Demesne 260 - To River's Fork Once More (Patreon)

More of the row of houses came closer to completion over the day Rian had asked for. There would probably be more work done on it as the new residences asked for help to modify it to suit them. Most would probably want to add a second floor, or at least an elevated platform to take advantage of the height. A few of the previous row of houses had such things, but they'd been limited by the height of the ceiling.

During this time, Lori made plans. Well, not just made plans. Since she'd be sitting in one spot and thinking, she decided it was a good day to run the curing the shed and dry all the wood that had been filling it. So far they'd been drawing on the stockpile of cured wood that they'd had stored in the second level, but that was rapidly dwindling with the construction of the second row of houses. So she sat there on a stone seat, an additional stone overhand to keep most of the rain of her, adjusting the balance of firewisps and lightningwisps as they cured the wood inside the shed, and thought.

She hadn't really thought of the further practicalities of having two demesnes, but Rian's point last night, as it often was, had been annoyingly undeniable. And while… uh, Y-something… might be able to tend to River's Fork—she found it highly doubtful, since he hadn't been able to before—the fact that they were distant from her meant that they'd have a worrying amount of independence. Historically, that much independence led by one not completely loyal to the Dungeon Binder resulted in rebellion as they took advantage of their relative disconnection from the center of power.

In the immediate future, she could mitigate that personally, reminding them of her authority with her very presence as she conducted infrastructure construction projects, but that couldn't continue indefinitely. For one thing, it would involve her having to leave her demesne often, which… no. Just… no. it would have be all right if she had claimed River's Fork's core, allowing her to feel more secure in the demesne, but until then…

Since she'd rather not go herself, a representative of hers would have to do it. Unfortunately, the only one she had was Rian, and while she'd like to think that he'd be able to manage both her demesne and her new demesne, even Rian probably had his limits. Perhaps if he were a Mentalist he'd be able to do it, moving under his own power between the two demesne, his memory allowing him to remember all essential details about both. There was a reason Mentalist becoming bureaucrats was a common stereotype, equal only to the stereotype of them becoming academics.

But if he were a Mentalist, she wouldn't want him anywhere near her.

Fortunately he wasn't a Mentalist, but that still meant that while he was her best choice to send to keep River's Fork under her control at a distance, it would mean limiting the time he had to handle her demesne. So she would have to assign a new lord or lady after all, as he had said.

Her first thought was Riz, as she'd already acted as a temporary Rian, but she had made her refusal clear often enough. There was possibly Mikon, but while she might be capable, Lori hadn't really seen any indicator she was capable of working at the same scale Rian and even Riz had managed. Or at the same pace. She seemed content with her very, very slow progress. Perhaps if Riz were present to assist Mikon, the two of them mightbe able to make almost a functional Rian, but as Riz had made her refusal known…

Unfortunately, that left Lori unable to think of anyone else even vaguely capable of taking the position. And she had to be able to think of them, even if she didn't know their names, otherwise they clearly didn't leave enough of an impression of any sort of competence to stand out among her idiots.

Well… that wasn't quite true. There was the brat, who clearly had some sort of influence on the other children. And she paid her taxes, at least, when she was physically capable of procuring payment. But… she was a child, and making her a lady would essentially be putting her to work. It didn’t sit well with Lori to do that. Children shouldn't have adults forcing them to work just because they were conveniently present…

She adjusted one of the stream of lightningwisps running through the wood being cured to keep the distribution of heat even, and the firewisps that had been generating around it became less concentrated. There would be no spontaneous combustion on her watch! She hadn't caused a curing shed fire before, and she wasn't going to start now.

Lori settled back into the flow of her thoughts. She supposed Rian could recommend someone, but… no. The last time she'd taken such a recommendation from him, he'd suggested a child murderer. She didn't want a repeat of that. While he had suggested Y-something remain a lord, he had technically been Shanalorre's choice…

Hmm… Shanalorre. Well, as a Dungeon Binder she should be familiar with the administration of a demesne. Clearly she wasn't very good at it, given the state she reported her demesne being, but it was probably a good start. And Rian would mostly be present to oversee her when he wasn't traveling to River's Fork to oversee them. She only really needed to be present to deal with things while he was gone. In addition, Lori herself would be there to mitigate Shanalorre's influence, preventing subversion of her own demesne while Rian was absent to deal with people for her.

She'd have to bring it up with Shanalorre later, once she'd checked River's Fork's core was where it was supposed to be and transferred River's Fork's children to her demesne. They'd have to live in the shelter, at least until Rian made some sort of arrangements for them, probably asking friends of their family to take them in. The rest… well, she'll tell Rian to make sure they didn't have to stay in the shelter long.

