Weekly Digest 106 - (#335 - #337) (Patreon)

Further Testing for the Trap

Lori had to change the binding of lightningwisps so that all the imbuement wasn’t consumed almost instantly. Hindsight, she should have realized putting that element directly from the offensive lightning binding would have resulted in something like that. Usually, the imbuement was consumed in getting the lightning to traverse the air between herself and the target she was aiming at, but since the binding she had made would have the lightning travelling along the lines of anchored lightningwisps instead of through the air between loose lightningwisps…

Well, if nothing else, she knew about this binding now, so if she even needed a sudden violent explosion and she had no water nearby to turn into steam, she’d know what to do.

As the blackened, still smoking corpse of the first choker was removed by…. someone… Lori began rebuilding her binding with the lightning she claimed in the air after the explosion. She started with the binding for killing dragonborn abominations, calibrating the lightningwisps to produce lightning of the intensity that according to the flow diagram for the bug repellant binding was the minimum for being instantly legal to most bugs, then increased it even further to that she remembered reading in a novel was lethal to people… and doubled thatjust to be sure so that it would be lethal to beasts. She then limited the output of the binding so that the lightning produced wouldn’t exceed this intensity.

To try to be more efficient, Lori began going over the reworked binding, designating along which flows of lightningwisps lightning would manifest along as she imbued the binding. There was no need for the lightning to actually touch the ground and then sharply arc, for example. That, however, lead to making more flows of lightningwisps for the lightning to follow, which took some more time.

When she tested the binding, there was a crackling sound in the air, and brilliant white arcs of lightning appeared, producing lightwisps, firewisps and morelightningwisps as they formed glowing lines on the ground between the points were she had anchored the binding. Lori flinched, looking away so she wasn’t looking directly at the lightning, which was quite bright. Already, it’s distinctive smell was rising in the air. Keeping the binding imbued, she moved the anchor point in the middle of the binding and moved it upwards. The binding changed from a brightly flickering into a cone as one point began to rise up out of the ground

Satisfied, Lori anchored the point back on the ground and claimed the earthwisps in the middle of the binding to soften the dirt. “All right,” she ordered, “stick the chokers branch into the ground like the other one.” Lori looked around, but the stone ring on the first branch seemed to have gone flying. She sighed. “Erzebed, find me another rock!”

The men carrying the branch that the second choker was secured to between them didn’t comply right away. Instead, both were looking at Riz, making strange wide-eyed faces that she didn’t know how to interpret. Riz also hadn’t immediately gone to the river to get her a new rock.

“Uh, Great Binder, is this really necessary?” Riz said, sounding strangely reluctant to speak.

“Yes Erzebed, I need the rock to properly anchor the binding,” Lori said. “Get me one.”

“I meant doing… whatever it was you did to that choker,” Riz said. “It just…” Riz’s hands made expanding movements in lieu of actually speaking.

“‘Exploded’, Erzebed, the word you’re looking for is ‘exploded’,” Lori informed her. “No, that wasn’t ideal. I was trying to kill it, not explode it. Even if it still died anyway, that wasn’t how I wanted it to die.”

“It… wasn’t?”

“No. I was trying to kill it while leaving its body intact. I’m not sure how much of was left could be recovered for meat. Hopefully, the next one would be recoverable, once I have a rock,” Lori said pointedly.

That finally motivated Riz to move. She shrugged a the two men and headed for the river to get another rock.

Lori directed her gaze at the two in question, who still hadn’t moved. “Stick the branch into the ground,” she said, pointing at the spot she’d softened. “I don’t have all day. I want to get this done before dinner. Come on, stop delaying, move!”

The two men moved reluctantly, which was partly understandable because the choker on the branch between them grew agitated as it was carried closer to where the previous choker had been unfortunately exploded. Nearby, the charred stump of the previous bench was still sticking out of the ground, blackened but no longer smoking. She’d have to remove that later, but right now conducting this experiment was more important.

