Weekly Digest 116 - (#371 - #373) (Patreon)

Disproportionately Hurtful

"That was my fault," Rian said as soon as he'd come back from leading the two siblings away.

"Yes, it was."

"I should have helped him prepare what he was going to say. I knew the time off was going to be a contentious point, so I should have helped him present it in a way that wouldn’t annoy you."

"Yes, you should have."

"Really, I should have made more of a point about how important you considered contributing to the demesne to be, and that he should have waited a few days after he'd shown how skilled and useful he was before asking for time off."

"That would certainly have been a good idea."

"Shana, if this is your way to trying to make me feel better, please stop. If it isn't, I wonder at your newfound vindictive streak."

"I was simply agreeing with all your statements. Why would I be vindictive towards you?"

"Oh. Well, could you please stop agreeing with me? It's making me feel worse."

"No."

There was a pause as Rian turned to stare at Shanalorre.

"Was that you not agreeing with me?"

"No, it wasn't."

That seemed to plunge her lord into deep thought. "Huh. This conversation is starting to get philosophically challenging."

Lori finally found her voice. "Rian…" her teeth gritted together. She was no longer almost violently outraged, but that merely meant she had calmed enough to speak. The outrage was still there. "What were you thinking bringing that idiot here?-!"

"I… admit that the way he introduced himself to you probably gave you good reason to think that, but I assure you that he came highly recommended," Rian said. "Of all our candidates, he'd been the only one with a regular job who wasn't also trying to pay back debts, and I saw some samples of his work. He was capable, and he was vehement about why he didn't want to be a Dungeon Binder, so he'd never be a threat to you by either trying to take your demesne, or an obstruction from him trying to set up his own. With all that, I figured we could have worked around any other issues."

"The Deadspeaker's desire to not work was not just an issue, it was basically him trying to take advantage of us!"

"It… well, it could have been better presented, but that probably wasn’t his intention…" Rian sighed. "But that's not going to change your mind at this point, is it?"

"No."

Rian simply nodded. "Yeah, I'm not surprised. Well, I'm glad you decided to give him a probationary period instead of… well, something vindictive."

"You brought the Deadspeaker here. We might as well make use of him. Besides, it's been proven that idiots can learn with sufficient time in River's Fork."

Rian nodded slowly. "I suppose. And… are you really willing to reconsider the issue of giving him time off?"

"I said it, didn't I?"

"Hmm…" Rian said. "Well… if you're still unhappy with Lidzuga by the time we're ready to go back to Covehold Demesne, or if he's unhappy here and wants to go there, will you let him? That is, will you let him and his sister ride back with us on the ship instead of making him walk?"

"I will consider it."

Rian nodded. "As you do." He sighed. "Sorry for bringing you a headache so soon after arriving."

"As you should be."

There was a moment of silence as Shanalorre angled the bound tool she has folding to cast its breeze towards Rian, whose sigh changed tone as a result.

"All right," he said. "What thing happened while I was gone that I need to help deal with?"

"A typhon beast settled near River's Fork, which is repelling other beasts from the area and making it difficult for the hunters to provide meat for this demesne."

Rian paused. "I don't think I'm familiar with that one. Isn't 'Typhon' a—"

"Yes, the ones naming the new kinds of beasts have been going for fictional references. I'll show you the relevant pages of the almanac."

"Oh, you're finally letting me have reading material? Yay…"

"Great Binder?"

Lori turned towards Shanalorre, who had sat unobtrusively during the interview with the Deadspeaker and his sister. "What is it?"

"May I inquire if all of the new recruits will be residing here in River's Fork, or will one pair reside in Lorian Demesne?" Shanalorre said.

Lori twitched.

"I'm going to have to second the Lady Binder's question," Rian said. "I'd rather avoid the awkwardness and implied insult of asking them to move demesnes at a later time. Are we having them stay here, or do I tell Taeclas and Rybelle that they're coming with us to Lorian?"

She gave her lord a flat look. "Why do you assume I would choose Taeclas to come to Lorian?"

"Well, for one thing, she didn't annoy you so much you were clearly wishing you could sink her into the ground. For another, Taeclas is better with plants than Lidzuga, so it only makes sense that she be the one to take to the demesne with more crops that need to be taken care of and made to mature faster for harvesting."

Lori frowned, skeptical. "How can you be sure she's better with plants?"

