Weekly Digest 87 - (#271 - #273) (Patreon)

A Little Girl And A House

As Rian made the arrangements, Lori put lightwisps on the outside of the Coldhold. She had to use lightwisps from her eyes so she could keep it imbued even when it was outside of the demesne, but when she was done, she was reasonably sure that the Coldhold would have enough light to navigate by. She also anchored some on the waterwisps making up some of the external structure of the boat, so that it would have some external lighting at night so they could see around the boat.

Thankfully, they were able to get underway a little past midmorning, with some of the stonemasons aboard. In the next four days, Lori was able to progress excavating the dragon shelter, while they dealt with the fine details that she didn't have the time or skill to try to do herself, such as straightening the doorway to the food storage, and making sure that the channels she had carved on the floor all led properly to the pool for the meltwater, and that the water wouldn't start to gather anywhere else in the room.

On the third day of her excavating—the ramp had been finished, and she could now start excavating the shelter itself—she took a break from the excavation to reinforce the mine tunnel and lessen the likelihood of collapse. All that stone that she had excavated and had simply dragged out into the mine had piled up, narrowing the tunnel's width by more than half. The stone masons had looked increasingly worried as she had kept simply dragging to stone into the tunnel and leaving it there, all but burying the tunnel's support beams.

Fortunately, this was her intention.

Starting from the part of the tunnel closest to her ramp, she claimed and bound the excavated stone, causing it to flow and seal off the tunnel. Then, once a complete barrier from one wall to the other had been made, Lori simply removed the middle part of the stone obstruction, reopening the tunnel… with a new, stone arch ceiling and stone pillars to either side of it that would help channel the ceilings weight to the ground.

It was, in a way, a recreation of the way she was excavating the third level of her dungeon. While she needed to move a lot of stone for this since she had to make a complete wall, the way that her excavated stone had built up in the tunnel meant she only had to move enough stone to block out the remaining gaps. That was easy enough since she had a lot of excavated stone around to claim and move, and in the process of moving the stone she was able to clear space in which to work.

In some ways, the process was a bit repetitive, since she essentially filled in the tunnel, excavated it open again, then moved the re-excavated stone back out to fill in more of the tunnel to she could excavate it out again, only to use the stone to seal more sections of the tunnel again. However, from her attempts the previous week, and with the amount of stone she'd managed to fill the mine tunnel with while she'd been excavating the ramp, doing it this way was the fastest and most efficient method available to her. It only involved a relatively simple binding that simply softened and moved stone to fill in gaps, and then softened it again and excavated it to make a cleared space. She didn't have to move stone upwards against its own weight, didn't have to try to shape it into an arch while it hung above her, and didn't have to push stone up with fill in gaps while having nothing but air and having its earthwisps anchored to the ceiling to support its own weight.

Working in this way, she managed to both clear most of the stone that had accrued almost to the mine's entrance and reinforce the ceiling by the end of the day. The next day, she was able to do more excavation on the dragon shelter while the stone masons were adjusting the walls and arches she had made to be more plumb and even.

When they returned to her demesne after the fourth day, the boat contained some of River's Fork's children.

Not all of them were there. She hadn't been expecting the malcontents to let their children stay in her demesne, and had been surprised and confused when one of the families had. All in all, seven children had come with them from River's Fork, each carrying what clothes they had in an assortment of packs.

Shanalorre took the initiative of leading them, taking them not to the shelter or the baths, but rather to the row of houses at the top of the rise where nearly all the people who had come from River's Fork lived.

"Ah, good idea," Rian said approvingly as he saw where she was taking the children. "Take them to meet people they know so they'll be more comfortable, maybe meet some of their friends who moved here. It will help them adjust to living here."

Lori frowned. "I'd have thought they'd want to put their packs away first."

"You mean the packs that hold all their world possessions? You want them to leave those unattended in a building they don’t know, when they've just come from a demesne where people have been stealing?"

