Weekly Digest 123 - (#392 - #394) (Patreon)

Ventilation and Boats

It was clear to Lori that the issue with the trees wasn't a Deadspeaking problem, but rather a cooling problem. After all, it didn't matter how much heat a process generated, what mattered was siphoning off that heat.

Really, if they had the infrastructure the best way to deal with this was to have misty sprays of water coming down on the leaves, which was cooling and irrigation put together. The lack of infrastructure meant that wasn't viable, but if Taeclas even put the meaning on a fruit tree planted in her dungeon farm, Lori would be willing to invest in that infrastructure.

Here, she'd be investing in slightly less intensive infrastructure.

The firewood trees didn't have branches long and straight enough to be poles, but that was what having a Deadspeaker was for. She had Lidzuga putting together lengths of reasonably straight wood, each at least three paces long, while she gathered rocks with assistance from Riz and her friends, one being sent of to get some shovels.

A pile of rocks had been gathered not far from the bath house, which turned out to been gathered under Yllian's orders both as a stockpile in case she needed more raw material and as a means of keeping certain people occupied. Lori put it to the former use, taking rocks and softening them so she could shape them… after forcible cooling them by claiming and binding the firewisps inside them, since they were all hot from being out in the sun.

The softened stone was wrapped around one end of the lengths of wood and solidified to keep it in place. Lori did the same to the rest of the lengths that Lidzuga had fused together and straightened using Deadspeaking. There were seven poles, with one more in progress as Lori claimed and bound airwisps, anchoring them to the stone wrapped around the ends of the lengths wood. When  each of the improvised poles had bindings anchored to them, it was time to test them so that she'd know how effective their dispersal was.

Of course, she wasn’t going to just claim the earthwisps in the dirt and have them move aside to make a hole. That would ruin the soil! And given the fruit tree grove was where a lot of the demesne’s latrine waste went to keep the trees nourished, she also didn’t want to touch any of it. Fortunately, they had shovels. Two of Riz’s friends put aside their spears and started to dig a hole for the improvised pole. When it was about knee deep, the pole was put in the rest of the soil was packed into the hole to hold it in place, and some rocks stacked at the bottom for further stability.

With the pole now stable, Lori used her staff to reach up and imbue and activate the binding of airwisps.

Immediately, the leaves of the trees above began to rustle violently. Lori adjusted the intensity of the airwisps to keep the wind they were generating from being so violent as to damage the leaves. The wind spread outward in all directions and slightly upward, and after imbuing the binding so that it would last a while, Lori stepped back to observe how far the wind spread. The air spread surprisingly far, judging from the moving leaves, which hopefully meant that the poles she had would be enough.

Reaching up with her staff to deactivate binding, Lori then had the pole pulled up from the ground so it could be repositioned. Walking around the fruit trees—and having to endure the smell of the latrine waste used to fertilize them on top of the heat—Lori identified the best places to install the poles, where they would be able to ventilate the most number of trees, with some degree of overlap. The trees on the outermost edges of the location would have the least cooling, but they'd still be cooled and that should be enough.

"Uh, your Bindership?" Lidzuga said as she reached up to deactivate the binding. "What's all this for?"

"You were both saying how the meanings were causing the leaves to grow too hot," Lori said. "When something gets too hot, you cool it. Since I can't just anchor firewisps to the tree and delete the heat, I'm increasing the airflow so that the heat being released by the leaves is drawn away faster."

Lidzuga stared up at the trees, which ruffled only slightly in the mostly-still air. "Ooooh…" he said, then groaned. "Ugh, my uncle is going to be insufferable if he ever finds out about this. He's a steam driver artisan, he always goes on about air-cooled steam drivers…"

"I wouldn't know, I've never worked with one," Lori said. "I'll finish this, you go help Taeclas adjust the meanings."

"Yes, your Bindership…"

The holes were dug up as Lori added airwisps from her lungs to the bindings on the poles, letting her imbue them at a distance. She made a note to add these to the list of bindings she had to keep imbued. Without any bound tool cores with her, so this would need to be manually imbued, but that was no problem. Besides, she didn't have any more bound tool cores ready anyway. She'd have to get the smiths to make her more.