"Because on the way here, Taeclas took care of tending to the seedlings, cuttings and plants we brought, and Lidzuga just assisted by helping with imbuing. The fact they showed preferences for such activities is a good indicator of something, and with conversation, I found out Taeclas’ preference was because she was very good at it." Rian shrugged. “Then they talked, and there was a technical discussion I can’t repeat and barely understood, but Lidzuga said that Taeclas was better than he was at meanings for plants.”

“And you’re relying on the Deadspeaker’s opinion?”

“Well, he’d know than better than me about—” Rian stopped what he was saying and turned to stare at her. “Seriously? You’re doing that? Now that’s just petty.”

Lori didn’t reply, simply giving him a flat look.

“Come on, don’t do that. That’s actually disproportionately hurtful.”

Next to Lori, Shanalorre tilted her head curiously, but said nothing, simply listening.

“This is extremely undignified behavior,” Rian continued. “What he did wasn’t that bad! I mean, yes, it’s bad, but not something deserving of this from you.

Lori’s response remained the same.

“Landoor didn’t get this sort of response from you. He still thinks he’s your heir and going to be a wizard and Dungeon Binder after you, and you don't go around pointedly not bothering to refer to him by name. Especially since calling him something like ‘The Biggest Idiot’ is available to you.” Rian paused and turned to Shanalorre. “Please don’t tell Landoor I said that? I don't want to hurt his feelings." Shanalorre nodded solemnly in agreement. "Thank you. Come on, what Lidzuga did can't rank nearly as bad as Landoor. He made an error in judgement out of enthusiasm. Landoor is… Landoor."

… all right, put like that she sounded extremely and unreasonably petty. Still, she was the Dungeon Binder! Twice over, at that, technically. She didn't apologize for her pettiness, not explain her pettiness, nor give excuses for her pettiness!

Though by that same logic, she also didn't have to apologize for, explain or give excuses when she stopped being petty.

"I'll consider it," she said with lofty dignity.

Rian nodded. "Well, with that tangent out of the way… am I telling Taeclas she's coming with us upriver or not?"

…oh yes, they'd been talking about that, hadn't they? "Is it really necessary?" Lori said.

"You were just telling me that there's been difficulties hunting because a new beast with an ominous name has settled nearby. If that's not a good reason to have the Deadspeaker who's better at growing plants in the demesne where we're growing the most crops…"

The feeling of hating that Rian had a point was… well, simultaneously comforting and annoying. Ugh.

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Lori stayed for lunch at River's Fork, because it was noon and she didn't want to delay eating by going back to her demesne, because Rian needed to speak to Yllian, and because Rian had a letter from the rest of the Golden Sweetwood Company and Lori was going to find out what it said. She could respect that the contents of a piece of official correspondence was none of her business. However, once those contents were known to one of her subjects, she was going to have them tell her what those contents were!

"And you're going to be telling our new arrivals that they'll be staying in different demesnes, right?"

"Yes, Rian, I'll tell them that they will be in separate demesnes."

"And you'll refer to Lidzuga by name?"

"And I'll sink you into the ground if you keep annoying me."

"Can you just push me into the water? I don't want to get softened stone on my clothes, I keep getting looks from Mikon and Umu when I end up with stains ground into them."

"No. I know you like being in deep water."

"It's hot, of course I would!"

The two of them reached the outdoor pavilion that acted as River's Fork's dining hall. Thick wooden posts supported a roof of straight branches and straightened sheets of bark, keeping leaves and occasional small branches that fell from the dome above. The interior of the dome was shaded enough to be noticeably cooler than the area around it, but the same dome dulled breezes that might have moved the air.

The four new recruits were sitting at the same table, where Yllian, a vaguely familiar woman who was most likely his wife, and a young man who was… some kind of relation… were also seated. Yllian's probably-wife was talking to the three women, which Taeclas responded to so enthusiastically Lori could practically hear what she was saying. The Deadspeaker's wife was more controlled, but seemed to be as actively involved in the conversation, while whatever-her-name-was sat back and mostly nodded along. Her annoying brother was talking to Yllian, looking frowning slightly, while Yllian seemed to be explaining something at great length. Every so often, the Deadspeaker would look disbelieving, to which Yllian would just shrug and say a short phrase. After a brief pause, during which the Deadspeaker—she hadn’t been told what his name was yet, after all—would look confuse, Yllian would resume talking again.