Ah. When he put it that way… "Ah. When you put it that way…still, they'll need to move in there eventually."

"I think it would be better if we arrange for them to live with the families they know," Rian said thoughtfully. "I know we talked about how we'd have them in the shelter with Mikon's cousins as chaperones, but on consideration, that might be a bit too uncomfortable for them, at least for the first few days."

"Well, you handle that," Lori said, waving her hand dismissively.

"Do you mind if I handle that by asking Shana to do it?" Rian said. "She seems to be taking care of it already, and I need to make sure your boats have been inspected and are ready to be used again this season."

Ah, right. They were going to do that, weren't they?

The wood of the smaller boats had been inspected, thankfully, and they hadn't found any mold or any other damage. Lori remounted first generation, simple water jet driver onto the wooden frame of Lori's Boat. Then after lunch she rebuilt the ice hull of Lori's Ice Boat, burying bindings of lightwisps in the ice for illumination at night, just in case. She did the same for Lori's Boat. Since older boat was made of wood, she had to wrap little pieces of bone along the front so she'd have something for her lightwisps to anchor to. They probably wouldn't need to use the boats at night, but that's what they had thought about the Coldhold.

Lori inspected the levels of her dungeon, checking that the temperature and humidity were corrected, and that the soil of the dungeon farm was draining properly. She also checked all her unfinished excavation tunnels on the third level for suspicious smells. She found one suspicious smell, but it turned out to be a pile of the dried waste being stored nearby to fertilize the tubers that had somehow gotten wet. It was just as bad, but at least it had been incompetence rather than stupidity. She drew the waterwisps from it as she tried not to gag and told Rian to tell people to not store that sort of thing in the third level, especially where it might get wet.

Besides that, the rest of the dungeon farm seemed to be doing well. The plots that had been made in time for planting was full of thick, green growth, and the seeds of the pink ladies, golden buds and micans at least seemed to be sprouting, though they were still in pots instead of a proper plot.

She also checked the water hub shed, and was glad to find no bug corpses floating in the water, or settled in the bottom of the tank. The binding she'd placed seemed to be working, which was good to know. Though… should she experiment to see if she could develop something similar for beasts? Well, it wasn't like she had time to really do her own experiments, since she was still building needed infrastructure for her new demesne.

It was one of many things she had to get around too when she had time and the things she needed to do were no longer so urgent. It probably less of a priority than putting together a bound tool, but definitely more urgent than making more beads. Though given she was a bit too busy to expand right now, she might be able to make bead production more efficient, since she could set up semi-permanent infrastructure for it…

"So," Rian said brightly at dinner as Lori stared at the little interloper on her bench, her hair pale with a light green tinge. The interloper stared back, looking at her curiously. "How are the other children doing, Shana? Settling down all right? More importantly, do you think they feel safe and comfortable enough to actually go to sleep?"

"I have had them accommodated, Lord Rian," Shanalorre said.

"You should probably just call me Rian," he said. "As a Dungeon Binder, you outrank a mere lord such as me."

"Noted, Lord Rian." Rian winced for some reason. "Tonight, I have arranged for them to stay with families they know, in lieu of sleeping in the unfamiliar confines of the shelter. Warm and comfortable as it is, I do not think they would sleep very well there, with them unused to it as of yet. The only ones who will be staying in the shelter will be myself and my cousin."

"Your cousin?" Lori said blandly.

Shanalorre nodded, then gestured at the interloper sitting next to her. "Yes. May I re-introduce my cousin, Yoshka. You met once when my aunt invited you to breakfast with them. She tasked me with watching over her."

Lori's voice was still bland. "Did she, now?"

"Yes. I, of course, accepted the familial responsibility. Yoshka, what did I tell you about staring at Binder Lolilyuri?"

"But she's looking at me…" the girl said.  Still, she looked away, looking across the table towards Rian, who smiled and waved at her. Tentatively, she smiled and waved back.

