Weekly Digest 93 - (#294 - #296) (Patreon)

Unpaid Gainful Employment

After they got Rian a new bone tablet, they spent the afternoon conducting several permutations of the initial successful binding. Lori experimented with replacing the firewisps anchored to the sample of white Iridescence with airwisps, with darkwisps, and with airwisps and darkwisps. While the other internal arrangements worked, if inefficient, the firewisps in the copper shell around the sample was absolutely necessary as it was one of only two kinds of wisps could be in the metal shell.

They also experimented on the wisps they could anchor to the outside of the copper shell. Lightwisps, of course, provided illumination, and some airwisps resulted in an underwhelming breeze, since the shape of the shell wasn't exactly conducive to air flow, and she couldn't have the airwisps extend out too far. Darkwisps anchored well and were easy to make fairly large, but she didn't really see a good use for a little cloud of darkness.

Waterwisps also anchored, and it was possible to have them either solidify water or evaporate it on contact, which was useful. Lori could already see how she might possibly use the prototype as it was to make some of the waterwisp–based bindings she had made. The evaporators they used to distill gold water for the tannery, the flowing water that powered the water wheel for the carpenters…

Lightningwisps were a bit problematic, since they wanted to occupy the copper instead of the air around it, but that was solved by letting them take the place of the firewisps in the metal. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything they could dowith it. Her only uses for lightningwisps were the bindings to keep bugs away from certain buildings, and the binding she used for the curing shed. Possibly it might have some use in welding metal, but she didn't really know how to do that very well, so she couldn't really translate that into something they could use the prototype for.

Earthwisps required her to put some stone on the shell, and they integrated well with the binding anchored to the white Iridescence, but there wasn't really anything she could use it for. Perhaps if she used earthwisps to reinforce stone structures, but she didn't. And off the top of her head, she didn't really know any bound tools that actually used earthwisps…

"Could use some other material for the shell?" Rian asked as they finished with the thirteenth experiment. "Bone and rock seem to be doing well."

"No. Even if it's a substitute, metal has a property bone and rock do not: it has no wisps of its own."

"What really? I'd have thought it would have earthwisps…"

"Only when it's near-molten."

"I'll… take your word for it. But why is that important? Wouldn't the shell having its own wisps be an advantage in this instance? You can skip the step of putting firewisps into the shell."

"Because having wisps that don't do anything in a binding reduces the overall efficiency of the binding," Lori said. "There's a reduction in the amount of magic transferred between wisps of unlike type when using metal seepage. When the binding was all firewisps, there was no loss, but in the configuration with the lightwisps, the lightwisps had less magic imbued into it from the firewisps… or at least they would have, if it weren't for the fact they were also being imbued directly from the copper shell. Which they could only anchor onto because of the firewisps in the shell, which were anchored into the firewisps anchored around the white Iridescence."

"Ah… so it's an optimization problem…" Rian mused. "The wisps anchored to the white Iridescence is what lets the binding stay together, but the shell is what imbues the part that's actually doing the work we want it to do, like make light or move air around." He tilted his head. "Can't we still use bone or stone to act to connect external wisps to the wisps anchored to the white Iridescence, then just use other metal to imbue the wisps anchored to the bone or stone? That should take care of the imbuement inefficiency, right? Or… what if we used a raw metallic ore? Would it be metallic enough to allow magic to flow and imbue through it, while letting you anchor onto its earthwisps?"

"Do you haveany raw ore to test this with?" Admittedly, it sounded like a good idea if it worked… but if it worked, bound tools would likely already be using metal ore in that way.

"Well, no… ah, but I think River's Fork might still have some of the raw ore they were trying to sell or make dye with?"

"No, just get some from the mine. We'll test it when you get back. "

"And… using a bone or stone shell?"

Lori rolled her eyes. "We'll have them make another prototype setting to test it." A part of her didn't want to—these prototypes were all supposed to be a stopgap measure for her inability to work with glass, which was how a proper bound tool was made—but she supposed that having different possible stopgap measures couldn't hurt. "Still, remember that the idea is of these experiments is not to make these little classroom demonstrations of metals seeping beads, it's for me to learn to make proper bound tools. Ones we can use reliably and are simple enough I don’t need to be the one to operate it. Perhaps eventually create bound tools for sale to Covehold. For the latter we will needto have mastered the proper way to make it with glass."

"So that other people can't modify it or study it to learn how to make one themselves?"

"Exactly!"

After all, why have only one absolutely monopoly when you can have two?

Rian sighed for some reason, but he was smiling as he did so.

