Demesne

The girl Shanalorre was staring at Lori curiously. "You're a wizard?" she said. "Like Tota and Tyatya?"

"I am," Lori confirmed, ignoring the two militiamen in front of her who were hefting their clubs nervously. She kept her breathing even and circular. "Though I'm not sure how 'like' those two I am. I was a Whisperer before I became a Dungeon Binder."

Shanalorre frowned slightly. "I thought Dungeon Binders were supposed to be more… scary?"

"Do you feel scary?" Lori asked. "Because you're a Dungeon Binder too, unless I misunderstood the conversation leading up to all the violence."

The girl– the Binder– lapsed into silence.

"So," Lasponin said, "you lied about your Binder."

"Binder's orders," Rian shrugged. "Have to do what my Binder tells me. It's part of living in a demesne."

"Living under a tyrant," Lasponin said.

"What a horrible way for you to describe your niece," Rian said. The little Binder flinched.

"Shana is not like that! She's different!" the doctor snapped.

"Stop it!" the young Dungeon Binder interrupted, and the man subsided, especially when all the other militia looked at him pointedly. She turned back to Lori, trying to look brave and mostly looking constipated. "Why did ninong Grem do that? Why did he hurt uncle? Did you tell him to? Tell the truth!"

"I didn't tell him to do that," Lori said. Telling the truth wasn't a problem, in this instance. "He did that on his own. He wasn't trying to hurt your uncle. He was trying to hurt you. Your uncle was just in the way."

The girl– Shanalorre, her name was Shanalorre, don't forget– flinched again. "You're lying. Ninong Grem would never hurt me. He's nice!"

"You said to tell the truth, so I did," Lori said. "Even if you don't want to believe me, that doesn't change the fact I told you the truth."

The look of constipation progressed to a look of painful diarrhea.

"That being said," Lori said, "as his Dungeon Binder, though I do not endorse his actions, I must ask what you intend to do with him."

Shanalorre frowned, not seeming to understand. "Do with him?"

"He tried to kill you," Lori said. "Under your legal code, is this an act of assault or is it attempted murder? Will you have him beaten? Flogged? Exiled? Executed?"

The younger Binder looked more horrified with every word. "B– no! No one is beating ninong Grem! No one is hurting anyone!"

"So you're pardoning him then?" Lori said.

"He's not going to be pardoned," Lasponin interjected.

Lori glanced at him, then looked back at Shanalorre. "Does he speak for you?"

Shanalorre glance at him, then back at her with confusion. "He's my uncle," she said.

"But does he speak for you? Does he make the decisions for you?" Lori pressed. "Is he the one in charge? Or is this your demesne?"

"You're trying to trick her into saying what you want," Lasponin accused.

"And you're interrupting a conversation between two Binders, one of which is your ruler," Lori said. "Don't be rude."

Rian made a small series of coughs.

"I don't understand what you're asking," Shanalorre said.

"It's simple," Lori said. "Are you going to be punishing Grem for what he did? For attacking your uncle and trying to hurt you?"

"Ninong Grem didn't try to hurt me," the girl said. "He just… I don't know what he was doing, but I'm sure he wasn't trying to hurt anyone! Ninong is nice!"

Lori opened her mouth to speak further, but a hand came down on her shoulder. She glanced at it, recognizing the hand as Rian's, and frowned at him.

"Maybe this isn't a good time to talk about this," Rian said, sounding surprisingly gentle. "Binder Shanalorre… have you had lunch yet?"

Lori gave him a look that asked if he'd taken leave of his sanity.

There was no comical grumbling or gurgling noise, but the young girl raised a hand to her stomach.

Rian made a show of looking outside as the militia tensed. "It… looks like it's almost lunch time," Rian said. "Perhaps you should go eat and talk to us when you're feeling better? We can wait until you're at your best to talk. Take all the time you need."

The girl hesitated as Lori kept frowning at Rian.

Surprisingly, one of the militiamen said, in a soft, gentle voice, "He's right Shana. You shouldn't make decisions on an empty stomach. Why don't you go down to see Enna, she'll be finished cooking lunch by now, she'll get you a bowl."

"Um… well…" the young Binder said, glancing at Lori.

Lori opened her mouth to press the issue, but Rian's hand squeezed gently but insistently on her shoulder. She gave her lord an annoyed look, and for some reason he shook his head. He leaned down and hissed, "Trust me, let her eat."

She gave him a look intended to express her annoyance at his behavior but said, "We will be willing to wait on your pleasure, Binder Shanalorre." Well, no reason not to eat. And she could check just how much food her irresponsible lord had just pointlessly given away for nothing.

Two of the militiamen went with the young Binder, and she held their hands as they went down the stairs. They'd both left their improvised clubs behind, not that they would be any use to Lori.

Lasponin glared coldly at them as he returned to the seat his niece had vacated. "I don't know what you're trying to pull," he began, "but–"

"Why are you talking to us?" Lori said, giving him a puzzled look.

That seemed to confuse him. "I have every right to–"

"No, you don't," Lori said. "Your Binder has made it perfectly clear you are merely her uncle, and not someone she has authorized to speak on her behalf or represent the demesne in any way."

