Weekly Digest 122 - (#389 - #391) (Patreon)

There Be Fruit

The next several days fell into the same routine. Shana and Karina imbued the crops in the morning until it was too hot for them to work, then resting in the afternoon. Wizard Taeclas continued in her attempts at a hands-free sunshade, which went through several iterations as the older Deadspeaker tried to figure out a way it could be carried without hands. Shana assisted her when she was free, and because the thought of having something besides her hat to cover was very tempting. Eventually, the two of them put together a wooden frame with cord straps for carrying it like a pack, on which a modified form of the sunshade—a sheet of leaves stretched out between two branches—extended up from the frame and hung over the head of anyone wearing it.

The frame had initially been uncomfortable, digging into various places on Shana's back, but Wizard Taeclas was able to alter the shape of the frame to curve around those areas. Wearing the frame with her wet towel over her shoulders also helped, adding more padding.

The two of them made two of the sunshade frames, and Shana offered to one to Karina as well, putting on the frame Wizard Taeclas had made for her to demonstrate it.

"I can't wear one," her friend said bluntly.

"Why not? It's not very heavy, and after adjustment it's much more comfortable that it appears."

"I put the pole on my shoulders, remember?" She pointed at the two branches that rose up to support the sunshade and rose up behind the shoulders. "It won't be able to do that with these."

"We could move the support further inward," Wizard Taeclas suggested.

"Having the sunshade still makes it hard to switch the pole to my other shoulder though?" Karina said, demonstrating how she normally raised the pole over her head to do that. "It's fine. Just my hat is good enough for me. Besides, the sunshade is right over your head, so doesn't this only really work at noon?"

Wizard Taeclas stared at the sunshades they'd made with an expression of despair. "Maybe we should have tried them outside first before we made another…" she muttered.

As Karina had predicted, the sunshades weren't very useful until it was close to noon, and by then her hat was the more effective cover. The pack also took time to remove, delaying when Shana could take a bath. She used it twice, and then stopped. Wizard Taeclas' feelings weren't hurt, because the woman herself only used hers three times from what seemed like determined optimism.

Still, the Deadspeaker continued trying to make sunshades using leave and branches, taking apart the ones they'd built for raw material. It was something to do when they were resting after lunch to cool down from the heat before they went to work on imbuing the dungeon farm's crops, or at least the ones that were mature and sturdy enough to handle contact with the poles. The crops had sprouted but were still too tender to be handled roughly, but the tubers were being harvested now, and they were much bigger than usual. Wizard Taeclas had obviously included something besides quick maturation to the meaning she'd placed on them.

Other crops that they'd accelerated were also harvested, such as the vegetables that Wizard Taeclas had brought with her from Covehold Demesne. Some of those vegetables were allowed to keep growing so they could harvest their seeds to grow more, such as the leafy vegetables, but most of the vegetables were still sent to the kitchen, and soon found its way into everyone's meals.

The variety was needed as the lack of fruits from River's Fork was finally being felt. Despite being in possession of the notes from…

…

…

…

…despite this, Wizard Lidzuga had not yet managed to adapt the meaning on the fruit trees to not be so damaging to them.

"What's taking him so long?" Binder Lori muttered during dinner, glaring down at her stew. "It's been a week. Hasn't he managed to adapt those meanings yet?"

"There's a lot of Binder Koshay's—"

…

…

…

Shana returned to consciousness with Yoshka's hand on her face. "Thank you, Yoshka," she said through the palm mashing her cheek. "I'm fine now."

"Okay!"

"So that means you can put your hand down."

"Aw…!" Still, her cousin did put down her hand, and if there was one advantage of fruit no longer being served, it was that Yoshka's hand wasn't covered in their juices.

The conversation had progressed in her absence. "—could take a look at the trees," Wizard Taeclas said. "Maybe I can see what Lidz is having problems with. I kinda want to eat fruits again too."

Lori frowned. "Can we afford for you to stop the work you're currently doing?"

"Everything I can put a meaning on in the dungeon farm has one, and a day won't make much difference to the crops in the fields outside. And it would be beneficial to see how the meanings are actually put together, so I can start experimenting on the happyfruit trees we have. That way we're not completely reliant on River's Fork for fru—"

"You're going tomorrow!" Binder Lori suddenly announced loudly. "Do what you can to get any progress done. How long do you need?"

