Demesne

The overfull lavatory had been dealt with. Pressure differential had been involved. It had taken a while since something had gotten into the stone pipes she'd made for the lavatory, but had died inside because… well, the situation was inimical to life. It took some concentrating since she had to try to place the positioning of everything blind with only her awareness of wisps to sense it. Fortunately, she'd recently gotten a lot of practice in doing just that, so she managed to unclog the pipe and empty the seat.

There was probably some sort of smell left, but Lori just bound airwisps to the entrance of the lavatory to keep the bad smells in and out of the rest of the cave. Use at your own risk.

She, of course, went first, blasting the place with boiling water congealed out of the air to clean it. They were trying to stay clean, after all.

That done, and with a long line of people eager to take her place, she went to check on the water reservoir, and was glad to see– once she'd made some light, because the reservoir was very, very dark and deep– that there was nothing floating at the bottom, so no one had been throwing things in it either. As impromptu water reservoirs went, it had done well. She'd have to work on a system to keep the water from getting stale and better placement to prevent contamination, though…

The wash area for dishes was next. She made sure to make it far from the reservoir, with runoffs in the stone to prevent dirty water from eventually flowing to their drinking water. She added a basic stone cistern. People would have to fill it manually, but it wasn't like they had anything else to do, and she was fairly sure they had more than one bucket. They could make a bucket relay.

Lori frowned, then went back to the reservoir, judged the depth compared to the amount of water, then shrugged and starting making stone piping in the walls, using a pressure differential to initially pull the water up from the reservoir and have it come out in a hole in the wall about the cistern. She couldn't keep it perpetually running, but it would be convenient for refilling the water in future. She also added a hole for water to drain out through connected to the drain for her private bath, with waterwisps to pull it out and take it into the fields outside. It would make things outside muddy, but it wasn't like there was anyone walking on it now.

Someone was setting up a fire now, and things were being cut to go into the stew pot. After binding some airwisps to circulate air from the air holes in front so people didn't asphyxiate to death, Lori took a moment to look around. Her cave, despite having a hundred people in it, wasn’t' actually all that full. Most were clustered together, so there was actually a lot of room to move. What was taking up space was the random piles of things people had carried in with them. clothes, tools, random worthless junk, that sort of thing. It was all a tripping hazard, since more of the place was still dark, and the air holes she made, while bright in their immediate vicinity, didn't provide a lot of illumination. Since she didn't need to keep her attention focused outside, she started binding lightwisps to illuminate things.

That seemed like the signal for more people to get up and start moving. The line to the lavatory grew, and she checked on it to make sure it wasn't full again. Fortunately, people stayed out of her way.

She found Rian checking on their sick people. In the light, his disheveled tiredness had become a worn, rugged determination of one who wasn't giving up in the face of adversity, which some people probably found inspiring. She had to wonder if Rian had ever worked at a theater. He just managed to be so heroic all the time. And not even all the same kind of heroic. It was one of the things that annoyed her about him.

He heard her coming, nodding to her and finishing what he was saying to the sick person– an older woman who looked just barely not too old to go on something as dangerous and strenuous as setting a new continent– before getting to his feet and facing her. "Hey," he began, "look, I just wanted to say I'm sorry for earlier. I was tired, but that was no excuse, I shouldn't have said what I did and–"

"Have you eaten?" Lori said, interrupting whatever pointless thing he was rambling about.

Rian blinked at being cut off. "Er, not yet."

"Used the lavatory?"

"While everyone was asleep," Rian said, looking more confused.

"Cleaned your sword?"

"Mostly…?"

"Well, eat something and then find some big, strong men to handle the machetes and axes," Lori said. "We're going on a beast hunt, and you and they are coming with me."

"…" Rian '…'-ed. "…Maybe spears would be safer? You know, since the action will be a long way away on the other end?"

"Do we have any spears?" Lori asked. "I thought we've just been using sharpened sticks for beast baiting."

"Why risk good spearheads when you can use sharpened sticks?" Rian said.

"Then why aren't they in my treasure room?" Lori said

"Since when did you have a treasure room?"

"Since my bedroom was converted into one."

"Okay, first off, it's not your treasure room."

"It's my room, and it's full of valuable metal wealth, which is treasure, so it's my treasure room."

"…I'm going to leave that one alone then," Rian said. "And it's not there because the people were worried for their families and wanted a weapon on hand in case something got in."

"If something got in, I'd be dead," Lori said.

"Which is when you'd really want something to defend your family with, don't you think?"

Lori couldn't argue against that logic.

"Gather them up," Lori said. "You have an hour. Then we're going to clear out the areas near the settlement so everyone can stop messing up my nice Dungeon."

"The food's not ready yet. They just started cooking," Rian protested.

Lori rolled her eyes. All these excuses… "Fine, two hours then. And get everyone ready to sleep here, since I don't think we'll be able to clear enough before sundown. I'll see about making someplace people can wash."

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She had to turn her dark room into a bath, since her private bathroom would clearly not be able to accommodate everyone. It was a simple bath, as things went. A long trough to be filled with warm water, some holes in the ground for the water to drain to the outside (and get the ground even more muddy), and a stern admonition not to waste water. She didn't have the space to put in individual alcoves as she had in the baths outside (she thought they were still standing, but she'd dropped the darkness around them a few times, so for all she knew something had happened to it), and anyway, at this point everyone had bathed in the open air, washing off a day's Iridescence with only a line of carts to separate the women from the men, that a little public bathing wasn't a problem as long as it was sex segregated. That's not even taking into account whatever different nudity taboos people had brought from their original demesne.