"Why is she eating here?" Lori asked.

"Because I'm supposed to be watching over her, and I cannot do that when she's at another table."

Lori stared at her. "Fine. She can stay, as long as she remains quiet while we discuss matters. But no one else!"

"Of course, Great Binder," Shanalorre said.

"I thought you were Great Binder, Shasha?"

"Not anymore."

"Oh, good!"

Lori blinked in surprise, staring at the little girl. What?

"You never liked being Great Binder. Does that mean you're going to stop talking funny now?"

"I do not talk funny."

"Yes, you do!"

She did not.

"I do not."

"You do! It's weird!"

"This is a perfectly normal way to talk."

"You used to talk faster!"

"Oh, look! Food's here!" Rian announced, and indeed, a returned Riz and Mikon were back, carrying between them six bowls of food, a plate with bread for six people, cups, and a pitcher of water.

Yoshka reached out for the food, but Shanalorre intercepted her. "No, Yoshka, Binder Lolilyuri picks first," she said gently. The little girl pouted, but put her hands down as Lori picked one of the bowls, a cup and some bread. "Now you may get food. Blow on it first, it's hot."

"That one! I want that one!" the little girl declared, pointing towards one of the bowls of hearty soup, and Shanalorre patiently took the bowl and moved it in front of her cousin. "And that one!" She pointed towards one of the pieces of bread near the bottom of the stack. Shanalorre carefully pried up the rest of the bread and pulled that piece out, handing it to her cousin. "Thank you!"

"You're welcome," Riz said, smiling at the child.

"Very welcome," Mikon said, doing the same.

"Yoshka, no. Don't dip the whole thing into your soup," Shanalorre said as she prevented her cousin from doing exactly that. "Tear it into pieces like this." She took a piece of bread and a bowl for herself—leaving the last of both for Rian—and demonstrated, tearing off small bits of the flat bread and dipping it into the soup. "There, see? No, no, not like that, your pieces are too small. Tear off the bread, don't pull it out so hard. Here, let me do it for you."

As Shanalorre patiently showed her cousin how to eat, Lori saw Rian looking at the two with a strange look on his face.

"Rian, eat," she pointedly reminded him.

He blinked, glancing towards her, then back towards his food. "Right, right. Eating, your Bindership." He ate, but his eyes remained fixed on the two next to Lori.

Lori shook her head, focusing on her own food, even as she glanced sideways, watching Shanalorre gently, patiently, and seemingly happily teach her cousin about the intricacies of eating soup with bread. "Rian, how many more of the houses have been finished?"

Rian blinked, then visibly had to make himself turn his attention to her. "Well, work has sort of stopped on the last three, but if we ask them to divert some work into it, the roofs should be finished with another day or two of work. Though I should mention that we've exhausted nearly all our store of cured wood."

"Nearly all?"

"I had them set aside a reserve for repairing the door of the dungeon in the event of something unexpectedly damaging happening to it, just in case something happened while you were asleep during one and we had to build something to defend ourselves in the time it would take to wake you up. And it might be useful for other things."

Lori stared at him for a moment, but that made just enough sense that she eventually nodded. "Fine. I'll cure what wood I can tomorrow, and again when we get back home next time. In the meantime, have one of the empty beds in the shelter moved to one of the finished houses. The one currently most fit for habitation."

"That would be the one the petitioners didn't pick. It's got doors and shutters on its windows, but it's pretty bare, and it doesn't have much in the way of anything inside."

"See that the bed is transferred first thing tomorrow," Lori said. "Shanalorre will need her new house to be livable."

Rian blinked and next to Lori, Shanalorre suddenly turned away from her cousin. "What?" he and Shana managed to say at the same time, even if not with the same inflection.

"I'm assigning you a new permanent residence," Lori said. "You are still a Dungeon Binder. I will not have you sleeping in emergency housing, now that you will be permanently residing in my demesne."

Shanlorre stared at her. "May I invite some other people to stay with me?"

