Weekly Digest 95 - (#300 - #302) (Patreon)

The Production Mold And The Second Prototype

Of course, despite the previous failures, Lori tried all the molds again, just to be sure. She even made a little level table using ice to give the curved molds the best chance of working. Some of them actually did work then, but unfortunately they still didn't make it all the way to the end. The failures weren't even consistent about what size they failed at, so she couldn't even use them to make smaller denomination beads.

By the time it was time to return for lunch, she had several undersized beads and twenty of the size she'd been aiming for. it was a moderately good haul, but she'd need to make it more efficient. If she didn't care about size, she could simply heavily imbue the binding she'd be amalgamating with and then have several start growing at once. If she was going to be limited be the amount of magic she could channel to the binding through the metal contact, she'd need to make each production run of a fairly large scale to make it efficient…

Once Lori had removed all the water that had gathered at the bottom of the boat so that people wouldn't slip on the ice—putting some of the cut ropeweed as something to step on helped—they all got back aboard to head down. Lori held her prototype and container of beads carefully, noting that she needed a bigger container. The trip back was slow as, again, the boat was full of cut ropeweed. She took the time to imbue her new shed, since she didn't have anything else to do, and made a note to herself to add the shed to her list of things to imbue in the morning. She'd probably need to replace it with something actually solid at some point, but for now options were limited, and require either gathering stone or a very large number of bones.

After delicately maneuvering Lori's Ice Boatto the dock and waiting to be able to get off, Lori found that lunch had already started. rainbows. She hoped that didn't mean only the dregs of food were left: mostly water, lukewarm, cold gummy bread, and disintegrating tubers. Ugh, maybe they should have brought food this time.

She went up to her room to dump the beads in with the others she'd already made. Perhaps she could make a basket made of bone or something, with a handle to easier carrying? That might work better for transporting beads from the edge. She definitely needed something with a wider base so there's risk of it falling over when full…

Her prototype mold in hand, Lori went down to her table, where Mikon and Umu were already eating. As Lori sat, wishing her bench had a backrest to lean on, Riz arrived with two bowls of food. To her surprise, the bowls Riz came back with were… not full of dregs. In fact, there seemed to be more meat and tubers in the stew than usual! There was even an extra disk of bread! Wait, was that because they were the last to get food, so since no one else was going to get food they got more of everything? Does that mean she should start waiting for everyone else to get food first…?

No, no, she couldn't wait that long. Though in future, maybe she'd consider sending Rian for a second serving if she was still hungry.

"Riz," Lori said, and the woman in question paused… well, paused as much as she could whitle stil using her spoon to bring food in her mouth and eat. Rian should learn from her. "Inform the carpenters and the coppersmiths I need to meet with them after lunch. I need them to build something for me."

"Uh… now, Great Binder?"

"No, it can wait until after lunch. But I need to talk to them today. After that meeting, you're dismissed for the day."

"Understood, Great Binder. I'll get to it after lunch, then."

Lori nodded absently, staring at the little prototype mold as she continued to eat.

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Unlike Rian, Riz didn't prepare a list of the carpenters name arranged according to where they were sitting. Well, she wouldn't be addressing any single one of them anyway, so that was fine.

Lori placed her prototype on top of the table the carpenters and coppersmiths were seated around. "You probably have things to get back to, so I shall make this brief," Lori said. "I need a new tool based upon this prototype. It must be a tray at least a pace long and half a pace wide, divided into a grid of cells such as these. Each cell must contain… well, whichever of these four designs would be easiest for you to replicate for each cell."

She indicated the cells of the prototype that had functioned until the beads had grown to the size she wanted. Lori supposed it was a good thing the cells with the concave-shaped molds had all failed early and been removed from consideration, since they would have been difficult to reproduce with the equipment they had now in a timely manner. Not impossible—craftsmen could be amazing with hand tools—but it certainly wouldn't be quick, since it would likely require hand-carving each cell.

