Weekly Digest 82- (#251 - #255) (Patreon)

Spring Construction

There was, really, not much adjustment needed for the integration of Shanalorre and the new residents into her demesne, beyond Shanalorre stationing herself at the hospital while she recovered from her blood loss. The militia who had accompanied her had been integrated into the workforce, assisting with the logging, sawing, farming, the rising need to keep chokers out of their farms while fences were being raised, and the clearing operations to prepare for expanding the agricultural fields. Since there were only a handful of them, it wasn't particularly significant assistance, but at least they were properly earning their keep now!

Rian in particular seemed happier as he set Yllian to compiling and keeping track of the resources the demesne had at hand. Lori was surprised to learn—though she probably shouldn't have been, given Rian's obsession with numbers going up and down—that her lord had taken it upon himself of keeping track of the amount of meat, vigas, vigas ground into flour, tubers, planks, bundles of firewood, buckets of coal, logs growing mushrooms in the mushroom farm, amount of mushrooms harvested per log, salt, distilled gold water, soap, chiyudrops of honey, furs, skins, hides…

She stopped listening well before he finished he completely enumerating the list, but it was lengthy. Rian had been having some people keep track of each thing and report to him how much of each had been used or produced at the end of the day. He compiled that together in his house every night, keeping track of it all on a plank. Every week, he recalculated how much the demesne had made or used of each resource, which he apparently used to project how long the resource would last…

"That does not have to recalculated every week!" Lori declared when he had told her what he was having Yllian do, horrified at the repeated calculations that would require.

"I beg to differ," Rian said. "Depending on the time of year, we would be using more of, say, coal and wood, or producing more soap and hides. With this I'll know what we need a ready supply of at what time of year and when we're likely to have a surplus of something so we know when we have to allocate labor to what. It'll basically be our demesne's own little almanac." He actually seemed proud of it.

"Which you have now delegated to…" Lori checked the rock she'd taken to carrying around with the name inscribed on it. Much less likely to break than a stone tablet, "…Yllian." She glanced at her new lord, whose sooty hands and too-tired state on arriving had prompted her to ask Rian what he'd been making the man do.

"Only putting together the numbers. I do the final calculations and records myself, so it all fits onto the plank."

A thought occurred to Lori. "If you're recording these in planks, where are you keeping them?"

"Under the bed, where else? Uh, while we're on the subject, can I start storing them in the vault? It's getting hard to clean under the bed because of the planks."

Lori sighed. "Is it really necessary, Rian?"

"Maybe, maybe not," Rian said, shrugging his shoulders. "This is a long term project whose benefits likely won't be obvious for a few years. But currently, it's letting me keep track of our food supplies, better predict how long they'll last, and let me plan for the trip to Covehold."

Ugh, fine. That was just barely beneficial enough to allow him to do it for now. "Ugh, fine. That's just barely beneficial enough for me to allow this for now."

"May I assist in that as well, Lord Rian?" Shanalorre said from where she was sitting. "I know my numbers. I can help Lord Yllian."

Rian stared at the other Dungeon Binder, then turned to Lori. "Can she? It'll give her something to do when there's no one to heal, which is most of the time."

Lori hesitated, glancing at sideways at Shanalorre. The girl stared back at her blankly. "Fine. She can assist you while she continues to recover her blood." Ever since she had surrendered to Lori, the other Dungeon Binder had been having her meals supplemented with beast liver and marrow, the traditional remedy for blood loss. Well, the one they had available. They could have filled her veins with the blood of others, but no one knew what flavor her blood was, and the few people with smooth thin blood couldn't give her too much since they had to work as well. Still, Shanalorre was in no danger, merely lethargic as she slowly recovered.

Work also began on the new houses, both for the petitioners and those who would be moved from River's Fork. While she wanted to just continue to extend the original row of houses, latrines had been set up at the end, and she didn't want to move those. Actually, the area might actually need a few more for convenience. There had actually been a small line when she had been there looking for a building site.

After examining the area available, she decided to put the new houses opposite the old row, just past the basin that was filled with drinking water by the aqueduct. The ground was stable enough for her needs despite the rain, the undergrowth keeping the dirt together, though she'd need secure the slope against collapse too. The site was well away from the direction their farmlands were going to expand while still being close enough to be convenient.

The first thing she needed to do was to move the stone there to build up a foundation. She still had a large amount in the stockpile, but given they hadn't had a dragon in some time, she opted to keep them in place to protect her Dungeon. While she had Rian dig up the sight to get the soil out of the way—they could move the soil down to the Dungeon farm to expand the plots—she worked on excavating more stone.

The third level wasn't even a tenth of their above-ground farmland and barely a third the size of the second level, and while she had stopped excavation because of other matters, it was far from completed. Lori spent a relaxing few days expanding the third level, furthering the expansion tunnels and knocking down the walls between them to make pillars with arching supports to hold up the ceiling. She intended the third level to be a massive and able to provide food for at least the town around her Dungeon, but that would be a work of months, possibly years.

For now, expansion was limited by the fact she was the only one capable of excavating, and the fact the stone had to go through the rest of her dungeon to be removed. Still, it was a useful ready source of building material, an there were always more things that needed to be built. After excavating out the expansion tunnels and a few plots on the ground to be filled with rocks and dirt to farm in for a few days while she waited for the dirt to be removed from her chosen building site, Lori estimated she had enough stone to start construction.

It was almost familiar, moving stone from the pile she'd been making near the building site and laying out a foundation. She measured out the same dimensions she'd used for the row of houses, this time remembering to add a little more to account for the walls between buildings. Once the initial foundation was in place, she drew out lines to denote the individual houses and began making the floors level. She was building eight homes to start with, though she intended to be able to continue extending this row for the foreseeable future, or at least until the row became unreasonably long.

Wearing her hat and rain coat, she worked through the rain. In a way, the water was actually useful for letting her know whether her work was level or not, since it would pool in any depressions and any significant bumps would stand out, assisted by the stone masons. Unfortunately, it meant her socks getting wet in her boots as water seeped in from some seam. That was something she hadn't missed, but unfortunately she had to live with it. Rian insisted that Shanalorre heal her at the end of the day to make sure she didn't get sick—well, stay sick, anyway, since her nose sometimes dripped—and Lori really couldn't find it in her to object.

In fact, Shanalorre was very busy before and after dinner as people asked her to heal them. Lori eventually had to impose that she only heal people after they'd been examined by a doctor or medic and the person was confirmed to be actually sick of something

"Thank you, Binder Lolilyuri," Shanalorre said as people reluctantly walked away, and no longer crowded Lori's table.

Lori waved a hand dismissively. "Be sure to inform the doctors what I said. They should be examining people already, but you are not to heal anyone unless they have been examined."

"Does that apply to the infants as well, Binder Lolilyuri?"

Lori considered that. "Fine, you can deal with the children immediately. Make sure anyone claiming to be sick stay away from them."

"Of course, Binder Lolilyuri."

Lori waited, but Shanalorre didn't seem to have anything more to say, so she shrugged and turned to Rian, who was as usual looking back and forth between the two of them. "Rian, what do you have?"

"The new pit traps are working," Rian said, smiling as he reported the good news while Riz and Umu went to get the food with Yllian. "Not getting us as much meat as bringing down one of the big plodders, but it's meat. And Aska got lucky and found a clutch of choker eggs. The hunters want to try raising some again, this time from the beginning."

"Again? After what happened last time?"

"They say growing trying to grow chokers from the egg is mostly safer, since they can train the things not to attack, and they can clip and dull their claws and teeth from birth," Rian said. "And this time they'll be able to make a proper coop for them to stay in."

Lori grunted. "Speaking of chokers, how is the fence coming along?"

"Slowly," Rian said. "But the rain is actually helping, making it easier to stick branches into the ground. It will still take weeks to complete though. On a related note, I think we should use some of our stockpiled hides to make new shoes. Despite repairs some people's shoes are starting to wear out, and some of the children's don't fit them anymore. We can't afford stepping on something and injuring themselves. With Binder Shanalorre here it probably won't result in a fatal infection, but better to prevent it in the first place."

"Authorize it," Lori nodded. "I'll leave deciding the order of priority to you. What else?"

