Demesne

Lori hadn't stayed up late to work in a while. That period when she'd been taking notes didn't count, as she barely remembered it as anything but a haze of tiredness. Most days, she'd just go straight to her bed after dinner, do one final check of the reduced number of bindings she now maintained for ones she needed to imbue, maybe take another bath if she wanted to feel cool instead of warm, and go straight to sleep. Sometimes she'd read her almanac for a little stimulation, reading over uses for vistas and tamings and various other things. They were vaguely interesting but not arresting, and she was able to drift off to sleep reading things that were probably useful but which she couldn't utilize yet.

Not tonight. For the first time since the expedition had settled here, Lori needed to stay up and get some work done to be ready for the next day. Since they would be leaving immediately after breakfast, there would be no time to do it then, and Lori probably wouldn't be lingering over her food either.

It reminded her of school, in a depressing 'I thought I was done with having to do things like this' sort of way as she sat on a bench, her back to the stone outer walls of her Dungeon's entryway. On one side of her was a pile of arrows with a mix of arrowheads that were made of stone or bone, some of which she actually remembered making. Lori knew that she'd previously made much more, but this was all that remained to date. She'd have to set aside some time to make more arrowheads soon.

There was a slightly smaller pile on her other side, where she placed the arrows that already had bindings anchored to them, imbued but deactivated. She'd need to activate them before they were used, since even if she used a line of lightwisps as a channel to connect herself to the binding on the arrowhead, if the line were stretched far enough the binding would break apart from there simply not being enough wisps to stretch across the physical distance.

The binding she anchored onto the arrowheads was relatively simple, consisting of two heavily imbued 'spikes' of lightningwisps that connected where they were anchored and protruded as far from arrowhead as she could make without them starting to deform, which was about a hand-length. Each had an opposing directionality, with the intention that once loosed the spikes would penetrate the flesh of anything the arrows were shot at, and lightning would flow from one spike through the flesh of the target and into the other spike, which would draw the lightning back into the first spike, creating a loop of lightning that would do horrible things to the flesh that was the intermediary that allowed the lightning to pass.

Per Rian's request, she had formed the binding such that the loop would exist only very briefly, because once completed the binding would immediately consume all imbuement and likely cause the flesh to violently explode. If the typhon abomination was altered enough to have syrupy abomination blood, it would hopefully catch fire.

As long as whoever was shooting it was careful to not touch the arrowhead, it should be safe to handle once she activated the binding, though Lori would need to activate each one individually. Not ideal, but if the abomination was close enough and in an area open enough they could have several people shooting arrows at it, her lightning balls would have either failed or been avoided.

Up in the sky, the dragon's trailing threads continued to obscure the sky and made the moons look like they'd been cut into slices in preparation for cooking. There was a distinct lack of bugsong in the air as Lori worked, but it was more than made up for by all the people not sleeping. Now that everything was more or less back to normal—the typhon abomination not withstanding, since it was in another demesne—people had returned to their usual habits. With the relative cool returned, there were once more bonfires lit in front of the baths, surrounded by benches filled with people talking and making all sorts of noise that was at least not music. Some people were doing some late-night laundry, and while there was no more line in front of the Um, the open doors indicated that the rooms were still occupied.

She could see Riz was stationed to tend to the ledger of who was using the Um's rooms and would therefore need to clean it up at the end of the week, although she seemed to be doing it with her head in Mikon's lap. A part of Lori wondered if this mean Umu was home alone or was doing late-night laundry alone, before dismissing the thought as nonsensical.

Next to Lori, sitting on the ground—on a plank instead of directly, so he wasn't getting his trousers too dirty—Rian was using a pointy rock to carve 'top' onto several riverstones so there were would be no confusion about which side it should be facing. He was humming happily, and it actually seemed to be genuine instead of some sort of affectation. From the way the humming's rhythm kept changing, they seemed to be songs.

Lori focused back on the binding she was making, drawing lightningwisps from the air nearby. The binding she had tested over the river earlier that day was now anchored to the ground next to her, marked by rings of light to keep people from walking into it—she didn't want them accidentally grounding the lightningwisps—and helping her see. She had reformed the binding so that the lightningwisps in the center merely filled the air with sparks instead of lightning, while the shell of lightningwisps and airwisps kept the sparks contained so they wouldn't get loose. It provided her with a replenishing source of lightningwisps for the bindings she was making. There were still a lot of bindings to make tonight. Once she finished with the arrows, she'd still have to make and anchor lightning balls onto the rocks she was having Rian mark.

Ugh, why did she have to do this herself? She was the Dungeon Binder! She should have Whisperers doing this for her!

…

Ah, right. She couldn't trust any wizards to not try and kill her to claim her core, since she couldn't just sequester herself in her dungeon and shut everyone out. Actually, ever since that first dragon, her Dungeon had never really been empty, had it?

Sighing, Lori put down the arrow she'd just finished anchoring a binding onto and picked up the next one.

"You don't have to stay up to do this, you know," Rian said, not looking up from what he was working on. "A day—"

"No," Lori interjected as she claimed lightningwisps and began to form the binding. "No procrastinating."