The prototype was passed around as the carpenters all examined the cells she had indicated, though many turned it over to look at the ingot of copper embedded into the tray.

"In addition to the tray, cells and whichever shape you all decide will be easiest to put into the cells, there also needs to be metal in each as a contact point," Lori continued. "Sheet metal will do, but it will need to be completely flat and level, and either all one piece or connected together by wire. It will also need to have removable and adjustable legs, since I will need to be able to move it back and forth from where I need to use it."

"Does… this have to do with making beads, your Bindership?" one of the carpenters asked.

"Did I say that?" Lori said blandly.

"Um… well, everyone knows you come back with new beads on mornings that you go to the edge, your Bindership."

"Oh? And does this 'everyone' include Shanalorre?" she said, turning to look at Riz intently.

Riz flinched. "I… don't know? I don't think so…"

"See to it that it doesn’t," Lori said, turning back to the craftsmen. "Are you asking to be compensated with beads for this work?"

The carpenters looked at each other, then all pointedly looked at the one who'd first spoken. He, for his part, looked towards Riz, who looked away with a theatrical air of innocence—Rian's was better—pretending not notice. Lori, for her part, never looked away from him. Eventually, he turned to face Lori again. "No, your Bindership. After all, what will we spend it on? But…"

"Rest assured, you will be compensated," Lori said. "And…" The next words made her want to sigh. "…when you finish with this project, and I've used it successfully, I'll have Rian declare a… a holiday."

The carpenters all looked at each other as they considered that.

"A five day holiday," the one she was talking to rebutted.

"I'm not going to haggle this," Lori said flatly. "I will agree to a minimum of one day of holiday. You can negotiate with Rian for the other four when he comes back."

The man paused, but nodded, obviously thinking that Rian would be easier to convince.

"Good. Now, tell me which of the cells would be easiest for you to build…"

The carpenters got down to business, asking her which parts of the prototype were necessary and which could be removed or modified. No, the walls of each cell didn't really need to go all the way to the down to the base, they were just there to separate the different cells. Yes, the rows and columns did need to be spaced that far apart. Would the angled trench design still work without the panels that separated the rows cells? She… wasn't sure, but maybe? She'd have to test it. No, just wires are unlikely to work, it will need to be sheets, though relatively thin sheets will do.

Someone got a plank and sketched out a diagram for a design. It… well, stripped of the parts she had said they could strip out, the resulting tray looked like a laundry board. The rows of the angled-trench design ran parallel to each other, implied to have strips of copper on their bottoms and there was no grid of separators.

Lori imagined using the proposed tray, and… thought it would actually work, and work very well. The separate growing beads didn't fuse together in any case, meaning it didn't matter if they touched while amalgamating and growing. She'd need something to anchor the bindings to start with, but if she put firewisps or lightningwisps in the metal she could anchor the bindings to those. At worse…

"Cut the edge short on one side of each trench," Lori directed. "While it should work, I might need to make a modification if I experience problems. Best to put the space for me to install the modification now." She could put a small strip of bone or stone to anchor the bindings too if needed. "If it's not needed, then the change shouldn't affect the functionality of the tray."

"Can we trim both sides?"

"If you feel it best."

Eventually, the design of the tray was tentatively finalized, but Lori had them start working on the base of the tray first while she tested the long-trench configuration tomorrow. While she believed it should work, best to test it while they still had time to modify the design. She gave the redsmiths the ingots they needed to begin making the copper sheets needed. Lori hoped they could make the sheets as flat as she needed.

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The second prototype bound tool had been completed and was presented to Lori when the two smiths making it saw she was done speaking to the carpenters. It had, admittedly, slipped her mind that morning, but with it now in her hands, she decided to begin testing how well it worked… after she also made a base for it so it wasn't just flopping around like some sort of dismembered extremity.

