Demesne 375 - Until Dragons Drop Gold (Patreon)

When Lori woke next, she was hungry, thirsty, her bladder was full, and her inner darkness was demanding to be unleashed. Fortunately, she had slept long enough that she was no longer tired. Sleepy and lethargic, but that was because she'd just woken up, and the forces within her demanding to be released forced her to rouse.

The dining hall of her dungeon was empty and near-silent, so it was probably so late it was early. The only sound came from the the air being moved by the airwisps that provided air circulation and Lori's footsteps. Her bare feet made no sound, even as she wished she'd put on her boots, or even the reed tsinelas that Rian had given her when summer had begun. Briefly, there was also the sounds of her adding her contributions to the demesne's supply of fertilizer.

Once the pressures upon her had abated and she had washed her hands, Lori set off to rectify her thirst and hunger. Finding water to drink was simple enough—that's what the spigots in the kitchen area were for—though she had to look around to find a cup to drink from. after drinking enough to sate her thirst, she went looking for food.

Her first thought was to look for fruits. They were edible, didn't need to be cooked, and they had it in their stores. Well, they should have it in their stores. After some looking, Lori found baskets of food in the small cold pantry, a small room near that kitchen she had needed to excavate. It was where food from the coldrooms were left to warm to a temperature that was easier to handle, and thus was quite chill from the cold those foods brought with them.

She found a pile of wet fruit no doubt intended to accompany the morning's breakfast, as well as several piles covered by cloth that on inspection turned out to be chunks of meat she couldn't identify. Lori helped herself to three of the former. Just enough settle her stomach so she could go back to sleep. The fruits were sweet, tart, and full of juices, so she had to wash her hands again. She didn't know what to do with the peels, so she just threw them into the latrine to go with into the waste pit along with everything else.

Her stomach finally settled, Lori went upstairs to wash her feet and go back to sleep until the part of the morning when the sun was actually up in the sky again.

She awoke again to someone knocking on her door with an enthusiasm she could only call 'obnoxiously cheerful'. If she hadn't been hoping for exactly this, she'd have been very annoyed. As it was, Lori was simply annoyed at having to wake up, but… well, there was work to be done. Grumbling, she got to her feet and padded towards the door. Drawing back the latch, she opened it a crack. "Is it breakfast already?"

"Good morning, your Bindership," Rian greeted her with the obnoxious cheerfulness she'd been expecting. "Yes, it is breakfast already. Did you sleep well?"

"Until I had to wake up."

"Would you rather not wake up at all?"

Well, there was that. "I'll be down momentarily," she said.

"Of course, your Bindership. I should be properly caught up on demesne matters by lunch, so we can talk then. In the meantime, I can discuss what you missed yesterday and the plan Taeclas and Shana have tentatively come up with when you get down."

Lori waved a hand dismissively, though since that hand was behind the door, he didn't see it. "Fine, fine, I'll come down after I've refreshed myself."

"We'll look forward to your wonderful presence, your Bindership."

Lori shut the door in his face, then surreptitiously smelled her clothes. Yes, time to change them. And it was probably time to cut her hair as well. Her bangs were level with her eyes again, and she could feel hair on her neck and over her ears. With a sigh, she went to take a bath.

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After giving herself another reminder to do her laundry—she wrote it on a bone sheet and left it on her bed—Lori headed down stairs, wearing a new shirt, new chest wraps, new loin cloth, and new socks on her feet. The dining hall was noisy with the sound of people talking among themselves, and for some reason many people glanced at her as she came down and walked to her table. Shanalorre was not in attendance that morning, sitting instead at the children's table behind Lori. The other Dungeon Binder nodded to Lori in acknowledgement before turning back to talking to Mikon's two cousins and some of the older children. It seemed they were discussing their own laundry situation.

Rian was sitting at his usual place, and this time the three women were with him. Riz was was back to sitting next to Rian, Mikon next to her. There were also two women at the table, and Lori almost told them to leave before she remembered she'd given them permission to be there. The blue hair-ed woman was sitting next to Umu, and the two of them were conversing cordially, though Umu seemed a bit reticent, as if unsure what she should be saying. Rainbows, which one was their new Deadspeaker again?

Lori checked her belt pouch for the right rock as she sat down.

"Good morning, Lori!" a cheerful, feminine voice declared.

Lori paused. Ah, right, the Deadspeaker was the loud one.

"Flowerpetal, we're not supposed to talk to Binder Lori without prompting or address her by name, remember?" the blue-haired woman said.

"Eh? But I was just greeting her good morning. That doesn't count, right?"

"As long as you don't expect her to acknowledge your greeting, then yeah, that doesn't count," Rian said, still sounding obnoxiously cheerful.

There was a moment of silence as Lori pulled out a rock and looked at it. Let's see, her name was Kol—no, wait wrong rock again. She pulled out the other rock, and put the wrong one back into her pouch.

"See, she's ignoring you, so it's fine, it doesn't count."