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Shanalorre's House

"This is your house now," Lori told Shanalorre the next morning after breakfast. The bed Shanalorre had been using in the shelter up to now was being carried inside by four burly men and Rian. He… honestly didn't seem to be of any help whatsoever. "Once the bed is inside, I'll build you a table. Do you know where you can get wood for your fireplace?"

"Yes, Binder Lolilyuri," Shanalorre said, standing next to Lori.

"Once they finish moving in your bed, and I've finished with your table, the carpenters can start to work on installing some shelving for you, so you can put your things there. Tell them where you want the shelves installed." She'd have to assist so that the wood can be secured to the stone walls. "Remember to keep the shutters and doors closed, lest bugs and chokers get in. If there are leaks or any other problems, inform Rian, and it will probably be repaired eventually."

"I understand, Great Binder."

Next to Shanalorre, her cousin was looking at the stone house curiously, glancing at the identical houses on either side. "This big house if all Shana's now?"

"No, Yoshka, just the one in the middle," Shanalorre said patiently. "It's many houses built next to each other, so it looks big. Our new house is that one." She pointed. "Do you want to see inside?"

The little girl nodded, and without waiting for her cousin headed towards the door, where the men carrying the bed—and Rian—had managed to get it inside.

Lori glanced at the other Dungeon Binder. "Are you sure about this? Speaking from experience, having so many people in your home every day can be greatly irritating."

"They're my friends," Shanalorre said, as if that actually explained something. "And besides, while I am admittedly a terrible Dungeon Binder, it should be within my capabilities to provide at least these few under my care shelter and comfort." A pause. "Well, comfort, at the very least, as I had no direct hand at the shelter. But the opportunity presented itself, so I should take advantage of it. My original intention was to slowly have everyone move to the shelter when they've become used to the demesne so as not to exhaust the welcome of our friends, but this is better. It allows the other children to be relatively near the people they know, it's more private than the shelter, and it won't impugn on the few people still residing in the shelter, so they will not have to worry about the presence of children."

Well… Lori supposed she could understand that reasoning. "You should probably enter and direct how the bed should be oriented," she instead advised. "Otherwise you might have to move it yourself."

Shanalorre blinked. "Ah, yes. Thank you for the suggestion, Great Binder. I should do that." She hurried inside after her cousin as Lori patiently waited outside with the pile of stone and her stone-shaping tool that she was going to use to build Shanalorre's table.

When the men finally left, giving her a nod or bow in passing, Lori finally entered the now less-crowded house.

Her immediate impression was that it was a bit dark. Even with the door and window shutters open, the inside of the house had a certain gloom to it, which she didn't think had been present in any of the previous houses. Both the individual ones, and the row across the road had both seemed far brighter inside with the doors and windows open. Shanalorre's cousin was looking around curiously, but from expression she was clearly disappointed. The bed had been placed parallel to one of the long walls, but some distance away from the fireplace, presumably so that it would be within the cone of heat the fireplace would be radiating. Shanalorre was also looking around, but her gaze seemed more assessing, and she was looking down at the ground for some reason.

"Yeah, it's a bit dark," Rian said, standing off the one side and looking around and up. Lori followed his gaze, starring up the beams and rafters of the roof above. Thankfully, there were no obvious points of light on the roof signifying some sort of leak. "It's the angle, the fronts of the houses are facing the wrong way for the sunlight to really get in here for most of the day. If I'd known, I'd have suggested putting windows in the back on either side of the fireplace." He nodded towards the wall in question.

"Does it really matter?"

"Well, it makes it harder to keep the house properly swept if they can't really see the floor. And while most people work outside or in the Dungeon, there are some people who have work that can't be done there. The chandler's been making soap around his house for months now since he doesn't have anywhere else." He snapped his fingers. "Which reminds me, a few people have been making inquiries as to where it might be possible for them to have workspaces separate from their homes. Some, like the chandler in question, needs to boil ashes, which… well, that's dangerous."