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They put away everything to get ready for dinner, sealing up the alcove again. The tablets had several spots that needed correction near the beginning as Rian continued to get used to the new writing medium, but beyond those, it was all well written and neatly organized, though a word here and there were missing, likely omitted to let him write faster. Lori read the two tablets, just to make sure that none of the omissions resulted in any wrong connotations, but Rian knew what words he could afford to omit. At worst, it read like someone in a hurry.

She'd still need to remove the corrections, because they looked terrible, but the notes themselves were perfectly understandable and concise.

"Are you ready to go to River's Fork tomorrow?" Lori asked as Rian sat opposite her. His hair was wet from the baths, but he was still wearing the same clothes.

"I suppose. We'll have to wait until tomorrow to pack the meat, but beyond that, everyone's ready to go." Rian sighed, but the sigh sounded different from the ones he'd been making when they first arrived from River's Fork a few days ago. It was less deep, for one thing. "We'll bring back some fruit when we come back. It's part of why we're trying to keep the place alive, right? might as well get our share of it." He gave Lori a twisted smile. "Do you have a preference of which fruit we should bring more of?"

Lori seriously considered that. Which one, which one…? The micans? The golden buds? The pink ladies? The hairy blueballs? Eventually though, she had to sigh. "I find I have no exact preference at the moment," she said. "Bring home equal amounts of each."

Rian nodded. "On a related note, you'll probably have to promote two people to lord or lady in the near future."

"Oh? I will, will I?"

"We're still planning to take the Coldhold to Covehold, right? That means you're going to need someone to manage Lorian, and someone else to keep visiting River's Fork while I'm gone. Unless you don't want me heading that trip and think someone else can handle trying to sell the beads?"

Lori flinched inside. Ah, yes, that. It was something she hadn't really thought of since she'd been so busy. She should have, but she hadn't. "We'll discuss it when you return. So far, I do not have any promising candidates."

"I can suggest some…"

"I remember how the last candidate you suggested turned out."

"All right, to be fair, any other candidates I have now I will have known for far longer!"

She gave him a flat look as Shanalorre helped her cousin step over the bench and sit down. "Do you even have candidates?"

"… I don't see what that has to do with anything…"

"Well, only bother me about it when you do."

"…yes, your Bindership." Rian looked around for a moment, as if searching for something. "Ah, right, do you intend to go to keep going to the edge to do… things." He glanced at Shanalorre.

"Should I make myself scarce for a moment?" the other younger Dungeon Binder said.

Lori waved a hand dismissively at her to stay. "Of course. I need to make more for the trip to Covehold."

"Then I'll ask Riz to stay behind to accompany you. Since you'll be staying here, we don't need to bring as many people, since we don't need to assign anyone to protect you. She can accompany you to the edge." Rian tilted his head. "Unless you're fine with someone else doing it?"

Ah. She hadn't considered that. "Don't you need her to accompany you?"

"We'll be fine. Keep her with you, it's more important to keep you alive, remember?"

And what was she to say to that? Lori simply nodded. "Very well. Don't come back early because you were stabbed in the back by someone who couldn't stand you. The people there have a distressing tendency to suddenly attack people for no reason."

"That only happened once," Shanalorre said as Umu and Riz sat down on either side of Rian, with Mikon sitting down next to perpetual non-officer, "and the ones responsible have already been dealt with."

"So? It still happens significantly far more than it does here."

"I… do not know how to respond to that… Ah, Riz," Rian said, turning towards the non-officer. On his other side, Umu gave the other woman an annoyed look as she was ignored for the moment. "Could you stay here and go with her Bindership when she goes back to the edge?"

Riz blinked. "Ah, right, she's not going to the Fork with us." She pressed her lips together, even as Mikon's expression brightened, and the weaver smiled at Lori for some reason. "Sure, I'll stay. If, uh, that's fine with her Bindership?"

Lori waved a hand dismissively. "The same arrangement as last time should suffice, Erzebed."

Riz nodded, then stiffened. "Ah, I don't have to take notes for you, do I?"

"No, you do not."

A sigh of relief. "Thank you, your Bindership."

"If you need any notes taken, Binder Lolilyuri, I volunteer," Shanalorre said. "Provided you feel it safe to allow me to learn the contents of the notes."

"That will not be necessary, Binder Shanalorre. I will not need any notes taken." Beyond putting up the ice structure to work in as Rian had suggested, and leaving some samples of white Iridescence beyond the edge to see what happened to them, all she intended to do was make more beads. "Rian, are there any matters in the demesne that need to be dealt with while you're gone?"

