Demesne

While Shanalorre knew practically nothing about Deadspeaking, becoming the Dungeon Binder of River's Fork had given her the ability to perceive all life in her demesne, in the same way that Lori was able to perceive all wisps in hers. Perception, memory, and a functional mind had allowed Shanalorre to be able to differentiate the differences between the life of the living and the dead. And while she had never been taught, this simple awareness enabled Shanalore to be able to tell if the Coldhold's wooden components have been affected by mold or rot by finding 'living' life beneath the surface of 'dead' wood.

Thus, as part of the Coldhold's inspection and repairs, Rian took the boat in question, a couple of the demesne's carpenters, the crazy sweetgrass-naming woman, and Shanalorre downriver to River's Fork so that the Dungeon Binder could examine the boat's components through her awareness. Should any be found, she'd be able to claim the wooden components in questions more quickly than crazy sweetgrass—Lori sighed, and checked the rocks in her belt pouch—Taeclas and Lidzuga could, so that the two Deadspeakers could deal with the problem and repair what they could of the damage.

Lori left them to it, as she had other matters to deal with.

"No, you can't have it," Lori said sternly. "It's a useful stockpile of resources, and the teeth especially are invaluable. Why would I want to keep them in when they'd be far more useful being used to make knives?" She didn't even need to reshape many of them, most of them were already knife-sized!

"Oh, come on, just think about it!" Rian said. "Imagine how intimidated people will be when we sail into Covehold Demesne's harbor and people see we have a typhon beast skull mounted to the front of our ship!" He gestured at the admittedly large skull, which had a length of wood that ended in a stump fused to one side of its jaw. "Just think of the fear and awe when I tell people of how you killed a typhon abomination!"

For a moment, Lori tilted her head, unable to keep herself from imagining it. She did like being feared…

…

"Leave the skull alone, Rian,"

Rian sighed. "But it would look so intimidating…"

"Rian, stop obsessing about my building materials and go do something useful."

"Yes, your Bindership. Remember, you need to check on the driver components later."

She waved a hand dismissively. "Yes, yes. Now go and leave me be."

The bound tools were the very last thing to be restored to functionality in River's Fork, admittedly because Lori had forgotten and only recalled when she'd seen all the bound tool cores that she had removed and wondered why she had a pile of them on her table.

Fortunately, the relative cool had been beneficial to their various trees, and Lidzuga had been alternating between activating and deactivating the various trees to give them time to recover. As the weather cooled more and the winds started to return—they actually had a breeze yesterday—the bound tools keeping the trees ventilated would be deactivated again as they became unnecessary.

Huh, Lori would have to ask the two Deadspeakers if they would somehow keep the fruit trees active through the winter. Actually, had they been active through the winter last year? She'd ask the two later once the bound tools were in place.

Humming to herself now that Rian had left, Lori went back to what she had gone to the bone pile to do: finding a nicely-shaped bone that she could use as an anchor for her bindings. Anchoring bindings on her nails and staff were all well and good, but as the fire ball and its modification the fire sprayer had shown her, that was sometimes a terrible idea. Especially the fire ball and fire sprayer.

As stone was too heavy and brittle, bone was the best material to make some kind of accessory to keep on her person that could be used as an anchor point. They had a supply of bone back home in her demesne, but it had mostly been smaller pieces that she would need to reshape herself. While that was certainly an option that she was prepared to do, Lori had decided to check on the typhon abomination's bones to see if there was anything that appeared usable.

Unfortunately, nothing called to her at the moment. Many of the parts were simply just too big to use. Some of the bones had been opened to extract the marrow, showing the cavities within, and she had considered have a section of hollow bone cut to make some sort of armlet, but the bone had been too thick. She might have to try with one of the smaller bones…

Setting the bone that seemed most promising a bit to the side so she could come back for it, Lori headed off to get on with putting all the bound tools—technically the bound tool cores, but once she finished she'd have bound tools—back to where they were. She hummed to herself as she made a note to replenish the large beads in the dragon shelter. They'd used up one when the dragon had passed, and had come close to consuming the second, which had been the size of a clenched fist when she had checked. It had no doubt gotten even smaller as they had needed to keep using the dragon shelter to house people while the houses were being cleared of bugs.

