Demesne

As Lori made her way down the steps leading from her rooms—which she had remembered to lock behind her—she did her best to ignore the whispered exchanged happening behind her. Mikon and Riz weren't being as quiet as they thought, and the walls bounced their words just enough to be audible.

"—way you stood your ground against Binder Lori was so brave…" Mikon said in a low, husky voice.

"…it wasn't, my mouth just spoke before my thoughts got to it…"

"…seeing you do that had my bell shaking…"

"…it was stupid, I shouldn't have—shaking…?"

"…when we can use the house again, I am getting you on that bed and ringing your bell all night…"

"…a-all night?"

Thankfully, they reached the bottom of the stairs before Lori had to hear any more nauseatingly mother-like whispers.

The dining hall was filled with people, though it was clearly not a meal time. Tables and benches had been moved at the far end of the dining hall, where children were playing some loud game in the cleared space that involved much running around, standing still, holding their arms out and yelling a lot. It made her shudder, bringing back horrid childhood memories of her mothers taking away her books, and telling her to go 'play with the other children' and other terrible things.

"U-uh, I'll go get the fruits, Great Binder," Riz said. "Why don't you sit and wait for me?"

Ah, right. Lori had been about to go outside and see how exactly the dragon was blocking the sun and what the rest of the situation was—the door of her Dungeon was open, so it probably wasn't too urgent—but as soon as Riz mentioned the fruit, her stomach reminded her it was empty and that she couldn't remember the last time she had eaten. "Thank you," she said absently, turning to head towards her table.

Her chair was just as she left it, pushed neatly against the table and out of the way, and when she pulled it out it was as solid as ever. As Lori sat down and leaned back, she let out a sigh. Ah, she'd missed this! Even though the past several days were a bit hazy—at the moment, her clearest recollections were sitting with her eyes closed, observing the ill-bound wisps and bindings the dragon had made, and collecting and examining samples whose creation she hadn't been able to observe directly, and then writing down notes about it—but she distinctly remembered thinking several times that she wished she had her chair so she could lean back while she wrote.

She would have reshaped the back of the sleeping niche, but it would have taken up time and concentration she needed to observe. So many bindings, so many strange arrangements of wisps… far too many had been completely indecipherable, at least in the brief time she'd given herself to look them over, so she had claimed them and gathered them up to examine later. A few, however—no, no, that can wait later! Best to make sure she remembered her notes correctly!

Lori blinked as Mikon sat down on the bench opposite her, the weaver giving her a smile but saying nothing. She considered ignoring the woman, but… "If you do any of that bell-ringing in my Dungeon, there will be consequences."

"I know, your Bindership," Mikon said, smiling brightly. "Only when we're back in the house."

"Good."

"Though I might see if I can take her to the Um."

"I don't need the details."

"Can we play later?"

Lori paused. "What?"

"We haven't played sunk in a long time. Can we play later at dinner, if you're not busy?" Mikon looked at her earnestly. "Please?"

Huh. When was the last time she'd played sunk? If she couldn't remember, Lori supposed it had been a while. "I'll consider it."

Mikon smiled brightly for some reason.

After eating the fruits that Riz brought back—they were nice and cool, their outsides wet with condensation—Lori sent her out to find—she reached down to check to rocks on her belt pouch, only to realize she'd forgotten to put on her belt pouch—Lori had her wait while she went upstairs to get her belt pouch.

Once Lori got her belt pouch and checked the rocks until she had to right name, she sent Riz off to retrieve Kolinh, Taeclas and Lidzuga. She took the time to reconnect the pipes from the water hub shed to her Dungeon's reservoir while she waited, though she did not reactivate the shed just yet. The reservoir's water level was down to half, and the waste water cistern in the third level was quite full, as were the latrines.

It occurred to her that she might need to rework her Dungeon's latrines, which had mostly been untouched all this time. She had once considered anchoring bindings to immediately desiccate the waste in the latrines, but had dismissed the idea at the time since she hadn't wanted to use her then-limited wire supply on something so… seemingly frivolous. However, it was clear that the latrines had suffered from her lack of attention for an extended period of time. They were so full that if they'd been opened for cleaning they'd have spilled out onto the floor.

Before she could get started on that, Riz arrived with the people Lori had called, and she gestured for the four of them to sit on the opposite side of the table. Mikon, who'd just sat quietly while Lori had eaten, slid aside to make room for them and took her leave, kissing Riz on the cheek as she went.

"All right," Lori said. "I will be dealing with the matter of the latrines after this. First off, Taeclas, Lidzuga, have you tested the river water for harmful dustlife?"

The two blinked, exchanging looks in a way that made it clear they hadn't.

"One of you see to that immediately so that I can reconnect the reservoir to the river. What is the state of the demesne outside of my dungeon besides covered with ice and solidified air'? Are there any dragonborn abominations that need to be dealt with?" Lori directed that question at Riz and Kolinh.

"We've encountered abominations, Great Binder," Kolinh reported, "however, most of them have been small things, mostly bugs and chokers or beasts of similar size. Most of them are part plant, or have had pieces of their bodies replaced or fused to wood. So far, we haven't encountered anything bigger, so we've been able to put down any that we've run into. Most of our efforts have been clearing what Rian called dragonfrost. It's dangerous to walk on without snow pads because it's thick and slippery. We're working on clearing the main paths, but we still haven't had time to check the demesne's buildings."

