Weekly Digest 117 - (#374 - #376) (Patreon)

The Dangers Of Books To Schedules

To Lori's pleasant surprise, dinner wasn't as annoying as she had feared.

The Deadspeaker—Lori checked the new rocked she'd made that afternoon—Kolinh, and—no, wait… that was definitely the wrong name, she could tell that much… ah, here was the right rock, the description she'd thought to include matched—Taeclas, and her wife had sat on the other side of the table next to Umu, who had a firm grip on Rian's arm.

"Hello, Rian!" Taeclas greeted enthusiastically, her voice somehow managing to cut through the normal background noise of the dining hall. "Who's your… uh…" She faltered, seeming to notice how both Mikon and Umu were sitting on either side of him, clutching at his arms as the women leaned against him, while Riz sat on the other side of Mikon, making a pouting face. As Lori watched, waiting for the food to be ready, Taeclas rallied. "Could you introduce us?"

"Ah, Taeclas, you already know Riz. On my left here is Umu, and on my right between me and Riz is Mikon," Rian said. "Umu, Mikon, this is Taeclas and sitting at the end is her wife Rybelle. "

Umu, who'd started to glare, visibly relaxed at that last, giving Taeclas and Rybelle a nod instead even as she seemed to tighten her grip on Rian's arm.

Mikon leaned forward to look past Rian. "Hello. It's nice to meet you. You must be the new people Rian brought back with him from Covehold."

"Yes, we are. Ah, how… um, what is… uh…"

"Go ahead," Mikon said cheerfully. "You can ask."

"I'm… not sure what to ask," Taeclas said, one finger scratching at her cheek.

"So!" Rian said brightly. "You're both new here Tae, so I'll show you where you can light up for food when it's time. I can introduce you to the men and women running the kitchen—"

"No, you're not going anywhere, Rian," Mikon interrupted. "You're tired and you've been away from home for a long time. Umu and I will take care of showing our new neighbors around while you sit here and relax."

"I will?"

"We will?" Riz said warily.

"Come on, don't you want to make our new neighbor feel welcome?"

The expression on Umu's face that she directed to the other weaver was one Lori had no trouble interpreting.

"Look, neither of you have to, it's not trouble for me to show Tae and Rybelle where—"

"No, you just sit down and rest, Rian. It's our turn to get the food tonight, so we're going there anyway…"

Taeclas turned towards Lori, a confused expression on her face. She opened her mouth… and Rybelle reached over and touched her wife's hand, drawing her attention. The blue-haired woman shook her head, which took the Deadspeaker a moment to interpret, before she suddenly reached a realization, and theatrically shut her mouth.

Well, at least Rian had managed to get that across.

"Oh look, the food's ready," Rian exclaimed, trying to get up and of course failing as Umu and Mikon still had a grip on his arms. "Uh, Umu, Mikon… could you let me go now?"

It was a pleasant meal, as Taeclas kept glancing sideways at the byplay between Rian and the three women, while Rian tried to hold a cheerful conversation with her, assisted by Mikon. It was mildly amusing to watch as Taeclas clearly wanted to ask what was going on and kept failing to properly articulate her question.

Since she wouldn't be discussing matters with Rian, Lori retired early to her room.

The books were waiting for her.

For a moment, Lori stared at them.

The itch came back.

Well, it's not like she had any more work to do today... and she wasn't that tired yet. Surely she had time for a little reading.

Moving to the table, Lori picked up the early primer on Deadspeaking—because it was the most immediately useful for their situation—and took it to her bed.

…

She… might have to wash her bedroll and blankets soon. Lori remembered planning to do it… when was that? Well, not important, she'd get to it… soon.

Arranging her bedroll in the upright recess against the wall she used when she'd been expanding the demesne so that she would be comfortable, Lori carefully opened the Deadspeaking primer—fortunately, the book felt solid and secure in her hands—and began to read.

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At breakfast the next morning, Rian still looked sleepy, his hair still wet from having been at the baths before he'd arrived. Notably, Umu, Mikon and Riz were absent.

"Rian," Lori said with poise and dignity, "did you stay up late last night?"

"Did you get any sleep at all?" he retorted, blinking slowly.

…

Lori didn't dignify that comment with a response, and not because she couldn't think of anything in time.

The two of them stared at each other across the table, Rian raising his mouth to cover his hand as he yawned. He was also swaying from side to side. Yes, it was definitely Rian swaying.

