Demesne Patron EX SS 16 - A River's Fork Binder in Lori's Demesne (Patreon)

Shana left the comforting abyss of empty, thoughtless sleep, and everything was cold all over again, save for a very warm spot over her belly. Not very warm but firm, solid and steady arms held her, and a broad, solid back was in front of her. She could feel the tension of ninong Yllian holding her as he struggled to keep her secure without harming her. Her face around her eyes was cold, and she felt ice and snow on her eyelashes, the relative warmth of the scarf wrapped around the lower part of her face a sharp contrast.

Her breath filled her lungs, filling her with magic, enriching the life within her, and energizing her thoughts. With each breath, she started to feel better, even though was still a little cold. After so long in her demesne, she'd gotten used to the feeling of wellness, of how despite the cold she never actually got sick, never had her nose start to drip or any of the small symptoms of the coming of illness. Outside of it though…

Shaking her head, getting her mind to think properly, Shana focused on the work in front of her. The light that the sled cast was mostly pointed forward, but her eyes had adjusted enough that she could see vague shapes around her. Some distance away, the snow seemed to glow, as if lit from behind. "This is Lorian? "

"Yup!" Lord Rian declared with clearly forced cheer as the sled slowed. It was just another example of the vehicles that Binder Lolilyuri made that could move so quickly, even if it did have to blow cold air at their elbows to slow down. "Welcome to wonderful Lorian Demesne, home sweet home. To your left, you can see our wonderful snow! To your right, more snow! That snow-covered mound over there is where we get our water from when the river is actually flowing, that mound over there is where everyone does their laundry, and I'm pretty sure those two mounds are our baths. Honestly, it's hard to tell in this light, especially with everything covered in snow."

The laugh that followed was more forced than usual and had the slightly manic edge of needing sleep. "Sorry, but if I stop talking I might pass out where I'm sitting, and that would be awkward." He was putting on snow pads as he spoke, and when he was done he was able to get up and off the sled, then handed ninong Eeban his own snow pads so he could put them on and stand up. While ninong Eeban was doing that, Lord Rian walked around to the side of the sled, knelt down awkwardly on the snow, and pulled off the cork on top of the two loud tubes that allowed their sled to go so fast. He reached inside, pulling something out, and the air blowing through the tube suddenly stopped. Shana caught a glimpse of something small, pale and round, and recognized beads. "Sorry the seating's so tight your Bindership, but we didn't have time to make a bigger sled before we came to get you." He stood and went around to the other side to do the same thing to the tube there.

"That is understandable, Lord Rian," Shana said evenly. Binder Lolilyuri's lord had slowly stopped seeming more villainous over the months as she realized how genuine his smiles were, even if his charm was still a bit suspect, which made this current display of forced emotion mildly disturbing. "I did agree to come to your demesne with this sled in mind. This was to be expected."

The words came so easily to her now, the precise, even tones like how tota used to speak. Just recalling it hurt, but she turned her thoughts away from the pain, burying it deep within, into the dark void in the depths of her soul. She couldn't let it out, couldn't think of it. It would only hurt.

Behind them, Erzebed was untying the ropes holding ninong Yllian secure to the sled. It had been the only way he could sit without falling off and still hold on to her so she wouldn't need to be squeezed between him and ninong Eeban. Over her belly, under her coat, the warm stone that Lord Rian had pulled from his back to keep her from being cold shifted as ninong Yllian's hands shifted.

"Please stay on the sled, your Bindership," Lord Rian said. "It'll be easier for us to push you on the sled up towards the tunnel into the Dungeon rather than try to carry you over this snow. Besides, we have to push the sled anyway, you might as well enjoy the ride." His expression turned mildly sardonic, and his smile became so properly villainous he had to have been doing it on purpose. "Lord Yllian can push, in case he's worried there'll be some sort of tragic slow-moving sled accident."

"I accept your invitation, Lord Rian," ninong Yllian said as ninong Eeban handed him some snow pads to put on.