Once the holes were finished—Rian had arrived at one point and had taken over getting the holes dug up—Lori was able to put the poles into place. Six of the poles were positioned so that they'd be able to blow air all the way to the edge of the trees, and the other two were placed near the middle of the trees to circulate air there. In instead of dirt, rocks were piled around the bottom of the poles, which Lori softened and reshaped into a solid base to more effectively hold the wooden poles in place.

With the binding on the poles containing airwisps from her lungs—it would be a while before she'd be able to do that again—Lori was able to activate the bindings and begin imbuing them at a distance. Wind began to blow through the leaves of the trees, causing the leaves and branches to sway gently.

"So… is this going to solve our fruit problem?" Rian asked as he leaned on a shovel.

"That is the intention," Lori said. "The Deadspeakers have been going on about the meanings making the leaves of the trees too hot, and causing harm to the trees. This will cool them. After all, the trees were able to last through the previous summer, so they can clearly function through a lesser heat."

"I suppose. Though will you be able to imbue these at a distance, or will you need to keep coming here every few days? I don't see a bead receptacle on those poles."

"They can be imbued," Lori said dismissively. "We can head back now. Find out if Taeclas still needs to stay overnight or if she's finished and coming with us."

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Taeclas had to stay, though she said she believed she'd be finished the next day. Lori left it up to Rian to remember to send a boat after her.

Before they left, Lidzuga showed them Lori's Boat, which he declared to be in good condition. Some parts were noticeably paler, and the boat looked as it had when she had first acquired it. Next to it was another boat that looked extremely similar. It had the same dimensions, at any rate, being the same length, width and height. The wooden panels looked a bit thicker, meaning it was no doubt heavier than Lori’s Boat, but it was hardly intended to be carried around.

“Please don’t name this one something like ‘Lori’s Second Boat’ or something,” Rian said as they examined the copied boat.

“Why would I call it that? The name is far too long,” Lori said as she knocked on the wooden structure, and received a dull, heavy echo and aching knuckles in turn. The wood was very solid, and there didn’t seem to be any hollows that could lead to structural weaknesses.

“Oh good…”

“’Lori’s Boat Two’ is far better.”

“…” Rian ‘…’-ed. “…can’t you try some other name?”

“Why? It’s the perfect name.”

“I don’t know… variety? Constantly reusing the same name shows a lack of imagination!”

“It’s a boat, Rian. There’s no need to waste anymore more time on the name than what’s necessary.”

For some reason, Rian sighed. Riz patted him on the shoulder. “Have you tested this in the water yet, Lidz?” Rian asked, looking resigned for some reason.

“Yes, Lord Yllian and a few people were nice enough to help me get it in and out of the water to test how waterproof it was after I finished it,” the Deadspeaker said. “I even tried getting on it. I understand what those outriggers are about now. As it is, it’s a little unstable.”

“That’s because it’s meant to be a barge for cargo, not people,” Rian said. “Now you know why the next one has higher sides, right?”

“Yes, it’s very easy to put too much weight on one side and accidentally have it dip too low and start taking in water,” Lidzuga said. “It wouldn’t take much to improve the design.”

“That’s what the modifications I want you to make are for,” Rian said. “Which one are you working on next, by the way?”

Lidzuga gestured towards where a boxy wooden structure lay on the ground. It… well, it looked like several branches had been stuck together into a barely boat-like shape. The sides of the boat were noticeably higher than Lori’s Boat or the copy.

“Ah, deciding to build the boat that addresses the obvious problem?” Rian said.

Lidzuga nodded. “Increasing the height of the boat’s sides seems like the obvious solution to the risk of it sinking when one side gets low enough to start taking in water. Though…”

“It makes it harder to get in and out,” Rian said, and Lidzuga nodded. “Well, when you build the other permutations I gave you, I’d like your assessment on which configuration to continue producing, and which would be a better structure to build on a larger scale.”