Wizard Taeclas was startled by the abrupt exclamation. "Uh, a day or two, maybe?"

"That means you'll have to stay the night in River's Fork," Rian pointed out. "Otherwise half your day will be spent going back and forth."

"Oh." Wizard Taeclas glanced at Mistress Rybelle. "I'm not sure I want to be gone for that long… "

"Well, you could go back and forth for a couple of days, but I'm not sure how much work you'd get done that way. You'd be spending half your time sitting around on whichever boat you're using, baking under the hot sun and bored out of your mind…"

He ceased his description as Wizard Taeclas shuddered. "No, I don't want to bake anymore!"

Shana interjected. "If it's a matter of not having a place to stay the night there, I can offer you the use of my office. It's not much, but you can roll out your bedroll there. I cannot make any promises about how cool it is, however."

If anything, Wizard Taeclas seemed to wilt further at the reminder. "I don't want to bake anymore!"

"…why don't we let Tae deal with her pain for a moment," Rian said gently. "Speaking of River's Fork, however, I think it's finally time for us to speak to Yllian about what the Golden Sweetwood Company's reply said, if only so we can include any preparations that need to be done into our work schedule."

Binder Lori made a face, turning her gaze to look at Shanalorre. "I am not relinquishing my demesne," she said.

"I'm sure that it's very unlikely that they'll ask you to. But, you know, they might want to settle in River's Fork and Lorian since we already have established infrastructure for surviving the winter. Would you turn them away if they wanted that? Imagine it, a large infusion of skilled workers, tool, processed materials such as metals, people other than me who know how to coordinate and administrate…"

"That sounds like something you want," Binder Lori said flatly.

"Yes, because I can barely be a functional lord over the people we have now. If we take in new settlers and you don'traise any new lords or ladies, I am quitting, and I don't care what that does to our current legal code!"

Shana frowned. "Something would happen to our legal code if Lord Rian abdicated his position?"

"I'd abolish the list on the right," Lori said, pointing to where the demesne's laws were listed next to the dungeon's entrance.

Shana, Wizard Taeclas and Mistress Rybelle turned to follow where she was pointing. "That's… half the laws, right?"

"No, the laws are the list on the left," Shana corrected. "The Great Binder is talking about the list of things everyone has a right to do: living, owning property, assumed innocent unless proven otherwise…"

Wizard Taeclas and Mistress Rybelle turned back towards Binder Lori. "So… if Rian stopped being lord, you'd… what, take everyone's stuff?"

"I could," Binder Lori nodded before focusing on her stew again, raising a spoonful to her mouth.

"But… you won't, right?"

Binder Lori didn't reply, her mouth moving in a slow leisurely chew.

Wizard Taeclas waited expectantly, even as Binder Lori continued to eat.

Finally, Rian sighed. "You're not going to get an answer. She's doing the 'ominous dramatic silence' thing."

"Eh? But… you're not really going to quit, are you?"

Rian hummed, raised a finger… then bent down and focused on his stew, raising a spoonful to his mouth.

On the other side of Ninang Riz, Mikon sighed. "And you wonder why you're the only lord her Bindership has raised…"

As Wizard Taeclas started pouting at getting two non-answers, Rian swallowed, "So, now that you’ve had time to consider, will you be taking Shana's—"

"Shanalorre," Binder Lori corrected, not looking up from her bowl.

"—Shanalorre's offer to stay overnight in her office?"

Wizard Taeclas made a face, but she had been the one to volunteer her services in helping Wizard Lidzuga. “It’s not too hot at night, is it Sha…nalorre?”

“I would say it would be a bit cooler than here,” Shana said. “While there’s no assurance of a breeze, being under the dome means greatly reduced sunlight and heat, and the deadspoken wood doesn’t get hot as easily.”

“… that doesn’t sound so bad…” Wizard Taeclas said thoughtfully, then glanced at her wife. “Though… I don’t want to leave Rybelle all alone…”

“It will only be one night, Tae,” Mistress Rybelle said. “Perhaps two if you’re not able to do it in a day. I’ll be fine. At least I don’t have to worry about gangs and fire here.”