…

Perhaps she shouldn't have started reading that primer after all. She'd found herself staying up all night, simply reading it and familiarizing herself with the most basic aspects of Deadspeaking… not that she could remember what those were, at the moment. She remembered eagerly reading the early parts, resisting the urge to try anything until she had more information… she remembered finding a way to balance the book on her sternum so she would have to hold it as she read…she remembered reading just to find out what was next so she could make sense of the mush of words that she had read previously…

There was a loud skidding sound as Shanalorre arrive, and with a practiced movement drew back the short bench next to Lori with one foot as she assisted her cousin almost-asleep cousin to the table. It was almost impressive how the young girl managed to sit on the bench the right way before crossing her arms on the table to lay down her head. As Shanalorre moved the bench back in place, her cousin was already dozing again, her slow, even breaths whistling slightly…

Lori opened her eyes and straightened hurriedly. Her half-lidded eyes glared a challenge at Rian, daring him to say anything.

"Good morning, Great Binder, Lord Rian," Shanalorre said. Her pale hair was pulled back and tied into a tassel, likely to help with the heat.  "Are you both well? You both seem… tired."

"Yes, I am very tired," Rian said, nodding. Then he forced his eyes open again. "I want to go back to sleep, but I should be fine again after breakfast."

Shanalorre nodded. "Then our scheduled briefing as to the demesne's stocks and supplies is still on?"

Rian visibly winced. "I really want to say yes…" Rian muttered, "but… can I get back to you about that?"

"So you did stay up late last night," Lori said pointedly.

"Can you say that with your eyes open, it's hard to take you seriously otherwise."

Her eyes were closed? Oh, right, they were closed. She'd better open them, then.

…

She'd better open her eyes, then…

"Your Bindership…" she heard Rian's voice say, "perhaps you should go back to bed and join us for lunch instead? Or maybe even dinner? After all, it's not like you have to work. If there's anyone in this demesne who can afford to take a day off, it's you."

…

…

…

Oh, right, Rian was talking to her, wasn't her?

With what seemed like a great effort, Lori forced her eyes open to see Rian blinking at her. "What?"

"I said maybe you should take the day off and get some sleep," Rian said. "There's no reason for you to force yourself to stay up if you're tired. You're the Dungeon Binder, after all." He paused. "Though, if you're going to take the day off, can I do that same? Just a half day off would be great. Because if you’re taking a day off, we’ll have to push the schedule we talked about a day forward anyway."

“So you did stay up late last night!”

“…” Rian ‘…’-ed. “Yes, I stayed up later than I had intended to last night. Would you like me to give an account as to why?”

…

“No, that won’t be necessary,” Lori said magnanimously.

Rian nodded. “Why don’t you go upstairs and sleep properly¸ your Bindership. Get some proper rest. If you woke up the same time yesterday as you always do, then you’ve been awake for more than twenty hours. There’s no dragon passing overhead. And if one was coming, then we’d need you well rested to be able to prepare the defenses properly. So it’s practically your solemn duty as a Dungeon Binder to go upstairs to your room and sleep for as long as you want. We can just push everything we discussed that we’d do to tomorrow.”

…

Well, when Rian put it thatway… Yes, she definitely had a duty to be as well rested as possible in case there was a dragon coming today. Though… should she wait to eat something first? She’d been up all night, and while her stomach was strangely quiet on the matter, it was still occasionally poking her with the reminder that she hadn’t filled it all night…

Eh, she could eat later. She wasn’t going wait the hour or so it would take for her to digest enough of the food to sleep safely…

…

“Lori?”

With a start, Lori realized her eyes were closed again, and reluctantly forced them open. “What?” she said blearily.

“Do you want me to help you get to your room?” Rian said.

Ah, right. Letting out a sigh, Lori reluctantly pushed herself to her feet, her hands on the table for balance. “That won’t be necessary,” she said. “I can make it back just fine.”

Rian nodded. “Do you want me to accompany you and make sure people stay out of your way?”

“… fine…”

Lori wasn’t sure how she got back to her room. She vaguely remembered her eyes being closed half the time, but obviously she’d somehow managed to make it there. Rian was probably involved. She remembered being annoyed as he made her while he fixed her bed roll, then again as she sat, her head lolling, while her boots were pulled off. They hadn’t been laced properly, she could have just kicked them off.

She remembered some kind of cloth over her eyes, since the room was so bright… why was the room so bright?

She…

…

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When Lori woke up an indeterminate amount of time later, it was to a room that was far too bright to sleep in properly

For a moment, she debated getting up.

…

Fixing her pillow and wrapping her blanket around herself properly—she didn’t need it, but she liked the feeling of it wrapped around her—Lori deactivated all but one of the bindings of lightwisps and went back to sleep.

The darkness of her soul behind her eyes claimed her once again, and her last thought was to reassure herself that all her bindings would last until she woke up.

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Until Dragons Drop Gold

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 which 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 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, 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 her face, then surreptiously 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."