The second bound tool prototype… didn't look all that different from the first bound tool prototype. Oh yes, one was round with wire coming out from it, and the other one was a compact, hard square that had been sealed—forge welded, unless she missed her guess—with a wire coming out from it, but beyond that aesthetic difference, they were very similar in principle. In her hand though, the second prototype was clearly more solid, and had a greater sense of weight. The shell of the first prototype, despite being work-hardened, felt a bit delicate in her hands. The second prototype also had a shorter length of gold wire, and instead of a saucer made from a spiral of gold wire, it had one made from a sheet of copper.

A part of her already expected the second prototype to behave in a similar way, which was probably bad scholarship on her part, but she couldn't really help it. As a prototype, the first had been fairly successful, so she wanted the second to at least meet the same baselines. Physically, she could already tell that the second prototype would probably be more physically robust than the first prototype.

With Rian absent, she had to write her own notes again. Unlike the first prototype, which had a binding of wisps anchored to the white Iridescence and then again to the copper shell, this prototype had the samples of white iridescence tightly packed and pressed right up against the layer of copper containing them, so the firewisps or lightningwisps within the copper shell could be anchored to the white Iridescence directly. Aesthetically, it was an improvement for her, but in practical terms, it wasn't all that different from the first prototype. But then, that as to be expected.

Repeating all the various bindings of wisps that she tried on the first prototype, they all worked in the same way, even the binding of airwisps for circulating air was as ineffectual until she mounted a bone ring to the prototype to extend the binding of airwisps.

The difference, however, was that the second prototype felt much more robust. Lori was more willing to use the second prototype as a base to make a water jet bound tool than the first bound tool, which made her feel like a knock could deform the copper shell, tear it open, and either chip the sample in the setting to tear at the binding or let water in and allow the sample to dissolve away.

As difficult and time consuming as the second prototype was to make, if she was going to be handing out bound tools to her idiots, she'd rather use it as a base since it seemed more likely to survive idiotic behavior.

Maybe that's why they used glass in bound tools? Glass was known to be a relatively fragile substance, and any damage to it fairly obvious. When people saw the glass of a bound tool, they might be more inclined to handle it carefully.

…

She really hoped that wasn't the case. If one simply wanted to keep a bound tool from being easily damaged, making parts of it out of large blocks of metal would be far more effective than relying on people's tendency to be careful with glass.

Well, she'd find out herself once she started trying to melt the glass they did have into something she could try to use.

For now, she—

There was a knock on the door. "Great Binder? It's time for dinner."

—would go down and eat dinner, then tell Riz to prepare to go out to the edge again tomorrow.

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Rian's Considered Advice

After breakfast the next day, the trip to the edge of the demesne was quick, and this time they didn't bring any people to gather ropeweed with them. When they arrived at the edge, Lori was glad to see the shed still standing, its surface unmarred. She'd been worried a beast would grow curious about the structure and try to break in or otherwise damage it, something that might still happen. The ground around it was already glittering with growing Iridescence.

She was tempted to flood the area to wash away the colors, but it was only an instinctive impulse. Lori needed the Iridescence as seeds to amalgamate beads, and with it growing in the part of the shed outside of her demesne, she'd finally have a consistent, reliable source of Iridescence crystals… since she kept forgetting to bring a sealed jar out here to grow them in. Now she didn't have to remember anymore!

…

If Rian ever asked, that had been her plan all along.

Riz and her friend went to check the area beyond the edge for beasts as Lori went into the shed. Up above, the sun was bright and there were few clouds, but Lori didn't trust that. As Lori crouched down, carefully removing pieces of Iridescence—as large as she could extract—putting put it in the prototype mold that she had modified the night before to be one long trench shape, she reflected that the shed was going to need some kind of chair. And a table. And a shelf to hold things if she wanted to keep the table clear. And maybe a window to help with air circulation…

What would have been the first batch was utterly ruined as she accidentally pulled it into her demesne when she moved without thinking. Strangling her scream of frustration, she got more iridescence, and then carefully stood up on the far outer-side of her shed—telling herself she was imagining the feeling of the colors already burrowing into her flesh—before she began anchoring bindings to the bone, anchoring the ones she had imbued inside her demesne onto her finger and from there to the bone. Lori had to carefully hold the mold level so that the iridescence wouldn't all just gather into a clump, and she carefully nudged the pieces of Iridescence into where she knew where the binding wer—

She should have anchored the bindings to the mold before she took the mold out of her demesne and started putting iridescence into the mold, shouldn't she?