“I suppose…”

“Look at it this way, Tae,” Rian said. “You have very strong motivation to get results as soon as possible.”

“Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything…” Wizard Taeclas said.

“Too late,” Binder Lori said. “You said there’d be fruit”

Wizard Taeclas sighed.

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The Return Of The Letter

The work on the sawmill had been progressing well over the past week. The foundation had been placed and leveled to Lori's satisfaction, and Lori had been able to raise half of a stone wall on the river-facing side of the site. The rest would wait until after the water wheel was installed. The carpenters would be taking care of that today as she and Rian went to River's Fork to talk to Yllian, with—Lori reached into her pouch, feeling around for the right shape before drawing them out, then flipping between the two rocks she pulled out—Taeclas traveling with them, putting the wooden frames that would support the roof on hold for the moment. They were taking the ice boat, as the Coldhold had been sent down the river to collect salt.

"You know, this is more like what I had in mind when I heard rumors of an ice boat," Taeclas said as they traveled downriver, running her fingers over the exposed ice between the boat's planks. "At least I can see the ice without trying, this time."

"While it's an idea I'm proud of suggesting, I'm hoping that it will be a thing of the past soon," Rian said, sitting with a bow stave resting against one shoulder. Lori glared at the unstrung bow, but Rian said that keeping a bow strung when unused ruins it. Something about the bow losing tension or something. Still, it seemed pointless to have a bow ready to hand when it couldn't be used immediately when needed, like when they happened to see a large beast they wanted dead drinking along the river as they passed by.

"Aw! Why?"

"Because they were a stopgap measure," Rian said. "We made ice boats because we didn't have a way to make watertight joins that would let us make boats out of wood. With you and Lidzuga around, that's a thing of the past now."

"That man better have a boat ready for us," Lori muttered, her arrow on her lap next to her staff as she held her hat against the wind. The binding of lightningwisps she'd anchored to the arrowhead was still filled with a nearly irresponsible amount of imbuement—nearly—and the small addition of internal lightningwisps she'd just added to it once more allowed her to activate the binding at a distance once outside of her demesne.

"I'm sure he's been productive," Rian said. "He was putting together that second orchard of fruit trees the last I heard. Maybe he thought it was better to concentrate on those."

Lori blinked. "When was this?" she demanded.

"When we took the children here to spend the holiday with their parents. See, this is why you should have gotten off the ship and talked to Yllian."

"Talking to people is your job."

"And that's why I know Lidzuga was putting together the second orchard and you don't."

"You're also supposed to tell me things."

"Would the fact that Lidzuga had started on one of the projects you assigned him really have been relevant at the time?"

"… well, you should have said something yesterday," Lori said, glaring at him.

"I will endeavor to do better in the future, your Bindership."

Lori nodded. "See that you do."

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She would never get used to the feeling of leaving the boundaries of her demesne. The sensation of stifling, nearly ­agonizing heat struck her entire body all at once, and she gasped. It wasn't as hot as it could be, since it was still the morning, but the ice boat had no shade beyond the hat on her head, so she was completely exposed.

Rian had already skimmed a ladle over the river, offering it to her with one of those strange expressions on his face. Lori took the proffered the ladle and with a disgustingly practiced move flicked contents into her face. Water splashed on her, spilling down onto her shirt and feeling refreshingly cool.

It wouldn't last long, she knew. Her arms were already feeling hot, and she knew it would be a terrible idea to touch the wire-covered parts of her staff, which had been sitting out in the sun.

Really, she shouldn’t have to go. Lori should have just stayed at home and had Rian go find out what was in the letter to report it back to her. But…

There was chance that the typhon beast would appear along the river again, and if it did, thistime she meant to capitalize! If she spotted it today, it wasn’t going to get to finish its drink and walk back into the rainbowed colors, it was going to join the chokers she’d experimented on and explode!

Unfortunately, she had no luck this trip either. Despite watching the shore intently, no typhon beast made itself known.