Lori nodded. "How many of the abominations you've encountered are undead?"

"A fair few, but it doesn't really change how we deal with them. It's also hard to tell them apart from the ones that are still alive until we've already dismembered them. "

She frowned at that. Well, that probably meant that Kolinh and the former militia in the demesne could handle all the abominations as long as they remained small. "What becomes of the… dragonfrost? What becomes of the dragonfrost after it's been cleared?"

"We've been dumping it into the river," Kolinh said. Huh. Well, she supposed that was one way to get rid of it instead of just letting it pile up.

Lori nodded slowly. "Very well. Continue as you have been as to disposing of the dragonfrost. Has there been any notable damage?"

"The waste water cistern for watering the fields is cracked, Great Binder. The water in it froze, cracking the stone."

"That should be simple to fix," Lori mused. "What about the sawmill?"

"There's no obvious damage that we could see, Great Binder, but a more thorough inspection might be needed. At the very least, we should pour water on the roof to see if it leaks now. "

Lori nodded again. "Very well. I'll do something about the dragonfrost around the village this afternoon. For the moment, withdraw those dealing with abominations and have them assist in cleaning out the latrines. When I finish with the dragonfrost, you should be able to deploy more people to deal with them." A part of her wanted to stick the dragonfrost into their coldrooms—no sense in wasting good solidified air—but given it was mixed in with ice, she'd have to pick through it. "After this meeting, go and check the nearest latrines outside. If there are any abominations hiding in them, deal with them and restore the latrines to a useable state so people have somewhere to go while I'm dealing with the latrines here in my Dungeon. Once the latrines have been cleared, check to make sure there aren't any abominations in the baths so I can reconnect the water pipes and people can use them again. The old baths, the ones near the Dungeon. The new ones can wait until later. After that, resume clearing the area around the village, and then move on to inspecting each building. I don't expect you to finish today, but get as much done as you can."

Kolinh nodded. "Understood, Great Binder."

"Taeclas, Lidzuga, I want an assessment done on every individual in this demesne. Check if anyone has developed an illness from being in my Dungeon for an extended period of time, and deal with it as needed. Be as quick as you can while still being thorough. Start with the children, then continue with the ones cooking in the kitchen."

The two nodded. "Yes, your Bindership," they both said, though Lidzuga was a bit unused to saying it compared to Taeclas.

"Erzebed, what was the situation in River's Fork when we left?"

"Rian and Yllian were clearing out the dragonfrost around the outside of the dragon shelter, and we sent more people to help them this morning," Riz reported. "There are a lot of dragonborn abominations, and Rian said they're bigger there, but Binder Shanalorre has been working on dealing with them."

Lori blinked. What? How? "What? How?" She'd ordered Shanalorre not to learn any further Deadspeaking!

"She's claiming any meanings in her demesne that's an abomination and taming the life into her meaning," Taeclas explained quickly. "Rian suggested it. That way, she undoes the meaning and uses up the imbuement in the life, so if there are any predatory lifelings they'll have less to subsist on."

Oh. That was… quite ingenious, actually. "How successful has she been?"

"I saw a lot of abominations that weren't moving on my way back, Great Binder, but what Binder Shanalorre is doing isn't killing all of them," Riz reported. "It doesn't do anything to the abominations that don't need magic to stay alive, or at least won't die right away without it. The ones I saw were beasts mashed together, and…" She made a disgusted face. "Well, it's going to die. Guts aren't supposed to be on the outside."

The description wasn't very vivid, but it was enough to make Lori not desire further clarification. "Is there any reason to believe that the dragon shelter is in danger from abominations?"

Riz shook her head. "The three still alive that I saw can be dealt with by the people there, and Binder Shanalorre said there were no other large beasts or abominations near the dome. At least, there weren't any last night. I'm not sure about now. She's still asleep."

"She stayed up late into the night, dealing with all the abominations that she could," Taeclas said, looking disapproving for some reason. "Your Bindership, you need to tell her to take better care of herself. Staying up that late isn't healthy, especially for someone her age."

Lori opened her mouth to reply, then paused. While she didn't particularly care whether Shanalorre died—it would actually be convenient for her, since she would then be able to claim River's Fork's core—the other Dungeon Binder's healing meaning was useful, and she was useful for taking care of the children. "I'll inform her she's more useful if she remains in a healthy state."

Taeclas stared at her, a strange expression on her face.

She didn't seem to have any more questions, so Lori turned back to the others. "Was there anything else?"

"Um, Great Binder?" Riz said. "What about Rian?"

Lori twitched. "Rian can stay where he is and make himself useful. If I need him, I'll send for him."

"Don't you need him for, uh, 'dealing with people' matters?"

Lori gave her a blank look. "Why would I need to deal with people? I'll be restoring the demesne back to a working state, and then I'll be going to do the same for River's Fork."

"Ah."

"Besides, why would you need Rian? I'm given to understand you already have plans with Mikon tonight."

Riz's face reddened as everyone turned to stare at her. Taeclas gave her a grin and a nudge with her elbow.

"If that is all, you're dismissed. Get to work."

Lori waited just enough for them to mention any other matters before standing up and walking towards the latrines. Time to get to work herself.