Demesne

Come the morning, Lori found out what her lord had deemed appropriate semi-violent outlets for people's energy.

"Tournaments?" Lori said. She was sitting at her usual table out of habit, with Rian across from her. His side of the table was more crowded than usual this morning, but Lori ignored that. There were fewer people about, as many seemed to be sleeping in, and those present seemed to be waiting for something.

"Technically, a tournament is more organized," Rian said brightly, though his brightness was emitting from a flickering source this morning. Perhaps it had something to do with the women sitting on either side of him. "This is basically to be a bunch of friends messing around with a bet on the line. These are competitions at best. We're holding the board game competitions in the morning and the physical competitions in the afternoon."

"When it's the hottest," Lori pointed out.

"Makes people tired faster and saps their ability to make trouble," Rian said cheerfully.

Lori blinked. "Oh… how cunning of you. And the physical competitions are…?"

"Quarterstaff fighting, stick fighting—technically sword fighting, but we're using sticks so no one gets horribly gutted—wrestling, and I figure a short footrace," Rian said. "But even a competition has prizes. We have nothing we can give out that people can't get for themselves much easier by going into the woods, which is where you come in."

"I am not giving up more fruit from my reparation loot," Lori said, annoyed. "I haven't even had any yet!" She'd thought to indulge in one or two or three last night, but had returned to her room so full that she hadn't had any room in her.

"You realize fruit only stays good for two to three day before it starts to go bad and—you have a cold room in your rooms," Rian finished blandly.

"I have a cold room in my rooms," Lori confirmed.

She wasn't sure what to do with the little sack of grain that had been in one of the sacks of fruit. She hadn't asked for that, and technically it was taking up space that could have been fruit instead, but grain made flour made bread, right?

"Which reminds me," she said, pulling up a bowl she'd had with her. It was made of stone since she hadn't had enough teeth, with a name inlaid in gold, and filled with fruit. "Yours."

"Oh, I get one too!" Rian said. "I wondered about that."

She'd had to get the forgettable names written down first, and had maybe forgotten to make one for him.

"Yes, yes, thank you for helping save my life," Lori said.

"Is this your subtle hint I use my own fruits as the prizes?" Rian said.

"It's yours. Do what you want with it," Lori said.

Rian looked down intently at his bowl as if considering doing exactly that.

"If you need it, I can give you some of my fruits, Lord Rian," Mikon said to his left.

"I can give you all of my fruits, Lord Rian," Umu said to his right.

Lori was treated to the sight of Rian looking uncomfortable. "T-there's no need for that, you two! Lori gave that to you, you deserve to keep it! This is my problem."

"But we want to help," Umu said.

"That's right, Lord Rian," Riz said, once more on the other side of Umu from Rian. She seemed to be trying to lean over the slightly smaller woman to be closer to Rian. "So please, take all the fruits you need!"

"Don't just casually give away my hard-earned reward from her Bindership," Umu said flatly, glaring at the northerner woman.

"Speaking of which… why do I still need minders?" Rian said. "I've had a good night's sleep. They held me down again to make sure I slept. Why am I still being followed?"

Lori gave him a level look. "If you don't know, I see no need to inform you."

Rian gave her a horrified look. "Why are you telling me that? I didn't DO anything! I've been a good person! I don't deserve to be told that!"

Lori rolled her eyes. Useless thespian.

"What's taking breakfast so long?" Lori asked pointedly.

"Oh, no one's cooking," Rian said. "We ate the beast and seels last night, so there's nothing to cook except the stew stuff in the cold room. And no one wants to make that right now, though if people haven't eaten by lunch, we might be desperate enough to do it. So everyone's sort of waiting for food. I did see Karina going seeling though, so maybe we'll have some meat soon."

"Alone?" Lori said sharply.

Rian blinked. "Um, I didn't see anyone with her."

Lori checked her awareness of the demesne's wisps, and found only a single void above water where she had found the brat the day before. She sighed and got up.

"Lori? Where are you going?" Rian called as she stomped out of the Dungeon.

"To keep someone from drowning," she said.

––––––––––––––––––

When she came back, it was with four more large seels trapped in ice and the brat.

"Oh, finally, breakfast," Rian said brightly. "Should we expect more of the same for lunch?"

Lori considered it. "Fine, fine," she said. She DID feel like eating more meat. "But first, I need you to deal with this brat."

"I thought you knew her name?"

"Stay on the topic at hand, Rian," she said. "Teach her how to swim."

Rian blinked at the order. "Excuse me?"

"You can swim, correct? You showed me," Lori said impatiently.