Rian blinked. "Wait, are suggesting you'll—"

"I'm sure Erzebed can attend to it when she's done accompanying me to the edge."

"… of course you do…"

"Wait, wait, I'm not an officer!" Riz said hastily. "You gave me an official plaque about it and everything!"

"Yes? I'm not promoting you into an officer, Erzebed, or making you my temporary Rian again—"

"Did you just use my name as a job designation?"

"—and if you don't want to provide any assistance to Rian, I'm sure he'll understand."

"Wow. Seriously? You're doing that? You realize Riz is an adult woman and not a child, right? And even most children wouldn't fall for that plot." There was a pause. "But, um, if you're willing Riz, there are a few things… "

"Well… so long as if doesn't mean I'm an officer."

"No, of course not!" Rian hastily assured Riz. "At worse, you're a sergeant, getting things done for an officer who clearly needs help. And I definitely need help…"

Riz looked relieved. "Ah. Huh. Well, that's fine. I can do that."

"Oh, thank you! It's not much, just talk to all the task overseers and ask them if they anything. If they do, decide if it needs to be mentioned to Binder Lori or if you can handle it yourself. If you're not sure if it's something to tell Binder Lori, or it doesn't seem urgent enough to do so, just wait and tell me when I get back."

"It will only be two days, so you won't have to do it for long," Lori said.

Rian nodded at Lori's words, then paused. "No, it's four days, right?"

"Two days," she said with finality as Umu and Mikon stood up to join the line at the kitchen to get their dinner.

A strange expression came over Rian's face, before it settled onto something that might actually have been distaste. "It needs to be at least three days," he said eventually, sounding like was barely keeping himself from sighing. "I'm not going to be able to get anything done in just two days. I'll need the whole working day in the middle."

Lori gave him a flat look, which he returned with one that wasn't quite as flat. It looked very reluctant, in fact. "Are you sure?"

"No, but I need to do it anyway. I'm a gainfully employed adult. I have to do the distasteful things that are part of my responsibilities."

"You're not being paid," Lori pointed out. "I'm not sure it counts as gainful employment."

"That's simply an unfortunate artifact of the current state of our economy. Everyone is equally unpaid. Now let's stop talking about this before you start getting ideas for how to tax people."

Lori smirked at the implication. She supposed she did have the basis to switch her demesne to a capital-based economy now, what with being able to produce beads. It… well, was probably something she shouldfinally get around to thinking about… but she didn't want to. Not yet. "All right. Three days."

"Would it be too much to hope that you'll wait for me to get back before testing the second prototype?"

"Yes."

"I hatebeing a responsible adult… have more experiments to do by the time I get back?"

"I'm sure you'll bother me with proposals for them yourself."

"I wouldn't dare presume."

"Yes, you would. You would definitely dare presume."

Rian shrugged, not even looking a little chagrined.

Lori rolled her eyes as Umu and Mikon arrived with the food. She took one of the bowls and a piece of bread for herself. "Well, besides all that, did anything come up this afternoon?"

"Well, the smiths said the second prototype will be ready tomorrow, and we've set aside some of the older frozen meat and a few jars of dried and fresh mushrooms to take to River's Fork tomorrow, so hopefully that will take care of some of the complaints about the food…"

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Congratulations

It was a perfectly ordinary morning in Lolilyuri's demesne. The sun was shining, the bugs were making singing, breakfast was cooking, people were getting ready to clean the Um for the week after breakfast, the storm and red moons hung in the sky to give it some variety, and Lori was already thinking of what sort of tool she'd need to help in the mass production of beads. She still had her emergency wispbead—a denominated one of the largest size, but she could probably replace that with one she'd made herself at this point—and while she could use that a size guide, it was probably best to use one of the blank ones she had made. One of those would be perfectly smooth…

She was thinking of going back up to her room to get a tablet and stylus so she could try sketching out what she wanted made to better explain it where Rian finally arrived, sitting down on the bench opposite her. "Good morning, your Bindership," he said cheerfully. It was a bright, happy cheer more intense than anything she'd seen from him before. "Did you sleep well?"

She gave him a flat look. "Rian, is this your way of telling me we have booze in the demesne and you had some before breakfast?"

"No, as far as I know we don't have any booze in the demesne, and no, I'm not drunk," he said, still smiling cheerfully.

"Then why are you acting strange?"

"Hmm? I have no idea what you mean, your Bindership. I'm always like this." For a moment, his cheerfulness briefly shifted to 'deliberately annoying', but it quickly shifted back.