Lori frowned. Another thing she had to build. "I'll consider the matter. Regardless, it will have to wait until we return on the next shift. Has Shanalorre said where she wants the shelves to be?"

Shanalorre looked up from her contemplations. "Yes, Great Binder," she said, gesturing towards the wall opposite the bed. "As to the table, could it please be installed over there, in that corner near the window? If I need to use it, the window will best provide light there. Even at night, I believe the lights you placed at side will be sufficient for me to see the writing on the planks."

Lori stared at her. Then she turned towards Rian.

"She volunteered to help me, and has actually been able to," Rian said, shrugging. "Which is a great relief. Yllian's not around to help collate the inventory numbers for me, and it gives her something to do that's useful to the demesne but isn't too taxing. And I must repeat, she volunteered."

"You said that already."

"I felt it was important, so I repeated it."

Lori shook her head, then turned back to Shanalorre. "Do you have a bath bucket?"

"Not yet, Great Binder."

"Go to the carpenters and correct that. Do so for the other children as well, and see to it that they're issued soap, as well as stress to them that the soap should be conserved."

"The children should also be shown the laundry area," Rian interjected. "And either they'll need to learn to wash their own clothes, or have someone wash their clothes for them, which seems a bit much to ask from the parents who already have children. Unless you want to ask the apprentice newlyweds to do it? Make it part of their training?"

"Do it," Lori agreed.

"Make the newlyweds regret the idea of children, got it," Rian said. "Shanalorre, why don't I help you and Yoshka go and get your things from the shelter so we're get out of Binder Lori's way while she makes you a nice new table? She probably won't be done by the time we get back, but at the very least she can get started. then you can go show the other children the baths."

"The help would appreciated, Lord Rian," Shanalorre said. "Come Yoshka, let's get your things from the shelter an bring it back here. We'll be sleeping here with the others from now on."

He started following after them. "You don't need to call me 'lord', Shana. Just 'Rian' will do. You too, Yoshka."

"Yes, Lord Rian."

"Shana, I feel like you're mocking me."

"Not at all, Lord Rian."

"There's that feeling again…"

Their voices faded with distance. Lori took a moment to prepare a weak binding that will start warming the wood in the curing shed. It wouldn't be close to a proper cure, but it would prepare the conditions inside the shed, and she could fairly safely leave it unattenced so she could make the table, then start curing things properly when she was done. With the binding in place, she went outside to retrieve the stone she'd taken from the stockpile and move it into Shanalorre's new house.

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It took two trips to retrieve all of Shanalorre and her cousin's things from the shelter. They first brought along the bedrolls and blankets, and furs that Shanalorre had used to stay warm the previous winter, then went back for the clothes and other personal effects, such as the bucket.

Lori had managed to finish the basic shape of the table, though after Shanalorre had come back the first time she'd lowered it slightly so it would be of a size with the other Dungeon Binder. For Lori it would have been just short enough to be mildly irritating.

"Oh no," Rian said the second time they'd come back, with the clothes and smaller effects, "she's making another sacrificial altar." At the words, Shanalorre's cousin looked at what Lori was making curiously.

"It's not an altar, it's a table," Lori snapped at her lord. She gestured towards the stone she was slowly pulling outwards from the central portion, so that it would have enough of an overhang for legs to fit under it when a person was seated on some sort of chair and strong enough to support their weight if they sat on it. Also, she realized Shanalorre would need some kind of chair. Or at least a stool of some sort. "How is this an altar? There are no grooves for blood and other fluids to drain down, no drain holes that let those fluids be caught in a bucket, no hole for setting the fire to burn the sacrifices… it's not that my tables look like altars, it's that altars look like tables!"

"You say that, but the fact it looks like an altar and can only be found in my house, and now Shana's house, is going to set people talking and making up rumors. Again," Rian said. "Thankfully most everyone can count, so they don't think we're sacrificing people, but still."

