Weekly Digest 120 - (#383 - #385) (Patreon)

Prelude To Shana’s Holiday

Shana—Shasha to a few, Great Binder or Lady Binder to most, Shanalorre to Binder Lolilyuri—had quite enjoyed Lorian's Demesne's mid-winter holiday, at least up until the point she had needed to prove her seriousness to the other Dungeon Binder. While River's Fork had been well-prepared for the winter—after all, the winter had been quite mild—they hadn't the resources or infrastructure for such a thing, although some families had taken turns visiting each other.

She had moved into her office once she had judged it was far too dangerous to keep climbing up the stairs to… her house near the peak of the dome's central tree. Most of the day she just sat in the gloom, covered by every blanket she owned, and rousing herself enough the make bland bread and chew on smoked meat once a day. Sometimes uncle Yllian, mushka Vyshke or one of… her families friends…

…

…

…

…would invite her to share their fire and a meal, but it soon became impractical to keep leaving her house. And then Rian had arrived invoking her agreement with Binder Lori, and she had stayed in Lorian for the rest of the season.

She was aware that she had ruined the holiday with her actions. However, given the path that negotiations were taking, there had been little choice.

The holiday they'd had back in spring had been enjoyable. There'd been roasted meats in various cuts and sauces, board game competitions, and a strange race where children had sat on their parent's shoulders trying to balance a piece of fruit on a spoon.

Shana hadn't gotten the chance to roam at the time, because she'd been told to sit on a bench—which had at least been shady—and people had made sure no knives or any sharp objects were anywhere near her. Her meat had come to her already cut, which she'd had to eat with a spoon since she wasn't even given a fork.

It had still been enjoyable experience, and Karina and Yoshka had been there for company. The other children had greeted her as well, but they hadn't stayed, opting for more fun diversions such as the contests that Lord Rian had led. Despite the fact that Shana had needed to remain where she was, she'd found herself participating as some of the challenges Rian had set had been things like, 'bring me a Dungeon Binder's favorite fruit' or 'tell me a Dungeon Binder's favorite color'. As even the children knew better than to bother Binder Lori—even if they were the only ones she'd tolerate doing so—they all went to Shana.

It had been fun to be included.

Now, however, a new holiday had been announced in celebration of the small harvest that she and Wizard Taeclas had been able to induce on the dungeon farm's crops. In the larger fields of crops on the surface a long strip on the edge of the fields were maturing and would be ready to harvest in a day or two. Already a rope was being laid to separate the matured vigas from the ones that were still to be accelerated, to try and prevent accidentally reaping immature stalks.

That, however, was none of her concern, especially not today. It was a holiday, after all.

Because of the summer heat outside, the holiday was being held in the dungeon. Shana had thought that it would be similar to the holiday that had been held during the winter, with improvised grills along the walls heated by Binder Lori's Whispering, dancing and music while it was still daylight out, and board games being played on many of the tables.

That… wasn't how the holiday was planned.

After breakfast—where they had honey bread in addition to salted leavened bread, the sticky green-glazed treats leaving stains around Yoshka's mouth—nearly everyone settled down to rest. Many went down to the second level to nap in the empty alcoves, bringing bedrolls from their homes or sometimes just pillows to lay their heads on. It was a marked difference from the demesne's day to day routine of regular work, even if the summer's heat had made the work slow by midday.

Still, even if no one was working, that didn't mean that no work needed to be done. The plates, utensils, cups and jars for drinking water all needed to be washed, as did the large copper cooking pots and the trays used to bake their bread. The floors needed to be swept, the tables needed to be wiped, and any scraps taken out to the compost pit.

And in her case, she needed to make sure all the children in her care were accounted for.

After all, they would be going on a trip today.

"Is everyone ready, Shana?" Rian asked, calling down from the deck of the Coldhold.

"Shanalorre," Binder Lori off-handedly corrected as she always did.

"Shanalorre," Rian 'corrected', meeting Shana's eyes and winking.

Her lips twitched slightly in a small smile. She wasn't sure if he did it to deliberately bait Binder Lori to correct him, or if he was simply so used to addressing her casually when Binder Lori was absent.