Presumably Yllian was telling the Deadspeaker about the demesne and all the work that needed to be done and why he could have any free time.

Shanalorre, sitting next to Lori on the bench, had brought the bound tool from the Coldhold and placed it on the table, angling it so that she and Lori were in the path of the air that it moved. Riz, sitting next to Rian, had forgone the usual method of claiming Rian's arm and had just wrapped hers around his torso, taking advantage of the fact neither Mikon or Umu were present on that side. Rian, for his part, kept both of his hands visible on the table, the only sign of him reciprocating the attention was how leaning slightly towards Riz.

Rian let out a long sigh. “Ah… it’s nice to be back home. Well, almost home. I can’t wait to have a bath where I won’t have to worry about something in the water trying to grab my clothes in its mouth…”

“You can do that after you unpack the boat,” Lori said.

There was another sigh… or perhaps it was a moan. “Then can I have a bath?”

“Don’t take long. You need to properly report to me what happened, and you were the one who said we needed to have a long discussion.”

A third sigh. “Yup… I’m definitely home… Well, I suppose home is place where you have to fix the roof if it’s leaking,” Rian mused nonsensically. “I just wish it wasn’t leaking all the time…”

Shanalorre nodded. “Welcome home, Lord Rian.”

At his side, Riz clung tighter. “Welcome home, Rian.”

Lori sighed. Was the food ready yet?

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Isn't That… Dangerous?

They ate lunch—bread, meat stew with tuber chunks, and fruit—with Lori trying to ignore the nonsense happening in front of her. It was difficult. Rian was making a big theater production about how much he was enjoying the food. Not a small production, where the audiences stand, there's only a single person operating between one to three instruments by themselves to provide accompaniment, and costumes are more often than not the thespians' normal clothes with a towel or blanket to give the impression they're wearing something else. This was a big production, with cushioned and slightly reclined seats, a full band with a conductor, elaborate costumes, and a salacious scene involving actual nudity from the waist up and the kinds of sounds that came from her mothers' room the nights before she had to remind them the soundproofing in their apartment was terrible.

She never understood why so many perfectly good plays had those scenes. They added nothing useful to the plot. She usually took the opportunity to step out and buy some more snacks, since she wouldn't miss anything important.

The comparison as mostly from the sounds Rian was making. While they weren't as loud as her mothers, they certainly seemed to has as much emphasis as he ate his bread, holding it folded like a tube filled with stew and slowly eating it from one end.

"…missed this…" she heard him say, sounded almost in tears as he chewed a mouthful of bread, tubers, stew and meat. "Missed it so much…"

"Lord Rian, don't talk with your mouth full," Shanalorre scolded. "Eating and breathing utilize the same tract. If you try to do both at the same time, the food going down your throat could be diverted to your lungs and obstruct your airway." Her words had the rote cadence of something she'd literally repeated word for word many times, and the tone was exasperated.

Thankfully, that convinced Rian to lower his troupe's production budget

After lunch Lori had Rian call the two Deadspeakers to her table so she could speak to them again. This time she made sure to make clear that she only wanted to talk to the Deadspeakersand not the women with them so that Rian wouldn't bring all of them.

Technically he did exactly as she had ordered, but given the two women had followed them anyway…

Lori resolved to simply ignore them.

"Now, as Rian has informed you, I control two demesnes," Lori began.

That made the two blink. "I thought Binder Shanalorre was the Dungeon Binder of River's Fork?" Taeclas said, Rian having reminded her what their names were.

"Presently, yes, but she is also my subordinate as she has surrendered to my authority," Lori elaborated. "As such, River's Fork is one of my demesnes. My primary demesne is further upriver. Taeclas, you and your wife will be coming with us to settle there, so that both demesnes will have a Deadspeaker for assisting with growing crops."

"Don't worry, you'll still have free housing, use of the bath house, and everything else I promised," Rian assured them. "You just won't be here when you have it."

"Why me, though?" Taeclas asked. "Why not Lidzuga?"

"You're better at meanings involving plants and Lorian is where we've planted the bulk of our crops," Rian said.

"Ah…" Taeclas nodded. "That makes sense…"

"Um… your Bindership?" Lidzuga ventured. "What about my… probationary period?" Taeclas turned to him curiously.

"Its condition will be revised appropriately," Lori said. "You will be informed as what standards you will need to meet to qualify for what you are requesting."

"Um… just to be clear, my probationary period technically hasn't started yet?"

