Weekly Digest 78- (#239 - #241) (Patreon)

(Re)Securing Water

Work continued on as the water level of the river rose. Lori was informed when the river began to exceed its banks, and so she went out to see it for herself. The dock was properly underwater now, and the relevant working parts of the water hub shed were just barely above water. She hastily deactivated the building when she saw this, and began sealing the pipes leading from it again.

After checking to make sure that the exhaust vent leading was her Dungeon wasn't being overwhelmed and filling with water—it wasn't—Lori considered what she should do. They needed water, and unfortunately, all their water was provided by the water drawn from the shed. It was why it was the hub, after all. The water for the baths, the water for the kitchens, the drinking water, the water in her Dungeon's reservoir… all of it was drawn through the bindings in this building, which drew it from the river…

Oh, right!

Lori turned, looking past the laundry area and towards the stone pillars, troughs and arches of the aqueduct. It had to stopped working during the winter because it had gotten too cold, and so she hadn't been keeping the bindings on it imbued, letting them dissolve. Now, however, with the temperature warm enough for water to be liquid—even if Rian still insisted it was freezing cold—she could put the bindings back in place and get it working again.

At the very least, it would ensure the demesne wasn’t lacking for drinking water, though she'd have to tell Rian to have the basins were the water would flow down cleaned. They'd still need water for the baths, at the very least, which was their most significant expenditure. She might be able to reroute all the pipes so that the used bathwater would be evaporated so it could be reused again, but…

No, no, better to just build another water hub shed. Even when it's been thoroughly treated, people objected to bathing and potentially drinking water they'd sullied. Even she objected to it, and she knew how through the process was!

She had considered it some weeks earlier, but really, the best way to do this was to move the water hub shed such at it could still functioned even if the river was flooded. That meant raising it up such that the area where water was boiled to clean it was well above the level the flood water could reach. And it just so happened she'd build a nice, high stone structure recently…

…

Yes, this flood barrier was probably going to be an annoyingly permanent feature of her demesne, wasn't it?

"Rian," Lori told her lord later at lunch that day, "I need you to have the water basins under the aqueducts cleaned. I'm going to be reactivating the aqueducts tomorrow, and I don't want anyone getting sick because something has accumulated in the basins."

"Ah, I was wondering if we'd still be using those this year," Rian said. "Though shouldn't we clean the aqueducts themselves as well? There's no point in cleaning the basins if the water is passing over dried bug droppings on the way there."

The women on either side of him made expressions of distaste. So did the one in front of him, for that matter, though for a slightly different reason. "Ugh, you're right," Lori said. "Can it be done safely?"

"I think so…" Rian said thoughtfully. "Our ladders should just barely let us get to the top, and as long as there's no water running, it should be relatively safe. I'll ask Arak if he has a rope long enough that we can use as a safety line. A little soap and some scrubbing… though it would probably take a day or two before it's finished, since we'd have to be careful…"

Lori sighed. She'd been to check her Dungeon's reservoir earlier, and while it was still full, without the snow melter or more water from the river adding to it that wouldn't last. "Get it done in a timely manner," Lori said. "I'll work on moving the water hub shed so it can still function with the flood this afternoon." She thought of it, then added, "Until that's done, no one is to use the pools in the baths."

"That's going to be a hit to morale," Rian sighed, "but I suppose it's understandable. I'll tell the bath house managers to stop refilling them after lunch."

Lori ignored the disappointed groans from the nearby tables, as well as the sigh from next to her.

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After lunch, Lori got to work on building the new water hub shed. While she knew that Rian would do exactly as he said and have the soaking pools in the baths not be filled with water… it was likely that her idiots would ignore that order and do so anyway. So she had to move quickly to get something built that would replenish the water.

Even though the old water hub shed was right there, she didn't disassemble it for building material to make the new one. It might function as a good backup. Also, it was currently surrounded by calf-high rushing water, and while she could probably dismantle it at a distance without getting her boots wet, that would leave her Dungeon's exhaust vent without physical protection, so best leave it where the old water hub shed where it was for now.