As to his question…

Lori turned to where all the children in her care had gathered around one of the two bound tools that had been hung from the ceiling, which Binder Lori had converted into a combination of wisplight and weak air jet, all trying to be in the range of the breezes being generated. She’d made sure that all of them had washed their faces of any sticky honey and that they’d all gone to the latrines beforehand. She turned back to Rian. “Everyone is accounted for and sitting down.”

“We’re ready to go, then. Riz, could you please switch the steam jet driver to reverse?”

“Reversing, Rian!”

Sitting next to the controls of the Coldhold’s bound tool driver, pulling it down to reverse, Ninang Riz moved the control lever into position. Shana felt the subtle vibration of water beginning to be drawn through the long tube that ran through the ship, which began to move.

“We’re on our way, your Bindership!” she heard Rian’s voice report from above her.

The Coldhold wasn’t being controlled by its usual crew on this trip. Rian hadn’t wanted them to be away from their families, and had been planning on trying to control everything himself, but Ninang Riz had of course volunteered to accompany him, and as there was no reason for them not to—there was no work to be done, after all—Mikon and Umu had asked if they could accompany him as well. More surprisingly, Binder Lori had allowed it, though she’d given that glare she sometimes did and warned the two women from distracting Ninang Riz and Rian as they had operated the Coldhold.

Shana had been more surprised that Binder Lori was accompanying them. The woman made no secret of how much she disliked leaving her demesne, and today’s holiday was an excellent reason for her not to. Still, there had to be some sort of reason. The older Dungeon Binder never did anything without a practical, utilitarian reason. Once, Shanalorre had tried to do the same, but now… well, she was no longer a Dungeon Binder who needed to tend to her demesne. She no longer had to learn.

Normally, Binder Lori would be staying in her private room at the front of the Coldhold, even with the heat. She could make bindings of firewisps and airwisps to destroy heat and circulate the cooler air, after all, and put a binding outside of her door to block out the sounds of the children. So why was she sitting in the cabin above? Well, Shana supposed she was keeping watch on Mikon and Umu so they wouldn’t distract Rian as he steered the ship…

The trip downriver was uneventful. True, the children tried to play in the limited space available, and kept asking to be allowed up onto the deck to be able to look around—Binder Lori vehemently denied that request—but that wasn’t eventful, that was just dealing with children. To be honest, she was glad that Binder Lori had denied them. It was all Shana could do to keep the children settled down without Koyan, Kayas and Karina to assist her.

When they arrived in River’s Fork, the children’s parents were waiting. Despite her best efforts, some of the children ran from the boat onto the docks and towards their parents, but fortunately no one fell into the water. She watched from the cabin, seeing a smile on her uncle’s face as Yoshka ran up to him and he picked her up and spun her around.

Once the children were out of the way, the supplies they’d bought from Lorian for River’s Fork’s own holiday—she and Wizard Lidzuga had also managed to induce an accelerated harvest her as well, after all—was unloaded. It was mostly chunks of cold but not frozen meat, and jars of honey for baking honey bread, and the men and women of River’s Fork moved quickly to unload them.

“Do you want to stay to spend time with your aunt and uncle?” Rian said as the last of the food was unloaded.

Shana shook her head. “My presence would only aggravate my uncle. Let him enjoy spending time with Yoshka without my presence reminding him of more than that.”

“I’m sure your aunt could—”

“Rian… please drop the issue. Please?”

It was redundant, but Rian sighed and did as she asked. “Fine. Promise me you’ll try to have fun.”

Shana nodded. “I will. I shall spend the holiday with Karina, if it will not be intruding.”

“You know, Lori only talking to me is because of her personal issues with talking to people. Karina doesn’t need to be your only friend.”

“Noted.”

“Your Lori-like response isn’t as reassuring as you might think it is…”

Shana turned towards the hatch leading down into the ship. “I shall retrieve the bound tools so we can use them up here.”

She heard Rian sigh.