“It’s probably for the best,” Rian said as the shoreline changed, the Iridescence vanishing once more as they entered River’s Fork. “With the weather and heat the way it is, everything must be so dry setting off your little lightning arrow might start a fire that could spread for taums. It would definitely get into River’s Fork.”

“That’s what that arrow is for?-!” Riz exclaimed, staring in horror at the projectile on Lori’s lap, and she wasn’t the only one. Some of Riz’s friends shuffled as if to put more distance between themselves and the arrow.

“It’s not thatdry,” Lori said, waving him off. “The river is still full, and none of the plants appear to be dying. Besides, the binding is for an instantaneous expression of lightning, too brief to cause anything to ignite. And even if something had caught fire, we’d have been next to the river in any case. I could have taken care of it.”

"It doesn't need to be 'that dry', setting off a fire will dry everything around and then they will be 'that dry'."

"Well, nothing happened, so leave the subject alone."

"Yes, your Bindership…"

Riz patted his shoulder for some reason.

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When they arrived at River's Fork, Lori was glad to see that people were actually working. The replanted fields were being watered, as were the terraced farming plots that were now finished. She was glad to see they were drawing water from the bathhouse runoff pit, though that was probably more from convenience than compliance. She knew how to get her idiots to do as they should, after all.

They were seen, of course, but other than a few people pausing for a moment to look toward them, people remained at work.

Yllian met them at the dock, wearing a wide-brimmed reed hat and his exposed arms a very concerning livid red. He caught the rope thrown at him with a casual familiarity and tied it to the post to secure the boat.

"Yllian!" Rian greeted as he rose from his seat and quickly crossed to the dock. "How's the next crop doing?"

"Rian. They're taken well, and Lidzuga says he can start Deadspeaking them in a few more days." Yllian turned towards her, bowing. "Great Binder."

"Yllian. Where's Lidzuga? He's not taking an unauthorized day off, is he?" Lori looked at everyone impatiently, waiting for them to get off so she could vacate the boat as well.

"He's should be at the firewood grove, Great Binder, collecting wood for his projects."

"Erzebed, could you have someone show—" Lori felt for the right shape and checked the name, "—Taeclas where that is so she can talk to him?"

"Brabli, could you show her where that is?" Riz said.

Taeclas stopped staring at Lori and followed the woman that Riz had indicated, though she kept looking back towards Lori with a strange look on her face.

"Well, that hopefully gets us more fruits again," Rian said. "Yllian, you've had time to read the Golden Sweetwod Company's letter, right?"

"I have. You wish to discuss it now?"

Rian pointed at her for some reason.

"I see. All right, then. I will retrieve the letter and meet you in the G—that is, Binder Shanalorre's office."

"Taeclas might be staying over and sleeping there tonight, by the way."

"I'll ready it for that later, then."

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Shanalorre's office was, as promised, warm but not painfully hot, especially after Lori anchored airwisps and firewisps to the quartz embedded into her staff and formed a binding that deleted heat while moving air. Holding her staff in the crook of her arm, she turned it back and forth depending on whether she felt to cold or too hot, which let her stay comfortable as she sat herself behind the table that acted as the office's desk.

Rian immediately started amusing himself by walking back and forth to find a spot where the binding blew towards him to set down his chair.

When Yllian arrived, the worn envelope of the letter in hand, Lori was pointedly turning her staff to make Rian stand up and move his chair a few yustri to get back in the flow of the cooling breeze. She needed to amuse herself too, after all.

"Ah, Yllian," Rian said. "Finally, we can get started."

Yllian took the other free chair as Rian finally gave up and just sat down where his chair already was.

"Soo…." Rian began, "what did the rest of the Golden Sweetwood Company say? How twitchy is her Bindership likely to get over this?"

Her other lord glanced towards her. "Unfortunately, there is likely to be some twitching," he confessed.

"Will they be coming here, then?" Lori demanded.

"That has never been in question, Great Binder," Yllian said. “The goal of the Golden Sweetwood Company was to settle in the new continent as a group. While we the company is divided at the moment, that is simply because we do not want to abandon River’s Fork completely.”

Her eyes narrowed. “This is my demesne now.”