She waved a hand dismissively. "We don't have nearly enough condemned criminals to make that viable." Then she frowned. "Wait, are there people expecting that sort of thing?"

"No, most people are from edge communities. If they did sacrifices, it was a few symbolic handfuls of grain and a cup of booze, maybe a small beast when they were having a particularly prosperous time. I think sacrifices like that are a more central practice. If there are any Dungeon worshippers, no one seems to feel strongly enough to make a spectacle of it, or ask to make an official event."

"I know a few people who moved here do praise the Dungeons for their blessings," Shanalorre said. "However, as militia they have a less fervent view of the practice."

"So… is it an altar or a table?" Shanalorre's cousin asked, sounding confused.

"It's a table," Lori insisted. "Rian, make sure Shanalorre has a stool she can use with this."

"I'll put that on the list of things I wished you'd told me before you gave Shanalorre a house," Rian said dryly. "Don't worry, we'll take care of it."

Lori nodded. "Good. Now, I have to finish this so I can get on to curing wood…"

"Andthat's the sound of you being kicked out of your own home, Shana. Come on, let's go and not bother her Bindership. Why don't you show everyone where they can get soap?"

"Yes, Lord Rian. Come, Yoshka."

Lori nodded in approval, already going back to working on the table. Ah, being back in her demesne was so great! She didn't have to touch the stone at all, so her hands were free to use her stone-shaping tool.

Humming happily to herself, she eventually managed to finish with the table, taking the rest of the unused stone outside with her. For a moment, she was tempted to just leave it outside, but she sighed and took it back to the stone stockpile outside of her Dungeon. This was her demesne, she couldn't let it be slovenly, after all.

Then she headed towards the wood curing shed, and sat outside it as she cured wood for the rest of the day, listening to the familiar sounds of the saw pit as they cut logs into beams and planks, and watched the sky turn gray, once more about to rain.

It did rain, but she had on her hat and rain coat, which she buttoned closed. The falling water dulled the sounds of the sawpit, but they didn't cease working. Fortunately, the rain wasn't so thick that the glow of the lightwisps she'd anchored around her demesne's building became visible, and the downpour soon ceased, though the sky remained overcast.

Outside of the wood curing shed, Lori continued to sit, the water that her raincoat and hat hadn't repelled pleasantly warm on her skin, and simply smiled, thinking of the future.

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Shanalorre's Rock

The rest of the day was unremarkable as Lori cured the wood in the shed. Nearby, people were moving in and out of the firewood dehydrator shed—though in practice it was a wood drying shed—putting in cut but wet branches and deadfall, and taking out dry pieces to bring back to their homes. When it was time for dinner, Lori took a moment to take a detour, walking briefly along the riverbank on the other side of the blood barrier. The water level had gone back to the way it had been when they'd arrived the year before, and revealing small stones, plants, and short stalks of new ropeweed that were already growing quickly.

Lori found what she was looking for and finally headed back to her room to take a bath and dry her clothes.

When she came back down, she was bemused to find that the table next to hers was full of children. The brat was there, as was Shanalorre and her cousin, so Lori assumed that the others were the ones they had brought from River's Fork yesterday. However, there were too many children at the table for that. She might have difficulty remembering people's faces, but she could count, and there hadn't nearly been this many children yesterday. Some of them were probably local children, then.

"Rian, what's going on?" she said, the din at her back slightly irritating as she put down her game board and started setting up for a game of chatrang. Next to Riz, Mikon smiled when she saw the board.

"Shanalorre gathered the new children together, then went around asking if the other children could eat with them," Rian said, leaning on one elbow, knuckles resting on his jaw as he watched over Lori's shoulder, head slightly tilted. Next to him, Umu also seemed to be watching the children. "I think this is her way of helping them adjust, making sure they're around people they know. I think she also plans to invite some more to sleep over at her house tonight, so that sleeping at her house seems more like a fun gathering than a refugee camp."