Soon, the Coldhold was reversing from River’s Fork’s pier, its prow pointed upriver as Rian had Ninang Riz set the steam jet driver to its maximum speed. One of the bound tools had been hung at the back, where Rian, Umu and Mikon sat, the latter two sitting on the deck near the hatch down into the hold below as Mikon kept Ninang Riz involved in the conversation. The other was hung at the cabin, positioned to blow air where Binder Lori was sitting. Or rather, Binder Lori had sat where the bound tool was blowing its air.

Sitting nearby, Shana saw Binder’s Lori’s eyes were focused on the shore on one side of the river. More concerning, however, was that the older woman was holding an arrow. One end was fletched with beast feathers, while the other was tipped with what appeared to be a reshaped beast tooth. One of Binder Lori’s fingers rested on the arrowhead, and the way she was breathing in a familiar pattern—despite not really needing it—suggested she was imbuing the arrowhead.

Shana didn’t ask why. Instead, she simply sat next to Binder Lori, enjoying what breeze made it around the older woman, and simply watched the shore as well, even as she took the opportunity to imbue the bindings that remained on the firewood trees in River’s Fork. The meanings on the fruit trees remained what she recognized now as deactivated, including the fruit trees hidden in the secret platform that existed at the peak of the dome’s central tree.

It had been difficult to help Wizard Lidzuga climb up there in the space of an afternoon during one of the times she’d found a pretext to visit her former demesne so he could deactivate the meanings on them, but at least it meant that rotten fruit was no longer piling up there.

Shana sat there, distantly aware of the low-voiced but unintelligible conversation occurring at the other end of the boat, enjoying the relative quiet and peace after a morning of keeping children in line. Today was a supposed to be a holiday, after all. Resting and relaxing was supposed to be what she was doing.

She felt it when they left her demesne. By now, she was familiar with the feeling of seemingly being torn in two as the life in her body left the embrace of her demesne’s borders. Her awareness of the dustlife on her clothes, of the hidden bugs in the ship, of the ships planks and hidden beams vanished. The disconnection still made her shudder slightly, but only just.

Next to her, Binder Lori straightened, then leaned forward, gaze and expression intent as she stared out over the now glitter-covered shore. Her finger still rested on the arrowhead.

The journey back to Lorian was also uneventful, something Binder Lori seemed dissatisfied about. She had a frustrated look on her face soon after they entered the bounds of Lorian’s demesne, as opposed to her usual relieved sigh.

Shana didn’t know what that was about, and didn’t ask. If Binder Lori thought she needed to know, she would be told.

It was not an unpleasant start to the day’s holiday.

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Shana's Holiday

When the time for lunch came, there was no stew. Shana wasn't surprised, because Rian had announced the itinerary beforehand, but it was still a marked difference to the day's routine. She supposed that was the point. A holiday, according to the lord when she'd asked, wasn't just for the sake of rest. It was also important that a holiday be a break from the monotony of a normal day, so that people didn't just find themselves of thinking of the work they would be doing when the holiday was over.

In this case, it meant that at lunch, a different set of volunteers were bustling about in the kitchen. The aunties and uncles who usually cooked were able to take their ease, and someone else would also be washing the dishes and utensils.

The honeybread and fruits that they received for lunch was delicious but would not have been filling under normal circumstances, but it was an enjoyable, if light, repast.

She ate at Binder Lori's table this meal, the two of them sitting and eating quietly on their side while those on the other side of the table flirted. Wizard Taeclas and Rybelle were sitting strangely—it took Shana a while to realize the latter was sitting on her wife's lap—as they fed each other, which seemed to be inspiring Ninang Riz, Mikon and Umu to do the same.

Binder Lori quickly finished eating. "Rian, tell me when sunset is near," she said. "I'll be in my room reading."

"Will you actually come down, or will I need to spend an hour knocking on your door telling you to put away the book and come out?"

There was a very long pause.

"Uh, your Bindership?" Rian eventually prompted.

Finally, her Bindership sighed. "I'll leave the door unlocked. Make sure I come out on time."

"Yes, your Bindership! Enjoy your afternoon reading!"

