Weekly Digest 70- (#215 - #217)

Expecting Visitors

When Lori woke up from empty dreams, she found that in her sleep someone had started banging loudly on her door to wake her up. After lying in bed trying to ignore it and go back to sleep, then debating whether to bury them in the snow for their impertinence, she finally sighed—though it probably came out more as a growl—arose from her bedroll in a terrible temper and angrily activated the lightwisps on the ceiling. The only think keeping her from stomping as she made her way to the door was the fact that her feet were bare and the floor was stone.

She unlatched her door as she muttered darkly about going back to sealing off the passage to her room, then all but flung the door open. "Who died?" she ground out, glaring at, of course, Rian.

"No one died, Keyyara just went into labor," Rian said. He looked half asleep, and his hair was tousled. He was already wrapped up in his winter robe.

"Who?"

"A pregnant woman!" Rian snapped. "Sorry, I'm not fully awake yet. Riz and I are going to get Shana, we need you to start the air jets."

Lori looked at him blearily. "Can't it wait until morning?"

"It ismorning. The sun just isn't up yet."

"That's not morning," Lori grumbled but sighed. "Fine, fine, come on." She pushed past him, stomping down the stairs. Then she winced, turned around, and went to put on her boots.

"At least you can go back to sleep," Rian said as she sat down on her bed and put on her socks and footwear. "I have to stay awake, and not have any breakfast."

"This was all your idea. You have no right to complain anyway."

"Everyone always has the right to complain. Whether something happens to them for doing so is another matter."

Her socks and boots on, Lori got up to stomp outside. Rian followed after her, yawning and muttering to himself. She was halfway down the stairs when she paused, turned around again, and started stomping back up, her lord barely getting out of her way. Going back to her room, she headed towards the containers where the beads were stored.

Reaching inside one, where the largest ones were kept, Lori pulled out a handful of beads. Since they were on average two and a half yustri wide, some even as wide as three, it was awkward, so she dropped them into the jar she used to bring back beads from the edge of the demesne. She also grabbed the flattened rocks that she'd bound firewisps too, then proceeded to drop them because they were too big and wide for her to pick up properly

"Rian, pick these up and carry them," she said as he got to her door. "Now!"

"What fo— oh! Warm rocks! Yes, please!" he said, suddenly sounding more awake and enthusiastic as he recognized them. He pulled off the towel wrapped around his face and quickly fashioned it into a small, improvised sack. Really, why hadn't Rian asked her to prepared any of this in advance? He of all people should have been aware of how cold it was out there!

Between the two of them, they managed to bring down the flattened rocks and the jar of beads downstairs, even though Lori sometimes swayed, still sleepy and really awake only because of a burning, molten annoyance as she rubbed sleep sand from her eyes. Downstairs, she heard sounds of activity in her Dungeon as she came down the stairs. People were awake in the second level, and at the kitchen someone was boiling water, the lone pot looking absurdly small by itself where the larger stew pots were normally used. Beyond that, the kitchen was still empty.

In the passageway leading to the dungeon, they found Riz waiting next to the sled, which was already packed next to the snow melter. Lori didn't know if it was kept packed specifically for this situation or if Riz had simply moved quickly. She was holding a pair of gloves and smiling triumphantly.

"Here," she said holding the gloves out to Rian. "I finally managed to borrow a pair from—"

The detail of whoever she had borrowed them from was lost as Rian started kissing her all over her face in a mildly nauseating manner. "Thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you…!"

Lori ignored the giggling and byplay as she knelt next to the sled. On the top of each of the air jets, recently added, was a cup-like structure fused to the bone and sealed with a wooden stopper. Pulling off the stoppers revealed… well, a cup-like recess, at the bottom of which was a wide disk of copper. Lori dropped three beads into each recess before stoppering them closed, pushing the wooden stoppers down tightly so they wouldn’t come off. While the binding was still heavily imbued, she didn't know how long they might be made to wait in River's Fork as the people there would likely also be surprised by the timing of the pregnancy. That didn't even include how long it would take to climb up to where Binder Shanalorre probably lived and wake her up, explaining the situation, and them waiting for her to rouse herself and get dressed. The beads would ensure that the bindings would have all the imbuement it needed, and she could give Rian more when he came back. It wasn't a true bound tool, but it would suffice for this.

The air jets loaded with beads, she turned to Rian and Riz, and grimaced at what she saw. "Stop doing that, you two," she snapped.

The two separated to infantile giggles. "Sorry, your Bindership," Rian said cheerfully, not sounding particularly sorry at all. "Just, ah, rousing ourselves awake, that's all."

