Demesne

Even with the news that there was an unclaimed core lying around, Lolilyuri couldn't just run off and claim it, adding a second Demesne to her holdings (a second demesne!), no matter how much she really, really, really, really, really, really, REALLY, REALLY wanted to. After all, with it unclaimed, it would be surrounded by Iridescence, meaning she'd need a guide to even find the approximate center of the abandoned demesne, never mind the core itself, which would likely be very well-hidden.

Still, she took solace in it being extremely unlikely that someone would just trip over it and claim it by accident, despite what all those stories uneducated people liked to tell each other would have one believe. If there were any other wizards in the Golden Sweetwood Company of settlers, they'd have claimed it already, and wouldn't be here begging for refuge.

After they sent someone to bring in the women and children waiting outside the demesne, as well as the small barge they were using for transport, the probationary settlers had numbered over 73. Seven families and a lot of unmarried former soldiers who'd retired to other occupations. They had apparently started out with two hundred, with a second, larger group of the company to follow from the old continent in two years once they'd established themselves, which… all right, that was a lot better organized than this group had been.

Honestly, Lori had just found the cheapest boat to Covehold that gave her a discount for doing Whispering to keep them moving and washing off iridiation, then joined the first group desperate enough to have her. In hindsight, maybe she should have joined one of these settler companies like her Ina had kept suggesting…

Well, too late for that, she was here and doing well for herself! You couldn't argue with results.

It also meant she definitely wasn't getting her Dungeon back any time soon. Rian was suggesting putting them up in the former dining hall and the hospital while she built a new shelter. Which would take at least a day, which would have to be tomorrow, which would mean another day before they could carry the tables out. Colors of death, her Dungeon was supposed to be a mighty fortress, highest seat of her power, not an eating establishment!

Maybe she should run off and claim that other core after all. She could live there, alone, and just take care of building from a distance. Let someone else have to check the latrines.

…

Maybe after she'd turned all the gold into wire.

She left Rian to make the arrangements of who slept where while she worked on making expansions to the kitchen to handle more cooking, more washing, and generally more, even as it annoyed her to do so. The new kitchen addition to the Dungeon had been built along one wall on the inside of the outer cliff face, for ease of venting heat and smoke. She added a new stove, which was basically a raised stone cube with a hollow in the middle for fuel, a wooden door that she'd smeared rock on one side of to act as an insulator so that they could close it to trap heat, and holes leading upward to the stove top to direct heat. Apparently the kitchen partially cooked each ingredient separately before adding it to the overall stew or something.

Even though she'd done this before, it always surprised her how long it actually took to build something. By the time she was done, she had to leave so people could cook. Apparently, just because it was her Dungeon didn't make it her kitchen. That was a familiar argument. She walked away before she did something that would have felt very satisfying but would have delayed dinner, her mothers' joking arguments about kitchen supremacy wafting from the pit of memory.

Rian found her sitting near the saw pit, next to one of the newly rebuilt curing sheds still being filled with planks. The sawyers were finishing up for the day, putting away that day's lumber, packing away the saws to bring them to the shelters to keep them safe and getting ready to wash up at the baths.

"Hey," he said, putting down the plank of wood he was carrying and leaning back against the packed earth shed next to her. "We need to talk."

"Did you find someone's dead body and now we have to figure who here finally snapped and killed someone?" Lori said.

"Wha—no! Why would you even think that?" Rian exclaimed, staring at her.

"Just wanted to get it out of the way. Did someone grab one of the children and–"

"Stop!" Rian said, holding up a hand in a gesture she wasn't familiar with. Must be something regional to his demesne. "No, no one broke any of the laws on your list."

"Oh, good."

Rian gave her a sideways look. "I needed to talk to you, temporary lord to Binder–" Lori didn't bother rolling her eyes, "—and I figured you didn't want me intruding on your beauty sleep."

"About what?" Lori asked. Beauty sleep? Was that supposed to be flattery or an insult?

"First, I think you might need to make Grem, or at least someone from the Golden Sweetwood group a lord," Rian said. "I know you're all about being the absolute power, but this way at least if they have any issues or needs, they'd send just him instead of everyone bothering you individually. Instead they bother him, and he bothers you."

"Like you do," she said.

"You're welcome to actually bother remembering everyone's names, and what they do, and which name goes with which person–" Rian said dryly.

"I'm not a Mentalist and can't be bothered to work out how to do it yet," Lori said. "Yes, I suppose you're right. With nearly double the people, another lord will be of use, and if he's their acting director, he'll already have experience dealing with annoying minutiae I don't want to deal with directly. "

"You're welcome." More dryness.

"What's the other thing?" Lori asked.

For an answer, Rian picked up the plank and held it out.

"It's been a long day, I'm not standing up to read that," Lori said.

Rian rolled his eyes, picked up the plank then repositioned it next to her, close enough to read.

Lori frowned as she started to read, her head titling in confusion. The frown and the tilt deepened as she kept reading downwards.

