Demesne

"It doesn't need to be completely ice! We make a wooden skeleton that the ice can wrap around for structural integrity!"

"What about impacts? Damage?"

"Wooden boards mounted on the outside! It doesn't matter if they crack as long as they protect the ice underneath!"

"People will slip."

"Rocks or boards for decking! The ice can be underneath, they never need to touch it."

"It will be cold."

"Then we insulate the insides and build fires! It doesn't matter how hot they make the inside of the boat, the ice won't melt since your magic will be keeping it together!"

Lori resolutely tried to keep herself from becoming enthusiastic about this insane idea as they rode Lori's Boat back to the center of Lori's demesne, but it was becoming very hard when Rian kept countering her objections, sometimes even as she managed to think of an answer for herself. Indeed, the more it sat on her mind, the more plausible, convenient and easy it sounded…

There had to be some horrible downside. Besides the obvious, that is. After all, there was probably some very good reason why boats aren't all made of ice with wooden planking over it! Maintenance, for example. Why, it would take a whole team of Whisperers taking shifts at all hours to keep the thing from melting! Or a prohibitively expensive amount of wisp beads!

Not that they were going to use wisp beads… and they didn't need a team of whisperers, since the plan as Rian had been babbling about it would only need her blood mixed into the ice to constantly imbue a binding that would keep the water of the ice frozen solid and unmelting…

No! Don't get drawn in by the colorbrained idea! Downsides! There had to be downsides! Or else more people would be doing this! And she would definitely have remembered boats made of ice bound to stay solid against heat!

"Talk to the carpenters about this," she said. "Surely it's detrimental for wood to be soaked in water or ice like that for long periods of time."

"It won't matter, the ice will—"

"Find out!" she snapped. "And calm down. Valid idea or not, you're too excited to think about this rationally. Sit down, make some drawings about how it will be done, show it to the carpenters and other men who know about things like the sorts of load wood can take, and then get back to me. I don't want to hear about this until the houses are finished and people have started living in them, is that understood?"

Rian sighed, as if this was some great difficulty for him. "Yes, your Bindership," he said.

Good.

"Good," Lori said, nodding decisively. "The idea is not without merit—I'm still talking—but it's best we don't come to obsess over the idea. Do something constructive first, like find out how deep the river is or if there are any rapids to overcome."

"Oh, I found out about that as soon as we met with the River's Fork people," Rian said. "They came up by the river from the sea, since they got lucky and found a hidden bay. The only reason they didn't claim the bay itself was that it was too visible from the ocean if they'd made a demesne there, and they wanted time to grow first. And since they didn't have a Whisperer at the time, a more reliable source of fresh water. From what I heard, we could go all the way down to the sea, and then turn and head for Covehold."

"Well, then, design a better way to steer," she said, exasperated. "Somehow I doubt a rudder like that," she gestured at the wooden board with a handle Rian was holding, "would be able to properly control a larger boat."

He sighed again. "Yes, your Bindership." A beat. "Can I pick the name of the boat, this time? It's not like you can just call it 'Lori's Boat'. Then we'd have two, and that would be confusing!"

"I'll consider it," Lori said.

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The next day, at breakfast, Lori looked blearily at Rian, shook her head as if that would help, slapped her cheek gently to make sure she was awake, then gave him a bland look. "Repeat that, so I know I heard you correctly."

"The houses were finished yesterday," Rian said cheerfully. "So people are planning to spend today moving their things from the second shelter, and apparently it's traditional to have a party and invite all your neighbors when you first move into a new house. It's supposed to be good luck. Though I think there's an element of celebrating the fact that this means you'll get started on turning the second shelter into an… um…"

"I get the idea," Lori said. On either side of Rian, Umu, Mikon and Riz were studiously not meeting anyone's gaze.

"People are really looking forward to it?" Rian said, looking mildly embarrassed. The three next to him all reluctantly nodded, seeming equally embarrassed. "We might have to impose a time limit, lest people just stay in there all day."