Lori stared at him, then shrugged. Well, if Rian was in a good mood, then that had nothing to do with her. At least he wasn't sighing over having to go to River's Fork. "At least you're no longer sighing over having to go to River's Fork," she said.

Rian blinked as if he'd just realized it himself. For a moment, Lori thought he was going to start sighing again.

He did, in fact, sigh, but he managed to smile as he did so. "Well, it's something we need to do to help keep the people there alive," he said. "Once we've got more infrastructure invested there, optimized the collection of resources, and get them some working prototypes to make up for you not being able to maintain bindings there, they should settle down and behave."

"Are you sureyou're not drunk? Because all that sounds like you're delirious."

"I'm not drunk! I'm just looking at the problem through fresh eyes. For better or worse, everyone there are our people now, and we need to think of them as such. How about we invite everyone over next time we have a holiday? We can plan it in advance, spend the whole day before bringing everyone over, they can stay in the shelter or the dungeon, we lock down everything we don't want stolen, and they can spend the holiday with us enjoying themselves so they feel like they're part of the community."

"I was wondering whether you'd gone insane until the point you mentioned taking measures against theft," Lori said.

"I have a new perspective on the situation, I didn't become stupid." His smile didn't change at all.

There were sounds of footsteps, and Lori looked over her shoulder to see Shanalorre approaching. "Good morning Binder Lolilyuri, Lord Rian," she said, bowing to Lori and nodding towards the latter as she carried her dozing cousin on her back. "Do you require my presence this morning?"

Rian glanced at Lori. She considered the matter, then waved a hand dismissively. "I don't think so, Shana," Rian said. "You can go have breakfast with the other children."

"I see. Very well, then. May I speak with you at lunch, Binder Lolilyuri? I have a request on behalf of the children, but it can wait."

Lori nodded. "Fine. We will speak then."

"See you later, Shana," Rian said, making a show of waving goodbye.

Lori was in the middle of rolling her eyes—Shanalorre was literally sitting at a nearby table, and Rian would probably be able to see her all through breakfast—when a slight shift in the air brought scent to her face. An unfortunately familiar scent. Her nostrils flared, as she tried to figure out where it came from. Who could—?

Her eyes fell on Rian. The person sitting closest to her… and the direction the air had come from.

"Rian," she said flatly. "Have you taken a bath yet?"

"Not yet. I overslept a little, so I decided to come straight here so that there would be someone to get you your fo—"

"Go take a bath."

Rian blinked. "What?"

"Go take a bath," Lori repeated, voice just low enough to be heard over the din of the dining hall. "And make sure to wash your hands thoroughlybefore you handle any food I might be eating."

"That's a bit rude to say, don't you th—"

"Rian, I recognize that smell from my mothers." That gave Rian pause. Lori say his eyes widen in realization, his lips pressing together as he began to blush. "Congratulations. Now take a bath and tell them to do the same."

"Yes, your Bindership," Rian said, sounding subdued and mildly embarrassed. He made to stand.

"Rian." He paused. "Was it voluntary on your part?"

His blush deepened, but he nodded with nearly defiant firmness.

"Then again, congratulations. Don't be like my mothers and bring it to the breakfast table."

"Ah… my condolences."

"Bath."

"Right, right. Going, your Bindership!"

Once he was gone, Lori eyed the table, trying to remember where Rian's hands had touched it. She was going to have to blast that with steam and unseen light later…

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Breakfast had already started by the time Rian returned carrying two bowls of three bowls of food and a plate filled with bread for five people, his hair damp from his bath. "The girls are just finishing up," he said.

"They would certainly be women now, wouldn't they?" Lori said blandly.

His hand rose up to cover his face. "Can you please leave the subject? Please?"

Lori rolled her eyes. "Fine. But bathe afterwards from now on. You handle food for Shana and her cousin too."

Rian winced. "All right, that's… fair. Now can we leave the subject?"

"What subject?"

Rian opened his mouth, then paused. He closed his mouth, and nodded. "I'll get the rest of the food, then."

"Don't you have some sort of rotation?"

He smiled mischievously. "Well, they're not here, so I have to do it." He winked.

Lori rolled her eyes at him. She had no idea why he was so insistent on fetching the food rather than letting the three do it. It wasn't because they'd been sleeping with him, he'd been like that for a long time. Shaking her head, she picked one of the bowls, helped herself to bread, and started eating.

While Rian was gone, Umu, Mikon and Riz finally arrived. Lori eyed them warily, but judging from the moisture on Riz's short pink hair, they had bathed. Mikon was wearing a wide, brilliant smile that bore a strong relation to the expression Rian had worn earlier, while Umu was wide-eyed and flushed as she tried to make herself as small an unobtrusive as possible, and doing very badly at it. Riz had a serene expression on her face, and a slight bounce in her step.

