Demesne 368 - Annoying Introductions, The First (Patreon)

As soon as they were in the ship, Rian grabbed one of the bound tools—one of those Lori had made—and put a bead in its receptacle. It shined with light, but it also started moving air.

"Here," Rian said, handing the wisplight to Shanalorre, which started blowing her hair back from her face. "Wouldn't want either of you to overheat and get sick."

"Thank you, Lord Rian," Shanalorre said, holding the wisplight air jet with both hands. Lori made sure to add more imbuement to the binding of airwisps she had anchored around her own head keeping her cool.

Rian unfolded one of the beds along the wall to act as a bench. "Why don't the two of you sit down, I need to get the folder…" He opened a pack, digging around inside until he drew out a leather folder that Lori was fairly sure he hadn't had when he left. "Ah, here we are. I'll make this quick, we can talk about issues that need more extensive discussion later. First, the good news I'm sure you'll like: our earnings!"

Lori rolled her eyes. Why was she not surprised Rian focused first on a number that went up? Still, she supposed she could understand the desire to see this particular number go up. Even if she had a new demesne and home now, she had been raised in Taniar Demesne. The profits for the salt and skins were modest but still sizeable because they had sold large amounts of it. The profits for her wispbeads, however…

"Only ten bead-tani each?" she said.

Rian shrugged. "We had to sell the beads at a price that the local workshops could afford to buy as a staple, like glues or resin. I asked around, and the most common type of wisbead available were mid-large tier. Obviously the price of these had to be less than that to be more desirable. Given how many you made that were marked for selling, it's still a pretty good profit. Most of our payment for it was in double-large beads, and it wasn't even the complete payment. They literally didn't have enough beads to pay us with."

Her lord sighed. "Look, this is an issue that will require its own extensive discussion. Can we discuss this later? Otherwise we'll be here all day. And while you two have your own nice little breezes, I don't and I still need to set up our new recruits with where they're going to sleep, and whether both will be living here or if one will be going to Lorian."

Lori waved a hand dismissively. "Very well, carry on."

Another sigh, though this sounded relieved. "All right. With the profits, I was able to buy…"

Rian went down the list in front of him. Lori nodded in satisfaction at things like the bolts of thick cloudbloom fabric for repalcmeent trousers and thick leather for boot soles. She still had the boots Rian had bought her last time waiting to be used, but know they had the materials for repairs and new shoes was its own kind of relief.

"—I also managed to buy those primers on magic you wanted—"

"Where are they?"

"I'm not telling you right now, because if I put a book in your hands, you'll want to read it and you won't get anything done today without great agony in your soul. Oh, don't look at me like that. You know I'm right. Besides, wouldn't you rather have your book time completely uninterrupted?"

"…exactly what books have you managed to acquire?" She hated it when he had a point.

“Rudimentary primers on all four variants of magic,” Rian said, “like you asked for. I figure once you’ve mastered those, we can just get more books later.”

Lori frowned. “Why did you waste beads on getting all four? I don’t need a primer on Whispering.”

“In case any of the children born last winter are wizards,” Rian said. “I doubt you’d want to be their fulltime-master. This way you can delay any sort of contact with them until they at least learn to read, which we really should get started on.”

…

“What else did you buy?”

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Lori climbed up from inside the Coldhold mostly pleased. She was glad of the coils of wire Rian had brought, as well as the chunks of broken glass. Both would assist her in furthering her bound tool development and research. The large and small barrel of booze… well, she wasn't happy about it, but she'd given Rian permission to buy it before he'd left, so she was resigned to it being there. While the amount he'd brought back was bigger than she thought was needed, she was willing to admit that the amount she thought was needed was 'none'.

"The seedlings aren't all ours," Rian said as he showed them the seedlings that had been secured at the cabin of the boat, where the planks had clearly been altered by Deadpseaking to more securely cradle the little pots and troughs that contained them. ugh, that would need to be fixed! "Some are ones that Taeclas and her wife brought with them. They'll probably be willing to give us some, but they'll need to grow them first. Shouldn't be a problem, though. She's a Deadspeaker, after all, and it turns out she's better with meanings connected to living plants than dead ones. Between her and Lidz, we might be able to harvest earlier and get a second harvest in before winter…" Rian sighed for some reason. "And don't worry, Taeclas promised she'd put the planks back the way they were before, so please stop making that face. You said it was my ship, remember?"

"They're the demesne's planks." It was petty, but as a Dungeon Binder, her every petty whim was law!

"Ah, there goes the last lingering feeling like I'm not home yet," Rian said, voice dry. "Well, if it helps, Taeclas and Lidzuga spent the journey helping fuse together planks to help improve the water-proofing of the deck, and they've done their best to do it so we can still remove the planking if necessary. So that's already some profit from their presence." He turned and met her eyes. "And with that segue, are you ready to meet them yet? Remember, you still need to negotiate with Lidzuga how often he can have time off to do his research."