"While you're building, I ask that you consider building another bath, especially since we'll be taking in more people from River's Fork. Possibly with its own laundry area attached, what with the laundry area unusable right now."

Lori scowled, reminded she had to do her own laundry. "I'd have thought the rains would have helped with the laundry."

"Just getting clothes we doesn't count as washing it. The rains are making it difficult because more clothes need to dry in front of the fireplaces. Actually, someone suggested that we set up drying lines for clothes in the third level. Not washing, just string up some poles next to the plots of vigas there and have the clothes drip on them. The stalks don't need much light, and if we place the drying lines right they shouldn't be in danger of people stepping on them."

Lori raised an eyebrow at the actually good idea. "That's actually a good idea. See to it, but priority is on not ruining our crops. And it will be drying only. There will be no laundry done in the third level. I will go there myself to check the temperature and humidity and adjust it accordingly, and I had best like what I see."

"I'll tell them, your Bindership. Now, on to the next matter, I've taken the liberty of asking the carpenters to start building some new beds for the shelter that we can move to the new houses once the latter are ready. We don't want people sleeping on the floor after all."

Lori frowned. "Have they already begun work on the beds?"

"Uh, they were starting to work on two earlier. Should I tell them to stop?"

Lori considered it, then grunted. "How big are the beds?"

"Wide," Rian said as Riz and Umu arrived, putting the bowls of soup, plate of bread and cups of water on the table. "You know, for the family to sleep in. If they need more beds, we can add it in later, but I figured one per family would be enough to start."

"Continue those beds, but don't make any more for the moment," Lori said as she reached for a bowl and a cup, then helped herself to a disk of bread. "We will discuss why later in your house."

"What, not here? Are we keeping secrets from our loyal subjects?"

"Yes," Lori said bluntly as she dipped her bread into her soup and took a bite.

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"You… want me to find the four families with the worst houses in the demesne?" Rian said, looking confused at the request as he sat at the foot of his bed. "Ones who don't live in the row of houses you made."

"Rian, why are you repeating what I'm saying?" Lori said as she kept out of the way of Umu and Mikon hanging clothes to dry in front of the fire.

"To make sure I heard it right and understand what you said. I've got the first, not sure about the second. Why the worst houses? Do you mean the ones in most disrepair?"

"No, I mean the ones who are most uncomfortable living in their house."

"That would be the big families with more members than they can really fit in," Rian said promptly. "Unfortunately, when you made the original generation of homes, you didn’t really account for how many people would be living in them. A few had older sons and unmarried uncles moves into the shelter, and it's actually a bunch of them who lodged a petition to make a sort of bachelor's house. But some couldn't do that because they wanted to stay together."

Lori nodded. "They will do. While the dimensions of the row houses aren't much bigger than the original houses, they have more overhead space, and with some creativity can more comfortably fit more people. I intend to move the families you chose into the new houses."

At the fireplace, Mikon glanced towards Lori.

"That… would be nice for them, but… why?"

"I have no intention of giving the malcontents we'll be bringing here new, comfortable houses to live in," Lori said flatly. "They abandoned my demesne, and the only reason they're coming back is to prevent starvation in the area the infested, which has now become my responsibility."

"Ah, petty revenge," Rian nodded. "Why didn't you say so? I'll see who I can find. It will take some days, however, since I don't think you want this to spread, or everyone will want to argue they should get the slot?"

Lori nodded. "That's fine, as long as it's ready when the structures are to be roofed and made habitable, yes, what do you want Mikon?"

The weaver, who'd stopped hanging up the laundry to stare at Lori, jumped slightly at being acknowledged. She hesitated a moment, then took a deep breath. "Um, your Bindership, may I nominate my family?" she said timidly. "I have an uncle, two aunts, and seven cousins. All my cousins are women, so Aunt Kasco wouldn't let them move back to the shelter to make space. If… if you would consider…"

Lori stared at her, then shrugged. "Fine. I make no promises they'll be more comfortable, but they should have be able to try."

Mikon bowed low towards her. "Thank you, your Bindership."

"Does this count as nepotism or compassion…?" Rian muttered to himself, rubbing his chin.

Lori turned back towards Rian. "This is also why I want you to delay building the beds until you've picked who the families are. They might have their own beds already, or will have beds built into the wall. Also, I want the malcontents to be forced to sleep on the floor for a while."

"Understood, your Bindership, though I should point out they'll have their children with them, and it's a bit cruel to punish the children for what is likely their parent's doing."

Ah. Right. She'd forgotten. "Fine, have the carpenters make six wide beds. They can all share and be uncomfortable in close quarters together." The children will probably be light enough to sleep on top of their parents, right?

"I'll inform them tomorrow, your Bindership."

"Have one of the beds moved in here when it's finished and get rid of this one. Move it to the shelter, or maybe the hospital. You four can't possibly be comfortable sleeping on a bed that narrow."

Rian blinked, and in the light of the glowing rock she'd given him that he'd placed next to him on the bed, Lori saw his face redden. He started to speak but Riz, who'd been sitting at the other end of the bed, suddenly lunged towards him over the bedrolls and blankets and slapped a hand over his mouth. "Rian, please thank the great Binder for her thoughtfulness and generosity," Riz said into Rian's ear.

"Yes, Rian, please tell her Bindership how thankful we are and how we will greatly appreciate the space to actually lie down instead of being on our sides all night," Mikon added, already to Lori bowing again.

"Rian, please tell her Bindership how grateful we are and would of course not even think of refusing her gift," Umu said, also bowing to Lori, a damp shirt that she had been about to hang in her hands.

Rian looked between the three of them, Riz's hand still over his mouth. Then his visibly sighed and tapped the northerner woman lightly on the forearm. She released him. "What they said. Thank you for the thoughtful gesture, your Bindership. Though for the record, I did offer to sleep on the floor so you three would have more room."

"Rian, even I can tell that would defeat the point," Lori said.

"I…" Rian swallowed. "Is that all, your Bindership?"

Lori waved in dismissal. "Yes, yes, that's all. I'll leave you four to your business."

She stepped out into the night, adjusting her hat against the wind and rain as she followed the lightwisps illumating the outside of people's houses back to her nice, warm, dry dungeon.

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Land Inspection

Days passed. Work continued. The walls for the new row of houses started going up, and eventual placements of doors, windows and fireplaces were marked. They were intentionally taller than Lori thought was needed for structures that size, almost five and a half paces high, so that the large families that Rian was choosing could find a way to fit their members somehow, even if it was only when they were sleeping.

Shanalorre, having recovered from her blood loss, was assigned to accompany the loggers with… uh… Lord something-ian. Mostly this meant she was to stay out of their way and kept away from all the sharp objects they were carrying. Lori also saw her passing by the building site to get water from the basin and bring back to the logger to drink, which was probably a useful way to pass the time. For some reason, the brat accompanied her. Lori wondered about that, but simply shrugged it off. It wasn't like the children were assigned any work, and as long as she wasn't trying to go seeling with the river as deep as it was. she was free to do what she wanted Yllian, it turned out, was helping with the logging, which Lori doubted was really conducive to keeping sharp objects away from Shanalorre, but at least he was being useful. Well, people knew to keep sharp objects away from their healer.

When the walls—complete with fireplaces and chimneys this time—of the new row of houses were finally raised and marked with the locations for the doors and shutters, Lori decided it was finally time to get around to inspecting the charcoal burners.

"Huh. I'll be honest, I thought this was just something you'd never get around to, like actually learning how to do other magic," Rian said as they walked in the general direction of downstream, through the untouched trees above the submerged river bank. The undergrowth was covered with scatted patches of sunlight. The air somehow managed to be hot, annoyingly humid, and randomly cool at the same time, depending on the direction of the wind.

Lori turned to glare at him. "I'm working on it," she said through gritted teeth. It wasn't that she hadn't been trying—unlike him, she had few things to occupy her nights beyond expanding the demesne when she felt she had the patience to make the binding across the border and rereading her almanac.

Rian nodded. "Well, as long as you keep trying. Anyway, while we're alone, there's something I've been meaning to tell you."

She frowned. "You couldn't tell me all those time we were in your house?"

Shrug. "I didn't think you'd want the three of them to know. Or at least, know without you explicitly deciding to let them know. I had some of the scouts do another survey of the demesne, with a special emphasis on any possible resources near the edges."