Binder Lori made herself scarce, heading to her room to presumably rest in her own way, and Shana finished eating soon after. The food was sweet, the fruits were tart and flavorful, and Shana appreciated the variety, but she didn't wish to linger. Without any children to watch over, Shana allowed herself the luxury of a nap after she ate, finding her assigned alcove and simply lying down with her head cushioned by her folded hands. She took her reed hat and laid it over her face to block off the perpetual light of the second level. The hat smelled of heat and sweat, but those were familiar smells this summer.

Shana let herself relax and doze, too full and not tired enough to truly fall asleep. The stone of the sleeping niche was hard under her, but it was cool, and as long as she stayed on her back she was comfortable. The dungeon was quieter after lunch, with the children taking naps themselves, the adults speaking in low voices to not wake them and thus shatter the tender peace.

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Still, eventually the minor discomfort of the stone beneath roused her to move. Despite not truly falling asleep, Shana felt lethargic, and actually more sleepy than when she'd been laying down, but that feeling went away as she stood and began moving around.

Upstairs, in the kitchen, meat was being prepared, cut into slices for roasting. Fruit was being cut and mashed to make what sauces the demesne had, and the dough was being made, even as more was being left to rise. Shana watched in passing, but she knew she wouldn't be allowed to help there. People took Binder Lori's prohibition of sharp objects very seriously.

Outside, people were milling about, taking firewood from the curing shed and arranging them into piles for cook fires. While it was still hot, the late afternoon air was markedly cooler to than it had been at noon, and people weren't working as hard as they could be. Over at the laundry area, Shana saw people washing mushrooms, no doubt freshly picked from the mushroom farms.

She headed for her house to retrieve her bath bucket so she could take a bath while it still seemed like the baths weren't crowded.

When dusk came, the holiday truly began.

At night, the outside of the dungeon was mostly well-lit, with light glowing from the corners of most buildings, both near the dungeon's entrance. Tonight, it was even brighter. More lights glowed high on the walls of houses and other buildings, and while no one would mistake it for day—not with the darkness above with the moons and stars—or even the insides of the dungeon, no one was likely to be tripping in the dark. The latter was a fact the children were taking full advantage of as they ran around between the houses, moving between light and darkness.

The piles of firewood were lit, making cookfires—it was warm enough people had no need for heat, and bright enough they had no need for firelight—and people started roasting meat in many different ways, filling the air with delicious smells. Some people stated singing, clapping their hands to keep time—as they were no longer allowed to play music—as some people began to dance, holding hands, and stepping in rhythmic patterns together.

"Ah, there you are!" Karina said as she suddenly appeared in Shana's view. "I've been looking for you."

"And you've found me."

"Wiz Lori asked me to look for you. Come on," her friend said, beginning to walk, and Shana followed after her. She didn't bother asking if Binder Lori had told Karina why. Binder Lori didn't do that unless prompted by Rian.

They found the older Dungeon Binder sitting on a bench near the entrance of the dungeon, her back against the wall. Shana wondered why she didn't bring out her chair. Perhaps she wanted the space to lay out her plates? There was a cook fire nearby, and Shana recognized some of the cuts being cooked on it as beast tail meat, which she knew was the woman's favorite. Binder Lori was staring at the cooking meat intently, almost visibly willing the meat to cook faster.

Binder Lori's gaze turned towards them as they approached. Her face was seemingly set in a disapproving frown, but Shana knew that was just was her face looked like in repose. "There you are," she said. "Come here and raise your arms over your head. Karina, check her pouch for knives and other such objects."

"Yes, Wiz Lori," Karina said. "Shasha, can I borrow your belt pouch?" At Shana's nod, the other girl opened the belt pouch at her waist, looking inside. The pouch was filled with light from the rock that Binder Lori had given her, and so it was easy to see that the belt contained only the rock, some cord that Shana had braided out of ropeweed, several spare wispbeads for the wisplight and bound tool in her house, and a roll of linen. The linen was a spare chest wrap of hers, which she carried as an emergency bandage.

Not for her, of course. She had no intention of injuring herself, but she had it as an emergency bandage. The same for the cord.