Building the newer water hub shed into the structure of the flood barrier was actually relatively easy. She didn't build any pipes side the wall—that might have resulted in some kind of structural weakness—but raising some stone walls allowed her to build a small water tank on the inside incline of the wall. They were simple vertical walls, since they weren't expected to have to hold back much water—at least, not compared to the flood barrier—but Lori made them a bit thicker in the bottom, just in case.

The next day, some stairs were added to the incline so she could more easily reach the top of the wall, a job she was able to give to the masons and plasterers with their tools and some softened stone.. While the stairs were being put in place, Lori laid down a stone tube on the outside of the flood barrier that reached down into the river, which she then form a pipe inside for the water to pass through. She made sure the stone tube was thick so that it was unlikely to be damaged. The end of the pipe actually connected with the old water hub shed, using its mass for further protection, before opening up into an intake tube within the river.

Lori wanted to keep the weight of the new water hub structure to a minimum, so as to put less stress on the flood barrier it was built on top of, but that wasn't really possible. The new water hub shed needed to be durable enough to survive a dragon, or at least dragonborn abominations. Still, the extra-thick walls such reinforcement needed would serve just as well to strengthen the flood wall from breaking under the pressure of a flood, so it was probably a net advantage in the end.

The walls she had already added to the flood barrier needed a little extension so she could properly build a shed she could stand up in, while the roof was a simple stone half-cylinder roof. She had to reinforce it with ice acting as a solid support while she was building it, but by the time she finished, the arching half-cylinder was a sturdy, solid thing that… well, would probably crack if a dragon scale fell on it, but it would be enough to keep the weather out.

After having the carpenters measure out a door for the one opening in the new water hub shed, Lori got to work on actually building the necessary components within it. The new water hub shed didn't really have a floor, as such, only a triangular, sloping tank for the water that would be pulled from the river.  First she placed a binding in the pipe extending into the river, to draw up water and dump it into the water tank, but didn't activate it yet. Then she placed a slatted frame made of bone she'd made in front of the pipe output, securing it in place to the stone and anchoring a binding to it that would attract the mineral sediments to the bone to filter out large particulates.

Only then did she activate the first binding, drawing water from the river and examining the resulting quality.

…

Lori sighed and anchored a binding of lightwisps inside the water hub shed, since not a lot of light was really passing through the opening into the shed, and she was blocking most of it. With the better illumination, she was able to give the water a better look. It looked far clearer than the water flowing outside in the river did, so it did seem like particulates were being removed. Still, the water was no doubt filled with dustlife, some of which could cause illness…

After that, all she had to do was build an intake about halfway up the holding tank that led down to the pipe from the old water hub shed to the reservoir, placing a binding on it to draw in water. Then she began drawing water from the river and filling the holding tank. Once the holding tank was partly full, Lori added in the binding of firewisps and waterwisps that would simultaneously heat the water to boiling while preventing the water from becoming steam.

More bindings of firewisps on the inner surfaces of the new water hub shed prevented the heat generated from leaking outward, keeping the heat contained within an in the water. The binding also functioned to pull heat out of the water being drawn through the pipes towards her Dungeon's reservoir so that she wouldn't be filling it with superheated water. After a certain point, the bindinging would stop generating heat and simply keep it within the binding.

At that point, the most pressing concern would be to keep people from entering the water hub shed and killing themselves by accidentally falling into superheated water.

"What about bugs?" Rian asked later at dinner when she told him why she was waiting on the door the carpenters were still in the process of building before activating the new water hub shed.

Lori frowned. "What?"

"Bugs. You know, hard shells, more than four limbs, occasionally wings—"

"I know what bugs are, Rian. What about them?"

"Well, the door keeps people out, right? What's keeping bugs out so they don't fall into the water and get boiled alive? For that matter, what's keeping bugs and slugs in the water from being pulled up the intake tube in the river?"

Lori stared at him. Then she sighed. "I… think there was a binding in the almanac that mentioned an efficient means of keeping bugs away from a location using lightningwisps," Lori said. "I'll read up on it tonight, and see if it can be adapted to work in water."

Rian sighed. "I suppose I should ask around and see if anyone has some clean cloth scraps you can just secure onto the end of the tube to act as a filter or something."

"That… will probably work too," Lori conceded.