Experiment… colors, she hadn’t been taking notes, had she? Ugh… well, too late now. If she slowed down to get a tablet and start on the documentation… no, dinner was more important.

Kolinh and the men who’d been with him came up from the dock, and from the sounds they’d managed to secure the choker to the post as she’d asked. Some of the men had bleeding injuries on their arms, including Kolinh.

“The choker has been secured, Great Binder,” Kolinh reported, glancing at the two men sinking one end of the branch into the softened ground. “With your permission, I’ll lead the injured to the Lady Binder to get healed. Beast wounds get infected very easily.”

Lori nodded. “Go, deal with it. We can’t afford for anyone to get sick. You two, sink that deeper. You’ll feel it when it hits the—there, good, you’ve reached it. Now hold the branch stead so I can secure it in place!”

She hardened the earthwisps to hold the branch in place and upright as Riz finally returned with another rock. The two men stepped back hastily as Lori took the rock, claiming and softening the earthwisps on it so she could make another ring of stone on the upper end of the branch, the anchored flows of lightningwisps to it from the binding she had laid down previously. As she worked, people began to move away from the beast, probably worried about another explosion. There shouldn’t be this time, however. The previous explosion had been from the intense heat created by the lightningwisps inside the beast, turning the water in its body into steam, and possibly igniting the very air. She wasn’t sure about that last, it had happened to fast for her to perceive.

Once she was satisfied at how the flows the lightningwisps defined, Lori turned and headed back to the stone wall. Other people were standing well back. While she didn’t expect it to explode again, she didn’t want to deal with the light burning her eyes.

Keeping the binding imbued, she activated it.

The lack of an immediate explosion was a promising sigh. Instead, there was a bright light coming from around the around the stone wall. Lori tentatively looked around her obstruction with narrowed eyes, wishing she had some to to—

Oh.

Claiming some of the lightwisps in the air, Lori created a binding to lower the intensity of the light passing through it, anchoring the binding to her eyes. She leaned back around the pillar, then calibrated the binding again until she could see the lines of lighting arching up from the ground to the ring of stone and back down again, passing through the beast in between. The beast was thrashing in its bonds, and there was the smell of burning feathers as some of its plumage started to char, but there were no open flames yet.

Jessica observed the beast’s darkened outline through the binding, but it didn’t seem to be dying yet. That wouldn’t do.

She incrementally increased the intensity of the lightning by half.

The beast began to thrash more violently, but thankfully the cords holding it in place remained strong… although the rather distressing smell of burning reed told her that the cords were getting da—

And then she became aware of the wisps inside the beast. The firewisps in its muscles, the waterwisps in its blood, the earthwisps in its bones, teeth and claws, the darkwisps in its internal spaces. Lori deactivated the binding of lightningwisps, as well as the binding of lightwisps over her eyes as she carefully stepped closer to the now-dead beast. It was still twitching slightly, but Lori could see that was just random lightingwisps. Despite the smell, relatively few of its feathers had actually been burned, although most seemed to be smoking at the edges.

As Lori got closer however, another smell hit her, and she nearly gagged. It seemed that the beast had lost control of it’s sphincter, and now waste was dribbling from its cloaca, and she hated the fact she managed to remember what that part was called. They could still recover its meat, right? The waste was outside, after all, and they were going to wash off that part anyway.

“Erzebed, can the beast meat still be recovered?” Lori asked.

There was no immediate reply. She blinked, looked around for her temporary Rian, who was staring at the dead beast. “Erzebed? Are you listening?”

Riz gave a start, turning towards her. “S-sorry, Great Binder! What did you say?”

Lori held back a sigh. “I asked if the meat from that is recoverable,” she said, gesturing at the second dead choker.

Her temporary-Rian’s gaze followed the gesture, and she shuddered slightly. “I… think it’s still edible? But we’d need to cook it right away, and a choker isn’t much meat…”

“Have them cook it separately from the stew and give it to Binder Shanalorre for her table, then,” Lori said. The children would appreciate a little extra meat.  “If you get it to them now, it should be ready with the rest of dinner.” Hopefully.