What? Why? "What? Why?"

"So that they'd go to the edge, obviously," Rian said. "You never really said if you wanted the fact that you've been expanding the demesne to be a secret. We've certainly talked about it at meals enough that anyone paying attention could eventually realize, and certainly Riz and her friends have all they need to put it together. But to be safe, I asked the scouts to keep their findings secret for now. Although that also won't last. The hunters would certainly have realized by now it takes a little longer to get to the edge than it used to."

Oh. He was talking about the demesne's expansion. "Oh. You're talking about the demesne's expansion."

Nod. "Unless you've significantly expanded the demesne in the last week—" she hadn't, she'd just made about half an expansion binding that's she'd sort of left to start dispersing, "—then according to the estimates of the scouts, the demesne has grown about three hundred and fifteen paces in radius, give or take a few paces. They can't really be precise, but they figure it's in that range. So congratulations. Our demesne grew well over half a taum this winter."

Half a taum?-! That was… that was… "How much land area is that?"

Rian chuckled. "Normally this would be where I tell you an obscenely huge number, but I'll be honest, that was more calculating than I wanted to do. I think 'six hundred paces more diameter' is about the most comprehensible number for both of us." The grin his face broke into seemed filled with his strange love of large numbers getting larger, but for once Lori could almost understand. Six hundred paces of growth for her demesne was a significant increase.

She tried to remember how many days of working to expand the demesne that had taken, but annoyingly all the days simply blurred together like faces in her memory. Still, it had been most of the winter…

"So… do you want this growth kept secret?" Rian said. "I mean, it might make the people who want land bother you for land more since you'd have more to give away now, but anything on the subject would make them do that."

That sounded annoyingly true… "We will not make an announcement of it, but I see no reason to actively restrict the information," Lori said. "As to those who would make a nuisance of themselves because of the fact… I leave them to you."

Rian sighed in resignation. "Well, if I'm expecting it, then at least I'm emotionally ready for the work," he said.

Lori rolled her eyes. "How much farther?"

"Close. Krezz won't be there, since he's probably collecting more wood or helping with the logging, but I can show you. "

Indeed, they soon came to a clearing among the trees. From the half-rotten stump near the middle, the clearing had probably been made by a large tree falling, though there was no sign of that trunk now. Lengths of fallen branches that had been cut into forearm-long pieces and arrange neatly in an unfamiliar, circular manner. Not far from it was a pile of earth, it's texture different from what was underfoot. Off to one side was what Lori thought was another mound of dirt at first, but on closer inspection turned out to be a small, one-person shack made of fallen branches and packed mud.

"Is… this it?" Lori said, looking around. She had… well, she had honestly expected something bigger.

"It's all Krezz needs," Rian said. "Before you ask, the shack is necessary infrastructure. When making charcoal, the burner needs to be nearby at all times to make adjustments, so Krezz—er, the charcoal burner—has to sleep nearby to keep the burn from going out of control."

"Still…" Lori mused, looking around the clearing as if that would let her find more. It wasn't even all that big, an irregular ovoid about six paces long and four to five with in the middle. "I thought there would be more infrastructure."

Rian shrugged. "Well, we don't really have much in the way of resources to make them. At least, not for someone in his profession. I'm told that a kiln would usually be used to make the charcoal, but it's not like we have any baked bricks to make one with right now. Though it would actually be a good idea. It's more efficient and cuts down on the work of making the charcoal, or so I'm told."

Lori completed her circuit of the clearing. All told, it was a minuscule little patch of land that wasn't near anywhere… including their own village. "Why here?"

Rian pointed in the direction of where she could hear the river's waters flowing. "There's a little bit of clay that way," he said, "which is what Krezz uses to cover up the charcoal pile and make it airtight. Also, we generally haven't expanded much in this direction beyond harvesting the nearby ropeweed, so it's unlikely he'd have needed to move any time soon from logging or other resource gathering. And of course, it's an easy walk, which is important when he has to carry the charcoal back."

"Hmm…" Lori hummed thoughtfully. "I'll have to define the area more solidly than just this clearing." Maybe stone markers marking out the corners of the area that had been leased. "Find out the specifics of the kiln that needs to be built."

"Ah, I have that already," Rian said. "Not very big, but it needs to be lined with clay to retain heat. And of course the stone needs to be carefully chosen so it doesn't have enough cracks, because any air pockets would cause it to explode. Not too different from the pottery kiln and the furnace, really, but it's not shaped the same. The wood needs to reach a high temperature, but with insufficient air to burn."

"Can he build it himself? Or have a stone mason do it?"

"I think so. It's sourcing the stone that's likely to be the problem. Stone's heavy, after all, and most people are busy with other things."

She waved a hand dismissively. "I'll move the stone here, and leave it softened to make working on it easier. I'll have to bring stone here to mark out the boundaries of the lease in any case. Remind him it is a lease, and that it was bestowed for the purpose of him developing facilities to make charcoal, not build a house or pass the lease on for beads." Which they don't have anyway.

"He understands, your Bindership. May I suggest you make the area big enough for him to be able to make a small storage building for the coal so that chokers and the weather doesn't get at it?"

After marking the boundaries of the lease with lightwisps—she'd get to making it out of stone later—Rian took her to the proposed site of the outdoor mushroom farm. It was far more developed than the charcoal burners. There were strange, chimney-shaped stacks of alternating logs arranged in rows under the shade of the trees, and there were square plots of smaller twigs and leaves demarcated by rocks.

Unlike the charcoal burners, there were actually people here. One was using some kind of tool to gouge holes into a log, while another was in the process of stripping a dead branch of leaves and other outgrowths with a knife. A third was in the process of using rocks to make another plot around a pile of crushed twigs, leaves and random scraps of wood. A fourth was taking mushrooms from a basket and cutting off the base, separating the two. This last person had a cloth tied around her mouth and nose, and Lori remembered something about spores from mushrooms being harmful when exposed…

"As you can see, your Bindership, these good people are hard at work at making a productive mushroom farm," Rian said loudly, making the four look up in surprise. They stopped what they were doing uncertainly, standing at attention to face her.

"Is all this space really necessary, though?" Lori said, looking around.

"More space means more means to grow things," Rian said. He gestured around. "The open space means it's easier to stack more of the logs to grow the mushrooms on." He chuckled. "And even if the land you'll be leasing them will only be twice the area of the cave farm, there's really no reason why they can't put more logs outside of that beyond their ability to keep maintaining them."

Lori gave him a flat look.

He shrugged. "I'm just saying, production could easily be increased. Granted, it's not exactly going to be able to produce enough to keep everyone in the whole demesne fed by itself, but it's a useful and easy source of food that can be easily dried to preserve it and it keeps for a long period of time if necessary. Very good food to bring on the Coldhold so we don't have to bring along jars of stew, meaning there's more room for other things."

"It's always about food with you."

"You say that like it's not what's keeping us alive. Every little bit of food helps."

All right, that was fair. "All right, that's fair," Lori admitted. She turned to the four in front of her. "And you are the ones who are working to earn the right to lease this land, I presume?"

A woman stepped forward, "Y-yes, your Bindership. We're the ones who set up the mushroom farm near the Dungeon. There's two more, but they're out collecting more mushrooms to bring back and try to grow."

Lori raised an eyebrow, looking around. "So the lease of this land is being divided among the six of you?"

"Y-yes, your Bindership."

Lori hummed thoughtfully, looking around. She nodded. "I'll be back later to demarcate the boundaries of the lease. Carry on. Come, Rian." She turned and headed back towards the Dungeon. Rian fell into step behind her as Lori heard quiet sighs.

Once they were some distance away, Rian said, "You don't know how big the area of the mushroom cave is, do you."

"Find out, and then tell me what double of it is, Lori ground it out annoyance. "I'll go get stone to make the markers."

"Do I just go by the area of the first floor, or is the second floor's area part of the measurement?" Rian asked brightly.

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The Dehydration Shed

The day after Lori had set the markers for the charcoal burner and the outdoor mushroom farm's leases, Lori decided to make the dehydration shed while she waited for the carpenters to finish the preparation for roofing the new row of houses. The sawyers and carpenters were hard at work at it, taking measurements and cutting planks and beams. She had been told it would take a week, perhaps longer, to get the material prepared, and until them she could only wait for them to finish before she needed to be present to alter the walls to accept and secure beams and other fittings.