Lori glanced over her shoulder. There were some game boards on the tables, and the children seemed more intent on those than getting food. No one seemed to be getting food. "No one seems to be getting food."

"Well, it's the first night, some flaws in the process are to be expected." He glanced towards the kitchen. "Speaking of which, it's my turn tonight to get food tonight. Excuse me…"

Rian stood up to fetch the food, accompanied by Umu. Lori wasn't exactly sure what arrangement they had to decide whose turn it was, since it was never the same pair all the time, so there was probably some sort of rotation involved, but he'd never really paid enough attention to figure it out. Given the din behind her, it sounded like Shanalorre was gathering everyone to have them get food as well.

She and Mikon had begun a game by the time Rian and Umu came back with the food. Lori took one of the bowls and some bread. "So, what do you have to report?"

"The carpenters have started working on Shanalorre's shelves. They said they can do the mounts for shelves tomorrow, if you'll be there to soften the stone," Rian said, letting the other three get their own bowls first before he took the last one. "Do you think you have time to before we leave?"

Lori frowned, then sighed. "Fine. After breakfast, we'll bury the mount in the walls. Is the boat ready to go again?" She reached out and moved her Mentalist into a defensive position.

"Everything's been resupplied, and Dormin was willing to come back to try to hunt more food for the demesne. Although with the seels finally coming back, it's been suggested it might be safer to have people seeling for meat instead, since they can do it from inside the demesne."

"Does anyone there know how to seel?"

"The children from the families who used to live here? Though I wouldn't suggest having them do it. Or at least, not just them, since their parents will probably try to hide the meat and keep it for themselves, or worse."

Lori grunted as Mikon moved one of her militia. "Who's available to learn seeling so that they can do it, then?"

"Unfortunately, there's not a lot of people to spare in River's Fork to do that," Rian said. "They still need to finish planting the fields—thankfully there's still enough grain for that—as well as clearing more land to plant more crops, since the land they currently have is just barely more than what they originally had when their old Binder was alive. And the only reason that was enough was because he used Deadspeaking to accelerate the harvest."

"Wouldn't that deplete their supplies of grain even further?"

"With the fruits, the seels, the hunting, and what grain is left after planting, they should survive until harvest provided we can stop the stealing… admittedly, that's a very optimistic prediction. If we can spare some tubers for them to plant, that's another source of food for the demesne… provided that no one tries to steal or hoard it."

"You know, since we started tending to River's Fork, you have increasingly assumed the worst in the people there," Lori noted. She also moved one of her militia. It would be threatened soon, but in her next move she'd put her Whisperer near it.

"Yes, I know. Depressingly, people stealing and hoarding things is something I'm familiar with." Rian sighed heavily. "Hopefully when they're eating regularly and have a secure supply of food, they'll stop this behavior."

"How likely is that?"

"Please don't ask, I don't want to think about it."

"So… you're procrastinating."

"I can only deal with so many problems at once. I'll leave these hypothetical future problems for when they become more definite nearly today problems."

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Lori was almost finished with dinner when Shanalorre approached her, standing respectfully to the side as she waited to be acknowledged.

"What is it?" Lori said as she tapped her Deadspeaker to revive one of her fallen militia, placing the revived piece where it could act defensively.

"Great Binder, I have a request," Shanalorre said.

"Hmm?" Lori 'hmm'-ed, glancing sideways at her subordinate. "What request?"

"If possible, I wish to remain here instead of returning to River's Fork tomorrow. The children have not yet properly adjusted to the living conditions here, and I believe it would be best if I were to remain to help them acclimate. In addition, I also do not wish to leave Yoshka unattended in a new place."

Lori nodded, still waiting for Mikon to make her counter move. "Yes, I agree. You should stay here to take care of the children. What resources will you need?"

Shanalorre hesitated. "I shouldn't need any resources. The intent is to get them acclimated to living in the demesne, as well as helping them deal with being separated from their families and sleeping in an unfamiliar environment."

