping her foot and considering knocking again before the door finally opened, and a man in a winter robe peeked out. "Y-your Bindership?" he said.

"Is anyone in there dead?" she demanded.

"N-no, your Bindership! No one's dead."

Lori nodded curtly. "Good. Put out the fire so it doesn't burn the house down, take all your sleeping things and get to the Dungeon where it's warm. Do it fast."

She glanced towards where Rian was, but people seemed to be taking their sweet time leaving the first house, so she couldn't put the binding in it yet. Honestly, didn't they realize they needed to hurry? Shaking her head, Lori turned and continued tunneling. Only one house more, then she could start going up the rise toward the houses there.

Hopefully by the time she finished someone would have started cooking breakfast in the kitchen!

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Once they got to the houses on the rise, the experienced northerners were able to take charge of digging everyone else out. Fortunately, no one had asphyxiated.

"The gaps in the roof are designed to let enough air into the house in case of exactly this sort of situation," Rian explained to her later as they sat at their table. To one side, Umu was wrapped around his arm, while on the other, Riz merely leaned against him, while Mikon leaned against her. All four seemed to be enjoying each other's warmth. Around them, the dining hall was loud with its usual sounds of life, with perhaps overtones of relief. "Sure, it would be blocked off if the house was completely buried, that takes a lot of snow, and until then there's some leeway. If need be, people could climb up and move the planks on the ceiling. They're made so people could pop them out on the inside in exactly this sort of situation."

"Ah. How convenient," Lori said.

"Not convenient. Exactly what it was designed for," Rian corrected. He had a cup in front of him and was drinking small sips every so often, a familiar placebo for curbing one's hunger. Lori had been doing the same thing. While her lord seemed to be concentrating exclusively on their conversation, Lori kept glancing towards the kitchen were food was hurriedly being cooked. She could distinctly smell bread cooking in their new ovens. The emergency food was being cooked far too slowly! "Though if the snow had piled up higher than the houses, then we'd probably have had cases of people asphyxiating."

"Most people would have risked opening a window and poking the broom out until they hit wind or daylight," Riz said, Mikon wrapped around her arm as if mirroring Rian. "We've had worse up north."

"Good to know," Rian said, nodding to her. He turned back to Lori. "Still, as the government, we should probably prepare to do something about this now that it's already happened, maybe have a stash of shovels and carts here in the Dungeon. And maybe make an official plan for what to do in the event of a storm, the way we do for if a dragon arrives. Or in the event of a storm and a dragon arriving at the same time."

Even Lori shuddered at that idea. "After breakfast," she said.

"Don't you mean lunch?"

"No one's eaten yet, this meal is breakfast."

Rian tilted his head slightly and nodded, conceding the point. "I suppose… well, at least we're in a good position. The baths are still useable, at least, and we have water."

"Only what's in the reservoir," Lori corrected. "The intake from the river is frozen."

"Ah. Well, fortunately, there's a lot of frozen water falling from the sky right now that's easy to pick up and move. Would there be any problems with dumping it straight into the reservoir?"

Lori grimaced. She really didn’t want to just have people going back and forth to the Dungeon's reservoir, and she liked the idea of people throwing things into it even less, snow or otherwise. "I'll build an intake they can dump the snow into," she said reluctantly. It only needed to be a temporary thing, something like the evaporator on the Coldholdto keep solids from getting into the reservoir. She could connect it to the pipe from the water hub shed, and place it at the entryway so the snow wouldn't have to be dragged into the Dungeon… "After breakfast."

She wasn't going to be able to expand her demesne at all today, was she?

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Taking A Rest

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…