Demesne

Shasha, tell me a story…

What kind of story would you like?

Something boring. I can't sleep.

Well, as of today, all the meat we have in the cold rooms amounts to—

Not that kind of boring story! An interesting boring story!

Then how about I tell you about before the sea of stars?

There's a before the sea of stars?

Of course. After all, to cross the sea of stars, people had to come from somewhere, right?

This doesn't sound like a boring story.

It will be the way I'll tell it.

No! Don’t make the story boring, Shasha! I want to hear this one!

All right. But after this you need to sleep. All of you.

Now, how did it go…? Ah. A long time ago, before there were Dungeon Binders, back when Whisperers knew only how to use fire, there was only one demesne. It was a demesne that covered all the land, a demesne that knew the secret of how to talk to dragons—

You can talk to dragons?

Hush. I'm telling the story now.

Why can't we talk to dragons now? Then we wouldn't have to hide and just tell them to go away.

If we could talk to dragons, you know it will be Binder Lolilyuri who talks to them. Do you want her to talk to dragons?

Oh. Probably good we can't talk to dragons anymore, then. But wouldn't she just send Lord Rian to talk to them, anyways?

Maybe. But hush. I'm still telling the story. This demesne was the greatest demesne of all, with bound tools that didn't need beads, and food for everyone so no one was ever hungry—

Like here?

Better than here, because they only ate stew when they wanted to.

Ooh, that is better! That means everyone was probably fat!

Probably.

They'd be the fat demesne.

Don't be rude.

…sorry, Shasha.

One more interruption, and I'm stopping this story and going to sleep.

Yes, Shasha.

In the demesne, no one was hungry. No one was sick. Everyone lived to be very old, and no one feared giving birth. The demesne had everything anyone could ask.

It was not enough.