"Rian, I know enough to know wakefulness is not what is aroused by that," she said irritably. "Get those stones secured under your clothes so I can bind some firewisps to them, and be quick about it. It's bound to be colder out there at night, and you'll need to stay warm!" Really, why hadn't Rian prepared any of this in advance? He of all people should have been aware of how cold it was out there!

"Uh… we should probably get inside for this," Rian said, trying to keep from dropping any of the rocks, which were probably starting to grow warm. "And have something to secure these with." He glanced towards the Dungeon.

"Back home. We can use chest wraps to tie them into place again," Riz suggested.

Rian nodded, swaying slightly, though he glanced at Lori for a moment.

"What are you looking at me for? Get moving! You're in a hurry, aren't you?"

"Yes, your Bindership, " Rian said, pulling Riz and heading past Lori down the tunnel in front of the dungeon's entrance, presumably towards his house.

Naturally, Lori followed, stomping on the cold ground, and remembering to bring the jar with only a couple of beads left inside it with her. After all, she had no intention of just standing around here, and someone had to stop her two idiots from getting distracted by their lusts.

Rian's house was brightly lit when she opened the door, the glowing rock she'd given him resting on his table—oh yes, she'd need to give the sled lights, wouldn't she? With the snow, there was no guarantee any of the moons would be visible to provide light. On Rian's bed were Umu and Mikon, the latter sleeping deeply—making Lori twitch with jealousy at other people getting to sleep—while being held in the former's arms under a thick pile of blankets. The pink-haired weaver cracked an eye open slightly as Lori entered before closing it again and going back to sleep, or at least feigning it to be comfortable. She was surprised both were clothed, or at least wearing blouses.

Rian and Riz were in the middle of undoing their winter robe and coat as quietly as possible, and both glanced up when she entered. "Lori?" Rian hissed.

"Don't mind me," Lori said blandly, picking up on of the stones and reaching for the firewisps among the smoldering coals of the fireplace. "I'm just here to warm these stones. Carry on." She imbued the firewisps into a binding, making her emanate from the fireplace so she'd have more firewisps to work with. As the air in the house began to warm, she began claiming firewisps out of the air and binding them to the stones systematically, imbuing them slightly but leaving them deactivate for now.

With a slightly awkward and aggrieved air, Rian and Riz continued what they were doing, loosening their clothes enough so they could take the warming stones and secure them to arms, legs, and around their torsos under their clothes. The stones were secured in place with chest bindings, and Lori briefly wondered if there'd be any left for the sleeping pair when they woke up.

Once the last stone had a binding on it, Lori started imbuing them all, which was a bit difficult to do consistently because she was still sleepy. Still, once she set it properly the binding wouldn't take much imbuement. She resisted the urge to chide them to hurry, aware there were sleeping people nearby. Well, one sleeping person at least. She was annoyed at losing sleep, but not annoyed enough to start inflicting it on others. She might have become so if Rian and Riz had taken their time and continued flirting, but fortunately with her in the room they moved quickly and methodically even if it was obvious both were still trying to wake up. Rian was excitedly pulling on the gloves he'd just been given and somehow not managing to do so successfully in his hurry. Riz had to help him put the gloves on, showing him how to secure their cuffs shut to keep the air out.

Once they were dressed again, Lori had to take a moment to activate one of the warming stones and adjust it until it was a comfortable temperature, then applied those adjustments to all the warming stones they were carrying on their persons. "All right, you're both ready," she said irritably. "Last chance to say it's too warm. No? Then come on and get to the sled so I can go back to sleep."

"Yes, your Bindership," Rian said in a voice that made it obvious he was being patient. "Thank you for bothering to wake up at all."

She glared at him and stomped off.

Riz and Rian pushed the sled outside of the tunnel, pointing it downriver as Lori added bindings of lightwisps to the sled. She had to anchor them to the bone of the air jets, since the front of the sled was made of wood, binding the lightwisps to cast their light forward instead of in all directions. It created a stark white path in front of the sled, even as everything around it remained dark. The two got into place, Rian sitting in front with Riz holding on to his waist behind him as Lori activated the air jets.

There was a blast of air that actually made Lori feel cold as snow was blown away from the back of the sled. The sled began to slowly move forward, accelerating as it became a moving speck of light in the dark.

Lori was already walking back to her dungeon, sleepily trying to imbue air jets, lightwisps and warming stones as she stumbled her way back to her room, closing the door shut behind her. She barely remembered to take her boots off as she as she lay back in bed and deactivated the lightwisps above her.

Angrily fluffing up her pillow in place under her head, Lori went back to sleep.

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A Guest

When Lori woke up, it seemed like an ordinary day like any other. She had a quick wash, breaking in the new bar of soap and setting aside what was left of the old one for her laundry. She should probably do her laundry soon.