"No, it hasn't," Rian interrupted. "But I'm sure any contributions you take up at your own initiative will be counted positively towards you." He glanced pointedly at Lori. She rolled her eyes but waved her hand dismissively. Well, if he was going to work, it was only fair that it was counted in his favor, as long as it didn't result in anything detrimental. "Why don't you ask Lord Yllian if he knows anything you could help with? But only after you've moved into your new house properly and had a chance to enjoy the baths. How did you like the food, by the way?"

"A bit thick, but it was delicious," Lidzuga said enthusiastically.

"It could have used a little ground nigrum," Taeclas commented.

"It was all right, but it could have used more vegetables besides tubers," Taeclas' wife added.

"Could have done with more bread," Lidzuga's sister declared.

"That last is exactly what we are trying to rectify," Lori said blandly.

"Brother, grow more crops so we can have more bread."

Lori approved of those priorities.

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Once four of the lamp-shaped wisplights that Rian had brought back from Covehold had been left with Yllian to use at his own discretion, as well as giving him reminder that Lori would be speaking to him again about the contents of the letter from the Golden Sweetwood Company—which he had been too busy to open yet—Lori made her way back to her demesne on the Coldhold. Unfortunately, her private room was still full of cargo, beads, and bound tools used in woodworking, so she didn't have any privacy, but given what the insides of the boat smelled like… well, it needed airing.

Shanalorre had asked to remain in River's Fork for the afternoon so that she could do maintenance on her residence there, which Lori granted. She would be coming back later in the day aboard Lori's Ice Boat, keeping the brat company, as the brat had gone to River's Fork that morning to catch some of the local seels for the demesne's food.

The wisplight that moved air was currently hanging from a peg next to Lori, it’s lightwisps deactivated and the binding of airwisps angled down slightly, blowing air against the side of Lori’s head. The boat was full, and gave them impression of being slow as they made their way upriver, going against the current. Well, Lori supposed that made sense. Between the cargo, the men operating it, the two newly arrived women, and half of the escort that Riz had arranged—the other half had stayed behind to escort Shanalorre back later—the boat was riding noticeably lower in the water.

“We’re riding noticeably lower in the water,” Lori noted to Rian as he sat down next to her from whatever matter he’d been seeing to.

“Yeah… it’s why Tae and Lidz started fusing planks of the deck together. We needed to minimize the amount of water that reached the hold below decks whenever we had a big wave splash on the side. It’s a good thing we had the evaporator or we’d have filled up. Oh, by the way, all four of them know about the bound tools. You know, in case you wanted to keep it secret from them for some reason… well, it’s too late. The wisplights and the steam jet driver were too obviously bound tools.”

“Your inability to keep the existence of my bound tools secret is noted.”

He nodded. “On that note… would you be willing to talk to Tae about them? She and Lidz were really curious about them, and… well, I think she just wants to talk to you.”

Lori gave her lord a blank look, then tilted her head to look past him. Taeclas was standing next to… whatsisname next to the tiller of the boat, looking at Lori and Rian. When she saw that Lori was looking at her, the Deadspeaker smiled brightly and waved. Lori tilted her head back to look at Rian again. “I don’t want to talk to her.”

“What, you don’t want to brag to someone how amazing you are for rediscovering the secret of making bound tools?”

“I do not need to explain myself. My accomplishments are self-evident.”

"So you're just going to sit here brooding dramatically all the way home?"

She gave him an offended look. Brooding? She hadn't been brooding, her face had been at rest and perfectly relaxed! "I wasn't brooding."

"Then what was that face you were making?"

"My face was at rest and perfectly relaxed!"

"Ah… my apologies, then. Though… as your lord, I think you should talk to her."

"And why would I want to do that?"

"So you can establish a baseline of how she acts, which you can use to identify if that behavior changes and she suddenly now wants to kill you and take your demesne?"

She glared at him. "That's yourjob."

Rian shrugged. "I'm not around all the time. What if I'm on a trip to Covehold? Who do you trust to tell you things like that when I'm not around?"

…

Ugh, she hated it when he had a point. That was twice since he came back!

"Fine," Lori grumbled.

Rian turned and gestured toward Taeclas. The woman didn't quite run from where she'd been standing, but she did move very quickly, actually sliding to a stop in front of Lori before sitting down on the opposite bench, perched on the edge of the seat.