The three sat down opposite her, Umu a greater distance than usual from the other two than having a space open for Rian justified. The blonde stared down at the table, while Riz slouched and leaned her elbows down on the tabletop as Mikon leaned against her side as the weaver sometimes did. The pink-haired took the two bowls remaining on the table and passed them to the other women. "Eat up you two, or it will get cold," she said, her smile looking almost painful.

"You sure?" Riz said, even as she took some bread and dipped it into the bowl.

"Go ahead, I'll wait for Rian to come back."

Umu twitched, but accepted the bowl, not meeting the other weavers face. She began to eat

When Rian came back with more bowls of food, a jug of water and some cup, the three women turned towards him immediately. Riz's serene expression turned into a smile, while Umu's face reddened further as Rian sat down between the two of them.

"Thank you, Rian," Mikon said brightly as she accepted a bowl from him.

Lori braced herself, but fortunately it seemed that the rather sickening displays of blatant flirting her mothers had indulged in on the mornings after wasn't practiced by everyone… or perhaps these four hadn't reached that point yet. Instead, they all settled down to a quiet breakfast… with all hands above the table and accounted for.

Rian had managed to start eating—he was eating quite enthusiastically, actually—and was quarter of the way through his food before he finally slowed down. "So, I've been thinking…"

Lori gave him a flat look. "How much extra work is this going to cause me?"

"Not thatkind of thinking… though admittedly, I was wondering if we can just mix ground white stuff with molten copper so they're suspended in the metal when it cools… but I digress. I think we should be making more long-term plans."

"That is a very vague subject. Be more specific."

"I think we need to start a school for the children," Rian said.

That… hadn't been what Lori had been expecting him to say. Honestly, she'd thought he'd say something about her needing to get around to building more workshops, or expanding some of their current infrastructure. "What?"

"We need to stop thinking only in terms of what we need to do this season of our next one." Rian leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table to do so as he entwined his fingers together and rested his chin on his thumbs. "Our goals need to be longer term, assuming our continued survival and growth over the next decade."

"And you think a school for the children is the most urgent thing to start on?"

"Lori," Rian's said, and she blinked in surprise at the use of her name. Her lord's voice was completely serious. "If you get the monopoly you want, this demesne is going to become rich and very, very busy. To best take advantage of a monopoly, we will need to scale up production to be able to meet the demand for our product, or we'll incentivize people breaking the monopoly due to insufficient supply. To meet that demand, we'll need raw and refined materials in sufficient quantities. To get those materials, we'll need to send people to get them. To get those materials on a regular basis, we will need established contracts with suppliers to provide things we can't produce ourselves. Those contracts will need negotiation, they'll need to be read to make sure what's written is what was agreed upon. And unless you want those negotiations to take forever, I can't be the only one doing them. We need people who can do these things, who can read contracts to make sure there aren't any unfavorable clauses hidden in the agreement, who can write our own contracts and know how to hide clauses in our favor. We need people who can do calculations and negotiate prices. Since we have neither the time or the leeway to train any of the people of the demesne who are currently working, we need to train those who aren't working. So we need a school."

Lori found herself leaning back slightly as Rian spoke. The three on either side of him were looking at him too. He didn't raise his voice, but as he spoke his speech gradually picked up speed. His gave never left her, his eyes intense. When he finished, she had to take a moment to realize that he had actually stopped speaking. "That…" That had been a far more coherent and detailed argument than she usually got from him. Very detailed, in fact. "How long have you been thinking about this?"

"Technically, since last night," he said promptly. "If you mean useful thinking however, then only during my bath."

She raised her eyebrows. "Last night?" The gazes of the three next to Rian also became intent.

His lips pressed together for a moment before he said, very evenly, "Yes, last night."

The urge to comment on the timing was very strong. Several had already come to mind, all along the lines of asking him how bored he'd been, or whether he'd had nothing better to do, but she restrained herself. They had left the subject, after all, and given how motherly he sometimes was… No. She had abandoned the subject as soon as possible with her mothers before, and she saw no reason to change that now… no matter how many sarcastic comments she was managing to think of. "I see," she said instead. "Didn't I tell you to rest?"

"You've said many things, some of which had contradictory implications," Rian said flatly. Mikon nodded, snickering to herself slightly.

Lori shrugged. "I have no objections to the proposal. It sounds like a 'dealing with people' matter, so I'll leave it to you."