Sighing, Rian reached for his cup of water and was about to raise it to his lips for a drink when he paused. Slowly, he looked down at his cup. "You know, I just realized… the way you're saying it, you never built any way to keep bugs and things out of the old water hub shed, right?"

"Yes…?"

"And… when you opened the shed earlier this winter, you found a lot of dead bugs in there…"

Lori stared at him. Then she twitched and looked down at her own cup of water.

"When was the last time you actually checked inside the water hub shed before you opened it this winter?" Rian asked, still staring down at his cup.

"I'm sure it's fine," Lori said, also still looking down at her own cup. "The water is boiled beyond the capacity of life to survive, evaporated, and shone with unseen light that actively kills all life exposed to it. The phase where it is evaporated alone ensures that only clean water could possibly come from the Dungeon's reservoir."

"So it's not rotting bug water, it's well-cooked bug broth?"

They both continued to stare at the water in their cups…

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Forward Planning

The next day, after installing the cloth that Rian had managed to acquire over the opening of the intake pipe leading into her Dungeon's reservoir, Lori resolved to not think about the water issue once she finished installing the door of the new elevated water hub shed. After all, it had been boiled, evaporated, and then shone with unseen light to kill dustlife! Even just the evaporation meant the water coming from her reservoir could not have any hypothetical essence of dead bugs in it!

The aqueducts, in the meantime, were still in the middle of being cleaned. Volunteers with experience at climbing where scouring the channels atop the stone structure, removing leaves, dead bugs, and other detritus. Rian was supervising, because Lori had told him under no circumstances was he to actually climb up and do the work himself, lest he fall, crack his head open, and leave her without a functional lord. Riz, next to him, had taken it upon herself to make sure he stayed on the ground.

Technically, with the water hub shed functioning again, there was no reason to bring the aqueducts back into service. People could just get their water from the bath houses like they'd been doing all winter. However, that would no doubt cause congestion in the baths since people were starting to work again. While she'd keep the drinking water accessible in the baths, bringing the aqueducts back into service would keep people from congregating in the baths, especially since filling water containers probably wasn't instantaneous.

Besides, with the laundry area likely to flood soon—at the moment it was still high enough to remain dry, but the level of the river continued to rise—people were probably going to start washing their clothes in the baths again. She wasn't going to make another laundry area—they could just wait it out—but giving her idiots somewhere else to get water from would alleviate the inevitable crowding.

"How much longer before the aqueducts are cleaned?" Lori asked her lord during lunch later that day, before dipping a piece of bread into her soup to eat.

"Optimistically, maybe this afternoon," Rian said, still stirring his own bowl to cool it down. "Realistically, perhaps tomorrow morning. You didn't exactly build the aqueducts with cleaning them in mind." He chuckled for some reason. "That might actually be what you need to build next: convenient access to the aqueduct's channels, so it's easier to do it next time. We really shouldn't clean them only once a year, after all."

Lori twitched and vey determinedly did not think of all the cups of water she'd drank over the year. "That would be a waste of time," she said. "Have the carpenters build some sort of reusable scaffold. Given future construction projects, such would be a more worthwhile investment of time and materials."

"Usually, it's safer to have such things be made of metal," Rian said. "For the sturdiness. Wood that keeps getting assembled and dismantled like that will get worn down eventually."

"It doesn't need to last forever. Just for the year's needs. Perhaps two years, if we're lucky."

"Another permanent temporary solution?"

Lori twitched.

"I know, I know," Rian said, his voice strange. "It makes me cringe inside too."

"Then why bring it up?" Lori ground out.

"To remind us both that it is temporary, and that someday we'll get around to putting in something better and permanent," Rian said with a bright smile. "Eventually."

Lori twitched again. "What else?"

"The door for the water hub shed should be done this afternoon, so you can put it in place then," Rian said. "Work on the farms, both above and below ground as well as mushroom, are progressing well. And I felt I should remind you, but I can take you to see where the coal burners have set up their mounds at your convenience."

Ah. Right, that. "Tomorrow, once I've reactivated the aqueduct," Lori said.

Rian nodded. "We've also started seeing seels coming back up the river again. I've taken the liberty of telling everyone, especially Karina, that no seeling is to be done while the river's still flooded. The current's too dangerous, and even if it wasn't, the added silt makes it hard to be sure of your footing."