"Have you handled the details of the cleaning duties for it yet?" Lori said.

"I've made it known that it will be on a 'you use it, you'll help clean it' basis," Rian said. "People seemed agreeable to the arrangement, so I doubt we'll lack for users, and therefore cleaners. Especially since we'll be keeping records of who goes in. I think we might have to ask the medics to take charge of the place. They're used to writing, they can handle any… accidents of over-excitement, and they'd probably be used to most of the human body to be able to act rationally in the event of some sort of accident or something."

Lori sighed. "I'll handle that tomorrow. What you were you saying about a party?"

"Ah, people are petitioning to have an outdoor party, similar to what we had during the holiday," Rian said. "They also want to move the tables and benches in front of the new houses for the duration so they have someplace to put the food, as well as go out and hunt beast meat for it, then serve it roasted. They've even volunteered to hunt some big seels for it themselves." He got a bemused look on his face. "They actually asked Karina for permission to do that, and she said she was fine with it as long as they got your permission and she can join in. I think she really wants to bring down one of the big seels by herself. She has not-that-subtly been asking if she could get a spear."

"Is she likely to use it on someone?" Lori said.

"No, she's not that kind of girl. I think she's just realized merely pointy sticks might not go through adult seels very well."

"Then she can get a spear so she can she join in."

"I… don't think we have one in her size."

Lori rolled her eyes. "Then I'll make a spearhead, and someone can help her put it on her backup seeling rod, it should probably be cured enough." She thought about it. "Riz, you do it."

"Me, Great Binder?" the woman said, surprised at being talked to. At least she didn't stutter nervously this time.

"I assume you know how to put a head on a spear, having been militia?" Lori said.

"Yes, Great Binder…?"

"Good. Help Karina with that, she needs experience killing the big ones," Lori frowned. "Keep her from drowning. And if your mothers make a big deal of why you're not helping move, tell them you're on seel duty and I said so."

"I have… yes, Great Binder," Riz said before Lori had to hear unwanted details about her family life.

"And they may have their party," Lori said. "But there will be no more parties, or excuses to have them, for the next month. Storm month, not blue month. If they want to celebrate anything, they do it at meal times, as long as it doesn't interfere with work."

"No partying for the next 36 days, got it," Rian said, nodding.

"Thirty-seven," Lori said.

"You're rounding up? That's cruel."

"Do we have enough food for winter?"

"No partying for the next month, storm month, got it."

Lori nodded. "Now, where's breakfast?"

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Calling it a 'party' was adequate but lacking. They called it a housewarming. She supposed warmth was an important consideration where they came from. Apparently, northern custom—or at least the custom of the demesne they were from, she'd forgotten the name as irrelevant—was that a new home must have all doors and windows opened and for as many people as possible to come inside and see as much of it as possible. This was meant to allow people's good luck, warmth and happiness to be shared by the new home so that it would be better able to shelter the family who would now be living there.

Wizards of any stripe are said to bring extra blessings when they warmed a house with their presence: Whisperers would let the home be warmer in cold times, Deadspeakers would prevent anyone from becoming sick, Horotracts would allow the house to always fit the family inside it, and Mentalists would allow anyone who lived there to always remember the way home (from the tavern, was the unsaid rider). The food was meant to be a repayment for things visitors shared with the new home, so that they would not be lessened by bestowing their gifts.

Obscure tradition said a Dungeon Binder visiting meant that a wizard would be born to those in the house. It did not specify if they granted all the other blessings as well. A cynical part of Lori wondered how intimately the Dungeon Binders of old that had started this tradition had come to know the house's residents.

Still, she went inside and toured the various houses. While she'd built the walls and floor, and had come in when the doors and initial beams for the roof had been fitted so that the stone would flow and hold them in place, that had been very early in the process.

The variety of ways the insides had changed were therefore very surprising. There were folding tables, folding bunks, elevated sleeping areas along the walls, second floors (in one case even a third floor, though you could only crawl there instead of standing), ladder-like stairs, and at least two rooftop decks. Not all in the same house, but the number of interesting, if mechanically simple, ways wood had been arranged to provide more space for more people to live in made the apartment she had shared with her mothers seem even more cramped in comparison.