Riz nodded weakly. “Uh… Onda, Enso, could the two of you take care of… that?” she said, waving at the choker still mostly secured to the branch. Parts of the branch had been blackened and charred, and a few spots were glowing like embers and smoking, but the branch hadn’t actually caught fire.

The two men who’d been carrying the choker approached it warily, making faces at the smell.

“Grasp the branch securely, and I’ll soften the rock so you can put it out,” Lori said. “Move quickly, I have one more experiment to do.”

Unfortunately, the choker that had been tied at the dock didn’t start making its distinctive choking sounds that had garnered its kind their particular name, but Riz and the two looked in its direction anyway. All three shuddered for some reason.

The two quickly grasped the branch, and Lori softened the stone beneath it, allowing them to pull up the length of wood to carry the choker on. The tall flopped loose, dragging along the ground since the cord securing it seemed to have burned off, but as the choker was dead that was no great problem.

"Come back for the other choker, I should be done with it soon," Lori said.

The three looked in the direction of the docks. While the wall was blocking their view, they could hear the agitated choking sounds the small beast was making.

As the two men carried the dead choker off, Lori headed towards the dock, collecting the binding of lightningwisps from where she'd anchored it. The calibration seemed workable, but death still hadn't been instantaneous. She should double it and see if the choker died faster. The typhon beast was far, far larger than the choker, but hopefully this much lightning would at least neutralize it's limbs so that it would stay still to be struck by more lightning. It was a factor that wasn't obvious with the two bound chokers, which was why she'd had one unbound and simply tied to the post on the dock.

Taking the binding of lightningwisps, she climbed the stairs over the floodwall—careful to step around the malodorous area where the second beast had voided itself—until she could see the other choker. It was tied to the end of the dock as she'd instructed, a cord stretching from the post to a sort of harness that had been tied under its arms and around its chest. Its jaws were muzzled with more cord, as were its forelimbs. Despite this, it seemed to be trying to twist itself to reach towards the harness securing it in place, contorting its body to try to reach the cords with its forelimbs and jaws, despite the latter being muzzled.

Lori began anchoring the lightningwisps on the stone dock, covering the extent of the area the choker seemed able to reach from the end of its cord leash, and then a little more just to be safe. There was no raised point she could anchor the lightningwisps to, so she had to maintain the highest point herself. It was an added effort, but since she would be continuing to imbue the binding as well as making adjustments if necessary. She made sure to have the flows of lightningwisps avoid the wooden post they used to secure their boats. It wouldn't do to have it damaged.

Once the binding was in place and imbued, Lori activate the binding of lightwisps still anchored to her eyes, darkening her vision.

Then she activate the binding of lightningwisps.

The last choker died much faster than the second.

It still happened a bit too slowly though. She'd have to increase the intensity even more when she finally used this trap on the typhon beast.

Well, at least it was done now. Lori turned to head to the dining hall for dinner, leaving the smoking choker corpse behind on the dock.

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Studying The Problem Is Not Procrastinating

Lori held the almanac in her hands as she held it open for the hunter that she'd had Riz bring to the discussion after dinner. A new binding of lightwisps directly over the table shone down on the pages, since the man had said it was hard to see from where he was leaning over Shanalorre.

"That looks like the beast I saw, your Bindership," he said after studying the illustration. "I wondered what the things on its back were, but they might have been spines."

Colors and rainbows. "I see…" Lori said, having to restrain what she had initially wanted to say. "Spread the description among the others who will start looking for it tomorrow, and find me a place where I can trap it. The sooner we deal with this thing, the sooner things can go back to normal."

"I'll tell them, your Bindership," the hunter said.

"Great Binder…" what was his name—Lori checked her rock—Kolinh said hesitantly, "does the almanac have anything else to say about the beast?"