Lori nodded, then reached down into her belt pouch. She felt around, and pulled out a rock. "Here, take—" She glanced at the rock. "—no, wait, this is my rock with Yllian's name." Putting the rock down at the table, where Rian was giving the rock an exasperated look, Lori searched through her belt pouch again. "Ah, here it is." She drew out a rounded river rock, one end a smooth ovoid, the other consisting of ridges that have had their edges smoothed by water over an unknown period of time. "I've been meaning to give this to you."

"A… rock, Great Binder?"

Lori held up the rock, anchoring passing lightwisps to it, which she then began to imbue. She reached out through her connection to the core towards the other bindings of lightwisps in the demesne, checking them for reference, before configuring the binding on lightwisps on the rock. It began to glow as she imbued it, and she held out the rock towards Shanalorre. "Here."

With the dining hall already brightly lit by lightwisps, the glow from the rock wasn't really all that blinding, and was simply a slightly brighter glow in the air. Shanalorre hesitantly took the rock. "Thank you, Great Binder."

"It's for your house," Lori explained. "To help illuminate it should you need to work one Rian's numbers. When you plan to go to sleep, simply put your bucket over it to obscure the light."

"Ah… I understand then, Great Binder. I'm sure it will be very useful. Thank you again."

Lori waved a hand dismissively. "I will be coming by later to attach lights to the outside of the house, since I had neglected to do so while they were being constructed. In the meantime, sit. I still need to speak to you."

Shanalorre nodded, turning to something or someone behind Lori. "I will just speak to Binder Lolilyuri for a moment, everyone. Why don't you all go to the baths? I will meet with you all there when I am finished. Karina, could you please help Yoshka until then?"

"Sure. Come on, Yoshka, let's go and do as Shana says," Lori heard the brat say as there was an outburst of excitement from the other new children at the idea of taking another warm bath again. Mikon finally made her move, using her Mentalist to remove Lori's Horotract. Lori winced, but resigned herself to that happening.

Lori heard the din the children were making recede as they all started moving away towards the entrance of her Dungeon as Shanalorre started to take a seat next to Lori, hesitated, then walked around the table to sit on Umu's other side.

"What did you wish to speak of, Great Binder?" she said, holding the glowing rock that Lori was still imbuing so that it was covered by her hands.

"In addition to the inventory matters that Rian has you doing," Lori said, "I am making you directly responsible for the wellbeing of the new children. That means making arrangements for bath buckets to be built for them, and to have some of our leather stores be used to make them proper footwear. Rian, see to it that the carpenters and… uh, whoever else know that I'm authorizing Shanalorre to make these arrangements."

"Got it, your Bindership," Rian said cheerfully. "If she needs help, I'm sure Karina can tell her who to find for what she needs."

Lori nodded, still focused on Shanalorre. "In addition, I want you to supervise having more tubers planted where there's space, in preparation for transferring them to be grown to River's Fork for additional food."

"I… see."

"It shouldn't be difficult to find time to plant some things in the ground. Just do as much as you can while we're gone. Use your own judgement as to how to proceed, and limit yourself to a reasonable expenditure of resources."

"Ah…"

"By supervise, you mean not actually do it herself, right?" Rian said. "Who can she ask for help?"

"I'll leave that to her discretion, provided it's for this planting," Lori said.

"I… will do what I can, Great Binder."

"Excellent." Lori turned towards the game she was still playing with Mikon. "That will be all, then. You are dismissed. I'll be out to anchor lightwisps outside your house when I finish here."

It had been some time since she'd played chatrang, and she was going to enjoy herself.

"Well… congratulations, I suppose?" Rian said to Shanalorre, sounding unsure. "You finally got your own glowing rock too. How long before Yllians gets one, do you think?"

Lori paused. Then she sighed. She supposed she'd have to find a rock tomorrow…