…

ARGH!

…

Well, she'll remember to do that for later!

With the bindings imbued and anchored, and apiece of iridescence touching in one, she started the experiment. Still holding the new mold level—the shape actually reminded her of the brick-like molds used for large ingots, or at least ingots as depicted in plays—she detached each binding from where it was anchored and had it start amalgamating with the piece of Iridescence in contact with it at the same time.

One by one, each binding started amalgamating into a bead. The long strip of metal at the bottom of the mold was a good contact point for her to imbue the growing beads through, and the trench-like sides kept the beads on it. Lori carefully angled one end of the mold down and the small growing beads, some still a bit lopsided since they hadn't yet formed a proper spherical shape, rolled down to one end. She tensed as one looked like it would roll up and off the metal, but the trench sides stopped it.

The beads grew until their shapes pushed up against the angled walls of the trench, pushing the beads up off the strip of metal and ceasing their imbuement. One by one, they stopped growing. Lori took two at random and held them up, comparing their sizes. They looked about the same size, though one felt a hair larger than the other. She closed one eye and adjusted her grip, making sure they were both the same distance from her open eye. They seemed… close enough. She'd need to check with her calipers for sure.

Still, it was a successful proof of concept test. She could tell the carpenters to build the tray as planned.

"Erzebed," she called as she stepped out of the shed, "we're going."

"Eh? Already, Great Binder?"

"Yes. I didn't need long. Also, remind me that the shed needs a chair. And a table. And a shelf. And a window to let the air in…"

The woman who operated the boat, Lori was surprised to see, had been loading cut ropeweed that they hadn't been able to bring back with them yesterday. It wasn't as much as what they'd brought back yesterday, but Lori supposed she was only one woman. Once Lori and the other two were settled onto Lori's Ice Boat, they set off again. Since it wasn't raining, Lori used her hat as a bag to carry the beads, and used a binding of darkwisps over her face to shield her from the glare of the sunlight.

Once they had managed to maneuver back onto the dock in front of her Dungeon, Lori dispelled the darkwisps and stepped off the boat, careful not to drop her mold or the hat with the beads. Yes, she definitely needed to make a basket out of bone or something.

She went off to inform the carpenters to continue construction with the trench-covered tray.

Then she went to get some bones to make a basket.

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Lori was finishing her new bone basket when there was a knock on the door to her room. "Your Bindership!" Rian's cheerful voice called through her door. "Lunch time!"

She gave the voice a suspicious look—well, technically she gave her door a suspicious look, since it was in the way—as she stood up from her table. When she opened the door, Rian was standing there, smiling brightly.

"Hi! I'm back!" He waved at her for some reason.

Despite herself, Lori took a deep inhalation threw her nose, sniffing the air.

"Wow, is that really what you think of me? I just got back home."

"I wouldn't know, I've been busy in my room."

"Well, I justgot back home, so there's no call for you to sniff me suspiciously like that. Come on, let's eat. What experiments are we going to do next? You said you'd wait for me before trying to embed white Iridescence into copper, right?"

Lori rolled her eyes as she closed and locked her door behind her, then headed downstairs. "Well, then you can take care of arranging it with the smiths tomorrow."

His smile became a grin. "Yes, your Bindership!"

On the other side of the table Umu, Mikon and Riz were all looking far more lively. When Rian sat down on the bench Umu and Riz were all over him, while Mikon used the distraction to press up against Umu from behind. Oh, it was probably also to get at Rian, but Lori recognized the maneuver from when her mothers flirted. All that was missing was Umu laughing and ineffectually swatting at the other weaver. For once, however, instead of being bashful and hesitant, Rian was merely being bashful but had a big smile on his face as… he was actually flirting back!