"Good. We can afford to wait a few more weeks for fresh seel." Lori paused. "We can, right?"

"Yes, we can," Rian assured. "We still have meat in the cold room. Though in anticipation of needing to refill it, I've had the hunters scouting out the edges of the demesne and keeping an eye out on the beasts out there. It looks like the beasts are starting to calm down, so it should be safe to try and hunt them soon. We might even be able to send someone to River's Fork soon and tell them we didn't try to kidnap their Dungeon Binder."

"While such a message would be appreciated, since my aunt is no doubt worrying, I would rather no one be put at risk for such a thing," Shanalorre said from a little bit away from Lori on the bench.

"Noted, Great Binder," Rian said, nodding towards her. "It's unlikely to happen any time soon. We'll probably be able to take you downriver by boat sooner than we can send a message."

"'Great Binder'?" Lori said, raising an eyebrow.

"I thought I'd give it a shot," Rian said, shrugging. "Don't worry, you're still greater, your Bindership."

Next to Rian, Riz coughed.

"Rian, stop being silly and get back to reporting."

"Yes, your Bindership. Speaking of food stores, we might need to make them just a little bit bigger. They were able to last us the winter and then some, but I think it would be better we had more food storage capacity. We should probably make separate storage for the smoked and cured meat in any case."

Lori looked towards the where the cold rooms were. "I'll see about expanding current storage," she said. "Now would be the best time to expand them, while some of them are empty." She'd have to do this carefully. Her idea had been to expand the cold room downward, which could be dangerous since they used solidified air to cool the food now instead of ice. While the former didn't melt into water, it was unbreathable. If she wasn't careful, the concentration of unbreathable air could become dangerous.

Hmm… perhaps she could build upwards, instead? That way any unbreathable air would be level with the door and be circulated out. Technically, building upwards wouldn't be any different than building downwards, in regards to structural stability… after construction was finished. During construction, however, she'd need to add pillars and arches to the current cold room so that it would be able to support the floor of the expansion above…

Something to consider later. "Is there anything else?"

"Nothing important, though I feel I should remind you that we'll need two new houses built," Rian said. "For the petitioners."

Ah, yes, that had slipped her mind. "I remember," Lori lied. "I'll build it after the cold room expansion. I'll have the material for it by then."

Rian hummed. "Well, that should be everything for now… though as your lord, I think you should take a break this afternoon and plan the order you're going to build things, maybe reread your almanac as well to remind you of what resources you have there."

Lori frowned, but nodded. Well, she did need to think about her approach to expanding the cold rooms. "Fine. Inform me when the door is finished so I can install it."

"Yes, your Bindership," Rian chirped.

Lori pointed at his still half-full bowl. "Now eat before that goes all the way cold." Her own bowl of soup was conspicuously empty.

"I point out that I can't really eat when I'm doing most of the talking."

"Less talking, more eating."

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Installing the door to the new water hub shed was simple enough. With the carpenters having measured the doorway, all Lori really needed to do was sink the hinges into the stone and anchor them in place. After that, the water hub shed was completed, and she could finally activate all the bindings to bring it into operation. She watched it for a while, making sure everything was functioning as intended for closing the door and locking it with stone to prevent it from swinging open, sealing the edges as best as she could to keep out any inquisitive bugs

That done, Lori got back to planning how she was going to approach the cold room expansion. While it would be easier to expand underground, she ultimate decided it would be safer in the long term to expand upwards. She had enough experience with excavating to be reasonably certain she could do so safely, and building upwards was safer in the event of a potential flood, since it meant their food would hopefully be above water level. And while they no longer used ice to keep the cold room chill, this would also allow and condensation to flow down to ground level and be dealt with relatively easily instead of gather in an underground pit and potentially making a pool.

…

Lori made a note to have wooden steps on any stairs so that it wouldn't become slippery with condensation or ice. Well, less slippery than just stone, at least…

The first cold room would probably take some time as she took care and did it slowly for safety's sake, but expansion of subsequent cold rooms should be faster once she had more experience.