While she was watched, no one had talked to her, for which she was glad. And all right, the food was pretty good. She might have to ask the kitchen staff—well, ask Rian to ask the kitchen staff—if they could grill the meat instead of stew it sometimes, just for variety.

Still, Lori supposed this was a significant turning point. While there would still be construction work—she didn't doubt that the people who had felled trees, the sawyers who cut the wood, and others Lori said needed to be compensated for the additional work they had to do because these houses had needed more than roofs and doors to be built were carefully taking note of elements in the houses that they wanted for their own—this meant that a substantial amount of manpower had just been made available for other work.

Originally they had needed that manpower for building the boat to Covehold, but with Rian's idea—

No, don't think about it!

—but now that manpower was available for other things. More hunting parties to gather food, skins and bones. More people to gather ropeweed for fibers. Actual adults who could now be assigned to hunt the bigger seels. More people available for mining. They might even be able to start working on getting wood and ropeweed from the half of the demesne on the other side of the river, which they hadn't really crossed over to before now.

Lori bit into the grilled seel, enjoying the taste of the meat and marbled fat that couldn't be cut off for the chandler. She swallowed with great relish.

But tomorrow. After all, she'd authorized this party, she might as well enjoy it!

Everyone else seemed to be thinking the same thing, as nearly everyone in the demesne was there, and—

She paused, feeling the lone void of wisps in her awareness. She frowned. Why was someone in the laundry area alone?

As it turned out, they weren't in the laundry area, but near the clay pit. It was a shallow pit, or so she was told, barely two paces wide and that much deep. It didn't even need a ladder to get out of, though someone had tied a short rope nearby. Airwisps deadened the sound of her feet as she approached the figure sitting on the rock the potter used while turning clay, playing with a glob of wet clay lying on the ground with dirty hands.

"—wide and shallow will probably be more balanced," Rian was muttering to himself. "But would it end up being top heavy, if we put on a roof? Then it would just tip over anyway… deep, weighted keels are supposed to be better for balance… right?" His hands kept shaping they clay, making vague, awkward shapes that looked half completed as his hands tried to unskillfully sculpt ideas that his mind had already moved on from.

Lori bound the earthwisps in the clay, and Rian let out a start of surprise as all the clay he'd been handling suddenly flowed together, forming into a ball that began to flow. It tumbled into the open clay pit and splattered when it hit the bottom.

"If I have to attend this, so do you," Lori said. "This is the sort of occasion where you say something inspirational and tell people to band together because we need each other, is it not?"

Rian turned to look towards her, looking guilty for a moment. "Sorry, I just… I can't get the idea out of my head. Besides, the houses are finished and soon to be occupied."

Lori glared at him as she let the binding deadening the sound of her footsteps lapse. "Please tell me you weren't thinking of making a clay boat."

"Of course not. That would be silly," Rian said. "Though I'll confess, I did think about making the hull plating stone instead of wood."

"That would sink it," Lori pointed out.

"Not if the boat's displacement was big enough! And it would be perfect for protecting the hull from scraping if it's in shallow water—I'll shut up about it now."

"Good," Lori said. "Now, come on, my food is probably congealing."

"Yes, your Bindership," Rian chirped as he fell into step with her.

They began walking up to where the party was happening.

"How did you know I was down there, anyway?"

"You were the only one who was far away from everyone and alone," Lori said. She looked at him sideways. "Everyone else away from the party was with someone else, not willing to wait for me to get started on the renovations to the second shelter."

Rian blushed. "Um, please don't flog anyone…?"

"I can't see them, so they're not public," Lori shrugged. Rian sighed in relief.

Rian did, in fact, give a speech. It was probably inspirational. There was a lot of cheering, anyway.

Lori just sat back and ate her meat, thinking about the work she had to do tomorrow.