As Lori stared at them in exasperation, and some mild nausea, Rian glanced at her and gave her an apologetic smile. "Ah, we should stop for now everyone. Binder Lori is making the same face she does when she talks about her mothers." She was? Wait, she made a face when she talked about her mothers?

"Yes, stop," Lori said. "I need to talk to Rian, and he won't pay attention properly when you three are distracting him." She paused, then amended, "Distracting him more than usual."

"Eeeeeh?"

"Aaaaaaaw!"

Mikon merely sighed loudly, pouting at Lori for some reason, but at least didn't whine noisily like the other two. She was also forced to remove her arms from around Umu's shoulders, who had finally noticed.

"Well?" Lori said to Rian as Umu glared at Mikon, who was making an innocent face. "What is the situation in River's Fork?"

"Doing well," Rian said. "The terrace is coming together, but I'd like to bring some people better suited to building things with me next time. Some people who used to be militia engineers, just to make sure we don't make any silly mistakes. Between the meat we brought, the seels Karina and the other children have been seeling, and the beast meat we've been hunting, they should be good for a while. Well, provided no one starts stealing, overeating, or anything else stupid."

"So, they're still doomed to starve."

"Now, it's not that bad. The few people who tend to make trouble are being kept busy and are actually behaving themselves. I think that changing our approach, focusing on making them feel welcome again, and reintegrating them into the community would be more effective in making them change their ways and have them cease their behavior."

Lori gave him an unamused look. "Rian, whatever booze you drank while you were there this morning, confiscate it next time you go. We need something to distill it for medical antiseptic."

"What do you—I'm not drunk!" He actually looked offended at the accusation. "It's the middle of the day! Do I really seem like the sort of person who'd be drunk at noon?"

She tilted her head, then leaned forward to peer at him.

"I'm notthe sort of person who'd be drunk at noon!"

"I wouldn't know, I have no idea what sort of person that is."

"Then why did you look at me like that?"

"As I said, I have no idea what sort of person that is, so I was making observations to learn."

Rian sighed. "Of course you were. Well, I'm not someone like that, so consider all those observations useless."

"No. You were sighing and complaining about how frustrating those malcontents were before you left. What happened that you—?" Lori paused. She shifted her gaze and eyed the three.

"Not that!" Rian said, but he was blushed as he said it. "And I wasn't drunk, I just realized that being angry with them accomplished nothing and would actually encourage them to continue to acting like the way they have been. Since that's not working, we need to change what we're doing."

"And you think that... what, welcoming them and integrating them would be more effective?"

Rian shrugged. "What are the alternatives that you're willing to do to them andtheir children?" He smiled. It was surprisingly toothy. "Besides, this way we don't lose people who can work. Given we can't exactly spare anyone here to move to River's Fork, and there aren't many who'd be willing to at the moment, since they probably feel safer here in the event of a dragon. That's my considered advice on this 'dealing with people' matter."

Lori gave him a long, flat look. "I'll leave that to you, then. Deal with it."

Rian shrugged. "So what else is new?"

"Shanalorre wants to take some of the children who live with her to see their parent's in River's Fork."

"Oh, that's a great idea! It would help with some people who are griping and moaning about us taking their children hostage, and I'm sure their parents would be happy to see them."

Lori raised an eyebrow. "Binder Shanalorre's uncle?"

A sigh and a nod. "Binder Shanalorre's uncle."

From the table behind Lori, there was a tired, embarrassed sigh. "Uncle…"

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Speaking of Tax Evasion

Over lunch, Lori and Rian discussed matters. River's Fork was progressing and remaining relatively stable, and people were all regularly eating in the dining hall now, even if they did so far earlier because of the lack of resources for lights. As she had ordered, he brought back a large amount of the fruit. Fresh pink ladies and hairy blueballs, and some of the older micans and golden buds they had in storage.