Since she still had some stone left—probably not enough, but it wasn't like she was in a hurry—the dehydration shed became next on her list. While it wasn't urgent, Lori viewed it as a long-term investment for when the winter vigas was harvested. It would also be useful in drying anything from wood to mushrooms, and while it wouldn't be as fast as her actively doing it, the intention was the dehydration shed could be used without her input.

It would also be very useful right now because of the regular rains. While they could build with green, unseasoned wood—despite it causing Lori to twitch inside as she thought of the potential warping—it was a bit harder to burn it for warmth. And while they were the demesne had a supply of deadfall and scraps in the storage sheds, they needed to be dried to use. The rains also meant that the mushrooms couldn't be dried as efficiently.

The first step was building a shed, which she placed near the entrance of the mushroom farm, not far from Rian's house. It had been a while since Lori had built one of the stone half cylinder structures, so she was a little slow in getting it up. Still, she soon managed to get back into the rhythm of constructing it arch by arch, using her stone shaping tool to see if each new arch was in line with the one's she'd already raised. She could probably have forgone this step and used the now mostly empty vigas storage shed—since most of the vigas was now in the third level next to the gristmill—but they'd need that to store the harvest when it was finally ready, and at the moment it was being used to store some wet firewood.

After a day of building and having the carpenters come in to measure the shed for a door, Lori then had to put in the bindings according to the flow diagram in her almanac. According to the diagram, she needed to have warm, dry air circulate through the building in one and be vented in the other. That the air was dry was key. It was strongly recommended that water in any form was prevented from entering the dehydrator, as that was exactly what they were trying to remove. That meant she needed to put a binding on the entrance and wherever the air intake for the structure was to keep out humidity.

First she made a small hole in the far wall of the shed—the wall that didn't have a hole for a door in it—to serve as an output vent for the air. Then she placed a binding for airwisps, firewisps and waterwisps across the doorway. When the shed had a door, she'd put the binding on an intake vent, but for now the open doorway was convenient.

Her binding generated a hot, dry wind, which was draw in and accelerated by the airwisps and injected with heat by the firewisps. She'd made sure that the temperature only reached a certain amount below the boiling point of water, since the point was for the shed to dehydrate, not bake. Any moisture in the air was drawn by the waterwisps in the binding to the edges of the door, where they congealed into liquid that flowed downwards and became ice on the ground, a substantial amount of the heat that the water had contained removed and infused into the air.

The result was a swift, hot wind that, while not exactly comfortable to be in, would draw out the moisture from anything that was left inside the shed over a matter of hours. Though she had to adjust the airwisps when it became clear that the wind generated was too strong and would send small objects—like mushrooms—flying. It became clear that she'd overcompensated for putting the binding on an opening the size of the doorway. After adjustment, the wind became much milder.

That step done, she put another binding over the small hole in the far wall, this one also consisting of airwisps, firewisps and waterwisps, then connected the two bindings with firewisps. The airwisps would pull out the warm and now-humid air in the dehydrator shed and send it outside, which would allow more dry air to be brought in. The firewisps would act to draw the heat out of the air—which would actually cause the humidity to congeal into fog once it had passed through the binding—and move that heat towards the intake to be injected into the dry air coming in. The waterwisps were there to make sure that no moisture could enter though the opening again the air pressure pushing outwards, such as condensation or water droplets, by rendering any such into vapor that would be carried out by the airflow.

At least, that's how it was supposed to work. It would need to be tested to make sure it functioned as intended, and then tested again once the door was in place because obviously when the door was there she'd have to draw air in through the different opening, and she'd need to make sure enough hair would be able to pass through.

The door would be a problem, since people would need to use it to enter and bring the things to be dried, but that would also be a large point of entry for moisture. While she could put a binding of waterwisps across it to keep out moisture, that would be dangerous. While it was unlikely to effect the water in her idiots' bodies, having their eyes, nostrils, and other exposed orifices suddenly bereft of moisture, or at least filled with water vapor, would… well, probably be bad for them.

After consideration, Lori decided the best way to mitigate the problem would be to put the binding to keep out moisture on the door rather than simply across the open doorway. It would mean that moisture in the air would get in when the door was open, but that should be quickly mitigated by the binding that would circulate the air out. As long as the door was closed…

…

Her idiots would probably forget to close the door, wouldn't they?

"A door that closes on its own?" Rian said, looking both amused and bemused by the notion after she finished telling him what was needed.

"Yes," she said as she led the way to the shed. At this point, she was resigned to needing a second opinion to point out the things she had missed that probably should have been obvious. Though, if they were obvious, then she wouldn't have missed them, so Rian probably just thought strangely. "The door needs to be closed so that the whole thing will work properly."

"You could just tell people to close the door," Rian said.

"If it trusted that to work, I wouldn't need a door that closes on its own, would I?"

"I suppose that's true," Rian nodded. "Well, I can think of how it could be done with cleverly spiraled hinges on the door, but that will probably wear out quickly. We could do it with a metal hinge, but it would be complicated to make… Actually, the simplest thing I can think of is to just have a rope and a weight from the door to the door frame to pull it closed."

That… sounded doable. "That sounds doable. Have the carpenters build that in."

"Ah, as your lord in charge of dealing with people, I wouldn't recommend it."

Lori blinked. "Why not?"

"Well, if you had a door that was mechanically built to close on its own, on a building that people had to keep bringing things in and out of, then to get things in, people would either find a way to jam the door open so it wouldn't close on them as they were going in and out, or 'accidentally' cut the rope so it would stop closing," Rian said. "After all, no one's going to just stand there and hold the door open when we need all hands to be working."

Lori stared at him, and this nearly stumbled because she wasn't watching where she was going. "Colors!" she snapped. Ugh, that's exactly what her idiots would do, wouldn't they?-! "Argh!"

Rian nodded as she vocalized her frustration. "Yeah. So… taking people's most likely actions into account, maybe just tell people to close the door so that all that added work and infrastructure doesn't just go to waste."

"Then how do we keep the door closed?-!"

"Just tell everyone the door needs to be closed for the thing to work. If they've spent all that time moving things in to dry, it's not like they'll let all that effort go to waste by leaving the door open. Even if someone does leave it open, someone passing by will know to close it."

Lori let out an annoyed sigh. "Is that really the best we can hope for?"

"Well, we could assign someone there to make sure the door is closed, but that would be a waste of manpower. We could ask the children to do it, since it's easy work they can do, but you don't like the children being made to do things. Though if it's near the mushroom farm cave, we could tell the mushroom farmers. They're likely to be using it, and they of all people would know the importance of keeping the door closed."

That… was slightly more palatable. "Fine. Make sure the right people are made aware once the dehydration shed is operational."

Rian nodded, then pointed ahead of them. "Is that the shed?"

Lori nodded curtly.

"How does it work?"

As Lori explained how the bindings on the shed were intended to function, Rian listened attentively, nodding every so often. He followed her inside as Lori activated the binding to demonstrate it, holding up his hand as if trying to catch the wind, but hurriedly went outside well before Lori.

"This is distressingly warm," he said once Lori had realized he wasn't in the shed anymore and followed him outside in annoyance. "I'm not sure it's actually safe for people to go in there when it's that hot. We might have to put some sort of hatch over the warm air intake that people can close so they don't get cooked while they're carrying things in there."

Lori frowned. "It's not that hot," she said. "Pleasantly warm at best."

Rian gave her a bland look. "You forgot that thing around you that keeps you cool, didn't you."

…

Oh, right!

Lori concentrated for a moment, deactivating the firewisps around her that adjusted the temperatures she experienced. Instantly the air around her cooled, becoming sharp and chill, if not exactly cold. She shivered as she felt a breeze on her face, and her hands grabbed the front of her rain coat to keep it closed. Resisting the urge to let go and have the firewisps around her do as they would again, she turned and headed back to the dehydration shed, sticking her hand in—

"Ah!" she exclaimed as the hot air surrounded her extremity, and she let go. Instantly the firewisps around her moderated the temperature, and the extremes of heat and cold faded away, becoming pleasantly warm and unremarkable, respectively.