She also reread her almanac, as Rian had suggested. The binding for making a steady supply of solidified air was tempting to add to the cold rooms as an integrated feature, but without the sort of pressure vessels it specified, it was still a bit unfeasible. Still, it was something she could try and have the smiths make later. They still had some anatass, after all.

Perhaps she could experiment using very, very thick stone and see how viable that was? As long as it produced enough solidified air to break even, it should be more than enough to maintain the temperature of the cold rooms. Well, she'd try it later when she had time to experiment.

A dehydration shed to accelerate the drying of vigas, fruits, mushrooms and anything else that might be feasibly dried, however, was well within her current resources. It would be far slower than the dedicated desiccator she'd made for the vigas during the first harvest, but it would require far less oversight on her part beyond imbuement. Given that it would probably start raining soon, it would also be useful for the drying of any gathered deadfall.

Her reread of the almanac didn't bring anything immediately useful to her attention, though she did find and make note of the binding for using lightningwisps to keep away bugs. After the water hub shed, she should put that on the entryway to her dungeon, once she'd properly read through it and was certain it wasn't harmful to her idiots. And the baths. And the shelter. And around the open channels of the aqueduct…

Oh, welding metal together with lightningwisps would probably be useful at some point—it talked about welding broken tools together—but she was unlikely to need to do her own welding any time soon. Though… would this process work with glass? The problem with metal was that it couldn't be shaped by earthwisps unless it had reached an almost molten state, and glass was similar. Could she use this process to selectively heat parts of glass enough to make it malleable with needing to melt the entire mass?

It would be something for her to test once she had a free moment… and when Shanalorre was no longer in the demesne to potentially see it.

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Bug Repellent

Almanac in hand, Lori carefully followed the flow diagram for the binding to repel bugs from an area. She made it small for now, since it was just a test binding in her room, making a binding about the size of a door. After all, that was how big the binding needed to be for the water hub shed.

According to the flow diagram notes, the lightningwisps would charge the air in such a way as to irritate the delicate sensory organs of bugs, discouraging them from passing through the binding, while at the same time causing no harm to people beyond a slight tingling sensation of the hairs. At least, if she followed the flow diagram properly… and if the person who'd written the flow diagram was writing it down properly. Granted, the diagram looked right, but it would be best if it were tested, just in case.

Warily, she imbued the binding. There were no sparks of light, no crackling in the air, no peals of thunder. The ignorant always assumed lightningwisps looked like… well, lightning. In truth, lightning was too impractical for most of the uses one usually wanted lightningwisps for, unless you wanted to kill someone, make something explode, or… well, pretty much those two things.

This binding's output was well below what was needed to harm, much less kill, but Lori was careful nonetheless as she warily passed her hand through where the binding was. Because of the way the binding was put together—lightningwisps and airwisps andchored and chained together—the imbued lightningwisps went around her body instead of passing through, which was what kept it from being instantly fatal, or at least extremely painful.

The other lightningwisps emanating from the binding, not imbued but simply free in the environment, did pass through her, but there was no tingle as the binding said there would be. Lori frowned, wondering if she'd done something wrong. She should have been feeling something at the concentration of lightningwisps in the air. A small spark, or at least the sensation of her hairs straightening, but there was nothing. Why…?

Oh. She could have realized. It was like the way the firewisps around her changed without her direct control, modulating the temperature around her so she wasn't too cold or too warm. The lightningwisps seemed to do that same, such that she couldn't actually experience the usual indicators of their presence.

Colors.

That meant she'd need outside input to inform her how well the binding was working.

"Rian," Lori said at dinner as they waited for the food to be ready, "where's Landoor?"

Rian raised an eyebrow, narrowing his eyes slightly. Next to him, Umu moved away a little. "That depends. What do you want him for?"

"I just need him to test the binding I made to keep bugs out."

"And you need Landoor for that, because…?"

"I need to see if it's harmful to humans."

"Pleasedon't use our people to do that," Rian sighed as Shanalorre turned, staring at Lori. "Really, no one in our demesne has done anything deserving of being a subject for destructive human testing. As your lord in charge of dealing with people, it's literally my job to tell you to not do this!"

"Well, I still need to test the binding," Lori said, ignoring the stare, "to make sure it's tuned to repel bugs but not kill humans."