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When the appointed day came, Rian had gathered several volunteers, many of whom Lori vaguely recognized as friends of Riz's. Riz was of course there, bring their number up to eight. In addition to the people operating the Coldhold and two of the medics, they outnumbered Shanalorre's numbers three to one, which should keep her reasonably safe while on the boat.

It had been relatively quiet during breakfast, the mood in the dining hall subdued as Lori had eaten and listened to Rian's inventory of the supplies that the Coldholdwas carrying. Salted and smoked meat, tied and hung up since they didn't have paper to wrap them with. Lori intended to shine unseen light on the meat before they ate it to kill any dustlife it might pick up, and let Rian know. Dried mushrooms, for stock and flavor. Flour, sealed into containers that were tightly stoppered, for bread. Salt, for both cooking and other uses. A small bottle of the antiseptic they'd purchased in Covehold, which would hopefully not be necessary.

After breakfast, it was time to get ready to leave. Rian had already made arrangements beforehand, and after breakfast people started to pack the Coldhold with their personal effects, since it was unsure how long they might have to stay in River's Fork, thought it wouldn't hopefully not be long. The packs were brought to the docks, and the men who operated the Coldhold carried it all aboard and packed while people waited outside for their own turn to board.

Lori herself had packed her pillow, blanket, a change of clothes and socks, and her bedroll, the latter of which made for a decently big bundle by itself. Her side bag was full of lengths of firewood, and for the first time in a long while, she had lightningwisps stored in the quartz imbedded into her staff, as well as coals in her coal charms. It had been a while since she'd worn a coal charm on her wrist, and the once-familiar weight felt strangely intrusive.

Lori waited impatiently, carrying her own pack and bedroll. She wasn't letting anyone else pack those. There was no big crowd seeing them off, no speech from Rian. People were too busy, trying to get as much work as possible done before it inevitably rained. Still, there a few people lingering, watching the others waiting to board. Some of the latter carried spears, as well as a club-like lengths of branches. Mikon and Umu of course were there, speaking to Rian and Riz. She paused as she saw the brat was also there, talking to Shanalorre. She watched the two curiously, then shrugged. Well, as her guide, Shanalorre probably made friends with the brat or something.

Eventually, the packing was finished, and one of the men on the boat signaled down to Rian. It took a few tries to get his attention, because Umu had leaned in very close to him and was being very distracting. Once Riz had interrupted their conversation—but not before Umu had grabbed Rian and kissed him very enthusiastically, if sloppily—Rian had taken his leave a bit unsteadily and began directing people aboard.

"You first your Bindership, your room is waiting for you," he said, gesturing for her to board first.

Lori nodded curtly, allowing him to take her pack and bedroll for a moment so her hands would be free to step onto the walkway attached to the outriggers on the side facing her and climbing onto the boat. Rian handed her pack and bedroll back to her once she was in. "Tell Shanalorre she will be traveling with me in my room," she said. She supposed the other Dungeon Binder deserved to not be crowded by having to travel with the others.

Rian tilted his head. "Is that an order or optional?" he asked. "I think she might like to stand on the top deck and watch the view as we move away down the river."

Lori gave him a bemused look. "Why would she want to do that?"

"It's a suspicion I have based on my ability to understand people," Rian said brightly.

Her look continued to be bemused. "Fine. If she changes her mind, tell her she can join me."

"I'll tell her if she seems like she's had her fill of the top deck," he nodded.

Nodding, she turned away to climb down below.

Downstairs, lightwisps shone from where they were anchored to the hull's ice as she walked along the length of the boat, such as it was, to the small private room in the front. She made herself comfortable, removing her side bag for a moment to relieve herself of the weight and pushing her pack and bedroll into a corner of the bench that also served as the bed. Then she turned just sat and waited.

Soon, they'd be in River's Fork again. River's Fork, and her first… conquest. Somehow, she had expected more armies of militia when she first conquered another demesne, with herself floating at their head with Mentalism, laying waste to the forces that opposed her while protecting her own forces from harm. Not simply floating up on an admittedly absurd boat made of ice and wood with their still living Dungeon Binder and telling the demesne's population that they were under Lori's authority now because the one that ruled them had surrendered to her.

Lori found she wasn't actually looking forward to the conquest all that much. Instead, her thoughts were of her nice, cozy room, and her bed with its ingenious woven cords in place of wooden slats. She thought of getting this… this choreover and done with. Probably not the kinds of thoughts a conquering Dungeon Binder should be having. Lori knew she should probably be looking forward to the expansion of her demesne, the increase in safe usable land, plan how she would extract and utilize the new resources available to her, an think of how she would pacify and subjugate those who resisted her rule.

Despite knowing all this, all she could think of was how she just wanted to go back home.