"Rainbows. My convoluted dastardly scheme is foiled again. Once more, Lord Yllian has outsmarted me," Rian said in a flat voice that he ruined by yawning. "Argh, stupid lack of sleep, ruining a perfectly good moment. Please keep your hands and arms inside the sled, your Bindership. Just follow me, Yllian, the tunnel is this way." He pointed to where the snow seemed to glow, leading the way.

As Riz moved to walk next to him, grabbing his arm to keep him from falling over, ninong Yllian began pushing the sled as Shana reached for the ropes Rian had been using to steer, adjusting the runner so it pointed towards where they were going. "Lord Yllian, you realize Rian got you to push the sled so he didn't have to, right?"

She couldn't see his face, but Shana could almost imagine his expression. Off to the side, ninong Eeban snickered.

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After breakfast, and Binder Lolilyuri parting from them to attend to her duties—they were probably very extensive, given the size of the Dungeon she had seen upon waking—Shana, with ninong Yllian in tow, followed her guide Karina to the baths. There had been a small bathing area in the dungeon, but it had been too small to be the baths the immigrants from Lorian had described, and Shana had been a bit too tired to risk exploring beyond the floor where she was sleeping.

"These are the baths," Karina said as she led them through the snow-lined tunnels of Lorian. "The one for women is on the left, the one for men is on the right. Anyone can use the benches in front, although we're not allowed to have a fire there anymore because it would melt the tunnel. There's also one up the hill, but that's farther away, and Lord Rian said you'd be sleeping in Wiz Lori's dungeon, so this is closer." She pointed. "We also have showers overthere, for when you just want to get the sweat off, but they're buried in snow right now, and anyway, it's too cold to use them."

Shanalorre nodded. "I understand. Lord Rian said he had arranged soap for us?" They had their own soap—Shana had packed some with her—but there was no reason to turn down the gift.

Karina nodded. "Mister Bonn, our soap maker, should have them ready. He's either in the bath where it's warm or the Dungeon."

"In the baths? This early?"

Karina shrugged. "Some people like to sit in the hot water, since it's so cold. But we should check the Dungeon first."

Fortunately, they found the man sitting at one of the tables of the Dungeon's dining hall, playing a board game with someone Shana vaguely recognized. Concentrating, the name came to her. Glegol, a farmer who'd joined them because his brother had been a member of the Golden Sweetwood Company. That brother had died during the…. That brother had died, so he had been among the group who had decided to risk looking for the demesne upriver that had turned out to be Lorian.

Glegol glanced towards her, then looks away, focusing on the game board between him and the soap maker as Karina inquired about the soap for them. Guilt, perhaps, or just uncomfortable in her presence. He should just do what she did. Feel nothing, or else it will hurt.

The soap maker had the soap in his person, and handed them over readily. It was clearly two bars of soap cut into thirds, but the soap was dry and firm, with a slight grit to it, and while it didn't smell of anything in particular, it was soap.

After giving her men their soap—two were currently sleeping so they could guard her at night later—Shana went over to the next alcove to inquire about her patient's condition. She was awake now, and had been given some soup and cold water, but was apparently far from giving birth. Technically, she wasn't Shana's patient, but as the only Deadspeaker in attendance, and the one who would be providing the taming to heal her if necessary, Shana felt justified in considering her as such.

Still, it was clear that the other doctors and medics were uncomfortable with her being nearby, and she decided to go to the baths while she had the opportunity. After all, she had fresh soap, and it was best to cleanse her body of any possible vectors of illness while she could. It was definitely not because she wanted to sit around in warm water! That would be wrong. And very silly.