Lori’s Boatand Lori’s Boat Two had to be left behind, as they didn’t have the steam jet driver for it, or a rope to tow it behind them. Rian said he’d bring both when he came to pick up Taeclas the next day so he could bring both boats back to Lori’s demesne. Lori increased the priority of having more bound tool cores made, as the new boat would need its own driver.

On the way back upriver, Lori caught a glimpse of the Typhon Beast, ordering the boat stopped and handing Rian the arrow with the heavily imbued binding of lightningwisps. Unfortunately, by the time the arrow had been knocked onto the bowstring the beast had slipped back into the woods and even as Rian tried to aim at where its vague movements indicated its location, it managed to blend into the Iridescence. Lori couldn’t even blame the missed opportunity on Rian taking too long to take hold of the arrow and aim: the typhon beast had already been turning away from the river when she’d spotted it, finished drinking its fill of water and beginning to move away.

“It’s like it’s taunting us,” Rian said, sounding frustrated as he carefully released the tension on the bow and handed the arrow back to Lori. "Like it was waiting out there to give us a chance to see it, then runs of before we can shoot at it." He glanced at Lori. "Is there any chance it's some kind of dragon-born abomination? You know, altered to be smarter, and it's using its intelligence to mock us?"

Lori shook her head. "The blood of dragonborn abominations is distinctive. And even if it were an abomination, intelligencedoes not work that way. There are stories of beasts, and fursh acting in ways that have been attributed to increased malice and intelligence, but post-morten dissection and analysis found no notable alterations to their brains. It's just a stupid beast, and you're attributing properties to it out of frustration."

"I know that, and you know that, but does that thing know that?"

"Rian, stop being silly."

They continued back home.

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New Bound Tools

Since it seemed she'd be needing new bound tool cores—at the very least, Lori's Boat Two needed a driver to propel it—Lori began making the preparations to make it as soon as she got back home. She had Rian inform the smiths what she needed made, and then checked the amount of copper they had in her treasure room. They still had copper bar stock, but it was probably time to continue mining in River's Fork. She'd have Rian set that up.

Actually, given that mining will indoor work in a dungeon-like environment… did that mean they could have had people mining all summer and they'd have actually wanted to? With the ventilation bound tool built into the mine's dragon shelter portion, all she'd need to do was add a binding of firewisps to cool the air to deal with any heat from all the people working there…

"Rian, start looking for people we can afford to spare or aren't doing anything," Lori ordered her lord at dinner. Whathersname…—Lori checked her rock—Taeclas had returned to Lori's demesne that afternoon, and reported that all the meanings had been adjusted and activated, so they would have new fruit in a few days. "We need people to go and work the mine in River's Fork."

"Wow, you actually remembered without me reminding you. Is this you finally coming into your Mentalism? Will you be able to remember everyone's names without writing them on rocks soon?"

"Wait, that's what that's for?" Taeclas said.

"If you remembered, why didn’t you say anything?"

"I figured you'd want to prioritize the sawmill? You always preferred doing only one project at a time instead of spreading ourselves too thin."

"Does that mean we don't have anyone to spare?"

"I'll ask and see who's willing. The conditions are better now, I think? They can stay in the dragon shelter instead of having to bunk in people's homes, which should be more comfortable… well, aside from cleaning the shelter latrine, but they can just not use that one. though I think the bottom of the mine is still flooded? You might need to do something about that, since… well, that's where most of the mining will be happening? Or should I just give people buckets?"

"Do we have enough buckets to give them?"

"If not, we could always make more. You can never have too many buckets, especially since we'll need something to carry out the ore anyway."

Lori frowned. "What happened to what we used before?"

"I have no idea. It's just always a safe bet to assume you need more buckets." Rian tilted his head. "And probably a hand cart of some sort. And maybe some kind of rope and pulley to help with moving the hand carts up and down the tunnel…"

"Yes, yes, and several other things too, I'm sure. How long will it take you to get the mine operational again?" Lori interrupted.

Rian hummed thoughtfully. "A week, maybe? Though I'm pretty sure I can find more people willing to work in the mine if you let me have a bound tool that blows air around."