Rian nodded. "Yeah, I'm going to call the carpenters and have them make a hatch for that." A thought seemed to come to him and made him smile. "We can connect it to the door so the hatch covers the intake when the door is open. Then you'd really have to close to door for the dehydrator shed to work."

"See it done then," Lori said waving her hand to dispel remembered heat. "Anything else?"

Rian titled his head thoughtfully. "I think you might need to make some kind of overhang in front of the door and over the intake and output vents," he said. "Keep rainwater from getting in. I know your binding might be able to take care of it, but I remember hat happened to that heat binding you made when too much snow was passed through it. Best to physically keep off as much water as possibly to keep the thing from being overtaxed."

Lori sighed, managing to push down the familiar annoyance of missing the obvious. Well, at least it was something she could do easily with a little stone shaping. "I'll make a note of it. What else?"

"You should probably put lights inside," Rian said. "Wouldn't want people fumbling around in the dark, after all. Given you'd probably need a wall to have an air intake in, leaving the door open probably won't let in as much light as it would in the wood curing shed." He blinked and snapped his fingers. "Unless you can build the air intake into the door? That would take care of the 'people needing to close it' and the 'too hot for people to be inside when the binding is working, problem."

Lori blinked, tilting her head as she considered the idea. "That… might actually be a workable solution," she said. She'd have to make some changes to the binding, especially regarding where the water extracted from the air went, but that would be a simple alteration. "Go get the carpenters so they can measure the door again. I'll have my own specifications to add."

"Yes, your Bindership, " Rian chirped, turning to do just that. Then he paused, and turned back to her. "By the way, what is this going to be dehydrating? Wood or food?"

Lori frowned at him. "Both, of course. If need be, I can easily make it bigger if we need more capacity."

Rian nodded in understanding. "You realize we're going to need two of these, right?" he said.

Lori blinked and looked at him. "What?" she said flatly.

Her lord  shrugged. "Obviously we can't dry firewood with the food. The vigas might be all right, but food needs to be clean or it will rot or go bad and make you sick. Do you see anyone going to the trouble of cleaning dead wood they just picked up off the ground, covered in dirt and rotting leaves, the same stuff that caused you to get infected when you tried to ride that rock, just so it can be put next to food that's going to be dried?"

Lori stared at him. "Surely the moving air will keep that from being a problem?"

"And when it's all being loaded in? Imagine loads of dirty wood going by food that we're going to be eating, shedding bits all over them— " He stopped as he saw Lori shudder. "Well, at the very least have to distinct and separate rooms for the two things? Or, you know, make this a food dehydrator and turn one of the wood storage sheds into a firewood dehydrator?"

"I'll take it into consideration," Lori said, still twitching slightly at the thought of dried food and—no, no, stop thinking about it! "Now go get those carpenters before they get started building a door to the previous dimensions."

"Yes, your Bindership!" He turned away again, and this time he kept walking, heading towards her Dungeon where the carpenters worked.

Sighing, Lori turned towards where she still had some stone piled up, softening a handful so she could get started on building some overhangs to keep rainwater off.

––––––––––––––––––

The Dehydration Shed

The day after Lori had set the markers for the charcoal burner and the outdoor mushroom farm's leases, Lori decided to make the dehydration shed while she waited for the carpenters to finish the preparation for roofing the new row of houses. The sawyers and carpenters were hard at work at it, taking measurements and cutting planks and beams. She had been told it would take a week, perhaps longer, to get the material prepared, and until them she could only wait for them to finish before she needed to be present to alter the walls to accept and secure beams and other fittings.

Since she still had some stone left—probably not enough, but it wasn't like she was in a hurry—the dehydration shed became next on her list. While it wasn't urgent, Lori viewed it as a long-term investment for when the winter vigas was harvested. It would also be useful in drying anything from wood to mushrooms, and while it wouldn't be as fast as her actively doing it, the intention was the dehydration shed could be used without her input.

It would also be very useful right now because of the regular rains. While they could build with green, unseasoned wood—despite it causing Lori to twitch inside as she thought of the potential warping—it was a bit harder to burn it for warmth. And while they were the demesne had a supply of deadfall and scraps in the storage sheds, they needed to be dried to use. The rains also meant that the mushrooms couldn't be dried as efficiently.

The first step was building a shed, which she placed near the entrance of the mushroom farm, not far from Rian's house. It had been a while since Lori had built one of the stone half cylinder structures, so she was a little slow in getting it up. Still, she soon managed to get back into the rhythm of constructing it arch by arch, using her stone shaping tool to see if each new arch was in line with the one's she'd already raised. She could probably have forgone this step and used the now mostly empty vigas storage shed—since most of the vigas was now in the third level next to the gristmill—but they'd need that to store the harvest when it was finally ready, and at the moment it was being used to store some wet firewood.

After a day of building and having the carpenters come in to measure the shed for a door, Lori then had to put in the bindings according to the flow diagram in her almanac. According to the diagram, she needed to have warm, dry air circulate through the building in one and be vented in the other. That the air was dry was key. It was strongly recommended that water in any form was prevented from entering the dehydrator, as that was exactly what they were trying to remove. That meant she needed to put a binding on the entrance and wherever the air intake for the structure was to keep out humidity.

First she made a small hole in the far wall of the shed—the wall that didn't have a hole for a door in it—to serve as an output vent for the air. Then she placed a binding for airwisps, firewisps and waterwisps across the doorway. When the shed had a door, she'd put the binding on an intake vent, but for now the open doorway was convenient.

Her binding generated a hot, dry wind, which was draw in and accelerated by the airwisps and injected with heat by the firewisps. She'd made sure that the temperature only reached a certain amount below the boiling point of water, since the point was for the shed to dehydrate, not bake. Any moisture in the air was drawn by the waterwisps in the binding to the edges of the door, where they congealed into liquid that flowed downwards and became ice on the ground, a substantial amount of the heat that the water had contained removed and infused into the air.

The result was a swift, hot wind that, while not exactly comfortable to be in, would draw out the moisture from anything that was left inside the shed over a matter of hours. Though she had to adjust the airwisps when it became clear that the wind generated was too strong and would send small objects—like mushrooms—flying. It became clear that she'd overcompensated for putting the binding on an opening the size of the doorway. After adjustment, the wind became much milder.

That step done, she put another binding over the small hole in the far wall, this one also consisting of airwisps, firewisps and waterwisps, then connected the two bindings with firewisps. The airwisps would pull out the warm and now-humid air in the dehydrator shed and send it outside, which would allow more dry air to be brought in. The firewisps would act to draw the heat out of the air—which would actually cause the humidity to congeal into fog once it had passed through the binding—and move that heat towards the intake to be injected into the dry air coming in. The waterwisps were there to make sure that no moisture could enter though the opening again the air pressure pushing outwards, such as condensation or water droplets, by rendering any such into vapor that would be carried out by the airflow.

At least, that's how it was supposed to work. It would need to be tested to make sure it functioned as intended, and then tested again once the door was in place because obviously when the door was there she'd have to draw air in through the different opening, and she'd need to make sure enough hair would be able to pass through.

The door would be a problem, since people would need to use it to enter and bring the things to be dried, but that would also be a large point of entry for moisture. While she could put a binding of waterwisps across it to keep out moisture, that would be dangerous. While it was unlikely to effect the water in her idiots' bodies, having their eyes, nostrils, and other exposed orifices suddenly bereft of moisture, or at least filled with water vapor, would… well, probably be bad for them.

After consideration, Lori decided the best way to mitigate the problem would be to put the binding to keep out moisture on the door rather than simply across the open doorway. It would mean that moisture in the air would get in when the door was open, but that should be quickly mitigated by the binding that would circulate the air out. As long as the door was closed…

…

Her idiots would probably forget to close the door, wouldn't they?

"A door that closes on its own?" Rian said, looking both amused and bemused by the notion after she finished telling him what was needed.

"Yes," she said as she led the way to the shed. At this point, she was resigned to needing a second opinion to point out the things she had missed that probably should have been obvious. Though, if they were obvious, then she wouldn't have missed them, so Rian probably just thought strangely. "The door needs to be closed so that the whole thing will work properly."

"You could just tell people to close the door," Rian said.