"Would procrastinating really be worse than having all our preparations in order and our Dungeon Binder—the one we'll be relying on to kill this abomination—getting a good night's sleep so she's well-rested when she has to deal with the thing?"

"I can sleep on the boat," Lori said as she shaped the binding into a pair of spikes. "This needs to be done. I will not have an abomination of that size within one of my demesnes."

"You could have Taeclas or Lidzuga teach Shanalorre some kind of meaning that can deal with the abomination," Rian suggested.

"Firstly, never suggest such nonsense again. Secondly, we do not have three years for her to learn the bare basics of Deadspeaking, which will be needed for her to learn any meanings."

"So… she should start learning now?"

"Rian."

"Yes, your Bindership?"

"Shut up and get back to work."

Rian sighed. "Yes, your Bindership."

"And never bring up the subject again."

"No."

Lori paused in setting down the arrow she'd just finished, turning to stare at him as she let the arrow fall from her fingers.

Rian still didn't look up. "I'm not going to let you willfully ignore viable options just because you don't like them. If the options exist, they need to be actively considered for the situation, even if your considered answer is 'no'. As your lord, I'm supposed to give you good advice, not just the advice you want to hear. You should have read enough history and story to know what happens to people with advisors who do that. It's your prerogative to ignore the advice, but it's my duty to give it. So no, I will not comply with never bringing up the subject again, not when Shanalorre is far more useful to you and both demesnes if she actually knows how to properly do Deadspeaking."

Lori gave him a flat stare. "Noted," she said eventually. "Now drop the subject and get back to work."

By the time Lori completed anchoring bindings onto the arrowheads, Rian was long done. However, rather than returning to his house, he simply moved his plank up against the wall of the entryway and sat with his back to it, staring up at the stars. Lori had expected him to accompany Riz and Mikon when the former finally closed up the Um, but he simply waved to them and sat back. What was he waiting for?

Well, Lori didn't have any more time to bother with him. She still had more bindings to make.

At first, Lori had thought she would need to make a full-sized lightning ball binding to anchor onto the rocks that she'd had Rian mark, but on consideration she decided that wouldn't be necessary, at least for the moment. She'd simply make a smaller binding utilizing a disproportionately large amount of lightningwisps, which she would expand to the appropriate size tomorrow. It would make moving the bindings around easier, as she wouldn't have three-pace wide bindings knocking against each other and other bindings around them—

"Do you want me to get you some water?" Rian said suddenly.

Lori blinked, looking up from the binding she'd just completed and was minimally imbuing so it would last until morning. "What?"

"You've been working for a while, so I thought you'd like something to drink."

Lori opened her mouth to tell him she wasn't thirsty, and realized she actually was. How long had she been working? "Yes, thank you," she said, standing up and—argh, how long had she been sitting? Her posterior was loudly telling her she should have moved sooner, her back was complaining she'd been bent over too long, and her bladder was informing her why she was thirsty. "I will be back in a moment."

When she returned, in addition to a cup and a jar of water, Rian also had a pair of micans and some blueballs. "I figured you needed something to eat too, in case you were starting to feel sleepy."

"I wasn't until you brought it up," Lori said, taking the cup. It was empty, but Rian picked up the jar and poured when she held out the cup. She had two more drinks before grabbing one of the micans to peel it open—

"Did you wash your hands?"

"…"

After coming back from washing her hands with soap in her room, Lori started peeling open one of the micans. The little wedges were sweet and tart in her mouth as her bite released the fruit's juices. She let the flavor wash over her tongue before chewing and swallowing. Next to her, Rian had cracked open one of the blueballs, popping the firm and deceptively dry-looking fruits into his mouth. A few moments later, he spat out the seed into his hand before tucking it into the peel.

For a moment, they just sat there.

"Shouldn't you be going to sleep?" Lori said as she started peeling the second mican.

"Shouldn't you? You're the one who's supposed to be killing the abomination tomorrow. Besides, if a choker walks by while you're working, someone has to notice it, and it certainly isn't going to be you."

Lori frowned. "Are there still chokers about?"

"No idea. No one's reported seeing one yet, but maybe they didn't think it was worth reporting. The patrols have found an abomination or two, however, so there's that." Rian picked up a stick lying next to him that Lori hadn't really noticed until he'd picked it up. "Keep on working. I'll be right here."

A sound came from Rian's house. It was muffled by the walls, but had a very familiar tone and pitch. Very motherly.

Lori gave Rian a flat look. He'd turned to look towards his house when the sound came, but was now looking away, adjusting his legs as he sat. When he realized she was looking at him, he said, "What?"

"If you want to go back home—" Lori said dryly.

"Don't you have work you still need to do? Or are you going to sleep now?"

She gave him one last look and shrugged, picking up another river rock the size of her palm and making sure that the inscribed 'top' was facing her. Claiming airwisps from around her and lightningwisps from the sparks released by the binding next to her, Lori began forming another lightningball. One down, nineteen more to go.

…

Why did she think it was a good idea to make twenty of these bindings?-!