“Of course, Great Binder, although as far as the Company knows, we are still ruled by… well, by Binder Shanalorre. The letter WAS sent before winter, after all, and those were our circumstances then.”

“So they’re coming here thinking that Shanalorre is still in charge and her Bindership is the cranky neighboor upriver who took in the majority of the demesne’s survivors?” Rian said.

“Essentially. Let me read to you the—”

“No, no, don’t read the whole letter,” Lori cut in. “I don’t have the time or the patience for a ‘read the whole letter word-for-word’ segment. Just give me the notable points that I actually have to worry about.”

Yllian hesitated, glancing down at the letter, eyes moving side to side as he read quickly. “Does the company planning to bring in Deadspeakers to teach Binder Shanalorre count?”

Lori considered that. At the very least, if the Golden Sweetwood Company planned to teach Shanalorre, then they presumably intended to keep her alive as River’s Fork’s Dungeon Binder. Although… “Does it say whether they planned to obey her authority?”

"There's nothing to indicate their thoughts on the matter, Great Binder."

"Hmm…" Lori 'hmm…'-ed, then shrugged. "Well, it's irrelevant now. She is no longer the Dungeon Binder who rules this demesne. What else?"

"I've been instructed to open negotiations with you about the possibility of more people settling into your demesne. That is, Lorian Demesne. I believe it's because friends and extended family will be part of the next wave, and they might prefer to settle in the demesne where the people they know are already settled."

"Not because we have an actual functional Dungeon?" Lori said dryly.

"That might have been a factor, Great Binder. The report I sent also included small reports from Kolinh, Daising, and other members of the company living in Lorian Demesne, and they would have mentioned it, especially in comparison to our own circumstances here at the time."

"Do they give an estimate as to how many settlers will be arriving?" Rian asked.

"The ship that the company hired the year before was able to fit three hundred people and supplies, so the next wave will probably a similar number."

Three hundred people. That was more than the people in both of her demesnes combined. And they wanted to live here?

…

She was NOT going to be the one building all those houses. There were five hundred of them they could make their own rainbowed houses!

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Tree Adjustments

"Huh… that's a lot of people who'd need to be picked up from Covehold…" Rian said, sounding thoughtful.

"Picking them up from Covehold Demesne won't be necessary. The ship will make for the bay at the end of the river directly, and the colonists will make their way here as we did."

Rian frowned. "Wait, they know where the river is?" he said.

"Yes. We didn't start out from Covehold except to pass through and get the ship cleared of the colors. Koshay had us go along the coast to look for a site to settle, and we found the bay at the end of the river by chance. "

"Ah. Of course. Well, there goes our relative secrecy. If nothing else, eventually people are going to start wondering where that ship goes, and the sailors on it can spread the knowledge of where the bay is." He turned towards Lori. "Maybe it's time to go back to expanding the demesne?"

"I will consider it," she said.

"Because now is actually a pretty good time since the sawmill has reached the point where—"

"I will consider it."

"Leaving the matter alone now, your Bindership. Yllian, change the subject, quick!"

Yllian rolled his eyes, but glanced down at the letter again. "The number will probably be less than the three hundred settlers. I informed them of the difficulties we've been having with growing food without Koshay, so they should be bringing in food for the winter as well."

"Is there any indication that they intend to found another demesne?"

Yllian hesitated. "The arriving settlers will be coming with far more wizards than we did, and if they followed my recommendation many of them will be Whisperers. Beyond those and the Deadspeakers who were intended to teach Binder Shanalorre, there will also be Mentalists and Horotracts."

Lori twitched again. More threats, and ones that Rian hadn't even interviewed. "And they will be coming here?"

"Here in River's Fork, yes. At the time I wrote my letter, it was clear that we needed better infrastructure than what we had and that Koshay was able to make with his Deadspeaking. Given what I heard of what the Great Binder was able to build, I thought that if we had our own Whisperers we could start building infrastructure without needing the intervention of a Dungeon Binder."

At the very intent look Lori gave him, Yllian added, "Of course, this was seasons ago, when circumstances were substantially different. Matters have of course changed since then."