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Honey Is Very Thankful

Over breakfast, they continued discussing Taeclas's requests after the food arrived. The Deadspeaker's capability revealed itself as they spoke as she laid out the various advantages and disadvantages of their various food-producing areas. The mushroom farms she considered of low priority, as while their addition was good in dishes, they really didn't contain as much of what the body needed nor were as filling as the grains, tubers and bulbs that the demesne were growing. And while vegetables weren't as tasty or filling as grain or meats, they did contain things that the body needed that were absent from the latter.

When the woman had spoken of the dungeon farm, it was been as complimentary as Rian had said, praising the temperature, the light, the system that allowed excess water to drain from the various plots, and how orderly all the plots were.

"Working there is going to be so easy," Taeclas declared, and for once Lori could understand the wide grin on the woman's face. She could understand the appreciation for a workplace that would be a help instead of a hindrance to the work to be done. "It's all spaced just right, it's nice and cool, the humidity is just right… the growing conditions there are wonderful!" Then she slumped for some reason, letting out a sigh.

"So you should probably start working on the crops outside first?" Rian said.

"I don't want to! I want to work in the dungeon! It's so perfect!" That last was almost a wail, and had Taeclas's wife holding her and giving her more kisses on the cheek. "So easy to work there…"

"So you should probably start working on the crops outside first?" Rian repeated.

Taeclas let out a sob. What Rian was saying was unfortunately self-evidently necessary. After all, it was where the majority of their crops were.

Once Taeclas had resigned herself to the necessity—"At least you can have as many baths as you want," Rian pointed out, which had improved the woman's disposition a little—they'd gone on to discuss the what sort of equipment she needed. Wire, yes, but how much wire, and in what state? Rian had suggested putting wooden handles on both ends of the wire to make holding it easier for her and whoever was holding the other end. "Trying to hold on to a wire with your bare hands like that is going to be unpleasant, especially if you need to put some kind of tension on it so that it's pressed again the crops properly."

"That will require smithing work," Lori pointed out.

"Most proper tools usually do. Besides, the handles will make it harder to lose track of the wire if Tae needs to put it down. Oh, don't look at me like that, how many times have you just lost a piece of thread while you were sewing because it didn't stand out against whatever you put it down on?"

Lori took his word that wire could potentially be misplaced in such a manner, though she suspected only a very careless person would do so.

"Well, I guess I'll have to do something else while the handles are being put on the wire," Taeclas said cheerfully. "It'll be the best time for transferring all my plants to a plot in the dungeon farm."

"Actually, that's right," Rian said. "Before you get started on the crops outside, you had best transfer the seedling we'd brought into something more permanent. Uh, they are ready to be transferred, right?"

Taeclass nodded. "Yes, they're mature enough for that. Though there aren't any empty plots in the dungeon farm I can plant them in right now."

"That can be fixed. How many plots do you need?"

After breakfast, Lori went back to her room so that she could stare at the list of things that needed to be imbued while she tended to them. Fortunately, none of them had run out of imbuement and dissolved, and so all she had to do was imbue them with magic from her core. Normally, she did this when she woke up before heading downstairs to eat, but then she usually woke up earlier as well.

Once she was done, Lori considered the bound tools she had on her desk, near the books on—

…

Once she was done moving the books into the wall recess where she kept the spare boots Rian had bought for her and covered the books with her currently empty traveling pack so she couldn't be distracted, Lori considered the bound tools she had on her desk. The wisplights weren't really necessary at the moment, since light of any sort wasn't an issue in her demesne, though she might have to bring one or two more with her the next time a dragon passed over for River's Fork. Speaking of which, she'd have to find a rock…

Her attention turned towards the other bound tools. Lori recognized most of them. They were bound tool versions of hand tools that she had seen before in carpentry workshops. Those two were clearly drills, though lacking a bit, there were two kinds of saws—a rotating saw and a reciprocating saw—though that actual sawbaldes themselves were missing, a tool that was shaped like a planer which had a rotating cylinder on which blades were mounted, and a tool shaped vaguely shaped like a router plane that had a rotating mechanism in the middle.

Carefully, Lori picked up one each of the tools, realized she didn't have nearly enough hands to do that, and resorted to putting them in the reed basket she used for carrying beads. They just barely fit the basket, which was fortunately sturdy enough to hold their weight. Still, she lifted the basket carefully as she left her room, sealing the door behind her as she went down to where the carpenters worked.

The carpenters had two alcoves in the second level that was permanently theirs to keep their tools in. Piles of wooden planks and were stacked in front of it, which would act as the demesne's emergency wood supply for any repairs that needed to be done during and after a dragon. In front of one of the alcoves was a waterwheel standing atop a stone basin full of water. The water wheel was connected to a lathe and a modest sized circular saw that the carpenters had put together with the assistance of the smiths for the blade.