Her boots were wet in a small puddle of water, and she took a moment to get them dry and put some oil on them from the small supply she had managed to get Rian to procure for her. Hopefully her boots would keep lasting a little longer.

Once properly dressed, with new dry socks, Lori headed downstairs for breakfast. She still felt tired, like she hadn't gotten enough sleep—

There was someone on her bench.

Lori paused as she saw two people sitting on her bench. Not on her spot, but a little farther down, at one end.

With the sort of serenity borne of boiling rage, of the sort that melted glass and metal, Lori stalked towards her table. Sinking them into the floor? A bit problematic, her bench might sink with them. Lightning? Tempting, tempting… Steam? Steam in your lungs was agonizing, or so she'd heard, a protracted death as your lungs burned from the inside, filling with your own blood, and even with a Deadspeaker, recovery was painful…

The shorter of the two on the bench turned and Lori almost stumbled as she found Binder Shanalorre looking towards her. The pale-haired young girl—no—the younger Dungeon Binder turned and swung her legs over the bench's seat to stand and face her. "Good morning, Binder Lolilyuri," she said. "I have come as agreed upon. Missus Keyyara is still not ready to give birth, so at your Lord Rian's suggestion, we are taking breakfast." The other one at the bench also stood, the older man moving to stand behind the girl.

Last night's events—or possibly very early this morning's—finally returned to Lori's memory as she turned a flat look towardsher lord. "He did?" Lori said mildly

"In my defense," he said, sitting slumped with his elbows on the table, Riz actually sleeping with her head on the table next to him, "I tried."

Lori looked significantly at the other person who had been on the bench.

"I said I tried, I didn't say I actually managed it," he said, stifling a yawn. "I leave these things to more awake minds."

Lori glared at him for a moment more before turning back to Binder Shanalorre. "Welcome to my demesne, Binder Shanalorre," she said. "I apologize for not greeting you sooner, but I was asleep."

Binder Shanalorre nodded. "I apologize for not presenting myself to you as soon as I arrived," the younger Dungeon Binder said, "but I fell asleep soon after I arrived."

"Ah. Perfectly understandable. Shall we sit and wait for breakfast, then?"

Binder Shanalorre nodded, and Lori walked over to sit at her usual spot in front of Rian. The other Dungeon Binder sat down about a pace away, adjusting her seat on the bench to get comfortable. The older man pursed his lips for some reason, glancing at Lori, and found she was giving him an intense glare. Frowning, he moved to sit back down.

"Not you," Lori snapped. She pointed at the opposite side "Sit over there."

"What?" the man said.

"You're not to sit here. Sit over there." Really, Lori was pointing to where he should sit and everything, why didn't he understand?

Rian gave out a tired sigh. "As I tried to delicately tell you Lord Yllian, that's the Dungeon Binder-only side of the table. Everyone else sits over here. Please sit down before my Dungeon Binder loses her temper. If you're not sure where to sit, just sit in front of your Dungeon Binder, like I'm doing?"

After frowning, looking around, and glaring for far too long, lord whatever-his-name-was pursed his lips and did as Rian said, sitting on the opposite side of the table from his Dungeon Binder. Lori gave him one last glare for good measure, then turned towards her lord.

"You look terrible," she said.

"I've been awake all night, sledding in the dark and cold," Rian said flatly. "I think we might have to skip our usual morning trip. I'm in no more condition to operate a sled. In fact, there's a good chance I'll pass out asleep right after breakfast."

Lori frowned, then sighed. "Fine, fine. Go to sleep after this. At least tell me you've arranged a guide for Binder Shanalorre?"

"Yes, we have a guide lined up," Rian said. "Talked to her days ago, she'll probably come by after breakfast." He looked over his shoulder and sighed. "Speaking of which…" With clear reluctance, Rian stood up, stepping over the stool and walking towards the kitchen. Riz made a muted sound of complaint, but otherwise didn't move.

"Were you planning to do something, Binder Lolilyuri?" Shanalorre said.

"A minor project," Lori said dismissively. "Your presence will necessitate putting it on hold, for the moment. Are your accommodations to your liking?"

"They are adequate," Shanalorre said. "Their warmth is greatly appreciated. I've been sleeping in my office for the past red month because of the difficulty of getting myself up to my usual residence."

"How inconvenient. I hope you overcome the problem in time."

"The matter will hopefully resolve itself in the thaw."

"Ah. Procrastination. A problem-solving method my lord is fond of. I suppose there aren't many possible alternatives, given the resources available to you."

Shanalorre tilted her head. "I admit, I had not thought of it like that. Incidentally, Binder Lolilyuri, may I compliment you on the extent of your Dungeon? I must have required extensive work to accomplish."