"Just test it on bugs! If it doesn't kill them, it probably won't kill a human."

"I would, if I could catch a bug to test it on," Lori said. She… actually hadn't thought of doing it that way, but she supposed she could do it that way as well.

"Is it really important to test it?" Rian asked, sounding exasperated. "Can't you just set it up and leave it, then then come back in a week to see if bugs got in?"

"I need to test the binding's safety and effectiveness now, before all the bugs start breeding in earnest so I know it's safe to put the binding around other locations. If I wait, there will already be bugs inside whatever I put the binding around."

"Oh, come on, you barely notice the bugs in the Dungeon. And the all the food is well sealed, so that's not an issue."

Lori blinked. "There are bugs in my Dungeon?"

Rian raised an eyebrow. "For several weeks, the front door of your Dungeon was a boulder with a gap around the edges to keep you from asphyxiating, and even now, we leave the door open during the day. Why are you surprised there are bugs in the Dungeon?"

Lori stared at him in horror. The reservoir… the reservoir was just there, at the end of a sealed hallway… a seal that had gaps to let air in…

"Is my Dungeon infested?" Lori said, voice faint.

"It has a far less than normal amount of bugs," Rian said. "They're not getting into the vigas, the flour, or the meat, because the cold rooms are freezing. Mostly they've just been buzzing around, staying warm. The regular latrine cleanings and sweepings mean they have nothing to eat if the stay here, and the farmers worked to keep them from eating the vigas while it was growing. So relax, your Dungeon isn't horribly infested by bugs. It just has a few here and there." Rian hummed. "Though if we start growing fruit trees, that might change. More palces to hide, softer things to eat, harder to keep bugs off because fruit trees are taller…"

Lori twitched.

Rian sighed. "Look, if it's really important to you, I'll test the binding for you. Even if you made a mistake, as long as it's not instantly lethal, Binder Shanalorre can most likely fix me. Probably. Maybe. Hopefully." He glanced sideways at the visiting Dungeon Binder. "Uh, that is, if you're willing?"

"Of course," Binder Shanalorre said. "I'm perfectly willing to assist in ensuring no one comes to lasting harm."

"You sound increasingly less hopeful," Lori said.

"I'm just remembering that you asked for Landoor to test this, meaning it's potential lethal."

"Potentially harmful, not lethal. The lightningwisps are not set to be powerful enough to be lethal."

"Then why are you testing it?"

"To make sure it's functioning as intended."

"How diligent of you," Rian sighed. "Well, come on, let's get this over with before Mikon and Riz get here with the food."

Lori blinked. "Now?"

"Yeah. This shouldn't take long, right? I mean, you just need to know if it'll be harmful if someone passes through it. Just make one, I'll walk through it a few times, and if I end up on the ground shaking in pain and agony Binder Shanalorre can put me back together so I can have dinner and sleep it off." Rian stood up, stepping over his bench and looking at Lori expectantly.

…

Well, she hadn't expected to test this at the dinner table, but it wasn't really a complicated test. Lori stood as well, binding darkwisps from under her clothes. It flowed out from around her like her soul leaving her body as she anchored the darkwisps to the ground and used it to define the area she'd be putting the bug repellent binding on.

People sitting at the other tables watch curiously as she raised the door-shaped patch of darkness, then anchored the binding of lightningwisps and airwisps to it, drawing some of the lightningwisps from her body, her finger growing numb for a moment as she drew the lightningwisps from it to make the binding.

"All right, it's done," Lori said, the feeling returning to her finger as she finished. "The binding is set, so just walk through it to see if it will harm you."

"Right…" Rian said. "So, just to be clear, this is supposed to be safe for people and you're just being sure, right?"

"Yes, of course," Lori said. "If I wanted to harm someone with lightningwisps, I'd just do everything my teachers told me never to do with lightningwisps."

"Was one of them 'don't work with lightningwisps when you're taking a bath'?"

"…yes."

"I'm fairly certain the only one that would harm would be you. So, uh… please don't do it? For all our sakes?"

Lori didn’t deign to answer. "Rian, just get on with it."

"Right, right…" Rian muttered, looking at the doorway-shaped square of darkness. He took a deep breath and stepped through.