"You're going to want to keep all those wizards here in River's Fork, aren't you?" Rian said. "You barely trust Taeclas, and she's Taeclas. The woman only wants to grow plants and be with her wife, and you're still worried she'd want to take your demesne."

"She's a wizard," Lori pointed out. Did Rian just not understand?

"Yes, but she's a wizard who has absolutely no desire to be a Dungeon Binder! It's specifically the kind of person you had me look, I found her, and you still think she's a danger to you?"

"She could have deceived you, or change her mind in the future."

Rian took and deep breath and sighed let out a sigh. "Yllian, what else did the letter say?"

Yllian scanned the letter again. "Much of it is informing me of what supplies they'll be sending along and asking if there's anything we need specifically, which I'm supposed to send back with the ship when they arrive."

"And when will that be?" Lori demanded.

"Mid-summer at the earliest, but late summer or even early fall at the latest."

"So they could come any day now," Rian said. "River's Fork will have to play host to five times the normal number of people."

"It won't be so bad," Yllian said. "They will be well-equipped with tents, so there won't be any reason to worry about finding places for people to stay. There's flat land nearby for them to set up, and since it's within the demesne, they won't need to clear so much of the space, since there aren't any large beasts nearby. And if there are, those can be hunted."

"And hygiene?" Rian asked.

"Many of these people will be seasoned militia and their families. They know not to shit near the river, and the camp will be well-organized. There will be no risk of tainting the river water so close to the village."

Rian nodded. "Was there anything else in the letter? Is the Golden Sweetwood Company running low on funds?"

"No…although…" Yllian glanced at Lori, an apologetic expression on his face. "They requested we scout for further possible settlements, if River's Fork is not yet grown to be able to support the next batch of settlers."

Lori twitched.

"Well, that sounds like a problem for next-year-me," Rian said brightly. "Today-me has enough to worry about right now. So… we're due for at most five hundred people."

"And supplies," Yllian added.

"Ah, thank you Yllian. Yes, and supplies. How much of that is likely to be food?"

"One of my recommendations in the letter I sent was to bring enough supplies to last the winter, as we wouldn't be able to replicate growing multiple harvests in the spring, summer and fall without a capable Deadspeaker. They should be bringing the necessary food to last them the season."

"'Should', you say?"

Yllian nodded.

"So… River's Fork, which I believe is now no longer in danger of starving to death—” Lori glanced at Rian, who nodded, but also shrugged and held his thumb and forefinger about a yustri apart, —“will once more be in grave danger of starving to death again."

"It shouldn't…" Yllian trailed off as Lori gave him a level look. "But I suppose it is a possibility, Great Binder."

"Then when they arrive, you will check whether or not that possibility is, in fact, the case. If they arrive thinking they can just eat our food, we're not letting them in."

"Except the children, of course," Rian said. "Iridescence is very unhealthy for growing children, probably."

Lori rolled her eyes. ""Fine, the children can come in, but that's it. No one else can come in until they've gathered sufficient foor to last through the winter."

"What about checking if the children are doing well? We don't have the parents coming over every week because it's too far, and you wouldn't allow the boats to be used for it, but if the settlers will be made to wait outside of the demesne they can just walk the distance."

"Fine, they can come in to check on the children. But they're not allowed to eat when they do it!"

Rian nodded, then turned to Yllian. "More relevant to the two of us, do you think they'll respect River's Fork's current arrangements and structure, or do you think they're going to supplant you as this demesne's lord due to… well, not being a majority?"

"It shouldn'tbe an issue. As the most senior member of the Golden Sweetwood Company on the continent, they should respect my authority, and I'm sure I can explain how matters stand to any other senior members who arrive."

"You're a lord. They will do so regardless," Lori said. "To do otherwise is to defy my authority as the one who ratified your continuation in that role."

"While I of course completely agree with your Bindership," Rian said, "this sort of 'dealing with people' matter is exactly the sort of thing that your lords are for, isn't it. So let us handle this when they arrive. Please?"

As if she was actually going to talk to those people herself!

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She left the two alone to discuss demesne matters as she went to look for—Lori reach into her pouch, checking the names—Taeclas and Lidzuga. Riz and the rest escorted her, all of them sweating as Lori went to where the fruit trees were, which shouldbe where the two Deadspeakers were. As she walked, she considered what she'd learned.