She'd have to take Lori's Shed Boat out to make more beads soon, as well as more of the beads they use for the bound tools… which were also called large beads, so… she might have to rethink how she referred to the beads that imbued the dragon shelter's defenses. Big beads? Over-sized beads? Large-large beads?

Hmm… she'd think about it while she worked. If she let Rian contribute, he'd probably think of something overly dramatic.

…

She should ask Rian. But later. Right now, she had bound tool to put back in place.

"Great Binder," Shanalorre said from behind Lori.

Lori glanced up from the bound tool she was embedding into the outside of River's Fork's bathing area. With the cooling of the weather, she had finally added a binding of firewisps so that the little prototype bound tool would heat the water that was being drawn from the river. A part of her wondered whether she should redesign the bath's drainage, since with the coming cold people would probably start overusing the bathing area and taxing the arrangement she had already made. Nah, she'll wait until they started flooding their own baths due to their own thoughtlessness. "What is it?" she asked, then frowned. She felt like she'd said that before…

"I believe I have a large number of people entering the confines of River's Fork demesne from downriver," Shanalorre said. "It is difficult to estimate exact numbers, as more and more individuals are entering, but there are at least fifty already inside the demesnes' boundaries, and the number is still increasing."

It took Lori a few moments to understand what Shanalorre was telling her. "What?" she said, hoping she had misheard.

Shanalorre opened her mouth and paused, visibly amending what she was going to say. "People are entering this demesne," she said. "I cannot be absolutely certain, but based on their increasing numbers, the direction they are entering the demesne from—" she paused, frowning, then nodded, "—and the fact they appear to be accompanied by more than one Deadspeaker, I believe I can safely conclude that the Golden Sweetwood Company's second wave of settlers have arrived."

For some reason, Shanalorre knelt down, bowing her head. "What are your orders, my Dungeon Binder?"

Lori stared blankly at her, wondering why the other Dungeon Binder was being so strangely theatrical. Then she shook her head and turned back towards the bound tool core she had been embedding into the stone pipe. She softened the stone around it and extracted out the shell of copper filled with white Iridescence. "Find Rian. Tell him to gather every single wisplight and bound tool in the demesne and bring it to the Coldhold. I'll deal with the ones that are embedded. Once you have, go to my bone stockpile and fetch me a bone from the claws or feet. A large one." Lori held out her hands about twenty yustri apart to demonstrate. She would have wanted a more optimal bone to act as her anchoring tool, but since she was pressed for time at the moment, she'd just have to make something and be done with it.

Shanalorre nodded. "At once, Great Binder," she said, and Lori was pleasantly surprised when the other Dungeon Binder did, in fact, stand and immediately began to hurry towards where Rian presumably was instead of lingering to ask silly questions.

For a moment, Lori stared after her subordinate. Shanalorre had recovered from the deaths of her parents admirably. No longer a crying, lost little girl, she had left them behind just as Lori had shed her own parents. Calm and composed at all times—except when she was with her young cousin, which was like having a little brother or sister, so that was understandable—she was no longer sad, no longer in pain.

Shanalorre had become a Dungeon Binder.

She needed to be watched.

But later. Right now, Lori needed to collect and remove all the bound tools she had already imbedded into the stones of the dragon shelter, as well as the large beads that were being stored in the mine's alcove. And all the wire she had used while she was at it. She debated removing the dragon shelter's doors, but decided the copper amalgam wasn't a priority. There was no obvious way to reproduce it merely from examination. A part of her debated simply taking off the doors in any case, but she decided that while it would be petty, spiteful and satisfying, this was still her demesne, and she needed to be able to protect it in case there was an unexpected dragon. So she supposed that the wire she'd embedded into the mine would remain, but she was still taking the bound tool cores.

Her discoveries could not be allowed to fall into the hands of someone other than herself!