"The typhon beast," Lori corrected. "That's apparently what people have decided to call it. As to what it says…"

She outlined every terrifying detail about that had stuck with her. The knife-size teeth, the way it was four times heavier than a koncallos, how it apparently attacked primarily with its jaws, how other beasts avoided it, how they needed several wizards at a time to take one down…

"We'll have to forget any plans to deal with this using the militia," Lori said. "The information has forced me to conclude it wouldn't be viable."

"I concur, Great Binder," Kolinh said, while Riz nodded emphatically. "In fact, I would humbly request that you reconsider the plan to try and trap this beast—"

"Typhon beast," Lori corrected.

Kolinh paused for a moment, confused, before realizing what she as talking about. For a brief moment, she missed Rian so, so much. She hadn't realized just how quickly he managed to recover from her corrections. "Er, yes. I request you reconsider the plan to trap this typhon beast, Great Binder. While the lack of local hunting near River's Fork will make resupplying their stores difficult, we can adapt."

Shanalorre nodded as well. "According to our recorded food consumption rates that Lord Rian was tracking, the total of edible meat harvested from the seels you caught today should last for 88 days at our current rate of consumption, even if we are directly supporting River's Fork. We can comfortably take our time with the situation and wait for Lord Rian to return with other wizards."

Lori blinked. 88 days…? "Can you please explain the disparity between my efforts and our hunters?"

"Of course, Great Binder," Shanalorre said. "The demesne's hunting parties do normally not have the time or resources to harvest all the edible meat on the flesh of the beasts that they hunt because of the beasts' size and how the scent of their blood tends to draw other predatory beasts. The only times they have been able to do so is when the beasts in question are near enough to the borders of the demesne that they can be moved within its borders before cleaning the carcass commences."

"Additionally, while every part of a seel can butchered and harvested, it is not often that the seels caught are the size of the ones you seeled out of the river today. According to records and interviews I conducted today, even when the children were displaced from being the ones who did the seeling in the weeks before winter set in, they were not able to land seels of those sizes. The only other times the demesne has caught seels that big where when you yourself caught the seels."

…

Huh. She supposed she might have gotten a little overenthusiastic when seeling earlier.

Lori shook her head reform her thoughts. Cancelling the attempt to trap and kill the typhon beast was an extremely tempting suggestion. She wouldn't have to put herself in danger, she wouldn't have to go outside of her demesne and work in the hot sun, she wouldn't have to run around trying to set up a binding near where an extremely large and dangerous beast roamed…

And the reason they needed to kill it was because it interfered with the hunting, right? If hunting wasn't a factor…

Lori frowned, and turned towards the hunter, who hadn't left yet. "Is a beast that has relocated the way this typhon beast has likely to settle down or relocate again?"

"I'm not familiar with this beast's specific habits, your Bindership," the hunter said, "but if other beasts avoid it as you say, then either it is not the sort to settle at a particular range for long, or it claims a territory and simply ranges far beyond it. It's the only way it would be able to feed itself. I don't know enough to say for sure, unless your book has it written down somewhere?"

Lori shook her head. That information hadn't been included in her almanac, at least in this edition. Either the research was still being compiled, it was research considered too dangerous to do at the moment, or the research had been eaten and their notes hadn't been recovered. All seemed very likely outcomes. "It doesn't say. However, from you're saying, it's either a permanent problem, or a problem that will last several weeks, perhaps months, and will repeat unexpectedly as different typhon beasts include either of my demesne near their ranges."

The hunter grimaced, but nodded.

"Either is unacceptable. Such unexpected disruptions to our hunting will make properly supplying my demesnes difficult." While procrastinating was tempting, and an option in this instance, waiting wouldn't actually solve the problem. "Even if we could continue to survive if I did all the seeling, I have other things to do." Granted, she didn't really have anything at the moment, but once Rian returned with new people who would case new problems…

Surprisingly, the four opposite her all nodded with some degree of agreement.