"No knives or pointy things, Wiz Lori," Karina said helpfully as she put everything back inside the pouch and closed it, making sure to wrap the pouch's cord around its button. "Sorry, Shasha."

"It's all right, Karina," Shana said. Perhaps she hadn't thought through her gesture of sincerity very well, but at the time, it had seemed like her best option. She hadn't expected all this scrutiny afterwards, but she had no one to blame but herself.

Binder Lori pointed at a spot a pace away from her on the bench. "Sit there," she said.

Shana sat and found that a breeze was flowing down on the bench in a refreshing breeze, something that Binder Lori had probably anchored to the wall behind them. "May I ask why you summoned me, Great Binder?"

"Yes," Binder Lori said.

"Why did you summon me, Great Binder?"

“To make sure you weren’t unattended or acquiring a sharp object.”

Yes, the scrutiny would never end.

Shana had expected Karina to leave now that she’d fulfilled Binder Lori’s orders, but to her surprise Karina came back carrying three wooden cups of water and handed one to her.

"Thank you," Shana said as Karina handed another cup to the other Dungeon Binder.

"Thank you," Binder Lori said as she accepted the cup, taking a sip from it.

Karina sat on the bench next to Shana, and for a moment the three of them just sat there.

"Don't you want to go play?" Shana said eventually.

Karina shook her head. "I did that already, and I'm hungry. I'm just going to wait for the food."

"Wouldn't you rather hunt it down yourself?"

"It's not safe to hunt in the dark. You could hurt yourself doing that, and it's hard to see what you're hunting."

Slowly, Shana turned towards her friend. "Karina… did you try hunting at night or something?"

"It wasn't at night! It was at dawn. Lord Rian said I shouldn't, though. He was right, it's really hard to see the seels in the water that early."

Shana kept staring at her the way she knew Binder Lori would.

"…he also told me to not hunt chokers too…"

She maintained the stare.

"I don't! No hunting at night!"

"Good," Binder Lori said. Shana glance behind her to see that the woman had also been giving Karina the same stare. "You should never work when it's too dark to see what you're doing. That's always very unsafe."

"I already know that!"

Shana sighed. "And people keep sharp object away from me… "

"Despite Karina's dubious choice of work times, she's never deliberately injured herself with the full intention of doing so," Binder Lori said, which Shana couldn't really refute.

The three settled back, Karina pouting slightly but the pout soon vanished in curiosity as Binder Lori reached down onto the bench next to her. At first, Shana thought it was a plank, until she realized it was Binder Lori's game board. The were some dark stains along one side that Shana recognized as her blood, darkened with time. A small box that contained the boards game pieces rested on in.

"I would invite you to play," Binder Lori said, "but I require your assurance that this game won't end the same way our last one did."

"I assure you I won't cut my wrist open again, Great Binder."

Binder Lori nodded in satisfaction, and began setting up the pieces.

"Hey, Shasha…" Karina said, and Shana turned towards her. "Can you teach me how to play chatrang too? Then we can play together."

Shana hesitated, then glanced at Binder Lori. "Great Binder, do you mind if I teach Karina as we play?"

Binder Lori waved her hand. "As you like."

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It was a restful holiday. While there was dancing and singing, Shana spent her time playing chatrang with Binder Lori as they ate. Well, she and Karina played with Binder Lori, her friend suggesting moves and Shana diligently doing as directed. They weren't very good moves as first, but Shana didn't mind, and Binder Lori didn't seem to either. They lost, of course, but that was all right. Binder Lori liked winning, no matter how unskilled her opponent was.

They played more games, eating as they went. Rian passed by at one point, but he didn't linger, merely asking if they needed anything else as be brought them some fruits. Karina and Shana started playing together, discussing what moves to do, the former having learned from some of her choices of moves in previous games. While they didn't win any of the games, the two of them slowly started to last longer and longer. Karina was easily baited to take pieces when she could, but that was fine, because Binder Lori was like that as well. Watching the two play, one could be forgiven for thinking the point of chatrang was to take as many of your opponent's pieces as possible instead of taking your opponent's Dungeon Binder and core.

Despite losing so much, Shana enjoyed herself as she watched the two play.