"You'll have to explain, this just looks like a weird list of nonsense to me," Lori said.

"You made a list of laws," Rian said. "Basically, a list of things that, if violated, you would be extremely unhappy about and would express your unhappiness with flogging, exile and execution. It's a list that exists not because everyone collectively came together and voted that everything on that list was heinous and should not be allowed, but because you were letting everyone know what you wouldn't allow."

"Must you mention your strange voting fetish?"

"It's not a fetish, it's… never mind. The point is, your list was too one-sided," Rian said. "You listed what you wouldn't let them do. True, it was a list of… mostly terrible things–"

"If you feel that strongly about it, I'll give you special dispensation to urinate anywhere you want."

"Funny, but not right now, please, I'm being serious. My point is, you gave them a list of what you most definitely won't let them do." Rian wobbled the plank. "So I propose a list of things that you will not only allow them to do, but will protect them against anyone trying to prevent them from doing it."

Lori blinked, then reread his list. "All right, first off, all of these items are needlessly complicatedly phrased."

"I'm sure we can simplify them."

"Secondly, this list is longer than mine!"

Rian rolled his eyes. "Why am I not surprised you bring that up?"

"Thirdly, why would I even want to do such a thing?" Lori demanded incredulously.

"You told me to find a way to keep what happened with Missus Naineb from having to happen again," Rian said. "Something to make violence rare."

"And this is what you came up with? How is this supposed to keep idiots from challenging my authority?"

"By explicitly stating that you are using that authority to protect everyone's personal interests and property."

"But I'm not. I don't care about their interests and property."

"You explicitly have a law against stealing," Rian pointed out.

"Yes, but that's supposed to be about stealing from me. They're lucky I don't flog them all for just going in and out of my Dungeon."

"Do you secretly have any children I don't know about too, then?"

"If they were secret, you obviously wouldn't know about them."

"Ok, I set myself up for that one. Look, it's one thing to have a law forbidding people killing each other. It's another to have a law saying you'll protect them from anyone trying to kill them."

"But I won't. I won't care enough to go around watching everyone to make sure no one is trying to kill them. Besides, punishment after the fact is easier than trying to prevent it from happening. If someone really wanted someone else dead, nothing I say would stop them."

"…" Rian closed his eyes, one hand over his face. He took several deep breaths. Eventually, he put down his hand. "But it will make people think you care, which will make them like you more, because people are naturally more inclined to care about people who care about them. This will make them less likely to think of poisoning you or spitting on your food, or asphyxiating you in your sleep with smoke, or stabbing you in the back and forget about how this means the demesne collapses, and all the other reasons you always make sure we share food and you keep asking me to get your food for you, and that you pick the bowls I'm holding at random, and that I eat from my bowl first before you do, and why you always sleep in a room that's impossible to get into."

Lori said nothing.

"It's pretty obvious, you know," Rian said. "To me, at least. As paranoid as you are about your safety, you're not very good at it. Real paranoia means not leaving clues for people to figure out that you're paranoid, or they might realize you're on to them. If they're really out to get you."

Lori kept saying nothing, very eloquently.

"Everyone just thinks you're weird or stuck up, or were born touched in the head so you don't do well with crowds," Rian said. "Missus Naineb is terrified of you now, but most thought you had a point, even if they think you were overbearing about it. Some think you're running away from a tragic past that's made you untrusting of people and that I'm slowly charming you to open your heart to love again–"

He stopped talking as Lori started gagging at the thought.

"Yeah, I think it's pretty stupid too. But between making up stories about our nonexistent tender romance and just randomly fucking everywhere, which would you rather they be doing to pass the time?"

Lori kept on gagging, looking positively ill.

Rian sighed. "Look, you're a smart, well-read woman. This is a political move. Pretend to give people something you don't actually have to give or really care about in exchange for ensuring good will and smoother progression in the future. It's a foundation. You can always go back on your word later. After all, you're the Binder, you can do what you damn well please. So why not make them think that what you damn well please is something they want you to do?"

Lori grimaced, and looked at the list again. Aside from the overly complicated language, which were probably paraphrasing or quoting of actual laws like it, they… seemed to be the sort of optimistic drivel Rian liked to espouse. Very selfless and heroic.

"Why?" she said quietly. "Why are you helping me? You don't like things I do or agree with what I say. Why keep helping me do it?"

Rian was silent. He stared down at the ground, his forehead furrowed.

"Do you ever wonder if you deserve the food you're eating?" he eventually said.

Lori blinked at the seeming non sequitur.

"I do," he said. "I'm not like you, the one-woman building company. I can't catch seels like the children, I'm slow as shit when it comes to cutting wood, I don't have any carpentry training, I can't cook, I'm apparently completely blind at telling wild vegetables apart from stuff you can't eat, I don't know how to hunt or dress an animal and too squeamish to learn, and I can't even do my own laundry. I'm lucky Umu and Mikon keep making off with my dirty clothes and washing them for me, then sneaking them back into my stuff, and I'm a terrible person for taking advantage of them like that."