"However, my little seeling detour has given us some margin for error, if I understand it correctly. So while we will be continuing to trap and kill the typhon beast, unless circumstances change it need not be done immediately. I want the hunters to scout for the typhon beast's likely range as planned, but this time over the long term. Learn its habits, its behaviors, study it as safely as you can. Find out what you'd need to hunt if as if it were a smaller beast. Then you will report to myself and Rian, and we will find a way to deal with it and any other typhon beasts we might encounter in the future. We might not be killing it this week, but I certainly intend to kill it within the month."

The hunter frowned, looking thoughtful. "One of us would have to devote all our time to tracking it, your Bindership. No interruptions to hunt elsewhere, since that would cause us to lose sight of it."

"You can sort it out amongst yourselves," Lori said. "This is your area of expertise. Just tell Erzebed if it can be done or not, and what you need to do it properly, and she'll pass it on to me."

"But only until Rian gets back," Riz said.

Lori nodded. "But only until Rian returns."

The hunter gave a small smile. "Understood, your Bindership."

She waved a hand dismissively. "You are dismissed. Discuss this with your fellows and report to Kolinh as to the arrangements. Kolinh, deal with this until Rian gets back."

"Of course, Great Binder," he said.

Lori nodded. "Good. While we be sending some of our older cold food to River's Fork, we will continue with the efforts to sustain the demesne with local resources. As such, seeling operations will continue as planned."

Kolinh and Shanalorre nodded, while Riz merely waited for more orders.

"If I may, Great Binder?" Kolinh began, and continued at Lori's nod, "with your permission, I will release some of our smoke and cured meat to the hunters. It will allow whoever will be tracking the b—" He hesitated. "—the typhon beast to carry the least weight while still having provisions."

Lori considered that, but had to admit she didn't really know much about such provisions. "If you think it best, then do so. We should have time before we need to provision the Coldhold again, in any case."

Kolinh nodded. "Beyond that, the meat we will be delivering tomorrow has been prepared, and young Karina's parents have given her leave to accompany us to River's Fork for the foreseeable future…"

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The days passed. Lori made beads to restore their supplies as the hunting in demesne was temporarily put on hold for a few days until the walkways of the cold room were no longer occupied by meat.

One of the hunters—Lori didn't know who—had taken a supply of smoked and cured meat as he began to scout around  beyond the borders of River's Fork. It was three days before Lori received word the hunter was still alive and was cautiously tracking the typhon beast. He reported that while it was hard to see because of the unfamiliar spines and the layer of Iridescence growing on the beast, the beast seemed to be physically irritable, confirming his initial report that the beast had burn injuries.

"He says its seems like the Iridescence is growing into the burns, which are aggravating them and causing the typhon beast pain," Riz reported. The hunter had apparently flagged down the day's boat on its way back to her demesne and has passed what he'd learned to the other hunter who'd been on the boat. "He also has a rough idea of where the beast likes to drink along the riverbank, but he needs a few more days to be sure."

"Is that safe?" Lori asked skeptically.

"No, but he probably knows what he's doing," Riz said. "He's been leaving markers along the river bank to inside the demesne to let us know he's still alive, and they've arranged a signal for them to wait for him if he needs to resupply or to come back home."

"If I may, Great Binder?" Shanalorre said, and Lori turned her attention towards the subordinate Dungeon Binder. "I've been able to partially perceive the hunter in question through my core. At least, I assume it's him. I can only be sure if I concentrate on trying to perceive someone entering my demesne at the correct time of day. He has been sleeping inside the demesne at night, so he should have no worries about being overly exposed to the Iridescence. So far, I have not been able to discern any injuries beyond the minor irritation that daily exposure to the colors would cause."

Lori nodded, accepting the explanation. "Heal them if you think it's needed," she said.

The reports continued, and enough meat had been transferred to River's Fork—or smoked and cured—that it was safe to resume hunting for beast meat. By some unspoken agreement, no one went after the seels near them during that time, perhaps to give the fursh time to relax from the sudden loss of so many adults. A week passed.