Instead of sighing or rolling his eyes, Rian nodded. "I'll see if I can set one up by this summer. The sooner we can get this started, the more time they'll have to learn. We can set up a school room somewhere, and I can find people who can teach them. I can do it, and maybe Cassan might be willing, maybe some of the doctors and medics…"

There was a cough from behind Lori and about a pace to one side. "Excuse me, Lord Rian, Binder Lolilyuri," Shanalorre said as Lori quickly turned to face her. "I couldn't overhearing Lord Rian's impassioned proposal. If I may, I am willing to volunteer to assist in this endeavor. I was taught how to read, write and how to interpret and calculate numbers. As I am responsible for the well-being of a number of the children already, I volunteer to teach them the necessary skills. It will also free Lord Rian to continue to perform his duties for the demesne."

A conflicted look came over Rian's face. "Thank you for offering, Shana, but—"

"Lord Rian, I understand you see me as a child." Lori blinked at that, looking at her lord incredulously. Really? He actually thought that? "However, I am a Dungeon Binder. More importantly, I can read, write, do calculations, am not needed for any other duties save for emergencies, and I already have charge of the children that need to be taught. Taking on this duty justifies the continued expenditure of resources to sustain me."

For some reason, Rian twitched.

"A sound argument," Lori agreed. It would certainly be useful if Shanalorre had more to do than healing. While healing was important if Lori got sick or injured—and her idiots too, she supposed—they didn't exactly need it every day. "You can discuss matters further with Rian when he gets back. Is there anything else, Binder Shanalorre?" She pointedly emphasized the title for Rian's benefit.

"Nothing at the moment, Binder Lolilyuri, though I still wish to speak with you later."

"Get back to eating, then."

Shanalorre bowed, and turned back to her meal as Lori shifted to sit on her bench properly again.

"We'll discuss the matter further when you return, Rian," Lori said. "Hopefully you'll have a more concrete plan by then. And be more respectful of Binder Shanalorre. She's still a Dungeon Binder, after all. Is there anything else?"

"Nothing that can't wait at the moment. We'll still have to discuss the next expedition to Covehold and such, now that you're not busy digging."

Lori nodded. "When you return then. I'll try your proposal of suspending the samples in copper in the meantime." The white Iridescence had shown it wouldn't react to heat of combustion, but she'd test that first by exposing it to copper-melting temperatures. If it still didn't react…well, trying to suspend it in molten copper should be fine.

Rian twitched. "Oh, come on! At least let me be there when you do that! It was my idea!"

Lori rolled her eyes. "Fine, fine, I'll wait. I'll need to test the second prototype in any case." Shaking her head, she went back to her food.

He sighed relief, then bent down and did the same.

Riz turned towards him. "Since last night? Were you bored or something?" Umu's head snapped sideways to look at him, looking aghast.

Rian flushed, glancing towards Lori, who met him with an utterly bored expression. "I didn't fall asleep right away, you know," he said. "Just… thinking of the future… raising children and… things like that…" His words faded into muttering.

"…oh…" Riz said, face no longer as serene and looking a little flushed.

Mikon just kept on smiling, humming to herself as she ate.

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Prototyping for Mass Production

Half the morning was spend packing the Coldhold with meat from the cold rooms, frozen solid and hard as rock. People had to handle the food carefully so the cold meat wouldn't stick to anyone's skin. Lori filled one of the cargo boxes in the Coldhold with blocks of solidified water, carefully giving the blocks just enough imbuement to last until lunch, at which point they'd start being extremely cold. She had filled the small cold storage in River's Fork with ice before she'd left, but here was no harm in having more, and by this point it would no doubt have room for it.

And then the boat was moving away from the dock and sailing downriver, to be gone for another three days. Some people lingered at the docks, and a few of the children rand along the river bank to parallel the boat for as long as they could. Lori didn't bother watching it go as she headed to her room to sketch with her stylus and bone tablet. Before he'd left, Rian had relayed to her that the second prototype would be ready to fill with white Iridescence after lunch and would likely be finished by the end of the day, so Lori had time on her hands. Rather than going straight to the edge of the demesne and making beads, she decided to take the time to properly design the mass production aid she'd been conceiving. She'd already learned that she could continue to imbue the binding that was amalgamating into a bead as long as the flow of magic wasn't interrupted.

With that in mind, the sort of tool she needed for mass production was obvious.

She needed a tray and a grid.

No, wait. First, she needed a test prototype as a proof of concept before she had a larger tool made, so that she could make fine-tune the concept on the small scale.