"Y-yes…" Rian said.

"Teach this one how to do it too," Lori said, pointing at the brat. "She insists on going alone, without anyone to help should she fall into the water. If she's going to do that, she might as well know how to survive it. So, teach her how to swim. You have until sunset."

"Wait, you want me to teach her to swim in one day?" Rian said, alarmed.

"Well, she'll be busy tomorrow," Lori said. "So it has to be today."

Rian looked at the brat uncertainly. "I can… see what I can do…?"

Lori nodded and went over to decapitate the seels she'd caught.

"Can you really swim, Lord Rian?" she heard the brat say behind her. "That doesn't sound like something people can do…"

Fortunately, there were people who were willing to take over the butchering and cooking once they saw there was meat. Soon the air of the demesne was full of the smell of roasting seel and bubbling fat again. She'd even authorized the rest of the mashed fruit that Rian had been thinking of using as some kind of dessert treat to be put to the flame and made into a sauce, since she had thought it would have made a good accompaniment to the seel meat the night before.

There was something different about this morning though. While people still moved leisurely, relaxing in the shade or disappearing out of sight into the trees, some people were using sticks and rocks to mark out a square in a relatively flat patch of ground in front of the Dungeon, talking and laughing as they did it. A few others were using knives to peel the bark and protrusions from long branches while talking casually, occasionally handing off what they were doing to someone else so they could eat. Unlike yesterday's air of lethargic indulgence, today felt like there was… direction.

In the Dungeon, she could hear more people playing, and even a quick glance inside showed someone had written something new on the wall, next to the other usual game win-lose counts. Apparently, the chatrang competition, lima competition, and pincer competition were being played in the Dungeon, with people paired off and playing against each other in a tournament bracket format. There were even some people playing sunk, using the rules Rian had demonstrated that involved moving at the same time, which looked nightmarish, though they did not seem to be taking part in any sort of competition. Apparently there wasn't enough interest in playing sunk to form a proper competition.

Speaking of her lord…

Lori took her stone plate and filled it up with more meat, the person tending the fire smiling and nodding to her, which she returned. There was no speaking, and she was glad of it. They only had meat, no tubers and mushrooms, since no one had gone looking in the woods yet for any that morning, and they weren't touching the stores. Plate refilled, Lori headed over to where she could get a good view of the river.

It was strangely amusing, in an incongruous way. Rian was standing waist-deep in the river, fully clothed, surrounded by the brat, Umu, Mikon, Riz, several other children who'd thought it looked fun, and a few curious adults. All were fully clothed because, as Rian had said, this was meant to be preparation in case someone fell into the river, which would probably happen while they were dressed. The girls had all girded their loins, tying their skirts in front of them as they were wont to do while seeling.

"—ly float," Rian was saying as he had the brat lying face-up in the water in front of him. "Even in mildly turbulent water like the river on a windy day, you'll float as long as you don't panic, splash around or try to keep your arms above water. If you do that, your arms become a heavy weight that will push your head down, and you don't want that. Make sure your arms are lower than your head, since this makes it easy to keep your head up. You all right there, Karina?"

The brat's hair was spreading around her in the water, but to Lori's surprise her voice was perfectly audible as she said, "I… think I'm doing it, Lord Rian."

"Good," Rian said as everyone craned their heads to see. "Now, for those people who can't see, I have my hand on her back holding her up, but this is the sort of relaxed posture you need to float. Really, just relax, just let your arms and legs flop and concentrate on keeping your head above water by not letting anything float higher than your head. Now, Karina, close your eyes, take a deep breath and hold it in."

The brat exaggeratedly took a deep breath and puffed out her cheeks.

Rian pulled back his hands, holding them above the water and everyone cried out as Karina stared to sink. "Stay calm everyone, this is perfectly normal, Karina just has to find her balance again, and… see, there we go," he said as the brat's head bobbed up again, her mouth opening wide to take a deep, audible breath. "Karina, blink if you can hear me."

Presumably, the brat blinked.

"Okay, blink once for no and twice for yes. Do you feel all right?" A pause. "Do you feel like you can keep floating for however long you need to?" Another pause. "Do you still feel scared?" Pause. "What, really?" Pause. "And you're still doing this? Wow, you're being very brave right now, Karina. All right, get your feet under you and—"

Whatever else he said was drowned out as the brat sank down, only to shoot back up out of the water, now obviously standing on the riverbed, panting and wiping water from her face. Several people applauded, even as she shivered.

Lori considered it and started pulling firewisps out of the air.

There was a stir in the water, people looking down in surprise. Rian, however, looked around, spotted her and waved. "Thank you, your Bindership!" he called.