Lori had been in the middle of testing the river water—the caustic taste was supposedly done, but she had to be sure before she converted the water hub shed back to normal operation, as well as possibly recover the bound tool components in the distiller in River's Fork—when Riz said, "Uh, Great Binder? The Lady Binder is here. She says she has news."

She looked up from the glass bowl she'd filled with river after from a ladle. The binding to slowly turn the water into vapor was already finished waiting to be activated. Carefully, she picked up the bowl and set it to one side so it couldn't be accidentally kicked or roll into the river, where it would be nearly impossible to get back. "What is the matter?" she said, turning towards the other Dungeon Binder.

"Several people just entered River's Fork from downriver," Shanalorre said.

Lori considered that, and nodded. "Erzebed, get the boat ready," she ordered. "And an escort."

"Yes, Great Binder!"

Lori picked up the bowl and dumped out the water. She could do this later. Right now, she had to see if her lord was back.

But after she properly stored her glassware back in her room.

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Coming To Covehold Demesne

The journey to Covehold was hot, nerve-wracking, and mildly terrifying. Even though we had to sail—drive?—close to shore so that we wouldn't have to face the large ocean waves that could fill the ship with water or possibly even roll us over, having so much water in all directions made everyone a little nervous. The occasional sighting we had of large dillians and other things curiously poking at the ship didn't help.

I did my best to hide my own nervousness and keep a smile on my face, but it wasn't easy. Even though I could swim, there was always something disturbing about water than I couldn't stand in, especially if I couldn't see my feet. Still, I couldn't let the men see that. I had to smile and keep up their morale, and not let them realize how well-founded their unspoken fears were. While the Coldhold was a good river boat, it was only good for calm weather in coastal waters.

No matter what, any Deadspeaker I recruit is going to learn how to help build boats!

But now, we were finally near our destination! The spot of dark color had been growing since yesterday, but today we finally reached it!

In the waters in front of the rising coastal town were dark shapes floating on the waves under the late-morning sunlight. As we had steadily gotten closer, the shapes had resolved themselves into boats. Or at least, peoples’ ideas of boats. It wasn’t that they were bad ideas. It was just they looked like someone had asked a Deadspeaker to make a giant bowl, then stretch out the ends of the bowl so that they were long ovals instead of circles. A few looked distinctly like leaves in profile, which probably wasn’t a bad inspiration for a Deadspeaker. None of the boats were very long—by the scale of the people on them, they were about four paces or so on average—but they were definitely boats, each with one or two outriggers to one side to keep it from tipping over.

I suppose people haven’t gotten the hang of weighing the bottom of the boat yet? It was probably a bit counter-intuitive to make a boat heavier at the bottom to make it float better, when people probably wanted it to sink less, not more. Then again, that’s probably best down with bigger boats, ones that will remain about the tops of the ocean waves, or else it really was just a bowl waiting to be filled with water.

Many of the boats were throwing up tall plumes of vapor and sometimes smoke as the men on the boat scooped seawater up with long ladles and deposited them into the containers letting out the vapor. Only a few of the boats had sails. Most only had what seemed like notches on the side, and I could see the shapes of long oars messily left lying on their decks, which the men on the boats sometimes had to step over. The boats were all very small compared to the Coldhold, which naturally drew attention as my ship plowed through the waves with neither sails nor oars.

“Small things, aren’t they?” Hans commented. The salt barrels were all full from the previous days and as tightly packed as we could get them, so he was helping keep watch from the little cabin's roof, on the lookout for big waves and dillians. Most of the time he and Liggs were the ones kept the evaporator running smoothly, at least when the ship wasn’t on the move. “Probably takes them all day to get anywhere with those little oars.” Yeah… the time we tried to see how fast we could get the Coldhold moving oars alone would have been funny if we hadn’t been the ones trying to do it.

“They probably go out with the tide in the morning to make it easier on themselves,” I said.

Hans blinked. “What’s a tide, Lord Rian?”