Her stylus traced along the softened surface of the bone tablet, trying to draw and solidify the concept in her mind. A tray covered by a grid, and within each grid, a layer of metal at the bottom to channel magic. Inside each grid, a concave slope that would allow a growing bead to remain centered and resting on the metal contact point as it grew, until it reached a certain size and the bead's own growth would cause it to rest on the raised walls of the grid and lift it up off the metal contact, causing it to stop growing.

It was a simple, elegant concept. That meant that there was no doubt implementation would a glittering rainbow. Hence why she needed to start with a prototype, to test out several different iterations of the concave slope and see which ones worked and, if there were any, which ones would be easiest to make. She could just simply take a bead of the size she wanted to replicate, and press it into softened stone or bone to make concave the wanted, and if needed she was resigned to having to do that for the mass production tray, she'd rather not if the craftsmen of her demesne could make something that sufficed.

Lori went out to the bone pit to get bone for raw material, checking on the progress of the second prototype on the way. The cup that would be filled with the finely ground white Iridescence was still being worked on. From the looks of it, they were shaping the top of the cup so that a copper cover—which also seemed to be in the middle of being made—could be slid over the cup containing the white iridescence before it's presumably hammered tight. She'd have to back with it later.

The bone pit was bigger these days, and actually consisted of two pits now. One was a bug-ridden pit where fresh bones were picked at for the minute bits of meat that the cooks hadn't been able to extract. Another pit was full of bones that had been picked clean and drying in the sun when they weren't being washed by the rain. When she got there, one of the men she vaguely recognized as one of the demesne's carpenters was collecting bones, no doubt to boil into glue.

He looked at her warily as she approached the pit, bowing cautiously. She nodded in acknowledgement, but crouched down and began picking out bones for herself. Lori picked out the ones that had been opened for marrow, checking that there weren't any concentrations of waterwisps that might signify remaining meat or marrow still attached to the bone. She didn't want any unfortunate surprises after al. Claiming the earthwisps in the bones she'd chosen, she fused them together into a mass to make them easier to carry back.

Once she had a large enough mass, she took the bone over to docks and claimed waterwisps from the river. She doused thebones with water, altering the viscosity of the waterwisps so thatinstead of washing away, the bones were slowly encased in a thick blob of water. When she had enough water, she made a little ice inside the blob to squeeze out some firewisps, and claimed those firewisps, adding them to the binding.

Then she made the water boil.

It was a quick boil to get rid of any dustlife or anything else disgusting on the bones, lest she get anything on her hand. She was bringing this to her room, after all. Once it was sufficiently boiled, she drew away the waterwisps and water to dry the bones, which she carried back to her room, making a detour to get an ingot of copper from the treasure room.

Lori spent the rest of the morning making a series of mold prototypes, with the bone as building material. First she flattened out the bone as if she was making tablets, and then used her belt knife to cut the flattened bone into strips. The strips she then layered together to make thicker panels that she then used to make a little tray with… well, it was only a single row of little square compartments, so it wasn't exactly a grid. She used what tools she had—her belt knife, the various teeth and claws she'd collected, beads of the sizes she wanted to replicate—to make the various indentations, and put the ingot on the bottom to act as a contact point for magic to flow.

She was in the middle of making the last of the prototype mold shapes—a shallow ring that the growing bead could rise up on—when there was a gentle knock on her door. Lori blinked, wondering if it had been her imagination or some sound that had come up from downstairs that had nothing to do with her, when the knock came again. Sighing, she put down the little strip of bone she'd been shaping, got up and opened the door, wondering why Rian was being so quiet.

The fact that Rian was in River's Fork returned to her at about the same time she opened the door and saw a nervous Riz. The non-officer bowed. "I apologize for disturbing you, Great Binder , but Rian asked me to remind you when it was time to eat."

Ah. It did feel like midday, she supposed. "I'll be right down," Lori said.

"Uh, the smiths also asked me to tell you that the thing you asked them to make is almost finished, and they just needed you to give them what's supposed to go in it so they can seal it shut."

"Tell them I'll meet with them after lunch. Is that all?"

Riz nodded.

"Then I'll be down once I put away my work."

Once she'd neatly put away everything she'd been using, especially the beads so they wouldn't roll off and get lost under her bed like beads tend to do, Lori went down for lunch.

When Shanalorre approached the table, Lori pointed at the spot opposite her where Rian usually sat. There was plenty of room since Mikon and Umu were getting up to get the food. The other Dungeon Binder sat there, her cousin sitting next to her.

"What did you wish to talk about?" Lori said as the dining hall's familiar murmuring rang around them as they waited for the food to arrive.