"Excellent," Lori said. "Put half of that in with the general food supply for distribution and set the rest aside for me."

Rian raised an eyebrow. "We filled all the cargo containers in the ship with them."

"I know what I said."

"Ah. I should have realized that it was all too good to be true. You're planning to keep all the good fruits for yourself so that you can have sweet snacks any time you want, aren't you? Figures…"

Lori blinked. Then her head slowly began to tilt sideways.

"Oh. Uh, I might have just made a horrible mistake…"

"Yes, you did," Riz sighed.

Eventually, Lori shook her head. "Regardless. There's something I need the fruits for. You may distribute the rest with the current meals."

Rian sighed. "Yes, your Bindership."

"That being said, I'm not to be disturbed for the rest of the day."

Her lord blinked, surprise. "That's… rare. What about emergencies?"

"Define 'emergency'?"

"Uh… sudden arrival of new people, significant infrastructure damage, dragons, fires, floods, and any of the children getting injured…"

Lori considered that. "Fine, you may disturb me for any of those emergencies."

"All right, then. You know, in stories you'd say some sort of hyperbole you're not to be disturbed for, and then that thing would happen and we wouldn't disturb you about it."

"Well, I expect you to be smarter than those kinds of badly written comedy characters."

"They're usually written for dramatic irony and to mock the shortsightedness of the arrogant. Does that mean I can interrupt you even for an emergency that's not on the list?"

"… all right, fine. But don't interrupt me for anything else! I have things to do."

Rian glanced down at her shirt. "Laundry day?"

"I have things to do."

"Of course. Please wash your socks before you ask me to sew them."

"What sort of person do you think I am?"

"Not the sort of person to get drunk before noon?"

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After lunch, Lori locked herself in her room and did something she'd been putting off.

She did her laundry.

Loin cloths, chest wraps, shirts—she liked the fit better than blouses—trousers, and most importantly her socks, they all had to be washed. Unlike Rian, it wasn't like some woman was going to conveniently volunteer to do it for her, so she had to do it herself. At least she had enough soap for it.

Doing the laundry wasn't exactly an unpleasant chore. Over the months of doing it, she'd built her infrastructure. A little stone stool for her to sit on so she didn't have to squat, a flat washing surface covered with the ridged pattern of a washboard, flowing water… mostly it was all time-consuming. First she inspected all of her clothes for holes and worn seams, which were fortunately not that common, all the while once more chiding herself for not having done this beforeshe'd worn the clothes and given them some ripeness. The socks she would sort later after washing, so she could give Rian the ones that needed to be darned.

Once all the repairs had been made, she set about washing them. She anchored lightwisps on the ceiling above her and made them shine brightly with a cool white light so she could see her clothes clearly. Her chest wraps, loin cloths and socks first, because they were smallest and easiest to wash. Shirts next, because they were soft and white. Then her trousers for last, since the heavy cloudbloom weave needed a bit of effort to clean. Also, she used the trousers she wasn’t washing yet to cushion the stool she was sitting on, so that the cold hard stone wouldn't make her bare posterior go numb.

When all her clothes had been washed and wrung of as much water as she could squeeze out with her hands, she careful dried them the rest of the way by binding the waterwisps still in the clothes. She took care not to remove all of the water—that would damage the threads—leaving her clothes just dry enough.

For a moment, she considered washing her bedroll and blanket as well, but… well, it was a bit too late for that. She'd need to sleep soon, after all, and washing those two was very time consuming.

When all the clothes had been sufficiently dried and removed from her bath room, the last thing she washed was herself. Splash, soap, scrub, and she was able to refresh herself. Even if she couldn't get hot or cold, washing so many clothes was always sweaty work, which was why she'd long since taken to washing her clothes naked. It was more comfortable and practical that way.

Wearing her last set of clothes, Lori headed downstairs to get some stone from the stockpile near her dungeon's entrance. There had been… two on the first prototype, and… two more on the second?