Ah, right. Hans came from far inland. Most people in both of Lori’s demesnes did. “It’s when the moons pull the water with them when they move across the sky,” I tried to explain as simply as possible. “You know how when we anchor for the night sometimes the water is lower than when we wake up?” Hans nodded uncertainly. “That’s the tides doing that. Don’t worry, we won’t have to bother with it much. We have Binder Lori’s driver bound tool to push us around. Even with the tide, they probably still have a lot of rowing to do.”

“Huh. Why don’t we have that back home?”

“Oh, we probably do, but since it’s a river the water is moving all the time, so it doesn’t matter,” I said.

Many of the people on the boats stopped and pointed at us as we moved along, either because of the Coldhold’s size—we were by far the biggest vessel in sight by a wide margin, and could probably fit any of their boats on a deck lengthwise—or the fact we were moving through the water so quickly. I made sure to smile widely enough that it was obvious and wave at the other boats in a manner that I hoped came across as friendly and not taunting. It wouldn’t do to seem like I was making fun of how small their boats were, after all.

While the lack of a system of exchange beyond the bartering of favors and goodwill—which were the kinds of debts people were slightly more willing to let pass—had made my ability to consider things in terms of bead value a little rusty, between my experiences with Deadspeakers at the lumberyard I once worked at and the rate Lori worked when she was building something at River’s Fork, each of those boats probably represented a couple of days of more of work on the part of both a carpentry workshop and a Deadspeaker. Given they hadn’t been around when we’d first visited this demesne, and judging by the plumes of vapor and sometimes smoke, our visit had probably inspired imitators. Back then, the salt gatherers had all been on the shoreline.

I looked in that direction, and sure enough they were still there, wooden building in various states of repair and disrepair. Many were unpainted wood or looked to have been Whispered using nearby stone. Some were simply shacks with roofs made from thin canvas or Deadspoken materials, but a few didn’t even have those, looking more like freestanding stones that ranged from simply stone tripods to long troughs. From each arose vapor, or steam and smoke the salt gatherers used either Whispering or just fire to separate the sea water from the salt and whatever else was in the water that people were collecting from the nearby.

I suppose the boats were people who decided not to get involved in whatever territorial pecking order had already been established on the shoreline and were trying their luck in the relatively unclaimed open sea? The area of the demesne extended well out into the water, but all the boats seemed to be staying well inside the demesne’s boundaries.

Ahead of us was our destination, a wide opening that led into the round, sheltered cove that gave the demesne its name. The cove was wide enough that I suspected all of River’s Fork would be able fit in the circular area protected by the curving arms of stone on either side.

Near the tips of each curling arm were tall stone towers, both looking about five paces high at the least. The slightly swirled pattern to the stone they were made from implied it was built from Whispered rock, but the straight and even shapes of the towers meant that either the person who'd built them was as fanatically obsessed with symmetry as Lori, or that the towers had been further worked on by stonemasons and possibly more Whisperers after the fact. At nigh the top of each tower glowed to act as a landmark for any incoming ships, a sight I remembered from our last visit. The little house-like structure built into the bottom of each tower implied that each lighthouse was operated by a Whisperer instead of being imbued by the demesne’s Dungeon Binder directly. It was probably good work if you could get it.

“Any boats in front of us, Liggs?” I called out.

“No boats in front of us, Lord Rian,” was the reply from the lookout. “The way is clear!”

“Clear, got it!” I said as I handled the tiller. “Uh, about that, everyone. Liggs, you stay in front in case someone slow decides to cross in front of us, but can the rest of you get up here for a moment? I need to talk to you all, and I rather not raise my voice.”

To be fair, ‘everyone’ wasn’t all that far away, sitting on the benches in the cabin on the deck of the ship to take advantage of the ocean breeze while staying shaded from the sun. Only Liggs, who was up front with the hat to shade his head, and Cottsy, down below operating the bound tool’s lever, wasn’t there, and the latter quickly made his way up after locking the driver controls in place. Everyone else sighed, but were thankfully willing to stand up and get closer, Cottsy climbing up from the driver room below to better hear what I was going to say.