Then he frowned, turned around, and stepped back.

"That… feels strange," Rian declared, rolling his shoulders strangely. "But I don't actually feel like I've been harmed. Are you sure this thing is working right?" He stepped through again, still frowning. "This feel very anticlimactic, really. Why did you think this could possibly harm someone? Wait, did you at least try it yourself before looking for other people to do this?"

"Of course I did," Lori said. "However, I couldn't tell if it was harmful or not because the lightningwisps changed when they touched me. I wouldn't have even felt them if I hadn't known they were there. hence why I needed to test it on someone else." She tilted her head. "I suppose this means the binding is safe to put in front of the door of my Dungeon to keep bugs out, then."

"Do you think you can put it on the fields to keep the bugs off?" Rian said thoughtfully. "It would mean far less worrying about whether bugs are eating the crops."

Lori shrugged. "I don't see why not. Though I'll have to test it to see if it has any adverse affects on plants." Hopefully it wouldn't. Any excess lightningwisps should just be pulled down to the ground.

"We can find some poor, blameless stalk of vigas just minding its own business for you to test on," Rian said, stepping through the binding one more time. "Anyone else want to try this before Binder Lori puts it on the front door?"

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It was raining the next day as Lori put the binding across the entrance of her Dungeon. The location was close enough that with a little creativity she was able to connect the bug repellent binding to the lightwisps that illuminated the inside of her dungeon, allowing the binding to be imbued directly by her core with no intervention on her part.

People were wary as they crossed the threshold of the binding into her dungeon, but other than a shudder or patting at the hairs on their arms, the binding truly had no effect on people, and it wasn't long before people were passing through the binding without hesitation. Well, except for the children, who kept walking back and forth through the binding and giggling at the way it made their hair tingle.

Her inspection of the charcoal burning site had already been postponed because of the rain. Despite the temperature immediately around her body adjusting to her comfort while she was in her demesne, walking through mud and rain would still have been a miserable experience. In addition, the cleaning of the aqueduct had to be postponed because it was too dangerous to work on, so reactivating it was put aside for the moment.

Once the binding in front of her Dungeon's entrance was finished, she went to install the binding in the water hub shed. The rain dripped down from the brim of her hat as she stood outside the door of the shed, placing the binding on the four walls of the shed, as well as on the ceiling and atop the boiling water. then she slowly pulled the bindings towards the entrance.

No bugs were dislodged by the bindings, but did that mean none managed to get in through her seal on the door or the binding wasn't enough to irritate them into motion? She supposed she'd have to check in a week or so. Securing the binding behind the doorway on the inside of the shed, Lori closed the door again, this time only making the stone extrude enough to prevent the door from opening.

Once that was done, Lori moved on. She placed the same binding on the entrances of the shelter, the Um, and the baths. If there were any bugs trapped within… well, people could deal with the things on their own. However, she repeated the procedure she had done at the water hub shed  when she came to the mushroom farm, this time focusing on her awareness of the demesne's wisps to look for small, mobile voids. This finally allowed her to find a few, distributed among several static mostly-voids—there were spots of darkwisps, lightningwisps, airwisps and waterwisps—that were probably the frames holding up the logs on which the mushrooms were grown.

As the bug repellent binding became active, Lori was glad to see the voids immediately move. She kept the door of the mushroom farm open as she pulled the bindings from the walls, herding the bugs in the farm towards the opening. The bugs flew or skittered past, and she lost track of them in the rain as she pulled the bindings towards the door and collapsed them into a smaller, properly fitted size for the entrance, anchoring the binding in place.

Idly, Lori wondered if the outdoor mushroom farm was being built yet and made a note to herself to have Rian show her where it was. Had it even been started yet or were they waiting for her to assign a specific plot of land first? Uh, she should probably assign the land herself.

With the binding over the mushroom farm's entrance in place, Lori headed back towards her dungeon. As she began to pass Rian's house again, she paused, then shrugged. All the shutters were closed against the rain, but through her awareness of wisps she could feel no people inside it. There were a few small voids though, probably bugs that had gotten under the door or in through the chimney. As the rain fell, Lori began placing bindings on the walls, floor and ceilings…