A stone pillar rose from one end of the stone basin, its purpose to pour water onto the water wheel to make it turn. Once, Lori had needed to keep a binding imbued constantly so that water would flow up a pipe to be fall down over the waterwheel's paddles. Now, however, the need to do that was gone instead, there was a little bead receptacle on the stone pillar so the carpenters could activate the waterwheel themselves as needed instead of opening and closing a sluice.

The carpenters noticed her approaching, of course, and one of them stood up to meet her, bowing as she approached. "Your Bindership," he greeted.

Lori stared. He was wearing a cloth on his head, more to keep his hair out of his face than to absorb sweat—Rian had assured her that the second level was comfortably cool—and on that cloth was embroidered the word 'Deil'. The thread used for the embroidery was undyed ropeweed thread, the same as the head cloth—that had better have been a corner scrap—and to make the word stand out the embroidery had used wide lines.

She glanced at all the other carpenters, all with innocently Rian-like looks on their faces. All of them were also wearing head cloths, which were all also embroidered.

…

Well, that was wonderfully convenient. And the man's face was just vaguely familiar enough that she was fairly certain he was, in fact, name Deil.

"Deil," she said, and the man nodded, "Rian bought and brought back several bound tools from Covehold Demesne. Do any of you know how to use these tools?" She placed her basket on the work table next to the lathe and began pulling out bound tools.

She left the carpenters with some beads to happily try out their new tools. Lori didn’t know what new product of woodworking the demesne might need at the moment—she left matters like that to Rian—but she had the impression if there wasn’t anything needed the carpenters would find something to make.

With that done, she headed down to the dungeon farm in the third level. Taeclas and her wife were already there being assisted by the brat and Shanalorre as they slowly removed seedlings and vegetables from pots and onto some bare farm plots. The farm plots were new, made by Lori during the past month as she waited for Rian to get back with seedlings from Covehold Demesne. While she hadn’t expected them to need all that space, Lori had been of the opinion that it was better to have a surplus of farming plots when then seedlings arrived than a deficit. And since hers was the only opinion that mattered…

Besides, if there was any excess space, they could easily plant more tubers or grains there. Those crops wouldn’t be in time with the rest of their ilk, but since they had Deadspeakers now, they could easily be made to be.

For her part, Lori stayed only briefly as she anchored bindings of lightwisps over the farm plots that were being worked on. The bindings were specific, and needed certain ratios of visible and unseen light to be able to properly produce sunlight that plants could utilize. She didn’t know how they utilized sunlight in their growth, only that they did.

She could hear Taeclas talking happily as she explained to the brat and Shanalorre what each plant she was transferring was, what sort of care it needed—she was apparently separating plants according to how much watering was needed—and how to tell they were ready to be harvested. While most of them were food crops Lori recognized—everyone knew what sharrods and clapper roots were—it had been surprised to hear that one of the plant that the woman had brought with her from Covehold Demesne—and from the old continent itself, apparently—tending to was a sweetgrass plant.

“It was really hard for me to keep it alive in Covehold,” Taeclas explained to her attentive listeners as she carefully moved the plant from its pot. “It needs warmth to grow properly, and even though it’s been doing better this summer, for most of the year the poor thing is suffering from the cold. But I think I can get it to grow here in the dungeon farm. Truthfully, it could stand to be a little warmer, but—”

“How warm does it need to be?” Lori said as she stepped up behind the brat to look down at the plant in question.

“Oh, hello L—” Taeclas began, only for Shanalorre to reach forward and gently place a finger over the woman’s lips, shaking her head. “Ah, right. Hello, your Bindership! Ah, the sweetgrass needs it to be fairly warm. About… uh, not quite as warm as it is around noon. Maybe mid-morning warm? Sorry, I don’t really know how warm that is by the quicksilver glass.”

Lori considered that. “Don’t plant that one just yet,” she said. “I’ll arrange a room for it that can be kept at an elevated temperature.”

“Ah, would you? That would be wonderful! I’m sure Honey will appreciate it a lot, won’t you Honey?”

“…” Lori ‘…’-ed. “Are you… talking to the sweetgrass?”

“Her name is Honey! And she’s very thankful that you’ll be giving her a nice warm room, your Bindership!”

Lori stared at the woman, then looked sideways towards… whatshername, the wife. The blue-haired woman, for her part, simply smiled and shrugged as she directed a fond look towards the Deadspeaker.

For a moment, Lori considered sending Taeclas back to River’s Fork and getting the other one who wanted time off. People didn’t normally give their plants personal names, did they?

Though… if she sent back Taeclas, the woman would take her plants and sweetgrass back with her…

Lori resolved to speak to Rian about this, and perhaps have her lord subtly spread the word to have people keep the away from the woman. There was a good chance Taeclas might be insane.

…

Well, she’d give the woman some time and see if this possible lack of sanity negatively affected her ability to work.