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"No socks?" Rian said as Lori sat down on her bench, wearing her last fresh set of clothes. Already sitting on the bench, Shanalorre gave Lori a nod that was returned, while the other Dungeon Binder's cousin played with what looked like a beast and a sweetbug that had both been carved from wood. Who had made that?

"They're still drying," Lori said, looking away from the two toys. "Rian, do we have any of the large containers we used to store vigas that are empty?"

"Uh, you're not planning to alter it or anything are you? Those big jars take a long time to make."

"No, I'm not planning to alter it, I just need one. An empty one that's clean and dry inside."

"How clean? Is a little dusty on the inside fine?"

Lori titled her head. "That should work."

"I'll get one cleaned up for you tomorrow, then."

"Good. Have you and Shanalorre discussed the logistics of her suggestion?"

"Does that mean you're allowing it, Great Binder?"

She waved a hand dismissively. "I leave the logistics to the two of you. How long will this visit last?"

"At least two days," Shanalorre said. "The children will stay overnight."

"That's just long enough for them all to appreciate getting to see each other," Rian said. "And we don't need to bring any additional food for the children. Though we should anyway, give the demesne more of a buffer."

Lori grunted. "How is our food holding out?"

"Hunting's still going well. The problem is still being able to recover enough meat during a hunt before other beasts smell the blood and come to eat their fill, but they've started getting wary of us, and the hunters have been getting better at luring the beasts near the demesne before putting them down, so we've been able to bring more and more of the beasts home." Rian shrugged. "We still have to be careful though. The beasts are wary, but they still consider us more food than threat."

"What about seels?"

"The children are in charge of that, but they're still regularly bringing in a good catch. The children left in River's Fork are doing the same, though of course it's far less." Rian looked over Lori's shoulder with a smile. "Karina actually manages to catch a significant portion of the seels each day when she's there. I mean, she's not feeding the demesne by herself, but the food stores would certainly feel it when she's not around."

Lori nodded. Yes, the brat very clearly needed to be compensated. She added them to the list.

"Uh, on a slightly related note… when are you going to do more work on their dragon shelter?"

She hummed thoughtfully. "When I feel like it."

Shanalorre turned to stare at her.

"And when will that be, your Bindership?"

"When I can stand to leave here to work there again. I have research in progress here that I have been delaying. Once that research is finished, I'll have time to get around to it."

"And if a dragon arrives before then?" Shanalorre said quietly.

"Didn't you manage to survive a dragon by sheltering in the mine?"

Shanalorre's voice was completely flat. "We were lucky. It is ill-advised to rely on that luck repeating."

"Well, what do you expect me to do?" Lori said, matching her tone as she turned to meet the other Dungeon Binder's gaze. "I can hardly protect them by raising darkwisps around the mine. I have no connection to the demesne's core. I cannot give the dragon shelter the same sort of protection as I can this place, and those protections that I can, I am in the midst of developing. Development takes time. I've done what I can."

The two of them stared at each other.

Rian coughed. "Uh, we could… add thick doors to the entrance? You know, something that can keep out dragonborn abominations? Since, uh, the mines don't have those yet. Sort of a glaring oversight on everyone’s parts, when you think about it…"

Lori frowned. "Doesn't the mine already have doors? I remember mounting doors in the mine."

"No, those doors were to keep thieves out of the food stores."

Huh. "Well, do it then. Make three layers of doors, just to be sure they can keep things out." Redundancy was never unnecessary when it came to dragons.

"Before or after they finish with your tray?"

Lori turned away from Shanalorre to turn her flat look at him.

"Right, right, afterwards. We'll need you to mount the doors into the stone, though. "

She waved a hand dismissively. "Yes, yes." She turned her look back on Shanalorre. "There, the dragon shelter will have permanent doors. Happy now?"

Shanalorre nodded. "Yes, Great Binder."

“Good. Rian, see to it.”

“I’ll add it to the list of things we need built,” Rian said. “And speaking of which… don’t you already have a stool? Why do you need a new one for your shed?”