"If it trusted that to work, I wouldn't need a door that closes on its own, would I?"

"I suppose that's true," Rian nodded. "Well, I can think of how it could be done with cleverly spiraled hinges on the door, but that will probably wear out quickly. We could do it with a metal hinge, but it would be complicated to make… Actually, the simplest thing I can think of is to just have a rope and a weight from the door to the door frame to pull it closed."

That… sounded doable. "That sounds doable. Have the carpenters build that in."

"Ah, as your lord in charge of dealing with people, I wouldn't recommend it."

Lori blinked. "Why not?"

"Well, if you had a door that was mechanically built to close on its own, on a building that people had to keep bringing things in and out of, then to get things in, people would either find a way to jam the door open so it wouldn't close on them as they were going in and out, or 'accidentally' cut the rope so it would stop closing," Rian said. "After all, no one's going to just stand there and hold the door open when we need all hands to be working."

Lori stared at him, and this nearly stumbled because she wasn't watching where she was going. "Colors!" she snapped. Ugh, that's exactly what her idiots would do, wouldn't they?-! "Argh!"

Rian nodded as she vocalized her frustration. "Yeah. So… taking people's most likely actions into account, maybe just tell people to close the door so that all that added work and infrastructure doesn't just go to waste."

"Then how do we keep the door closed?-!"

"Just tell everyone the door needs to be closed for the thing to work. If they've spent all that time moving things in to dry, it's not like they'll let all that effort go to waste by leaving the door open. Even if someone does leave it open, someone passing by will know to close it."

Lori let out an annoyed sigh. "Is that really the best we can hope for?"

"Well, we could assign someone there to make sure the door is closed, but that would be a waste of manpower. We could ask the children to do it, since it's easy work they can do, but you don't like the children being made to do things. Though if it's near the mushroom farm cave, we could tell the mushroom farmers. They're likely to be using it, and they of all people would know the importance of keeping the door closed."

That… was slightly more palatable. "Fine. Make sure the right people are made aware once the dehydration shed is operational."

Rian nodded, then pointed ahead of them. "Is that the shed?"

Lori nodded curtly.

"How does it work?"

As Lori explained how the bindings on the shed were intended to function, Rian listened attentively, nodding every so often. He followed her inside as Lori activated the binding to demonstrate it, holding up his hand as if trying to catch the wind, but hurriedly went outside well before Lori.

"This is distressingly warm," he said once Lori had realized he wasn't in the shed anymore and followed him outside in annoyance. "I'm not sure it's actually safe for people to go in there when it's that hot. We might have to put some sort of hatch over the warm air intake that people can close so they don't get cooked while they're carrying things in there."

Lori frowned. "It's not that hot," she said. "Pleasantly warm at best."

Rian gave her a bland look. "You forgot that thing around you that keeps you cool, didn't you."

…

Oh, right!

Lori concentrated for a moment, deactivating the firewisps around her that adjusted the temperatures she experienced. Instantly the air around her cooled, becoming sharp and chill, if not exactly cold. She shivered as she felt a breeze on her face, and her hands grabbed the front of her rain coat to keep it closed. Resisting the urge to let go and have the firewisps around her do as they would again, she turned and headed back to the dehydration shed, sticking her hand in—

"Ah!" she exclaimed as the hot air surrounded her extremity, and she let go. Instantly the firewisps around her moderated the temperature, and the extremes of heat and cold faded away, becoming pleasantly warm and unremarkable, respectively.

Rian nodded. "Yeah, I'm going to call the carpenters and have them make a hatch for that." A thought seemed to come to him and made him smile. "We can connect it to the door so the hatch covers the intake when the door is open. Then you'd really have to close to door for the dehydrator shed to work."

"See it done then," Lori said waving her hand to dispel remembered heat. "Anything else?"

Rian titled his head thoughtfully. "I think you might need to make some kind of overhang in front of the door and over the intake and output vents," he said. "Keep rainwater from getting in. I know your binding might be able to take care of it, but I remember hat happened to that heat binding you made when too much snow was passed through it. Best to physically keep off as much water as possibly to keep the thing from being overtaxed."

Lori sighed, managing to push down the familiar annoyance of missing the obvious. Well, at least it was something she could do easily with a little stone shaping. "I'll make a note of it. What else?"

"You should probably put lights inside," Rian said. "Wouldn't want people fumbling around in the dark, after all. Given you'd probably need a wall to have an air intake in, leaving the door open probably won't let in as much light as it would in the wood curing shed." He blinked and snapped his fingers. "Unless you can build the air intake into the door? That would take care of the 'people needing to close it' and the 'too hot for people to be inside when the binding is working, problem."

Lori blinked, tilting her head as she considered the idea. "That… might actually be a workable solution," she said. She'd have to make some changes to the binding, especially regarding where the water extracted from the air went, but that would be a simple alteration. "Go get the carpenters so they can measure the door again. I'll have my own specifications to add."

"Yes, your Bindership, " Rian chirped, turning to do just that. Then he paused, and turned back to her. "By the way, what is this going to be dehydrating? Wood or food?"

Lori frowned at him. "Both, of course. If need be, I can easily make it bigger if we need more capacity."

Rian nodded in understanding. "You realize we're going to need two of these, right?" he said.

Lori blinked and looked at him. "What?" she said flatly.

Her lord  shrugged. "Obviously we can't dry firewood with the food. The vigas might be all right, but food needs to be clean or it will rot or go bad and make you sick. Do you see anyone going to the trouble of cleaning dead wood they just picked up off the ground, covered in dirt and rotting leaves, the same stuff that caused you to get infected when you tried to ride that rock, just so it can be put next to food that's going to be dried?"

Lori stared at him. "Surely the moving air will keep that from being a problem?"

"And when it's all being loaded in? Imagine loads of dirty wood going by food that we're going to be eating, shedding bits all over them— " He stopped as he saw Lori shudder. "Well, at the very least have to distinct and separate rooms for the two things? Or, you know, make this a food dehydrator and turn one of the wood storage sheds into a firewood dehydrator?"

"I'll take it into consideration," Lori said, still twitching slightly at the thought of dried food and—no, no, stop thinking about it! "Now go get those carpenters before they get started building a door to the previous dimensions."

"Yes, your Bindership!" He turned away again, and this time he kept walking, heading towards her Dungeon where the carpenters worked.

Sighing, Lori turned towards where she still had some stone piled up, softening a handful so she could get started on building some overhangs to keep rainwater off.

––––––––––––––––––

Further Adjustments

"I thought of a way to deal with the problem of moisture getting in through the door when it's open," Rian said before breakfast the next day.

"Oh?" Lori said idly as she waited for Umu and Mikon to arrive with the food. Off to the side, Shanalorre listened curiously.

Rian nodded enthusiastically. "Instead of putting the door on the same wall as the air intake, why not put it opposite the air intake. That way, the intake is always pushing air, and when the door is open any air will be pushed out instead of being pulled in. That way you don't need to do anything strange to the door either. Well, except treating it against humidity."

"Hmm…" she nodded disinterestedly.

"And as to the issue of the air being too hot for people, why not separate the source of heat from the air intake?" Rian continued. "Or at least, have an intake that only circulates air, and another intake that actually generates hot air. That way, the air pressure can keep out humidity while the door is open and people are bringing things in or taking them out, but the shed won't be so hot as to be harmful to people. We can make some kind of hatch to go over the hot intake that can be opened and closed from outside before people go in." He smiled, looking proud of himself.

"Very good thinking, Rian," Lori said. "That is almost exactly like the idea I had yesterday when I was putting the overhangs on the intake hole to keep rainwater out. Well done."

Her lord blinked. "Oh."

She nodded.

"Well, that's good, then! Uh, so I should probably go back to the carpenters and tell them not to put a hole in the door, then?"

"Yes, you should get to that after breakfast. While you're there you can also ask about the progress on your bed."

"So, the water in the river is getting lower!" Rian said loudly. "We should be able to go down to River's Fork soon!"

"You don't have to yell it out, Rian," Lori said. "I'm right in front of you."

"Ah, sorry."

