Demesne

The Vyshke woman moved to stand over Grem, glaring down at him. As he finished blinking and came fully conscious, he started returning the favor.

"Grem," she said curtly.

"Vyshke," he said in the same tones.

"Is there any particular reason you tried to kill my husband and my niece, or were you just extremely drunk again?" she said coolly.

"I am not a drunk, woman! You just can't hold your beer!"

This level of personal attacks did not bode well for the neutrality of this discussion.

Fortunately, Rian stepped in. "Grem!" he snapped, punctuating it with actually snapping his fingers in the man's line of sight. "Focus. We're not here for your nonsense."

Grem's gaze focused on him. "Lord Rian…" he said.

"No talking," Rian said curtly. "You'll have time for that later. For now, you'll listen. Is that understood, soldier?"

There was an abortive jerk of hand. It was only then that Lori noticed his hands had been bound by their wrists in some manner, and that he couldn't move them from his sides. "Yes, lord," he said instead.

Rian nodded. "This woman is going to ask you questions. You will answer them. There will be no nonsense with monosyllabic answers, no holding back information by omission, no refusing to answer. You will answer, completely and honestly. Is that clear?"

"And if I refuse?" Grem said.

"I'm your lord. You don't get to refuse," Rian said. "But since you're trying to wiggle your way out of this, then if you don't, we'll consider your actions as treasonous for unilaterally trying to force Lorian Demesne into war with River's Fork, revoke your rights and our authority over you, and leave you to their mercies. You'll have gained absolutely nothing beyond destroying your reputation and honor, and most likely a painful death, with two places that could have been your home instead becoming your enemies, united in disgust against you. All your life, in ruins, and no one will even be sad about you, because the last thing you did was seemingly to murder a child for no reason." There was a beat. "I could threaten you with mutilation and torture, but honestly, I think all that sounds terrible enough. Don't you?"

Despite keeping his face smooth, Grem's throat moved as he swallowed. Rian nodded and gestured.

"He's all yours, Missus Vyshke," Rian said. He gave Grem one last look. "Remember, be honest."

The woman nodded curtly as Rian stepped back. Lori looked at him and mouthed 'treason?' slightly incredulously.

Rian shrugged.

"You heard him, Grem," the Vyshke woman said. "So, out with it. Why did you attack my husband? Why did you make my niece cry?"

"It's Lasponin's fault," Grem said, sounding almost petulant.

"You always think things are his fault," she said. "You've never really liked my husband."

"I like him," Grem protested. "In small doses…after drinking… when his brother is around."

"But you blame him anyway."

"It's his fault! If he'd only waited… that man has always thought he knew better than everyone, that everyone around him was an idiot and if they'd just do what he said things would be better. We had a plan, and he turned around and did what he wanted as soon as we were gone!" Grem snapped.

"You left us to fend for ourselves," the Vyshke woman said.

"Because he insisted on staying!" Grem said angrily. "And only because he wanted to play at being Great Binder by taking advantage of his niece! We came back, didn't we? We were going to claim the core so that people could keep living here safely. But he just had to trick her into becoming one with the core, just so he could pretend to be in charge because he's her uncle, telling people what to do."

"Some would say he's in charge because he's one of the two doctors we have left, after you all took the rest," the Vyshke woman said.

"That means he's a medical authority, nothing else," Grem said dismissively. "Anything else is arrogance."

"Is that why you attacked him, then? He angered you, and now there was no Koshay to keep you both apart, so you attacked him?"

"Is that what he said? Hah! Even in this, he has to make himself seem important," Grem sneered. "I only attacked him because he got in my way. I was trying to get to Shana."

"Ah, yes, this." the Vyshke woman said. "Why were you trying to get to Shana? Trying to separate her from her foolish, self-centered uncle?"

"Because she was the Binder," Grem said. "She had to be. Her parents were Koshay and Laven. If there was someone to suddenly arise as a wizard who could be the Binder, it would have been her. So she had to die."

The room was completely silent then as everyone stared at the man with some mix of horror and anger.

Lori, however, was looking at the young Binder standing behind the wall of militiamen. She didn't look saddened or shocked, or betrayed, or even on the verge of tear. Instead, she looked... dead. Resigned. Broken. Like one of the corpses Lori had buried.