That didn't change the fact that sitting in a shallow pool of warm water after using the gifted soap to very, very thoroughly clean her body of the accumulated sweat, dead skin and odor that she'd stopped noticing felt absolutely wonderful. Next to her, Karina also sat, a smile on the other girl's face breaking the too-serious expression she'd had on. Across from them was Yvenne, the militiawoman who had accompanied her so that she wouldn't be unprotected in the baths. The three of them just sat there, enjoying the water and temperature,

Even as Shana enjoyed the feeling of utter warmth after months of chill, cold, and sleeping on the floor of her office on top of a layer of warm rocks so as not to risk being suffocated in her sleep by a fire, the logical, rational part of Shana's mind with which she performed her duties as the Dungeon Binder of River's Fork considered the difficulty and logistics of establishing a communal bathing area like this in her own demesne. The closest they had was an abandoned house they had converted into a sauna, but she could tell that would not last long. The building's wood had not been properly treated for such use, and once winter was over, neglect would see it start to rot and grow fungus, perhaps becoming a dwelling of bugs unless she had it demolished or properly treated to withstand the humidity.

There had been talk of building such a similar bathing area in the months before winter, but that had all it had been. They barely had the manpower to perform maintenance, collect food, tend their crops, prepare supplies for winter, and all the other things needed to maintain their demesne and keep it livable. They truly had needed the additional manpower to work the ore mine and in the process expand it into a functional shelter against the coming of a dragon—

Shana shivered, tear involuntarily coming to her eyes at the thought, and started breathing deeply to calm herself. In, hold, out, in, hold, out, hold…

As she calmed down, mind once more clear, Shana turned towards Karina and inquired, "How long did it take to build these baths?" The walls were clearly Whispered stone, which from what Shana could remember was a time-intensive process because of how much mass needed to be moved—

"Wiz Lori built this in a day," Karina said.

Shana blinked, unable to keep her surprise buried in the dark depths of the void within her soul. "A day?"

Karina nodded, the gesture looking strangely solemn. "Yes, she wanted everyone to have a proper bath before we had our first town meeting, so she built the bath house and gave everyone a day to use them."

…

Shana looked about the baths, at the curving arch of the wall that turned into a ceiling, the long basin of water, the pools where she was sitting.

A day.

…

It was at that moment that Shana resolved to find a way to entice Binder Lolilyuri to build a bath in her demesne. It would be difficult. Lorian had very few needs that they couldn't fulfill themselves. In fact, the only thing Shana could really offer was…

But no, a bath would be wasteful (even if it would be so nice and wonderful!). If she were going to try and negotiate with Binder Lolilyuri, who was always uncomfortable leaving her demesne and rightly feared being attacked by some of the unreasonable people in River's Fork, then there were more needful buildings than merely a bath, such as a proper bunker, or even just bunker fittings for the ore mine so that it was better prepared to house people…

Except Binder Lolilyuri had little reason to want to do so. Shana was very aware that the other Dungeon Binder had more to gain from Shana's death over her continued existence. More aware, probably, than Binder Lolilyuri was. Every day, she was aware. However, the woman had shown she was willing to, if not exactly aid in keeping Shana from dying, then at least offer assistance with things that didn't provide Shana with a significantly increased chance of living through the next dragon.

That was fine. Shana didn't really care to live. The only reason she forced herself was because of the hardship it would expose to the people under her care. And because a small, insignificant part of her still didn't want to die, despite not having anything to live for…

Ninong Yllian often thought she was far too free with the things she offered the Dungeon Binder of Lorian. He thought that she should hold back, negotiate from a position of strength and make Binder Lolilyuri see her as an equal to be respected and not a child. He didn't understand. How Binder Lolilyuri saw her didn't matter. All that mattered was that the people she was responsible for flourished. It was her only purpose in life now. All she had left.

One day, she would leave her demesne in Binder Lolilyuri's hands. The woman would be able to improve it, make it better, give her people the lives they deserved.

The pain inside her, buried deep in the void of her soul, could finally stop.

But not today. Today, she had a patient who would bring her another patient, and she had to be in a fit state to take care of them.

Shanalorre closed her eyes and enjoyed the warmth a little longer.