Eventually, the last game was played, the food was all gone, the fires were put out, and the utensils were being washed so they could be used the next morning. Binder Lori left, carrying her game board, to return to where she slept in the dungeon, and Shana went to take a bath and do the same.

With all the children in her care gone back to River's fork, she found the door of her house open and movement within. As she entered, Shana drew out the rock that Binder Lori had given her, illuminating the confines of her house. "Koyan, Kayas," she greeted as she closed the door behind her.

"Lady Binder," Koyan said, her unfortunately-set face giving Shana what most would think was a malicious smile if they didn’t know the woman.

"Lady Binder," her sister echoed with her own smile. Both looked so much like Mikon one could be excused for thinking they were sisters rather than cousins.

"Since Yoshka isn't here tonight, I believe the three of us will be able to fit in the bed together," Shana said as she felt around her pouch for her smallest wispbead, and put the bead on the receptacle for the bound tool that moved air. soon, a refreshing breeze was blowing through her house as she oriented it towards the bed. "There's no need for you to sleep on the floor."

The two women glanced at each other. They lived in Shana's house in exchange for helping her look after the children in her care, and part of the arrangement was the two women taking turns sleeping on the bed with her and Yoshka. "I don't think we'll fit, Lady Binder," Kayas said.

There was a knock on the door.

When Shana opened it, she found Karina there, holding a small pillow. Behind her, Shana could seen some of the other children of the demesne. There were Karina's younger siblings, Cif, Jivoy, Malli, and Siithia. There was Big Yerart, hiding those behind him; Yhalta and Matoy were standing next to each other, holding hands as usual, and more behind them that Shana couldn't identify at the moment.

"Can we sleep here tonight?" Karina asked.

"What, all of you?" Shana said.

Everyone outside her door nodded. "We thought you'd be lonely since Yoshka's away," Big Yerart said.

For a moment, Shana just stared. Then she shook her head, stepping back with a small smile on her face. "Make yourselves at home."

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Shanalore At Work

The children in her care would return by lunch the next day, happy at having spent the day and night with their families and whatever holiday festivities River's Fork had held. Shana knew that Binder Lori had sent them several rocks with lightwisps anchored to them to provide illumination for the night as well as some honey and meat so they could have a similar celebration as the one held at Lorian. There'd even been a note telling Wizard Lidzuga to rest for the day, and that his probationary period would be pushed forward a day.

However, the holiday had passed, and so everyone went back to work doing as much as they could before the heat of the day forced everyone back into the dungeon.

Shana herself woke up early, as she'd begun doing recently, leaving the comforting abyss of empty, thoughtless sleep, and everything hurt all over again. Tota was dead. Tyatya was dead. Dyadya resented her. Mushka had grown distant. Yoshka wasn't here with her. She lay on the bed, staring tiredly at the familiar ceiling and taking deep, deliberate breaths, hands folded over her stomach. With each breath, she felt magic filling her, enriching the life within her, energizing her thoughts to wakefulness, even if she didn't want it to…

She closed her eyes trying to ignore the world a little longer, ignore her pain, ignore herself…

Eventually, Shana opened her eyes. She dabbed at her face, but it was dry. No tears this morning. There hadn't been tears in several months. That seemed like a betrayal, somehow…

…

…

…

…

Shana found herself blinking, coming back to awareness as the disruptive emotions receded. She had not been insensate for too long. Carefully, slipped out of her bed, full of all the other girls who had come to keep her company for the night, and take advantage of the fact she had a bound tool that made a breeze inside her house. The bead had been consumed during the night, so there was nothing she had to remove.

Despite her attempts to not disturb anyone, Karina was already waking up. She'd been right next to Shana, after all, and the other girl had also taken to waking up early once she'd learned what Shana was doing. By the time Shana had readied her bath bucket for when she needed it later in the morning, Karina had managed to push herself upright, standing up from the bed and rubbing her eyes.

"You can go back to sleep, Karina," Shana said, as she had every day since she'd started doing this that the other girl had slept over. "I can do it by myself."