Lori replied with a dismissive wave and went back to her food.

"All right," Rian said. "Let's all practice floating…"

––––––––––––––––––

By noon, most of the people who'd gone to learn from Rian could at least manage to float on their back, and a few, the brat among them, could swim. Others just watched and cheered them on, or went into the water themselves for a refreshing dip. This time, most people seemed to have decided to go in clothed, possibly moved by the fact so many people were already doing it, and possibly out of a desire to keep from having to do more laundry.

The few that had managed to learn how to swim didn't wiggle through the water like seels, but they floated, they could breath, and they moved in the water about as fast as someone walking, only without needing to have their feet touch the riverbed. A few had dared try moving deeper towards the middle of the river, only to stop when they hit the cold water and turn back around, necessitating a quick lesson in how to change direction.

Lori had lost interest near the end and had gone to catch more seels for food. The big ones were clearly well above the size of what the children could catch, but made the best eating. She even got cheers when she walked back to the area in front of the Dungeon with them being pushed in front of her. She usually never got cheers. It sounded so good…

She looked up as Rian sat across from her with a bowl of food, still dripping slightly from his morning in the river.

"Enjoy your dip?" she said.

Rian actually seemed to take a moment to think about it as Umu, Mikon, and Riz sat to either side of him. "I did, actually," he said. "It was nice, teaching people something I know that they don't. Thanks for heating the water, by the way. I wouldn't want anyone getting sick because of the cold."

Lori just grunted, making a dismissive wave of her hand as she speared another piece of meat and brought it up to her mouth to chew. She reached under the table and pulled out a stack of seven bowls one at a time, stacking them on top of each other. Each was made of stone, with a glossy surface. A differently colored stone had been used to inlay the word 'Winner' into the rim of each bowl.

"Here," she said. "Something for people to win."

"Oh." Rian stared at the bowls and smiled slightly. "Well, it's… very generous of you, your Bindership," he said.

"I was bored and between meals," Lori said, looking aside. "Besides, we have plenty of rocks."

Rian nodded. "I think I might have enough to put one fruit in each of the bowls," he mused.

"You can use the fruits in my bowl too, Lord Rian," Umu said.

"If you don't like the fruit, just say so," Lori said.

Umu and Mikon, who had her mouth open and was likely about to say the same thing, both froze.

"Stop scaring them," Rian said. "You said it yourself. It's their fruit, they can do what they want with it." He turned to the two. "Though really, you don't have to do that. This is my problem. Enjoy your fruit, I'm sure it's delicious."

"But Lord Rian, what about the prizes?" Mikon said.

"If I run and get lucky, maybe I can find some happyfruit that's edible," Rian said. "Though I think we might be starting to leave fruit season for those trees… "

"Why do you still need fruit?" Lori said, exasperated. She resisted the urge to jiggle the bowls, since they were heavy. "You already have something to give."

"It just seems… sad to give an empty bowl as a prize, when a bowl is supposed to contain something," Rian said. "Comes across like a very pointed and depressing metaphor. I mean, would you like to win an empty bowl as a prize for something?"

"You're sounding like my parents again," Lori said flatly. The only difference was at this point her parents would have stopped trying to pressure her and would have just seized her property for use according to them. Those had been HER snacks! She'd gotten them from the snack table herself! Why had she needed to give them up to people too slow to do the same?

"One day, I hope to meet them and give them what they deserve," Rian said.

They had it: less one daughter.

Lori buried the memories in the taste of meat.

For some reason, Rian sighed. "Well, thanks for the bowls, your Bindership. You didn't have to and it was very generous of you."

"Yes, it was," Lori agreed. "So stop asking for more. It's greedy."

Rian nodded. "Yes, I suppose after a certain point it is," he said. "The game competitions are nearing the final stages, so I'd better go and put some fruit in this for the winners."

He stood up.

"Seize him," Lori said, pointing.

Anywhere else, she'd have been unsure people would have reacted fast enough to that order to keep Rian from leaving.

Umu, Mikon and Riz, however, reacted instantly, grabbing Rian where convenient as soon as the words were out of her mouth. "I've already slept!" he said nonsensically.

Lori pointed at his bowl. "Finish your food," she said flatly. "It's wasteful just leaving it half-eaten. I worked hard to catch those seels. Don't waste it." Really, given his strange quirk about feeling like he needed to deserve to eat, leaving food uneaten was just hypocritical on his part.

"Now who sounds like a parent?" Rian said, rolling his eyes.

But he did sit back down and finished his bowl.