I looked over the crew of the Coldhold. They’d been on the ship since its first journey to Covehold, and had been the ones taking it downriver and coming back with jars full of salt from the bay that the river—which was yet unnamed, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a certain someone privately referred to it as Lori’s River in their head—drained out to. Despite the ship technically belonging to me, they had more claim to it than I did. They’d spent more hours living in it, sleeping in it, eating in it, and hunting beasts from it than me.

They were all good men, and chosen for the fact they had families back in Lorian whom they loved, with wives and children and even a few siblings and in-laws. That had been to satisfy Lori. But they were also men with generally even tempers, weren’t excitable when surprised, and all got along well. That had been for my benefit, because if we were going to be spending days sleeping in the same room together, I’d rather it be with people who didn’t make problems.

A cough bought me a little time to hide the nervousness I always felt when speaking to a crowd, especially one that I felt should know me enough to be able to tell it was just making things up. “Ahem. So, first thing that I really should have told you all sooner, but while we’re here, don’t call me ‘lord’, all right? I’m just one us while we’re here, so just call my by name. Besides, every time someone found out I was a lord, I got the feeling they added a few beads to their prices.” That actually hadn’t happened, but it got the laugh I’d hoped for from the men.

“Now, just to be clear, we’ll be sleeping aboard the ship again this trip.” There were sighs at my announcement, though they were resigned rather than protesting. “I know, I know, but it’s cheaper than finding a place to sleep and doesn’t risk getting everything stolen. However, it won’t be as simple as last time. People have boats now, so if someone really wanted to, they could get to us in the middle of the night and rob us in our sleep, or worse.” They all looked uneasy at the thought.

“I don’t think it’s likely but you all remember what this place is like,” I continued. “So we’re going to have to sleep in shifts and someone needs to keep a watch while the others rest. I can take the first watch tonight, but someone needs to watch after me until morning. Whoever does gets to sleep until noon once everyone else is awake.“ The already-tired looks on the men changed to those weighing the difficulties against the benefits of sleeping in versus getting to sleep all day. Everyone surreptitiously glanced towards the front.

“Don’t just foist it off on poor Liggs just because he’s not here,” I said sternly, well familiar with the kind of things people got up to. “You can talk it out while I’m ashore.”

That got everyone’s attention again.

“You’re going alone, Lord—I mean, Rian?” Yhorj said, concerned.

“No, of course not. Two of you are coming with me,” I said. “I’m going to be bringing samples, and I’ll need to of you two keep from looking like an easy mark.”

“Is two enough? Maybe all of us should go with you,” Multaw suggested.

I shook my head. “Any more and it’ll be hard to sail the ship.” I frowned. “Drive the ship? We don’t have a sail, we have a driver…” I shook my head again to banish the random tangent. “Drive. Driving the ship. The ship needs at least three people to drive it safely and a fourth to keep an eye out for waves or other boats who might come up to do who knows what. Two people are the most who can come with me without putting those on the ship in danger.”

Everyone glanced over to the other boats on the water. No one had taken out their oars and started rowing toward us, but we were clearly being watched. A few were standing up, trying to get a better look, and were falling over for their efforts. That probably meant there wasn’t an actual level deck on those boats…

“Then I’ll go with you, Rian,” Multaw said, the big man rolling his shoulders like he was loosening them up to start punching. “In case you need anything carried.”

I smiled gratefully and nodded. Multaw was, in fact, my first pick to go with me. Tall, muscular men are the kind trouble takes one look at then turns around to find someone smaller to bother, even if trouble had a friend or two with him. I turned towards the rest. “Cyuw, can you come too? You know the inventory as well as I do and maybe better.” Cyuw, by contrast, wasn’t as big as Multaw, but he had the stocky build of someone who carried heavy things. Well, all of us carried heavy things, but he looked it, and he did have a better memory of what we had than I did.

He nodded agreeably. “Got it, Lord Rian,” he said. “Ah, I mean, Rian.”

This would probably take a while to sink in.

Well, we’d work on it.