"Ah, that's good… though, isn't that kind of rude?"

"I'm sure that if she was talking to us, she'd say that the Dungeon Binder is the one who decides what's rude or not."

"That… I don't think it works that way, though?"

"Well, look at it this way, Tae: who decides what's rude or not?"

"But everyone knows what's considered rude…?"

"Yes, but how did they learn? And how did something become considered rude? For example, why is it considered rude to put beads on the table, or chewing with your mouth open?"

“Wait, some people consider it rude to put beads on the table? Why?”

“I have no idea. Some Dungeon Binder probably said so at some point.”

“Because if you put beads on the table, they’re going to roll off,” Lori said. “That’s why you should always put your beads in a pouch or bowl.”

“What about cups?” Rian said immediately.

“No. It’s a potential choking hazard since someone might accidentally pick it up to drink from it. Besides, cups are more likely to fall over and spill than bowls.”

“So… should we consider it rude to put beads in cups around here, your Bindership?”

“No, of course not. It’s just very stupid.” Lori scanned the rock. “Taeclas, have you had the opportunity to diagnose the demesne’s infants yet?”

The Deadspeaker blinked, surprised at being addressed, but she recovered quickly. “Good morning, L—your Bindership!”

“You said that already.”

“I know, I just wanted to greet you now that you’ll reply. Yes, Rian asked me to check on the babes yesterday, and Sha—” Next to Taeclas, her wife nudged her side with an elbow without the blue-haired woman looking away from the conversation she was having with Umu. “—hmm? What is it, lovely? Oh, right! I mean, Lady Binder Shanalorre was kind enough to show me around and introduce me to the mothers and explain what I was doing. Thank you, Shanalorre!”

“You are welcome,” came from behind Lori.

“Such a nice girl, her mothers must be proud… anyway, I’m happy to tell you that all of the babes are completely healthy and growing nicely, and to make doubly sure I checked over the mothers as well. Whatever Sh—Lady Binder Shanalorre did, it seems to be safe for infants. You can’t always say that about all meanings. Though the next time she heals someone, especially an infant, I’d like to exam them before and then after the Lady Binder uses her meaning on them.”

Lori nodded. “Arrange it with her later.” She turned back towards Rian. "Anything else to report?"

"Yesterday, I asked Tae to look over our mushroom farms, our crops outside, our ropeweed beds, and the dungeon farm downstairs so she can assess the best use of her time and Deadspeaking," Rian said, and Taeclas grinned for some reason. "She was very complimentary of the last, and has some ideas as to how she can help grow the crops, as well as a request for you." He gestured towards Taeclas again.

She gave her lord a flat look, but turned to the Deadspeaker. "Your request?"

"Ah… I was hoping you'd give me permission to plant all my seedling and vegetables in your dungeon farm," Taeclas said. "it's better for them than planting them outside, and Rian said you were going to plant all the seedling you'd brought there anyway? Rian said I could, but that I should ask you to be sure."

"I see no problem with that. Very well, you have my permission to plant in the dungeon farm."

"Thank you, your Bindership! Just you wait, we'll have all sorts of delicious vegetables ready in a few weeks!"

That sounded contradictory—in Lori's experience vegetables were never delicious—but it was more food. "I will hold you to that."

"Look forward to it! When the vegetables are ready, the stew is going to taste even more delicious! Also, Rian said I should get your authorization for any equipment I needed?"

Lori's eyes narrowed. "What sort of equipment…?"

"Ah, nothing complicated. I just need wire."

Wire? Why? "Wire? Why?"

"Well it would take me too long to try and claim every crop planted in the fields by hand. I only have two hands, after all," Taeclas said cheerfully, holding both extremities up as if to demonstrate. "But if someone helped me, I would run a wire from one end of a row of plants to another, and when the wire is pressed up against the crops, I can tame their life without having to touch them one at a time. It will still take some time, but it will be the fastest way of doing it."

She considered the matter. She could understand what Taeclas was suggesting with the wire, but… "I don't remember anything like that ever being done in the dungeon farms I worked at," she said.

"Ah, most of the big farms and dungeon farms use a grid of metal rods or thick wire under the soil to act as a contact. I asked, but Lord Rian said you didn't have something like that here, so I came up with this."

Lori blinked. "Really?"

"Oh, yes. Most of the time they use cheap metal like gold, since it doesn't rust or react to anything in the soil. Anatass or magan works too, but those are more expensive. Any other metal would work too, but they'll corrode and you have to be careful they'd don't react into anything that will taint whatever you're growing. Don't use lead. Never use lead."

"Obviously," Lori and Rian both said.

"It bears repeating. Repeatedly."

Rian turned to Lori. "So, in addition to the wire, should I see about having the smiths get work on something like what Taeclas described?"

"We do not have nearly enough metal of any sort for something like that," Lori said flatly. "Set the idea aside until a passing dragon decides to drop gold on top of us."