Lori frowned. "Why? The mine already has adequate ventilation."

"It's to… actually, just trust me that I need it to be able to recruit more people willing to mine," Rian said. "And maybe one or two of the new wisplights from Covehold? The mine is dark, after all."

"So, the list of inventory needed to reactivate the mine is several buckets, a hand cart, rope, pulleys, a bound tool, and two wisplights. This seems far more than what it took last time."

"Well, given the depth we'll be having people mine at now, I don't think candles and oil lamps is going to be safe anymore. Besides, last time you weren't the one running the mining operation, our demesne was just proving the labor force. Also, back then the mine wasn't also a well-built, Binder Lori-approved dragon shelter, so we need to be more careful about what we do in it. Wouldn't want to leave rocks in front of the food storage, after all."

Ah, right. The mine was also the demesne's food storage now, wasn't it. "Fine, fine. See to it. I expect it to be ready in a week, as you promised."

"I'd like it officially stated I didn't actuallypromise that. I said 'a week, maybe'."

"Just get it done, Rian."

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Lori had more than enough time to extract white Iridescence from the cracked bead to grind down to a find powder as the smiths hammered copper from ingots to sheets. Fortunately, they didn't have to draw it out into wire, since they had plenty of the ones that Rian bought from Covehold. It was boring work, grinding the white Iridescence finer and finer, but there was no one else she could entrust it too. More importantly, there was no one else she'd allow to use her mortar and pestle!

The wisplights for the mine were set aside, as well as a small jar of beads to fuel them.

Once the smiths sent word that the sheet copper was ready, Lori came down to supervise the crafting of the bound tool cores, providing heat were needed as the smiths made little copper capsules that were carefully filled with white Iridescence powder before being tamped down to compress the contents and remove any space to shift before the capsule was sealed and a wire was secured to the outside. The smiths had managed to adjust their tooling to make the capsules slightly smaller than last time, meaning they were able to make a bit more bound tool cores than before.

Some of the wire bought from Covehold was heated and hardened to make bead receptacles for the bound tool cores.

With the bound tool cores made, she was able to get a start on building bound tools she could add to the poles that were cooling the trees in River's Fork. Bone to act as a hard casing around the core of copper and white Iridescence—it had to be protected from idiots throwing rocks and whatever nonsense the people there could come up with—and then she'd need to put the bead receptacle on a length of wire so that beads could be put in without a ladder.

Which reminded her, she'd probably need a ladder to set these things in place.

She also made the new steam jet driver for Lori's Boat Two, which Rian had towed back to Lori's demesne when she'd picked up Taeclas. That required four bound tool cores, as well as a good amount of bone. Most of her time was occupied with fusing the bone together into a cylinder that was to her satisfaction. Once that was done—doing so took half a day, since she had to make sure there were no voids from the fusion that would have weakened the structure— Lori embedded the bound tool cores into the tube, making sure to keep the wires leading to the cores separate.

The cylinder was mounted onto a wooden shaft with bone and pegs. Once, they'd used charring, oil and wax to waterproof the wood so that it wouldn't decay, but as they had a Deadspeaker now, whatshername…—Lori checked the rocks in her pouch—Taeclas was tasked with altering the outer layer of the wood to seal it against water. It took more time than Lori had expected, even with Shanalorre assisting with imbuing.

"Well, she did say she was slow when it came to the carpentry-related parts of Deadspeaking," Rian said as they'd watched the woman sitting on the ground on a cloth, with the wooden shaft and bone cylinder with her eyes half closed. "Next time, we'll know to give her whatever we need her to work on sooner."

"Next time, we're having whatever it is taken downriver to River's Fork for… what's his name…"

"Lidzuga," Rian supplied.

"Yes, him. We'll have him do it. It can't be much longer than this."

"Be nice. Until you manage to learn how to do Deadspeaking and can do this yourself, you really don't have any grounds to judge how long she's taking. How's that progressing, by the way?"

"Just get it to me when she's done, Rian!"