At that moment, Umu, Mikon, and—Lori checked the rock she was carrying—Yllian arrived with the food. The latter was carrying food for himself and Shanalorre, who accepted her bowl and bread with a soft, "Thank you, Uncle Yllian." Lori took one of the five bowls the weavers put down on the table, nodding her head in acknowledgement as she started to eat.

Uncharacteristically, Rian focused on his food instead of reporting to her. Lori was content to let him.

She made a note to go back to the dehydrator shed and put in a second intake vent for warm air before she anchored the bindings of airwisps that would help circulate the air inside the shed. After all, she had only said it was almost exactly like her idea. That had been a good suggestion on Rian's part…

––––––––––––––––––

After making a second hole like Rian had suggested and anchoring a binding of only airwisps and waterwisps on it draw air into the dehydration shed. The other hole would be drawing in the actual hot air, which would be blocked off with a panel of some sort. Reluctantly, she deactivated the firewisps around her so she could assess how hot to resulting stream of air was. She had to add a binding of airwisps after the two intakes to combine the two streams of air together, but once that was done, the resulting stream of hot air was as hot as the original binding.

Combined with the binding of airwisps to softly distribute air within the shed, Lori felt that the shed was ready to, if not actually start dehydrating whatever needed to be dehydrated, then at least be tested to see if it worked. Well, as soon as the doors were in place. Though if it was just a test, all she needed to do was seal the doorway. So she didn't even need to wait for the door to test it.

…

Did she have anything to test it with?

––––––––––––––––––

She found Rian by the simply expedient of using her awareness of the wisps in her demesne to find the rock with the binding of lightwisps she'd given him. He carried the rock with him in his belt pouch all the time for some reason. She supposed it was useful when he was going inside buildings like the storage shed and the mushroom farm, but it wasn't like he went into those places every day…

Lori realized she didn't really know if her lord did that. For all she knew, he inspected every structure in the demesne every day, which… would actually explain what he did for most of the day, actually. Probably not every day, since he… probably had other things to do…

…

Well, he was easy to find because he had the rock with the binding of lightwisps on it, so Lori was able to go to where he was helping dig tree stumps out of the ground where they had cut down trees the season before. Lori was amused to see that despite the rare bright sun shining down—though she could see thick, dark clouds on the horizon that threatened rain later—that had many of the other men working with him removing their shirts from the heat, Rian both still had his shirt on, and seemed to be shivering. Did he actually feel cold?

"Rian!" Lori called, and he looked up from where he'd been digging in the ground. Realizing who was calling for him, he handed his shovel to another man, who took his place in digging out the stump, and headed towards her.

"Yes, your Bindership?" he said, wiping sweat from his brow.

"I need to test the dehydrator shed. What food do we have to test it with?"

Rian blinked, clearly adjusting the flow of his thoughts, but after a moment's consideration, he said, "Mushrooms. Right now, we're storing them in the cold room to keep them fresh since we can't really sun-dry them. Actually, they'd just harvested some when we went to inspect the mushroom farm. We can ask them for some and try it in the dehydrator shed."

Lori nodded. "Good. Go get some mushrooms to dry while I make sure the dehydrator is ready."

"Ah, do we have anywhere to put things to dry on?"

She blinked at him. "There's plenty of floor."

"You want to put food on the floor? I mean, it might work for vigas, but mushrooms don't have skins to peel off, so…"

…

"Do you want me to get one or two of the benches or something so we've got someplace to put the mushrooms on that's off the ground?"

"Yes, you should probably go do that."

Rian nodded. "One bench should be fine, since this is only a test. We can't use too many mushrooms, after all. Maybe just a plate's worth. Or at least, it will all fit in a plate. Will the airflow be mild enough to not send mushrooms flying?"

"I'll adjust it to make sure," Lori said as they both started walking to go about their tasks.

"Did you remember to put the binding to keep bugs out on the dehydrator shed?"

Lori blinked, turning to look at him. "What?"

"The binding to keep out bugs. I mean, it's a nice, warm place where we'll be leaving food unattended for long periods of time."

…

Ugh, she hated it when he had a point.

"I'll put it on the all the openings," she sighed. The two intake vents and the exhaust vent… the door when it had one…

"We'll need to have some kind of shelves made for it when it's ready," Rian said. "Not just a table. That way we can dry more things at the same time."

Lori frowned at the thought. "I'll need to adjust the how the airwisps circulate the air inside if we do…"

"Well, that's for after the test. Right now, we're just going to see if it works, right?"

"Yes… right now, it's just a test." A thought occurred to her. "Do you know how long it takes to dry mushrooms?"

"The farmers will probably know," Rian said. "Hopefully they'll say the shed will be comparable or faster. Actually, it should be faster, it won't be dependent on daylight to dry the mushrooms. We can just leave them in there all day and night, and it won't be interrupted by clouds or rain…"

"Obviously, Rian. That's the whole point of the exercise. Are you done saying the blatantly obvious like a theater narrator?"

"In defense of theater narrators, it's not always obvious. Sometimes they're introducing the state of the setting at the beginning of the story."

Lori snorted. "It's bad writing! A competently written narrative would show it from the interaction between the characters rather than just having some non-character say it out loud."

"Yeah, you have a point there," Rian nodded. "But some things have to be said, such as a character being rich or handsome or beautiful or skilled, because the limits of the production can't afford the costumes or actors good-looking enough to be noticeably handsome, or actually be skilled enough at something to be able to fake it on stage. So really, it's not on the writing competence, it's on the resources of those interpreting the script."

"All right, perhaps there's some allowance for that. But that doesn't excuse the narration of character interactions!"

"Well, bad writing exists. It might not even be because of the writer's skill. They might just not have enough time, or have requirements they can't write around, like one of the actor's parts being expanded for some reason or another…"

––––––––––––––––––

A small amount of mushrooms were chosen and placed on a plate. Some of the smaller ones were kept whole, while some larger pieces were cut to expose more surface area.

While that was being prepared, Lori anchored the bindings to keep out bugs over the openings of the dehydration shed. Fortunately, none had made their way inside, but it had been a good reminder.

Instead of using a bench, Lori just used some stone to make a small pillar to keep the plate off the floor. After all, there was no need to occupy a good bench. After adjusting the airwisps so the wind they generated didn't blow the mushrooms off the plate, Lori activated the bindings—all of them—and sealed the doorway, leaving only a small opening for the exhaust vent.

"The farmers said that it would usually take a week of continuous sunlight for mushrooms to dry completely," Rian said as she finished closing up the shed. She could hear a strange almost-whistling as the hot air blew out of the narrow exhaust vent. "But we should probably check up on it every day. Need to take notes on every stage of the experiment, after all."

Lori frowned at him. "Test," she corrected.

"No, it's an experiment," he retorted. "Normal drying under sunlit conditions is the control, so testing the effects of using the dehydrator shed in place of sunlight has a changed variable. That makes it a proper experiment."

Lori blinked. He was right. "Colors," she swore. "Are you taking notes?"

"I don't have my plank on me, but—" he looked up. Some clouds had moved across the sky, making it lightly overcast, although on examination, it would likely keep getting darker until it rained again. "Well, we can record the relative time of the start of the experiment so we can note how long the test sample was in the dehydrator. Will that be enough for now?"

"It had better," she sighed. "Remember next time."

"Yes, your Bindership," Rian chirped.

She waved a hand dismissively. "Get back to what you were doing. I have go and convert one of the wood storage sheds into a dehydrator."

"Yes, your Bindership."

She turned to walk away.

"Uh, your Bindership?"

Lori glanced back at him. "What?"

"Do you know if that binding to repel bugs works on chokers and small beasts too?" Rian said. He was looking at the dehydrator shed.

"Not that I am aware…" Lori said warily. "Why do you ask?"

"Well…" Rian pointed. "Aren't those vents kind of low and big enough for chokers to climb into?"

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Preparing For River's Fork

The river, which had risen up to so high that waves always seemed in danger of reaching the top of the flood barriers, was starting to recede. It had been interesting, occasionally climbing up to the watch platform and looking out over the water. The riverbank on the other side had disappeared, replaced by more water that extended under the trees on the shore beyond. It made the river seem like it went on forever, even if her awareness of wisps let her know that the water didn't go that far.

Today though, the water barely lapped at the base of the flood barrier, and the outline of the dock was bright under the surface.