“I’m not going to be working while squatting on the ground, so I need a higher seat.”

“All right, fine, but why have the carpenters do it? Can’t you just put together one from bone? Probably not the table, that’s too big, but a chair-like thing is in your skill range, right?”

…

“Fine, tell them to stop making the chair. And the table can be replaced with removable, mobile supports for the tray.”

“I’ll tell them. I think they were planning to do something like that anyway. I’ve spoken with the coppersmiths, by the way. They say they can help do the experiment tomorrow. And they recommend you provide the heat so that we don’t have to spend all day trying to melt the copper.”

Lori nodded. “Do they have a mold for the metal?”

“They had Gunvi—er, the potter—make them one a while back, but it hasn’t been used yet. Should I tell them it won’t be needed?“

“No… best we not use any more bindings than needed. Having a crucible or mold made of bound ice might cause a reaction.”

“You could test it? Make a container from bound ice and see what happens?”

“Perhaps later. Right now, it would be best to simply remove as many variables as possible.”

“Ah. Good idea. Maybe—” Rian cut off as Mikon, Riz and Umu put seven bowls of soup, a plate of as many round disks of bread, cups, a pitcher of water, and several fruits on the table. He turned towards the three, a vaguely betrayed expression on his face. “Hey, it was my turn to go get the food!”

“You were busy speaking to her Bindership,” Mikon said a cheerful smile as Lori took a bowl, one of the bread, counted up the various fruits, and took a pink lady and a golden bud for herself. “We didn’t want to interrupt you.”

“I’m sure you can find some way to make it up to them later, Rian,” Lori said as Yoshka cheerfully pointed at the fruits, and Shanalorre grabbed a mican and a pink lady for the little girl.

“Your Bindership, with all due respect, please don’t help.”

“Now Rian, her Bindership gives wonderful advice that’s worth heeding,” Mikon said.

“She does?-!”

She did? “Of course, I do,” Lori said. “Why do you sound so surprised?”

“I’m trying to imagine Mikon of all people actually coming to you for advice and you actually giving anything useful, and failing utterly.”

Mikon pouted at him in a way Lori knew was flirtatious. “What do you mean, ‘me of all people’?”

“I can’t imagine any subject you’d actually need her Bindership’s advice, except perhaps accounting or tax evasion.”

Lori snorted. “Rian, don’t be silly. As if I’d give anyone advice on tax evasion when I’ll be the one taxing them.”

“You’re not actually denying having tax evasion advice.”

Lori shrugged.

“Your Bindership… did you leave the old continent to escape criminal charges for tax evasion?”

She pointed with her spoon. “Eat your food, Rian.”

He rolled his eyes but bent down and started eating. Yoshka, to no one’s surprise, had eaten the fruits first, so Shalanorre was now using a piece of bread to wipe fruit juice from the girl’s face.

There was a brief silence filled with only the sounds of the dining hall around them and Shanalorre gently scolding her cousin to be neater when eating as everyone just ate.

“So… what did you ask her Bindership for advice on?” Rian finally asked.

“Marriage laws,” Mikon said brightly.

Umu and Riz turned to stare at her as Rian started to redden. “You, uh, could have asked me?”

“Perhaps later. When we’re ready.” She winked at him. Rian couldn’t redden further, so he hastily turned to focus on his food as Riz reddened beside him.

“Please stop flirting,” Shanalorre said, “the Great Binder is starting to look nauseous.”

Lori reached across the table, took one of the fruits that Mikon had picked for herself, and gave it to Shanalorre.

Shanalorre nodded, but reached back across the table and put it back close to Mikon, since her arms couldn’t reach that far. Lori shrugged. Well, it had been Shanalorre’s fruit, so she could do whatever she wanted…

“Oh no…” Rian muttered. “We’re going to have a fruit-based economy, aren’t we?”

Lori rolled her eyes. “Of course not, Rian. That would be very silly.”