When Taeclas finally finished with the shaft, Lori was able to hand the shaft to the carpenters and smiths, who put together the bound tool's control lever. Springs and subtle little bumps in the wood gave the lever distinct stopping points so that the operator would be able to set it by feel. With the bound tool's mechanisms finally completed, Lori was able to anchor waterwisps and firewisps to the inside of the bone tube. It consisted for four distinct ring-shaped bindings, each one anchored to a different bound tool core to keep the binding from dissipating when not imbued.

When it was done, Lori had a fully functional steam jet driver bound tool with three forward speeds and a reverse setting, that could be installed onto Lori's Boat Two.

Installing the steam jet driver was done in River's Fork. In Lori's Boat, the various driver's that Lori had made and mounted onto the boat had needed to be secured to a wooden mounting point that had been clamped with various pegs and wedges to the wood at the rear of the boat. This had been done to minimize damage to the wood, and they had no way to really repair the wooden hull. However, as they had Deadspeakers now, the steam jet driver for Lori's Boat Two could be mounted directly onto the back of the boat.

The carpenters had prepared a mount for the stream jet driver, which was mounted onto the back of the boat with wooden wedges that were driver into holes chiseled out of the boat's rear panel. Once the mounting point was secured, whatshisname…—Lori checked the rocks in her pouch—Lidzuga fused all the wooden together, sealing the joins. It was, Lori was told, a more structurally secure bond that simply pressing the flat side of the mounting point. Something about the wedges adding crossgrained connections, which was less likely to sheer. Lori had only vaguely understood the explanation, but if the craftsmen who knew their business said so, who was she to doubt them?

While Lidzuga and the carpenter who'd come along to chisel out and secure—Deil, from the embroidery on the cloth on the man's head—were installing the mounting point, Lori installed the bound tool cores to the cooling poles. Unfortunately, they did not have a freestanding ladder in River's Fork, so one had to improvised by lashing two ladders together with rope and several people holding the ladders to keep it stable below.

It was a bit of an awkward climb, but the ladders were stable enough, so Lori was able to mount each of the bound tool cores and anchor the binding to the white Iridescence, with the wire to the bead receptacle trailing down the bowl. She also added firewisps to the binding, both because they had to act as the wisps that anchored directly to the white Iridescence, and because it let her destroy heat, lowering the temperature of the air that the poles blasted out to the leaves of the trees around them and increasing the cooling they provided. By the time she finished, Deil and Lidzuga had finished mounting the steam jet driver onto Lori's Boat Two.

It was a well-satisfied Lori who rode on the new boat on the return trip to her demesne upriver, with Rian operating the steam jet driver bound tool behind her.

“So…” Rian said, looking down at the boat, “is there any way at all I can get you to change the name of this boat?”

“Why? It’s a perfect name.”

“It’s boring! You just slapped a number on it and called it a day!”

“It’s a small boat, Rian, it doesn’t need some kind of memorable name.”

He still kept trying to convince her to change her boat’s perfectly sensible name all the way home.

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The Sawmill And Trees

The work on the sawmill had progressed in her absence. The rest of the carpenters had mounted the water wheel on the fixtures she'd set into the stone foundation, as well as the wooden shafts that transferred the wheel's rotational force, and the frames to support the sawmill's doors had been raised and secured. Lori had been more than willing to let someone else take care of handling the sawmill's walls, even if it would take them a lot of wood.

Fortunately, near the site of the sawmill were thick growths of old trees that the loggers hadn't cut down yet because it was downhill from the site of the sawpit, and there were more convenient trees to cut. With the new sawmill, those trees were ideally positioned to be cut down and transported to the sawmill to be cut into planks and beams. Once the circular saw was installed into the shaft connected to the water wheel's, and the proper gears were installed, the sawmill could begin making planks and beams, even without walls or a roof.

"Though the roof is the first thing they're going to finish," Rian said over lunch the day after they'd brought Lori's Boat Twohome. "After all, you're not keeping your shadow in place anymore, and with the stone foundation… well, it's really hot to work there."

"Hmm…" Well, Lori could understand their priorities, at least. Still… "Will such a structure really be able to withstand a dragon's passing?"