"Tae, don't run like that!" Rian said. "You might slip, fall, and break your neck! We've talked about this!"

"Sorry," Taeclas said as Lori turned warily to regard her. "It's just… well, we had to talk about serious things earlier, and then we had to go because you had to talk to Lidz, and then lunch… "

"Yes, I am aware of what had occurred previously," Lori said as she carefully bound the darkwisps in her right ear canal. They were covered by her hair, so it wasn't noticeable when a line of blackness began to draw itself from her ear and down to her clothes. She claimed the darkwisps there, imbuing them and forming a binding she spread across her body. She kept her hands folded on her lap as she made lines of darkwisps move under her forearm, hidden from Taeclas' view. If she was attacked, it would take Lori a moment to wrap the exposed parts of her skin with darkwisps to prevent the Deadspeaker from claiming her life. She wasn't going to be surprised by a sudden attack!

"Of course, of course… sorry, it's just… I've never actually met a bound tool artisan before," Taeclas said. "I knew a few people in school who wanted to be one, but all the ones I knew who took the course hadn't finished their apprenticeships yet when I’d gotten my certification. I thought it took years to learn to be an artisan. I have so many questions!"

Lori leaned back as the wizard all but left her seat. The woman's eyes were wide, and her… smile?— showed a significant amount of teeth.

"Tae, sit back down, you're being overenthusiastic," Rian said, leaning forward slightly so part of his body was between her and the Deadspeaker. "You're going to fall off the bench if you sit like that. Lean down and your back hit the boards. Calm down. Breathe."

Taeclas took a breath so deep it had to be theatrical—decent theater, padded benches but no back rest, small band of musicians, cheap costumes made of thin cloth and bad dyes—that she released loudly. "Sorry, sorry. It's just… I've never actually met a bound tool artisan before!"

"You've said that already," Lori said. "There is no need to repeat yourself, I didn't forget."

Taeclas nodded. "Right, right… So, I've always wanted to know, why aren't there any bound tools that reproduce Deadspeaking? I've heard of bound tools that reproduce Whispering, bound tools that reproduce Mentalism—everyone's wanted a force blade at one point!—and bound tool that reproduce Horotracting, but the only bound tools that reproduce Deadspeaking are those bead receptacles they put on some kinds of undead, and those still need a Deadspeaker for them to work properly."

"I would not know," Lori said. "I am not actually a bound tool artisan, as we both understand the term. I never went beyond gaining my certification."

Taeclas blinked. "Then where did you learn to build… well, that?" she said, gesturing at the deactivated wisplight moving air into my face.

"I taught myself."

Another blink. "Isn't that… dangerous?"

"Why?"

The other woman's mouth opened… and stayed open as her brows knit thoughtfully.

"Um… I realize you must have said something thought provoking, but as someone who's not a wizard, can you exposit what it is?" Rian said. "The audience wants to know so we can react appropriately."

Lori turned towards him, even as she watched the still open-mouthed Deadspeaker out of the corner of her eye. "At no point during my education was I warned that trying to create or replicate bound tools was dangerous. I was told using my body's internal wisps was dangerous, I was told using lightningwisps, firewisps and lightwisps in certain ways was dangerous, and I was warned that trying to establish a demesne was dangerous—"

"—because it was treason and the demesne you're from will kill you," Rian said, nodding.

"—because it was treason and the demesne I originated from would kill me. However, bound tools carried no such warnings… and knowing what I know now, I understand why."

"They never warned me trying to make bound tools was dangerous!"

Lori turned back to Taeclas, who had finally closed her mouth again. "Yes," she said blandly.

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To Itch

Lori spent the rest of the trip back to her demesne stoically enduring Taeclas’ constant chattering. The woman had apparently been building up a stock of questions during her trip from Covehold Demesne regarding the Coldhold, the wisplights that Lori had made, and the steam jet driver that propelled the boat they were on. On the issue of the Coldhold, Lori had tried to distract her by informing her building the ship the way it was had been Rian’s idea and that the Deadspeaker should consult with him, but it turned out they had already spoken during the trip. The wisplights… well, there were simple enough that Lori had found herself explaining about how she had simply wired a simple binding to a bead receptacle, omitting mentioning the white Iridescence core the wisps were anchored to.

"…multiple bindings, so that the steam jet driver could go faster than the prototype water jet driver and initial steam jet driver," Lori said. "It required that the Coldhold be raised from the river and the ice removed from the hull so that I could rework it properly the tubing properly."