"I was wondering if it would be possible for some of the children could go to River's Fork to visit their parents," Shanalorre said.

Lori frowned. "Are they failing to properly adjust to living in this demesne?"

"They are adjusting. However, I believe it would be beneficial for them to meet with their parents again. I am often asked when they will be 'going back home' every other day. Allowing them a visit will help curb this, and seeing that the children are safe might prompt the parents who have still not sent their children here for their safety and well-being to do so. And at the very least, the parents would appreciate being able to see for themselves that their children are doing well. It will also empirically disprove those who are claiming that the children are being held hostage or are otherwise not being cared for properly, further lowering their credibility."

That last did sound nice. "We'll see what Rian thinks. This sounds like a 'dealing with people' matter."

Shanalorre nodded. "Thank you, Great Binder."

"If this idea is implemented, you will be in charge of arranging and organizing it, as this falls under your purvey."

'"I… understand, Great Binder."

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Lunch was unremarkable. Without Rian about, Lori was able to focus on eating.

His absence was more pronounced across the table. Without Rian, there was none of the usual physical flirting of Umu and—usually—Riz pressing against his side, and Mikon doing the same with Riz. The serenity from this morning had faded from the non-officer's face, and Umu was no longer red-faced, but the two of them now kept glancing sideways at each other and Mikon when they thought the others weren't looking. Only Mikon seemed unperturbed, still smiling widely. She was often smiling, really.

For the first time, Lori wondered how much of that was fake.

Well, she didn't care, so not her problem.

After lunch, she went up to her room to get the bowl of ground white Iridescence and the wooden spoon for scooping up the samples. It was a very rough grind, not unlike the salt they'd had stored that… was probably slowly running out, they need to send the Coldhold to the ocean soon, wouldn't they?

One thing at a time.

The square copper that was the second prototype was about four yustri long and wide, and half a yustri thick. The gold wire that would connect to the bead hadn't been attached yet, but one edge had excess metal that was no doubt meant to secure the wire. Out of a paranoid but not unreasonable fear that a sudden movement would send the little prototype flying, spilling the white iridescence everywhere, Lori made an impromptu clamp with some stone she pulled from the walls to secure the thing to the smithy's workbench. The smiths had clamps, but none were small enough for the prototype, at least not without ruining it.

The smiths actually nodded in amused approval when they saw her do that, which meant they'd no doubt been thinking of how to secure it themselves.

With the second prototype-in-progress secured, Lori carefully began spooning the white Iridescence into the little container. She used the spoon to spread it out evenly, and even pressed the samples down flat with another stone she pulled from the walls and shaped to conform to the container. She didn't press it down too hard, merely tamping down the white Iridescence as much as she could.

Once the container neared full, the smiths started sliding in the little copper cover plate to test the fit. With every fitting, Lori put in a little bit more white Iridescence and pressed it down, until finally the cover plate was scraping along the samples. Once that was done, Lori carefully shook the container, trying to feel for any shifting into the contents.

Only when Lori was satisfied that the white Iridescence was packed too tight to move did she hand the prototype back to the smiths for final sealing. They would be sealing the cover plate tight, and then tightening all the seals and work hardening them for that final bit of security, as well as fastening the gold wire.

"When will it be ready?" Lori asked before they started getting to work.

The two exchanged glances. "Probably tomorrow, your Bindership," the older-looking one said. "We'll have to work slowly so that it doesn't rupture."

Lori nodded in understanding. "Take all the time you need to get it done properly," she said. "The day after or later will fine, if that what you need." A thought occurred to her. "If it's suited for my needs, I will require to you make more like it. Please think of changes that need to be made that will make producing this easier. Change anything you need to. All it needs to do it to be able to hold the white powder packed tightly enough that they will not be able to move as long as it's intact."

The two frowned, but it was the professional frown of craftsmen considering a problem. They both nodded. "Yes, your Bindership."

"I won't keep you, then. Inform Erzebed if you need my assistance for anything." She turned away, then paused. "Where are the two who made the first prototype?"

With an amused smile, one of the smiths pointed behind her.

Lori turned, following the indicating finger, to find two men standing some distance away. One looked a bit young, so he was probably the tinsmith. She turned back and nodded gratefully. "Thank you," she said, and walked towards the two indicated. The two straightened as she approached them, looking expectant. "The prototype you two produced has functioned with no problems, and done everything I have demanded of it. I do not doubt that it will continue to function through my further tests and experiments. While it is possible that it will not meet my future needs, it will be because I did not know what I needed, not because your work was insufficient."

Giving the two one last nod, Lori turned and headed back to her room to continue her own prototyping.