"I defer to the carpenters on this one. However, with you protecting the demesne, the biggest dangers to the sawmill are something big falling on it, getting set on fire, or some kind of dragonborn abomination that has an inexplicable desire to destroy wooden buildings for one reason or another. Every building in the demesne runs those risks, even the dungeon."

"How is the dungeon at risk of fire?"

"Copper-sheathed or not, the front door is still made of wood. Anyway, many structures in Covehold are made of wood, and they seem to be doing well enough, assuming they faced the same passing dragons that we did. Tae?"

"Huh?" Taeclas looked away from where she was feeding her wife. The latter was actually partially seated on the Deadspeaker's lap, and the two were all but kissing between bites of food. Lori had been avoiding looking directly at the sight, lest she become nauseous at the mother-like behavior. "What was that, Rian?"

"I was saying that the buildings in Covehold Demesne were mostly made of wood, but seemed to have been holding up well enough to passing dragons."

"Oh, it all depends, really. The last dragon set the rickets on fire, but that was because they use cheap wood. Our house only had a few cracked roof tiles and some scorched wood." She sighed. "I still had to spend two days fixing it all though."

"Well, you'll have plenty of help if anything like that happens here," Rian said.

Lori grunted, acknowledging the implied point. Still, a part of her couldn't help but feel that making essential structures out of wood wasn't very secure. "I can't help but feel that making essential structures out of wood isn't very secure."

"You've seen how big the sawmill is intended to be. Do youwant to make all that out of stone?"

It wouldn’t be the first time she'd made large stone structures. Still, she was willing to admit she would rather not. "It wouldn't be the first time I've made large stone structures. Still, I'll admit I would rather not."

For some reason, Rian chuckled. "So… after a year, has the shine of the absolute power of being a Dungeon Binder dulled a little? When you first made your core, you insisted on building everything with Whispering."

"That was a situation where infrastructure was urgently needed! The situation is no longer like that, so construction is no longer such a priority."

Rian nodded solemnly. "Of course, of course."

Lori rolled her eyes. Her lord said the strangest things sometimes. "Do you have an estimate on how long it will take for the roof to be finished?"

"It will depend on how well the new sawmill cuts, but the carpenters and sawyers estimate it should be mostly in place in a week or two. It really depends on how much work they can get done before they need to come in from the heat."

That was a lot longer than Lori wanted to hear, but to be fair the floor area of the sawmill was very large, on the order of ten paces by fifteen, at least. It would be the largest roof to be covered in the demesne so far, so she supposed it would take more time to cover. "Well, setting that aside, how long before the other attachments to the water wheel are ready? The drop hammer and the gristmill."

"You remembered that? Wow, maybe you are finally coming into your Dungeon Binder Mentalism."

"Focus, Rian. The drophammer and the gristmill?"

"Um, the latter is kinda waiting on you. We need a grindstone for the gristmill, and you're the only one who can really shape one in a timely manner. Well, the stonemasons could shape one too, but that would take longer, and they'd need to find a stone of the right size. You could just make one."

"Why not just use the one we already have?"

"Well, we could, but while it's being altered and prepared for installation onto the water wheel’s shaft, we won’t be able to make any flour for bread."

She nodded, taking a piece of bread to wipe the remaining stew from her bowl. "I'll make a new grindstone after lunch. How is recruiting for miners progressing?"

"Much better once I could honestly tell them you'll be providing a bound tool that makes a nice little cooling breeze so they wouldn't be sweating hot when they sleep at night. Honestly, it's probably something you should integrate into the dragon shelter's ventilation system anyway. Why have a system do only one thing when it could do two with a little rearranging."

"I'll consider it as something to pass the time when the next dragon comes along," Lori said flatly. "Will you be able to begin mining by the end of the week?"

"I can if I force it. However, given that work on the roof of the sawmill will be easier if we have more people working on it, I think we should wait until it's done first. We'll need all the men we can get when it comes to pulling up all the materials for the roof up there. Once the roof is finished, the working on the walls won't need so many people." Lori gave him a displeased look at that, so Rian hastily added, "However, I think I might be able to recruit more people from River's Fork."