"That's amazing! All of that must have taken so much work!"

"Yes."

Off to the side, Rian coughed.

"Rian, if you're sick, cough far away from me," Lori said.

"Oh, don't worry your Bindership, it was just some spit that went down the wrong way." Rian said cheerfully. "But on a completely unrelated note, we're here."

Lori turned her head towards where he nodded, and saw that they were, in fact, arriving at their destination. Well, she'd already known they were back inside her demesne—she wasn't feeling hot anymore, and the shore she'd been facing had no longer glittered with Iridescence—but she hadn't been able to keep track of their progress because Taeclas had been distracting her. The her dungeon and the environs around it were in sight ahead of them, though they were still too far for her to make out anyone.

"Perhaps you should be the first to step down so that you don't get trapped here by the crowd of people who will be greeting everyone, your Bindership?" Rian suggested, following her gaze. "Remember what always happens?"

Lori blinked at the reminder, but the memories that it brought back made her frown in distaste. "Ah yes. You're right, Rian. Thank you for the reminder." How rare. A time when she didn't hate the fact he had a point.

He turned to the Deadspeaker across from her. "Do you want to go with her Bindership too, Tae? If you don't take this chance to get out while you can, you'll be stuck on the ship while everyone's families welcome them home."

"In that case, I'll stay here to get the pots loosened and start putting the planks back to normal," Taeclas said. "That way we can put your ship back the way we found it."

"Oh! That would be wonderful, thank you."

"It's the least I can do the best, most comfortable ship in the continent." The woman sighed happily. "I didn't think it was possible to be comfortable on a ship before now. No one got sick once!"

"Well, now that you and Lidz are here to help us with the hull, we should be able to make an even better version," Rian said cheerfully.

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The rest of the day wasn't productive.

There was the usual tumult as families greeted the men who had arrived with Rian, abandoning whatever it was they'd been doing. Well, at least the heat meant they hadn't lingered outside for long. Lori saw Umu and Mikon there, discernable only because Rian's hair stood out in the crowd and they were near him.

Once they were all done wasting time, Rian finally set about organizing things so that the ship would be unloaded. Lori found herself with a collection of bound tools and wisplights, which she stored in her room for the moment. She'd examine them later. The other things—the bolts of cloth, the sheets of shoe leather, the paper and all the rest… those were temporarily stored in the treasure room that contained the metal ingots, bar stocks, and the still-untouched dragon scales. They'd need to plan the use of those. Putting paper on all the windows would need to be organized. The same for the cloudbloom fabric, since they'd need to make every square chiyustri of it count…

Well, she'd need to have Rian organize those things later.

Lori also found herself the owner of eight new books. Well, new was a possessive term, as they were hardly fresh from the printing press and bookbinder's. The corners of the books were darkened, and the leather of the cover had creases from being read, but the spine o the books was solid and none of the pages were torn. Four of them were early primers, intended for students just starting to learn. The early primer on Whispering wasn't what she had possessed back when she had begun her education, but a cursory examination of the contents showed it contained the same subjects as her old texts: breathing exercises, how to properly perform cyclical breathing, how to align magic to the correct wisps, how to claim wisps, how to read flow diagrams, how to write flow diagrams…

The late primer contained what she had expected: several simple exercises that familiarized one with directionality, intensity, and the individual properties of the seven kinds of wisps, then steadily more advanced exercises that dealt with the interactions of two different kinds of wisps, and then three different kinds of wisps.

If the other primers were written with any sort of sanity, they should also follow that format, something reinforced by the fact they all seemed to be from the same publisher. Hopefully that meant they were all of the same quality.

Lori itchedto start reading, to finally start properly teaching herself how to do the other three kinds of magic, but she knew if she did she wouldn't stop. There were still things she needed to attend to. Rian had said they needed to have a long discussion about the results of the trading trip, she needed to set objective standards for… whatsisname's probation, she would need to know how Taeclas intended to go about putting meanings on their crops, she'd need to find time to study the bound tools Rian had brought, the research on white Iridescence alloys needed to be continued now that Rian was back to take notes…

And Rian was probably going to ask for a holiday sometime soon. He was about due for that.

So with shaking hands, she placed the eight books carefully on a clean, dry part of her table next to her almanac. First, she'd finish everything that Rian's arrival meant she had to do, and then she'd start reading.