"You sound like you're completely qualified to be a lord," Lori said.

Rian chuckled darkly. "Yeah, I suppose I am." He looked up and met her eyes. His were brown, she realized. What an odd color. "I contribute nothing to this settlement," he said definitively. "I don't build anything, I don’t gather any food, I'm a complete and utter parasite on everyone else here. Literally the only thing going for me, the only work I can do to continue deserve eating food that I didn't help prepare or provide or meaningfully contribute to, is being your lord and mediate between you and everyone else. And I'm not even any good at doing that! But it's the only thing I can do, so I'll do it. I'll help you protect this demesne, even if it's from yourself."

"You'll help me protect this demesne… from me," Lori repeated, bemused.

"Well, yeah," Rian said. "You'd be a pretty good leader if you could be bothered to actually deal with people without being annoyed by them. And at the end of the day, that's all I am. I'm your shield to keep everyone else from annoying you. I'm here so you never have to remember a single face or name, so you never have to hear about anyone's problems or have to put up with socializing. I'm the one who tells you what you want to hear. Yeah, I don't like how you're an absolute ruler with nothing to hold you back but your own conscience… but that's not personal. I wouldn't want anyone to have that much power. Power can corrupt. But I also trust your conscience. So I'll help you. I'll protect you from them, and protect them from you, until the day you don't need me anymore."

"A big promise from someone always saying he's going to quit," Lori said.

"And if I promise not to quit?" Rian persisted. "If I promise—if I give you my oath that I'll be by your side forever, as long as you need me?"

"Then the gossipmongers will be left feeling vindicated, I suspect," Lori said dryly.

Rian chuckled. "All right, I better rephrase that. Look Lori, we need this. You want to be a megalomaniacal, all powerful, absolute ruler of all you survey? Fine, I'll help you do that. And it starts with these. I know it doesn't seem like it, but the demesne needs you to give them these laws… no, these rights. It needs you to look your… your subjects in the eye as their ruler and protector and promise that these things, these rights, you will use all your power to keep safe on their behalf. Do that, and they will do everything in their power to make you stronger, because when they do, they protect what they hold dear."

Lori stared at him. Then she stared at the board, where he had written things. Touching her coalcharm, using firewisps to keep from being burned, she scorched a black dot next to six of the items on his list.

"These six," she said. "I… suppose they'll do."

"If I suggest one more law for you to add to your list that you forgot, will you be willing to add in another right?" Rian said.

"You're wheedling," Lori said. "What law could I have possibly forgotten to write on my initial list?"

"No sex or any other acts of indecency in public areas," Rian said.

Lori blinked and stared at nothing, eyes widening. Then she sighed. "Fine, you can pick another one to add."

"No, you do it," Rian smiled. "That way you have no one to blame but yourself."

Lori gave him a level look. "You are a very petty man, Lord Rian," she said.

But she was smiling slightly as she said it.

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That evening, as the people of Lori's Demesne, Lorian, had their first dinner with the new probationary people of Lori's Demesne, Lori walked up to the tablet of laws she'd set into the wall—she had moved the list of laws to the inside since people were eating there now—and placed next to it another one, then did something to the tablet that had previously been there. Then she left to have a quick bath before dinner.

In her head, in the part of her that could perceive all the wisps in her demesne, she felt the voids of living bodies crowding around the tablets she'd just left.

The following are the Laws of Lori's Demesne, Lorian, and are enforced by the full power of the Dungeon Binder

The following are the Rights of the Citizens of Lori's Demesne, Lorian, and are protected by the full power of the Dungeon Binder and all others who dwell here

· No Murder

· No Theft of Property

· No Molesting Children

· No Rape

· No Loud Music an hour after sundown until sunrise

· No Trespassing into other people's houses without invitation

· No Public Urination. Use The Latrines!

· No Lewd And/Or Indecent Acts in public spaces and in public view

· All have the right to life, freedom from confinement, and owning of property, and shall not be deprived without due cause, due process or compensation

· All have the right to be who they are, as they are, and no law shall be made dictating who that must be

· All have the right to exercise worship of any religion, provided the acts of worship are not in violation of laws or rights.

· All have the right to dwell in this demesne or travel from it as they see fit, except as punishment for violation of laws or rights

· All have the right to form unions, guilds, associations, covens, sects, societies, cults, fellowships, leagues, etc. for purposes not contrary to laws or rights

· All have the right to be assumed innocent unless proven guilty

· All have the right to be heard to prove their innocence or extenuating circumstances upon accusation of violations of the law

Violations of these laws are punishable by public humiliation, flogging, exile and execution, at the discretion of the Dungeon Binder

Any violation of these rights without the explicit permission of the Dungeon Binder will be met with her full fury

Somewhere behind her, some idiot who thought he could survive without Binders found himself being given a barrel half-full of seel guts.