"Mragn gragun feruh…" Karina said, or something to that effect. She stumbled towards the water jug, hefted it, and lifted it to her lips when she realized it still had water, taking a drink. There was conspicuously no cup next to it. Shana knew this was not in keeping with Binder Lori's standards of hygiene, but there were so many people in her house having cups for all of them to drink from was simply unreasonable. Swallowing, Karina shook her head. “Come on, let’s go while it’s still cool.”

Karina was a good friend, and worked very hard. Shana worried about her sometimes.

Carefully, the two of them left the house. Outside, some of the additional lights that Binder Lori had placed for last night’s holiday still glowed, though most had disappeared, their imbuement no doubt spent. Still, their light wasn’t really necessary. The red moon was full in the sky, and would be for half a week yet since it moved so slowly, and the other moons were out as well, though their lights were weaker. Still, between that and the distant dawn, the sky was a slowly brightening blue, and they had no need to worry for their footing.

Shana was just closing the door to her house when the house next door opened, and Wizard Taeclas stepped out. “Good morning Shana,” the Deadspeaker greeted just quietly enough to not wake up any of the neighbors, her smile so wide Shana felt it should be reflecting moonlight. “Good morning, Karina.”

“Mornin’, Wiz Tae,” Karina greeted right back.

“Good morning, Wizard Taeclas,” Shana said respectfully. “Did you rest well last night?”

“Not really. The holiday was so much fun!” Wizard Taeclas said cheerfully as the three of them began to walk to where their tools were kept. “We might have stayed up a little too late…? But it’s fine, I’ll take a nap in the afternoon. Heh, I love this place! It’s all right to take a nap when it gets too hot to work! Back in Covehold we didn’t get to stop like that!”

“It’s only now in the summer,” Karina said. “When it gets cooler again, there’s no napping unless there’s no work to do.”

“Eh, if it’s cooler, than there’s no reason to nap, right?” Wizard Taeclas said.

Other people were already moving about, taking advantage of the cool of the predawn. Some people were getting an early start on laundry, while those who shoveled the waste from the latrines got a start on cleaning out last night’s load to take to the compost pit. The hunters who also ran the tannery were collecting the gold water from the special evaporators Binder Lori had made, to be used for treating skins, though Shana also knew that they gave out the caustic liquid to those who had very stubborn stains to remove in their laundry.

Taeclas greeted everyone with a wide smile, exchanging a few words with them about how fun the holiday last night had been—actually, should it be called a holinight?—how delicious the food was, and wishing there’d been music to go with the dancing.

“Wiz Lori would never allow it,” Karina said. “She hates music a night.”

“But why, though?” Wizard Taeclas sighed.

“No one knows,” Shana said, “but she dislikes it enough to have made it into a law, so it must be for a very good reason.”

“Maybe she used to live near a tavern, and they played music so late she couldn’t sleep?” Karina suggested.

“Hmm… I suppose that’s one way she’d end up not liking music at night,” Wizard Taeclas said. “Do you think Rian knows?”

“If he does, he probably wouldn’t say,” Karina said. “Unless they talk about it when they’re eating. Then we’ll just have to listen.”

"What?"

"You're new, so you haven't heard them yet, but Lord Rian and Wiz Lori really don't care who's listening when they talk, and sometimes they're funny."

"Oh, like when Rian asked Lori if he'd have to keep knocking on her door so she'd put down her book?"

They reached the tool shed where their poles were, where they rested on a special rack so that the wires of the lattice wouldn't be at risk of hitting the other tools. While Wizard Taeclas was able to heft her pole easily enough, resting the three pace long tool on her shoulder, Shana had to admit that it was unwieldy for someone of her height to carry around. Hence why she accepted Karina's assistance, the two of them carrying the tool between them towards the edge of the fields were Shana had left off the day before the holiday. Wizard Taeclass waved goodbye as she kept walking ahead of them towards where she had left off claiming crops and placing meanings on them.

As much as Shana wanted to claim she could use the pole by herself, she had to admit that it would have been awkward and slow, and while she would be able to control the pole to keep from potentially damaging the heads of the crops it would have made the pace of her work slow. Karina's assistance allowed her better control as her friend rested the pole on her shoulder, holding the pole to keep it in place to keep it from falling off as Shana used her as a fulcrum to better control the pole.