"We can bring the Coldhold out soon and start going over it to make sure it's seaworthy. Or river-worthy, in this case. The sea can wait a while," Rian said over breakfast a few days after the dehydration sheds had been finished. The firewood shed was already full of the gathered wet deadfall, drying up so it could be used as fuel and regularly filled and emptied, while the food shed was beginning to dry their first large batch of mushrooms after the success of the test batch.

Lori fixed a flat look on her senior lord as she reached for one of the bowls of soup. They had always contained pieces of mushrooms, but for some reason they stood out to her now. "Are you implying my boat storage method is faulty?"

"Oh, don't be like that. Checking over the ship after it's been left unattended for so long is only good sense. It's a vital, life-preserving piece of equipment, notchecking it over would be dangerously negligent. Especially since both you and Shana will probably be riding on it at the same time. That is, unless you're planning to send her back to River's Fork alone?"

Of course she wasn't. "Of course I'm not," Lori said as Lord Yl-something slid a bowl of food and a plate of bread across thetable towards Shanalorre. "I have to be there to assess the situation myself, as well as confirm the position of the core."

"And make sure everyone knows who's in charge?" Rian said dryly as Mikon and Umu spoke in each other in low tones. Probably weaver matters, since the blonde wasn't actively glaring at the other woman.

"Of course."

Rian nodded as Riz ate her breakfast in a leisurely manner next to him, all her attention on her food due to her lack of conversation. "Then the check will be even more necessary, since of course you'll want some of our own people to accompany you for protection, and we'll need to make sure the ship will be stable with all those people onboard. And we'll need to bring our own food too. After all, they're having food issues. Best to not make things worse by putting more strain on their reserves."

Lori waved dismissively with a piece of bread. "Fine. Make preparations you feel you need to, then." She started to tear the bread into pieces for dipping.

"So, same thing as usual, got it," Rian nodded, simply stiring his soup as if waiting for it to be cooler. "It will take us a day, maybe two after you get the Coldhold out of the water for us to check it over and sail it around to make sure everything is functioning as intended. Hopefully by then we'll have some dried mushrooms, and I'll see about having some meat salted and smoked."

Lori tilted her head. "I thought smoking meat needed some kind of facility?" He took a piece of bread, dipped it in her soup, and put it in her mouth, chewing.

"It does if one intends to make a lot on a regular basis, but even without we should be able to make some smoked meat by using one of the large storage jars as a smoking chamber. Honestly, salting it is probably enough, but trying to smoke it can't hurt. We'll be able to carry food with us as raw ingredients, which takes up less space than jars of stew, and it's less likely to go bad. I don't know how long we might need to be in River's Fork to assert your claim and deal with any problems, but a few days worth of food for everyone wouldn't hurt." He looked sideways. "Yllian, can I rely on you to deal with making sure that's packed and ready while I get the ship working?"

Yllian—thank goodness Rian had said his name before Lori needed to check her rock—hastily swallowed the mouthful he was eating. "As long as there are no problems with production," he said.

Rian nodded. "After that, what happens depends on you, your Bindership. I can't make more definite arrangements and plans if you don't tell me what you intend to do."

"Implying that you've already made indefinite plans and arrangements?" she said dryly.

Rian shrugged. "I can make pessimistic estimates of what we'll find when we get there, and make general plans to deal with things. But I can't really plan further than that unless you tell me what to plan for, as a practical matter. So… what do you intend after we get there, your Bindership? You said that we'll be removing the malcontents, but then what?"

Loir didn't answer, instead scooping up a spoonful of soup and sipping to giver herself time to think. She… really hadn't been thinking about what she would do once they managed to make contact with the demesne that was technically newly hers. In all her imaginings, she had thought it would be… well, years before she'd find herself the conqueror of another demesne. Even in her imaginings, she'd never really thought of how she would subjugate the people of her imaginary conquest. They few times she had thought about it, it had been to imagine them resisting her futilely as she used her powers as a Dungeon Binder to snuff out their resistance and lives, which even knew were just childish imaginings.

"Once we have secured the demesne, we will proceed with the relocation of inconvenient parties," Lori said after some thought. "Four of five families have been identified as having members who are malcontents. They will be moved here where we will have sufficient numbers to discipline them. After that has been arranged, we will need people to replace them on a permanent basis. Rian, Yllian, I need you two to find people willing to move to River's Fork. In addition to farmers, we'll need at least three doctors and medics."

Rian finished chewing his bread. "Three?"

"Yes. Since Shanalorre will no longer be residing there, they'll need more medical personnel to make up the difference. Four of them should be sufficient to keep a population alive for long enough to ferry Shanalorre there when needed."

Shanalore looked up as she was mentioned. "I will be residing here permanently?" she said.

"Yes. The bulk of my population is here, so you will be as well to keep them alive. Unless you have a pressing reason to be in River's Fork?" Like plotting against her. "If you have been maintaining meanings, then with your connection to the core you can do so here as well as there."

"I can. I have been doing so during my stay here."

"Well, then you can continue doing so indefinitely."

Shanalorre nodded, accepting her fate.

Rian, meanwhile, was frowning. "Uh, don't you mean five doctors and medics?"

Shanalorre, realizing she no longer needed to participate, turned back to her food.

"No. As I recall, Shanalorre's idiot uncle is also a doctor, correct?"

Yllian coughed for some reason. Fortunately, he remembered to turn his face away and cover his mouth. "Yes, he is, your Bindership," he said once his throat was clear.

Lori nodded. "As an inconvenient party, he will also be deported, remember? We discussed this last time," she said, stirring her soup and drawing up another spoonful. "Shanalorre saw fit to allow him to continue undermining her rule. I will be showing no such leniency." The spoonful went into her mouth, pleasantly warm and flavorful.

"So you'll make him live next door where you can hear him starting something and kick his shin as needed?"

She swallowed "Obviously." The best way to deal with dissent was immediately, and this would be the most immediate. "The best way to deal with dissent was immediately, and this would be the most immediate."

Shanalorre looked up from her food again, her expression strange.

There was a very loud cough, and Lori looked towards Rian disapprovingly. He smiled brightly at her as he lowered the hand over his mouth. "So! A thought occurs to me! Can Shanalorre heal people in her demesne from here? I mean, she's connected to it, and all that…"

She stared at him, then turned towards Shanalorre. "Can you?"

"I… could," Shanalorre said slowly. "I did it when I was there. However, I would not know who would need healing. While I'm aware of all life in my demesne, I cannot differentiate between everyone's physical states of health."

Rian hummed thoughtfully, then opened his mouth.

"Do not suggest that she just heals everyone once a day," Lori told Rian bluntly.

"Yes, please do not suggest that."

"I wasn't! I was going to ask if she can tell where the people are in the demesne through her connection to the core. Like if they're in a specific building, or even a specific bed."

Lori raised an eyebrow. "You're suggesting placing injured people within a specific designated building, and Shanalorre simply heals anyone in that building."

Rian shrugged as Umu and Mikon finished their breakfast next to him. On his other side, Riz had been done for some time, and was taking a moment to nap with her head on the table. "It's a thought. If there's more people than can be healed that way because of some accident, something happened that will probably need us to go there anyway. If we arrange it so you check the building at scheduled times, that should let us deal with any injuries that happen in the other demesne without Shanalorre actually having to be there. Will that be enough to deal with the average amount of injuries?"

Shanalorre tilted her head thoughtfully. "It should be, especially with the doctors present. Though I will need to see if I can identify the building consistently. I will have to see. Perhaps I can use the meanings on the fruit trees as landmarks…"

Lori considered that herself. She supposed that without the ability to make any sort of meaning but healing, those would be the only actively imbued things Shanalorre would perceive through the dungeon's core. "Perhaps a building close to one of the meanings can be designated."

"We will have to find one still in good repair."

Lori nodded, then turned towards her lord. "Rian."

"Yes, your Bindership?"

"Shut up for a moment and eat."

Rian blinked, then looked around. Shanalorre's bowl was almost empty, and she had returned to eating, while Yllian was just finishing. Lori's own bowl was still half-full, but she intended to correct that soon. Rian's bowl, however, was still mostly untouched save for a piece of bread he'd left in it and was now soggy and falling apart. "Uh, yes your Bindership."

He ate.