…

Maybe she should just open one of the books and peruse the listing of contents, make sure that the book had been written sanely and contained the proper materials fo—

Lori jerked her hands away from the cover of the books her hands were touching. No, no, she couldn't get distracted, she had things she needed to get done and oversee!

…

She forced herself to step back, reminding herself of all the things she still needed to do. Eventually, Lori managed to tear her gaze away from the books and left her room, sealing the door behind her.

Reading them could wait until she was finished with the work that needed to be done. She kept telling herself that as she climbed down the stairs at the end of the passage to her room. She just needed to finish her work, and then she could stop and read…

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Rian found her as she finished checking on the bindings maintaining the dungeon farm. The lightwisps were producing the correct mix of light, seen and unseen, the humidity was controlled, and the temperature was as it should be despite the heat outside, so all was well. The drainage cistern was more than half-full of water and the smell from it was… well, intense.

"Rian," she said as she temporarily sealed the dungeon farm's water spigot, "we need to schedule the cistern for cleaning. Tell people to use the water from it for irrigation until it's nearly empty, and when it is we will recover what's in it as more fertilizer."

"Yeah… it definitely didn't smell that bad when I'd left," Rian commented, looking down at the murky water. "I'll have to talk to people and make sure no one has been dumping waste from the latrine or fertilizer in there."

Lori made a face at the thought. Yes, that actually would explain the smell, wouldn't it? "Yes, that would actually explain the smell." She sighed. "Is it time for dinner already?"

"Well, it's time for people to start coming in for dinner," he said as they both started climbing the stairs up to the second level. "And on that subject, I wanted to know if you were going to have Taeclas and Rybelle eat with us regularly as a regular fixture at your table, or… well, if you don't. Personally, I feel that given the work you'll be having Taeclas do, it's best if you have her nearby to keep you updated on her activities and so that you don't have to seek her out of have her come to for orders and inquiries."

"That's a reason to have Taeclas there, but why would I want that other person?"

"Well, Taeclas and her wife would probably want to eat together. You know how married people are."

"Yllian doesn't bring his wife when he eats with me," she pointed out.

For some reason, Rian broke out into a smile. However, when he next spoke, he sounded like he was restraining himself. "Well, you don't eat with him regularly, so they probably see it as an irregular circumstance. But anyway, what do I tell them?"

It was a question Lori didn't want to consider. It meant she'd have to deal with more people, and unlike the people already in the demesne, she hasn't taught them to stop bothering her yet, to not speak to her unless directly addressed, to bring matters up with Rian so he can deal with people and all she needs to deal with are problems, which unlike people she could use Whispering on directly. Even worse, the person in question was a wizard, so they were a threat to her… or, well, highly likely to be a threat. Perhaps Rian had managed to find deviants twisted enough to not want to be Dungeon Binders. Even if they didn't want to kill her to claim her core for themselves, there must be something extremely twisted in their thinking. They might be delusional or inclined towards murderous actions. Who knows what was going on in the minds of such strange people?

Unfortunately, that was a compelling reason to have the woman—and her wife, who was her most likely co-conspirator in anything she did—seated at Lori's table, beyond all the ones Rian had said. It put the woman in front of Lori where she could be seen, instead of letting her sit somewhere out of Lori's sight and able to sneak up from behind. Lori would rather not have to divert her attention during her meals to watching her back through her awareness of wisps. Eyes were simpler to use. And what applied to the Deadspeaker applied to her wife as well, for the same reason.

"Fine," Lori agreed. "But this time make sure she knows how she's supposed to act!"

"Of course," Rian said. "I'll go tell them as soon as I'm done talking to you."

She nods irritably, but he doesn't leave. Instead, he continues to walk beside her with a smile on his face. Finally, Lori sighs. "What?"

"Um, can we… put off talking about business until tomorrow? I still need to talk to Riz, Kolinha and Shana—"

"Shanalorre."

"—Shanalorre to find out all that's happened and what I need to know, though I can take care of briefing Taeclas as to the condition of our crops and what we hope she can do. And it will keep her from focusing on you and trying to talk to you."

Another nod, this one less irritable. "All right. By dinner tomorrow I expect you to be caught up with the demesne's affairs. The day after, you will give me the longer explanation about the trading trip that you promised, and after that we will begin planning how to kill the typhon beast."

"Got—wait, what was that last? You said something really ominous just now!"