"Didn't Binder Shanalorre ask for labor force from us because River's Fork couldn't spare people to work the mine?" Lori said flatly.

"That was before. However, now that hunting around the vicinity of the demesne isn’t really possible because of the presence of the typhon beast, the demesne has a few men to spare. And with Lidzuga in the demesne, they're able to do multiple harvests again, especially since it's easier for Shana—"

"Shanalorre."

"—Shanalorre to imbue the meanings there. I think River's Fork will actually be able to grow harvests faster than we will, simply because the turnaround between imbuing and activating the meanings is far, far shorter."

Taeclas nodded as her wife wiped off a little bit of stew from the corner of the Deadspeaker's mouth with a finger and—Argh, no! Don't put it in your mouth! That's disgusting and unhygienic! "Yes, I talked to Lidz about that. He sets the meanings in one day, leaves it overnight for the little Lady Binder to imbue, and then activates them the next day. They should actually be having a second harvest soon, if I remember the timing he told me about correctly."

"River's Fork isn't self-sustaining yet, but they're probably going to be able to build their own winter grain stockpile now," Rian added. "So let’s hope we only need to ship meat from now on. And when we finally manage to deal with the typhon beast, they can go back to hunting which will make them almostself-sufficient."

Lori tilted her head. “Almost?”

“Well, they need beads now, and that’s not really something they can provide for themselves. Salt, too.”

Ah. "Ah," Lori nodded. Yes, that was the case, wasn't it? The cold box in food storage, the wisplights, the ventilation and protections for the dragon shelter—

…

She'll have to remember to render the bound tools tamper-proof by the time the Golden Sweetwood Company's Whisperers arrived. Even if they wouldn't be able to make any because they have no source of white Iridescence, the Whisperers would be able to extract and alter her bound tool cores, which she couldn't allow! At this point, Lori already had some thoughts as to how to accomplish that, but she'd need to set aside time to do it with proper documentation.

And the smiths. She needed the smiths, since they're the ones who knew how to use the necessary tools properly…

"Oh yeas, speaking of resources," and for some reason Rian turned to Taeclas, "how do you feel about trees, Tae?"

"They're a blight upon the land that block out sunlight that should be shining down on crops and vegetables," Taeclas said cheerfully. "Trees drop leaves everywhere that always need to be cleaned up or else they'll cause a fire hazard, their roots always need to be dug up, falling branches are dangerous, and they make it hard to get anywhere by growing where it's inconvenient. The only good tree is a fruit tree. Everything else should be cut down for firewood and the land they were taking up be used to grow crops."

Rian and Lori stared as the Deadspeaker smiled brightly at them. Her wife rolled her eyes indulgently as if at a little eccentricity.

"Ahem," Rian 'ahem'-ed. "Well… that's… an opinion. Um, so if I asked you to start growing some saplings so that we can plant them in areas that have been cleared but can't be used for farming yet…"

"I'd do it but I wouldn't like it," Taeclas said with a pout. "Weren't you listening?"

"…while I can sympathize with some of what you said, the sad fact is wood is too useful a resource to not cultivate and produce," Rian said. "So… please? We need to make furniture and roofs out of something, and to be perfectly honest, we're not successful enough at hunting to make it out of bones." Rian paused. "Although, do you really want to sleep under a roof made of bones?"

"I suppose not…" Taeclas huffed. "But can we put the trees somewhere they won't get their leaves all over where people would need to sweep them, or near our crops?"

"I'm sure we can find someplace like that," Rian said. "After we clear the trees from around the sawmill, we can figure out a good arrangement. And I promise you never have to sweep any leaves… unless you do something that merits mild disciplinary action."

"Eh?-!"

"That's fair," Taeclas' wife said.

"Eh?-! But I don't wanna sweep leaves! That's the most pointless chore ever! They'll just be more leaves on the ground tomorrow, why even bother?"

"That's why it's a disciplinary action."

"I'll be good! Please don't make me sweep leaves!"