The little girl shook…. then ran out of the room.

Her aunt and Grem didn't notice, too busy glaring at one another. Huh. Usually Lori was the one who didn't register things like that. Three of the militament had gone to follow after her, looking concerned.

"Had to die? Had to die? Are you listening to yourself?" the Vyshke woman snapped. "She's a child! She isn't even a woman yet! What's going through the stupid head of yours that you think killing a child is a good idea?-!"

"The fact that without a competent Binder to protect this place, a real Binder, one who would actually know what they're doing, everyone who refuses to leave this place will die the next time a dragon passes us!" Grem snapped. "You were there, woman! Koshay couldn't protect us! Laven did, but she died doing so in her turn as our Binder!" What? "Now you want a little girl who doesn't have a single colors-tainted idea of what she's doing to be the Binder of this place? How will she protect us? She doesn't have any of her father or her mother's learning, and Lasponin is a fool if he thinks he can teach her anything to keep a dragon back from finishing this place off! The only way to save this place was to kill her and have a real wizard claim the core."

"I've met your 'real wizard'," the Vyshke woman said. "I am not impressed."

Lori twitched, directing her glare at the woman's back. Rian sighed for some reason.

"You'll live to change what you say," Grem said. "No one died in her demesne, and she lived through the dragon's passing. As much as it pains me to say, having Shana as the Binder of this place will just leave everyone to die the next time it happens again. I was saving lives!" He turned away from her, gazing passionately at the remaining militiamen and women. "You all know it's true! How many of you actually think she can protect you when another dragon comes? Koshay couldn't and he was a learned man, a man we all know would have done everything in his power he could to protect us! And the best he could do was to kill himself and pass the title of Binder to his wife, and even she died. Now the lesser brother is giving himself airs and trying to do what Koshay couldn't, and it will get people killed! What is one life compared to all the people who could be saved?"

"Then why didn't you kill her yourself?" Rian suddenly said.

"You saw how it happened, Lord Rian," Grem said. "Her uncle got in the way–"

"Liar," Rian snapped. "The doctor stepped in front of you, but when you tackled him, you hit him into the wall, even though Shana was directly behind him. You could have kept on going straight, slammed right into her, and taken as many hits on his dinky little knife as you needed to while you snapped her neck. Even if he cut your throat, as long as you got hands on her, you'll live long enough to kill her. But instead, you pushed him aside and left the way to her open. Open for us."

"I thought that if I kept him occupied, you could–" Grem began.

"Shut up!" Rian snapped angrily, and he was angry. Lori had never seen him angry before. "You coward, you just wanted us to kill her for you because you didn't have the balls to do it yourself! You started the fight so that we'd panic and go for what seemed like the nearest solution. You made sure we could pass through the door next to you, and that you had a plausible reason not to do it yourself because you were 'occupied'. This wasn't just about you killing a little girl, this was about trying to get Lori to want to claim this demesne so badly she'd be willing to kill a child for you to do it! It's why you kept bringing it up, why you kept trying to appeal to her desire to expand her demesne… all so you could keep your hands clean. Even though it was your plan all along."

"I didn't–" Grem protested.

"You knew who the Binder was, but you never actually told us," Rian said. "Not until she was right there in front of us and you'd already started a fight. I guess we were supposed to catch on that it was her when you told us to kill her. Just go with it and not think anything of the fact she was a child. Or if we did, you hoped Lori would be greedy enough to kill her anyway. Not that you said anything to that effect. What, did you try to kill her and then got cold feet at the last moment, so you hoped we'd take the hint and do it for you? You didn't just want to kill a child, you were also too much of a coward to do it yourself!"

The words hung in the air, and Grem said nothing.

Instead, as he lay there, he seemed to… deflate. Like a water skin fallen and leaking out its contents, he just seemed to get smaller. His eyes met Lori's gaze, and for some reason, there was hope there.

"What?" she said, meeting his eyes. "Are you still hoping I'll kill her? Why bother? You said it yourself. This place is doomed with her as its Dungeon Binder. I can just wait for the next dragon and claim this place for myself then."

Grem's jaw dropped open. "But… everyone here would die!" he pleaded.

"I fail to see why I should care."