Lori very much wanted to have Rian take charge of dealing with them. After all, this was definitely a 'dealing with people' matter. However… they were wizards, and a possible threat to her. Even if Rian had sought out only wizards who had no intention or desire to establish, he had misjudged people before. At the very least, she needed to meet with them so she could identify them and try to remember what they looked like. Their features would be pointless to remember, but knowing their coloring would be useful in narrowing down who they were. "Fine," she sighed. "but I'll deal with them one at a time."

Rian nodded. "Understood. I'll call Taeclas and her wife first, since she doesn't have any difficult requests like Lidzuga." He hesitated, then continued. "I know you'd rather have both of them far away from you here in River's Fork, but I think it would benefit us greatly if you decided to allow Taeclas to live in Lorian instead of here. From what I've seen, she has a lot of experience with meanings that will help with our farming, so it would be better if we put her and her wife in the demesne with more extensive fields."

"Noted," Lori said as she sat down on the cabin's bench that faced the rear of the boat. "Let's make this quick, then."

"Do you still require my presence, Great Binder?" Shanalorre asked, still holding the wisplight. Outside, the light that it emanated just faded into the hot sunlight, but the breeze from it was as strong as ever.

Lori considered that, then nodded, pointing at a spot on the other end of the bench. "Yes. You need to be able to identify then on sight as well, as they might potentially threaten you for River's Fork's core as well."

Rian, who'd been about to go off and retrieve the Deadspeaker he'd said he would get, immediately turned around and gave her a beseeching look. "Please tell me you at least know better than to say you'll regard them as a potential threat to your life to their faces," he pleaded. "Lie to me if necessary!"

She rolled her eyes at his theatrics. "Of course I know better than to say that to their face. What kind of fool do you take me for?"

Rian looked thoughtful for a moment. "You won't say it to their face because you don't want to warn them that you're ready for them."

Lori nodded. Exactly! "Exactly!" she said.

"Better than nothing, I guess," Rian said, sighing for some reason. "I'll go get them."

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Lori glared at Rian, conveying her displeasure. This was NOT what she'd meant when she'd said she'd deal with them one at a time!

"Taeclas, Rybelle, may I present the esteemed Dungeon Binder Lolilyuri," Rian said cheerfully as he stood between her and the more than one person opposite her. "Your Bindership, may I introduce Deadspeaker Taeclas and her wife Mistress Rybelle."

"Hello!" one of the two women said with a wide smile, waving at Lori like she wasn't standing two paces away. "It's every nice to meet you, Lo… Lol…"

"Call me Lori," she interrupted to avoid her name being further mutilated as she continued glaring at her lord. "Rian, an introduction is more useful when I know who is who."

"Oh, right," Rian said, laughing like some kind of idiot. "Taeclas, could you please step forward?" The woman who'd waved at Lori stepped forward, waving again, her wide smile still in place. "Again your Bindership, this is Taeclas. She's a Deadspeaker, with long brown hair, green eyes and the wide smile on her face."

Lori tried her best to remember the woman in front of her, even as she tried to convey her lack of amusement at Rian's witlessicism. Long hair of a shade of brown that reminded her of stained wood that was neither dark or pale… yes, her eyes were green, but that wasn't a very reliable indicator, you needed to be very close to see those… She wished she had her staff in her hands, just to have some kind of stick to swing… but no, this was a Deadspeaker, the wood and the wire of the staff would be used against her in a confrontation. Best not to have it, lest she be tempted to get too close…

"And by the process of elimination, this is Mistress Rybelle," Rian said, gesturing towards the other woman. Lori glanced at her briefly. Blue hair that came down to her chin, a nervous… was that a smile? Maybe? She made a little bow, which Lori absently acknowledged with a nod.

“Thank you for letting us stay in your demesne, L—er, I mean, your Bindership,” Taeclas—even Lori couldn’t forget someone’s name that quickly!—said, letting out a laugh as she looked embarrassed. “Sorry. I’ve never spoken to a Dungeon Binder before. But Rian told us all about your circumstances, so it feels like I know you already!”

Lori blinked, her gaze turning back to her lord. “My… circumstances? Rian, what exactly did you tell them?”

“He told us about how you’re not only taking care of your own demesne, but you’re also caring for the people in this one because it’s Dungeon Binder went to you and asked for your help,” Taeclas declared. “That’s so admirable. Back in Covehold we heard all sorts of stories about demesnes suffering because Dungeon Binders are so busy trying to take care of their demesne’s needs that they can’t spare anything to help their neighbors, so it was wonderful to learn that our new Dungeon Binder was such a kind person.”

Lori stared at the woman. Then she turned to Rian. “Rian, what sort of nonsense have you been telling this woman? I thought you’d know better than to try and use blatant lies during your recruitment.”

The two woman turned to Lori, staring at Rian as well.

“I didn’t lie about anything,” Rian said, his face set in such a theatrically innocent expression Lori wanted to punch it. “I simply told them about how Binder Shanalorre here approached you for help last winter about keeping the people in her demesne from starving. Really, how else was I supposed to explain why you’re basically running two demesnes?”