By now, Karina knew how far away to stand from the crops while Shana maneuvered the pole so that it rested lightly on the crops she would be imbuing as she reached through the wire pressing against her palm. Though it wasn't quite like touching someone with her bare hands or having them inside the boundaries of River's Fork Demesne, it was easy to reach through the wire. At first, it had been strangely disorienting to be in contact with meanings without actually touching them, since she had no tactile sense of where they were, but Shana had eventually become used to the sensation.

She positioned the pole until she became aware that the wire lattice at its head was contacting meanings she had already imbued. With that acting to assure her she hadn't missed any of the stalks, Shana began imbuing the meanings. By now she knew how to draw magic from her connection to River's Fork's core, letting the magic flow from her lungs—it didn't actually need to start there, but that was how she knew how to do this—and down her arms to where she touched the copper wire that wrapped around the pole shaft in an elongated spiral.

Shana pushed the magic through the wire, touching the meanings. Since they were deactivated and Wizard Taeclas wasn't actively maintaining her claim, she was able to override the woman's claim and bind the meaning to her own will. Once that was done, she was able to start imbuing the meaning, and began a slow count to a hundred.

Once her count was finished, the meaning had been imbued, and by now Shana was experienced enough to judge that she'd put in as much as she was supposed to into the meanings she had claimed. If there was a little bit more… well, that was all right. While Wizards were supposed to put in only as much imbuement into what they were imbuing as needed, that was because most wizards were limited in how much magic they could imbue at a time. As a Dungeon Binder, she—and Binder Lori—did not have that limitation, so she could afford to be a little wasteful. It was probably a bad habit to form, but as Binder Lori had forbidden her from learning more Deadspeaking than she already knew, it was not a problem.

"Step," Shana said once she was properly finished and had pulled the wire lattice head of her pole from the crops, and she and Karina took a step sideways. Repositioned, Shana lowered the head and adjusted the lattice slightly so that there was a hair of overlap with the meanings she had just imbued. This was to prevented her from accidentally missing some of the meanings between the places she lowered her tool.

Reaching through the wire again, Shana overrode Wizard Taeclas' claim and began imbuing the meanings, counting to a hundred.

It was slow, repetitive work, as most work was, but neither of them complained. Slowly, methodically, they imbued the meanings that Wizard Taeclas had left deactivated on the crops. Everyone once in the while when they stepped sideways, Karina would shift the pole to her other shoulder to let it take the weight. When they'd begun doing this, Shana had offered to take her turn with the pole resting on her shoulder, but Karina had refused, saying she was fine.

The one time Shana had insisted, she'd realized that with Karina maneuvering the pole the wire lattice at the head was hard to place exactly, and they spent far more time resetting after each step sideways. Shana had eventually acquiesced, and had simply concentrated on trying to be as efficient as she could be.

The two of them continued on until the sun started to rise, and had managed to do several paces of crops before Karina said, "Time for breakfast." She was looking to the side, and Shana followed her gaze to see Rian waving towards them and pointing towards the dungeon.

Shana waved in acknowledgement. "Let me finish this last," she said.

Karina nodded carefully, the pole remaining still and in contact with the crops. The other girl turned her head and raised her voice. "Wiz Tae! Breakfast!"

"Got it!" the Deadspeaker's voice replied, seemingly coming from the crops. They were approaching a corner of the fields, one the wizard had already turned, so she was out of their sight. If they managed to turn the corner today, they'd be able to see her again as they worked. "Just finishing!"

It was only the start of the morning's work. Already, the sunlight shining on them was hot, although their surroundings were still relatively cool despite that. Once they continued after breakfast, however… well, they had their hats. The work had to be done, after all.

"Done," Shana said as she finished imbuing the crops she'd been working on. "We can go have breakfast now."

On the signal, Karina raised the pole off her shoulder, lowering it down to a carrying grip as she started walking, taking the lead back towards the dungeon and breakfast.