Having more people arrive to settle in her demesnes… it wasn't that she was opposedto the idea, but three hundred? That would double her combined population, which would require doubling… well, everything! Housing, food production, baths, laundry facilities, water storage, food storage, Dungeon space… well, not that last, she had that many open alcoves in her Dungeon. But she'd probably have to expand the space just a little more, to give her more leeway for growth… or more sudden arrivals.

Lori also acknowledged that she wound likely need to finally do what Rian had been bothering her to do and finally raise another lord or lady, possibly more. Any new additions to her demesne would be completely unfamiliar to Rian, and he likely wouldn't have the time to learn how to manipulate them if he was already busy with prior work.

The problem was, of course, that she didn't have any candidates to raise.

…

Well, it was a 'dealing with people' problem, so she'd leave it to Rian.

Lori found the two she was looking for standing around one of the fruit trees—she didn't know what sort it was—each with a hand on the trunk. Taeclas was frowning, eyes not really looking at anything in particular as Lidzuga seemed to be in the middle of explaining something.

"—so it's all generating even more heat," said Lidzuga. "And because of the weather…"

"Yes, I see, I see," Taeclas said, "And while we can mitigate this by altering the meaning to induce the growth of more leaves, that's going to compete with the fruit production. Though we might need to do that anyway. The tree is going to need the increased nutrient production…"

"But that's going to generate more heat!"

"I know!"

"Where is the heat being generated?"

The two Deadspeakers jumped in surprise, turning towards her. "Your Bindership?" Lidzuga exclaimed.

"Good morning, your Bindership!" Taeclas greeted cheerfully. Why did she keep doing that?

"Where is the heat being generated?" Lori repeated.

"Uh, as I explained, your Bindership, it's mostly the leaves. It's where the most energy-intensive vital process are, and they've been getting hot because of the meaning on the tree combined with the summer's excessive heat."

Lori looked up at the tree in question. "All the leaves or specific ones?"

"It's most of the leaves that are growing from the older branches of the tree, your Bindership," Taeclas said, waving vaguely at the tree. "One of the things the meaning does is to grow leaves that have been altered to produce more nutrients faster, which are the ones that get hot. Because of the past year of growth, the meaning is no longer where it needs to be to induce these leaves to grow, which is a different problem, but the leaves it does induce aren't as efficient as they could be because of a lack of adjustments. It's result in the leaves being warm, which would normally not be a problem, but with this heat…"

"So the leaves are evenly distributed?" Lori said, looking up at the trees above.

"For now, your Bindership. The leaves on the ends of the newer branches don't grow to have those induced changes."

Lori nodded absently, beginning to walk around the tree ass he stared upwards, noting which direction the wind was blowing. The tree didn't feel particularly hot… but then again, it wouldn't the trees were high up, and any heat would simply get higher unless it was a strong radiant heat. "Beyond the issue of the hot leaves, what are the other issues that have prevented the reactivation of the meanings?"

"It's mostly been needing to extend the meaning to the newly grown parts of the trees and deactivating it in the areas that aren't really suited for it anymore, your Bindership," Lidzuga said. "I've had to go slow, especially since I've needed to keep referring to the note and flow diagram examples."

That implied the adjustments were something he had little experience in, or were far more complicated than what he was used to. "Taeclas, do you concur?"

Taeclas nodded. "Lidz was just showing me the differences between a tree he's had to adjust and one that still needed adjustment. The meaning's really fiddly and I can see why Lidz needs the notes. It's nothing I can't do, though, but the heat is still an issue."

Lori waved a hand dismissively. "Never mind the heat. How many trees do you think you can adjust today?"

Instead of answering, Taeclas frowned and stepped away from the tree, moving over to a different tree and laying her hands on it. her sightline became vague again as she concentrated on the meaning that she was perceiving in the tree. "Uh, most of the time would be in claiming the life in the newer parts of the tree that would need to be included in the meaning… maybe between seven to ten before I have to stop for dinner, depending on the trees' particular adjustments?"

Lori nodded. "Get to work, then. Lidzuga, with me. I need wooden poles."