"I'm her uncle!" he said. "My niece is my responsibility!"

Lori turned to one of the militia left. "Is that supposed to mean he has some sort of authority to unilaterally deal with the Binder of another demesne in place of his demesne's Binder? I'm from Taniar Demesne originally, and so I don't know what traditions and governmental structure your demesne's governance is based on."

The doctor glared at her, obviously angry at being ignored, but before he could say anything more the militiaman Lori had directed her question at laid a hand on his shoulder, giving him a warning look. The pale-haired man turned towards the militiaman in shock.

"While we, of course, understand that Grem cannot go unpunished for his actions," Rian said brightly, "as his lord, I am obligated to ensure he receives the due process of a hearing or trial, and a chance to explain his actions before the one who would judge him. As it would be improper for us to interrupt your Binder's meal, could you please relay this message to her? I wouldn't want her to feel threatened or come to any misunderstandings due to our proximity."

"I will consider it," the militiaman said stiffly.

"That's all I ask," Rian said. "We'll both stay here so you don't have to worry about us roaming around and causing trouble for anyone."

"This is my office," Lasponin said.

"Oh," Rian said. "Will that be a problem? Is a patient due to arrive soon and you need the space?"

"We appreciate your willingness to cooperate," the militiaman said. "We will have food sent up. Please do not attempt to leave until our Binder has decided on what to do."

"Thank you! That's very nice of you," Rian said. Lori couldn't see his face, but he was probably doing his friendly, sincere smile. If anything, the militiamen just looked at him even more suspiciously.

It was slightly gratifying that she wasn't the only one who found his easy smiles so suspicious, but this was a very inconvenient time for it.

The militiaman left to pass the message on, at least.

––––––––––––––––––

"Why?" she asked him intently. Her glare should have been making his already tanned skin even browner.

Rian pointed to the militiamen– including the one with the sword– still in the room with them. "Should we really be having any sort of conversation right now?"

Lori glanced at them, standing across the room but obviously watching the two of them, and dismissed them. "Why?" she insisted.

"Wow, we're really having this conversation here and now," Rian said. "Why what, then? You'll have to be more specific."

"Why did you initiate a premature end to our conversation with Binder Shanalorre?" Lori said.

Rian blinked. "Did you actually remember her name?" he said, sounding amazed.

"Of course I remember her name," Lori said, rolling her eyes. "It's one name, how hard is it to remember one name?"

"You actually remembered someone's name!" Rian gasped. He clasped his hands together and looked upwards for some reason. "It's a miracle! Or possibly even maturity! Our little Lori's growing up…"

"I'm almost certain I'm older than you," Lori said, giving him an annoyed glare. She had even odds of it, certainly. Either she was older or she was younger. Good odds.

"Does that mean that when we get home, you'll start remembering everyone else's name t–" Rian began.

"That's not one name, that's a hundred names," Lori said. "Besides, it's not like it matters if I remember any of them."

Rian sighed. "Ah, so close… still, it's progress! If I can get you to remember a new name a day–"

"That's your job, I'm delegating it to you," Lori said flatly.

"Too late!" Rian said, sounding bizarrely happy. "You've learned how to remember names, I'm not going to let you get out of this one!"

Lori decided to just ignore this nonsense and get on with her question. "You still haven't answered me. Why did you end my conversation with Binder Shanalorre?" she said.

Rian sighed. "Lori… her father just died, remember?"

Lori blinked. "How do you know that?"

"Her uncle is the doctor. The doctor's brother was this Demesne's previous Binder. Now, she's the Binder," Rian said, saying each sentence simply and slowly, as if explaining to a child. "Unless there's a way to stop being a Binder I don't know about, which I admit there very well might be… "

"Ah," Lori said, suddenly feeling foolish for forgetting the obvious, especially since she'd thought of looking for people who might have been related to the doctor.

"It took me a while to realize, but it seemed unkind to push the girl, given that," Rian said quietly. "The fact her uncle seemed to be in charge of her implies something happened to her mother too, recently or otherwise."

Lori grunted. She turned to the militia who'd been listening. It was hard not to, given they were right there. "Is that in fact the case?"

They all stayed resolutely silent.

"If you stay quiet, this one might end up assuming the little girl is fine after all and start pushing too much, saying thoughtlessly painful things that she otherwise wouldn't if she happened to know for a fact the girl's just lost her father and–" Rian said brightly.

"Yes, she's the late Binder Koshay's daughter," one of the militia, the woman who'd been glaring at Lori, said. "There, you know."

"Thank you very much!" Rian said brightly, then turned to Lori. "She's hurting. Let's be not-terrible people and keep from pushing her hard?"

"Why are you phrasing it like that?" Lori said, annoyed.

"I know you're not a terrible person, but you do sometimes need reminding," Rian said. He was actually giving her an encouraging look.

Lori rolled her eyes. "Idiot. As if I need to be told."

"I've learned to not simply assume with you," Rian said.

She glared at him. He just kept on smiling.

They both sat down to wait, the militia watching them with unrelenting eyes…

"Want me to tell you a story?" Rian said brightly.

"Don't you dare!"