It took up a lot of time and water, washing everyone and the plates and utensils too, and she was pretty sure most had brought in their clothes to at least beat a little of the dirt out of them, but at least concerns of people getting sick from unsanitary conditions were pushed back.

Lori wasn't there for that, as she, Rian, and a group of volunteers, many of who she recognized from those who'd helped dig the original little cave for the core, got ready to go out. Wooden branches that the children had donated from their stockpiles of backup seeling rods, which some had brought with them for reasons that had probably made sense to them and which they were feeling smug about now, and with Lori's stockpiles of beast teeth had been combined to make spears with earthwisp-molded spearheads and, at Rian's suggestion, crossguards so that whatever they faced couldn't just keep impaling themselves on the spears to eventually get close enough to rip someone to shreds. These and the shorter hand tools like axes and machetes were enough to make the volunteers, seven of them in total, feel secure enough to go out of the cave with Lori and Rian and face whatever dragonborn abominations may be out there.

There would have been nine, but Lori had taken one look at Umu and Mikon's complete ignorance in handling spears and told them their participation was barred.

This time Lori had gotten her knife and tied it around her forearm for easy access, since it had a spring that kept the blade in place unless pulled out properly. She'd brought it for exactly that safety feature. She also made sure the coalcharm on her staff, as well as the ones she'd retrieved from her pack, had live coals in them. Her hat and raincoat had been left behind, and she carried a quiver-like pouch with lengths of cured wood in it at her side. The pieces of quartz in her staff buzzed.

Rian had belted on his sword, which he had managed to clean by laboriously scraping off the gunk that had dried on it. The bodily fluids of whatever he'd killed with it seemed to have more in common with tree sap than blood, including how hard it was to remove. Still, the spear in his hands seemed to be the weapon he planned to use, perhaps a sign of solidarity, or possibly because he realized you can't really use a sword against a beast.

"Everyone ready?" Rian said, looking over the volunteers as Lori made sure her boots were on properly. "Lanwei, you get enough sleep? Feeling up to this? Malia, is there someone watching Karina? Yes? Okay then. How about you Pellee, Markes, you feel up to this?"

"Can't hide in a cave forever, Lord Rian," one of the men said, gripping his spear nervously.

"Dungeon," Lori corrected absently.

There was a sudden silence.

"Binder Lori would like us to remember this is a Dungeon, not a cave," Rian said, with easy humor. "Caves don't usually have working bathrooms."

This got a nervous, sycophantic laugh, and Lori wished she had her hat so she could roll her eyes out of view. But no, it was in her room so it wouldn't get in her way. Instead she stood and stomped her boots into place, then nodded in satisfaction at their fit. They were relatively new, and had taken the beating of getting here fairly well, but she REALLY hoped someone here knew how to make new shoes.

"All right everyone, let's get ready," Rian said. "Ralii, Armis, you're up front on either side, hopefully whatever's out there are beast-like enough you can recognize any tracks they make. Missus Malia, you watch our rear, make sure nothing sneaks up on us. Rafel, keep an eye up, just in case something's in the trees or in the sky, we don't know what we're dealing with. Everyone else, keep an eye out everywhere else. Binder Lori should be able to tell if there's anything nearby, but let's make it easy on her, she can't keep track of everything at once."

Then he looked at her and smiled, indicating she was to lead. Well, fine.

She'd already checked. There were no voids of wisps directly in front of the cave, so whatever was blocking the light from reaching her new air holes was undoubtedly dead. The nearest mobile void was on the other side of the sawpits, and its view of them would be blocked. Still, Lori was careful as she willed the stones to move aside and flow to make a hallway through the thick bulwark of stone, choosing a spot where there was light. She was about to move forward and step out when she remembered.

"Rian, up front," she said. "See there's nothing that will kill me right away."

Rian nodded, and lowered the spear, holding it level with the point in front of him using both hands. Creeping past her, he approached the opening, then pressed himself to the wall on one side, and quickly darted his head out. He just as quickly pulled it back in again.

"Well?" Lori asked. "What did you see?"

"Moved too fast, didn't see anything," Rian said, smiling sheepishly. There were chuckles from the volunteers. Lori made to kick him in the shin. "Wait, hang on, I'll try that again."

Cautiously, he stuck his head out slower. His head stayed there as he looked back and forth.

"Well?" Lori said.

"It… could be worse?" he said hesitantly. "I think you can fix most of it. Lots of rocks everywhere though…"

"And the thing in front of the Dungeon?" Lori pressed.

Rian moved a little father forward, looking out to the side. "Well, it's big and I think it's dead," Rian said. "Doesn't seem to be breathing, or at least I can't see it from here. It's really big though. Bigger than your old bedroom. Or your new bedroom. Hang on, I'll just–"

Lori felt water- and earthwisps move just as the shadows in front of the air holes changed, and something slammed into the edge of the opening in the stone with an explosion of dust and a crack of shattering rock.

With a surprised cry, Rian just barely managed to keep from having his head crushed, falling back on his posterior as a dark, pointy wedge the size of a barrel snapped at where he'd been. Lori and the volunteers darted back, some dropping their spears in surprise as the dark wedge drew back, then slammed into the opening again. More stone shattered and Lori saw with horror that the opening was getting wider as a deep screech like two stones grinding together echoed through the cave.

His spear was still in his hands. With a cry, Rian rose to his feet, using the surge to drive the spear at the dark wedge that Lori realized was the tip of an enormous, scissor-like mouth.

The beast-tooth point struck the mouth and promptly shattered.

Rian darted back with great alacrity, staring at the broken spearhead. "Well, shit."