"Yes, it did. It is still not yet complete, however. The third level will still be expanded to house our Dungeon farm, once the ground thaws and we have access to more soil. I take it your own Dungeon is not as extensive?"

"I don't have one," Binder Shanalorre said.

Lori waited for elaboration. None came. "Should it not have been a priority during the demesne's initial construction?"

"It should have been," Shanalorre said.

Nothing further was said, so Lori shrugged and regarded her duties as host done. After all, her guest no longer wished to speak, she certainly wasn't going to press her. Lori preferred not talking, after all.

On the opposite side, Riz continued sleeping, while lord whatever-his-name-was kept glancing back and forth, occasionally turning to look directly behind him. Around them, the dining hall filled with people waking up and talk. There was a mildly excited air to the words, probably because they had visitors, or because someone was giving birth. This would be… huh, the first birth in her demesne, wouldn't it? She'd have to find out what the date was and make a record of it or something. That was the sort of thing that needed to be recorded, right?

Rian, Umu, and Mikon eventually arrived carrying food. Rian put the two bowls he was carrying down in front of Shanalorre and lord whatever-his-name-was, while Lori reached for one of the bowls Mikon put down, grabbing a cup of water as well. Soup, with thin cuts of stewed meat and boiled tubers. The same as usual. She stirred it with the spoon for a moment before taking a sip. Ah, delicious. Across from her, Riz was being roused awake so she could eat.

"Rian," she said after she'd had a few spoonfuls to warm her stomach. "Find out what the date is today, if you can. This is the first birth in our demesne, so I'll probably need to record it or something."

"34th of first storm," Shanalorre said, interrupting her rather enthusiastic consumption of the soup in front of her.

There was a beat, then Lori turned to stare at the other Dungeon Binder. "What was that?" she asked.

"It's 34th of first storm," Shanalorre said. "Or first red, if you prefer."

"Ah… are you sure, Binder Shanalorre?" Lori said hesitantly. After all, a lot of people had forgotten what the date was.

Shanalorre nodded. "I'm sure," she said.

Well… all right, then. "Thank you," Lori said simply. "I will note it later. Rian, remember it for me."

"Gonna sleep after breakfast…"

"I'll remember it for you, Lord Rian!" Umu said as she sat next to him.

"Thank you, Umu," Rian sighed.

"Are you at least awake enough to remember how many visitors we have?" Lori sand blandly.

"Six," he said. "Four militia, and our guests here. They're… uh, around here somewhere." He made a vague circling gesture with his finger, then yawned, covering his mouth with one hand. "I've arranged for them to get some soap so they can use the baths if they want, though I'm not sure if they brought towels…"

"I brought mine, Lord Rian, as you recommended I should," Shanalorre said. "Lord Yllian, did all of you pack your towels and spare clothes as well?"

"Yes, Great Binder," her lord said.

"Good. I probably won't need you while I'm assisting with the birth, so you have me leave to use the bathing facilities we've heard so much of. With Binder Lolilyuri's permission, of course?"

Lori waved her hand. "Of course, of course. Feel free to use any of the baths, as well as the laundry area should you need it, though you might need to make other arrangements to dry your clothes afterwards."

"Thank you. I look forward to it."

They all went back to eating, since there wasn't much else to discuss. Rian was tired and his mind wandering, and anyway, Lori didn't wish to discuss any of their current projects with their guests present. They'd find out about the beads sooner or later, but Lori would rather it be later rather than sooner. Lori also sent Rian to get a second bowl of soup for their guest when she finished, since she still seemed hungry. She'd been staring at her bowl, at least, so Lori supposed as much.

Well, two bowls. After all, if they were going to feed their guest, she was going to eat some more too! A pity there was no bread…

After breakfast, Rian's guide arrived.

"Hello, I'm Karina," the brat said. "Lord Rian asked me to show you around, help you get to places, and answer any questions you might have. Are you Binder Shanalorre?"

Lori gave her lord a flat look. He simply shrugged in response. She supposed there were worse choices—far worse. The thought of Landoor being Shanalorre's guide…—but why a child?

"Yes, I am Binder Shanalorre. It's a pleasure to meet you. Thank you for agreeing to act as my guide."

The brat tilted her head. "You sound funny. Are you all right?"

"I am well. Possibly I sound strange because I am sleepy."

"You don't sound sleepy…"

"I am sleepy. I was woken up last night and had to travel here on a sled."

"Well… I suppose… Where do you want me to show you around?"

Lori took this as her cue to rise. "Well, I'll leave you with Karina, Binder Shanalorre. Be welcome in my demesne, and should anyone attack you, I'll drown them out in the snow. Riz, please make sure everyone knows this so nothing unfortunate happens."

"Yes, Great Binder," Riz said, still sounding sleepy. "Drowned in the snow, got it."

Lori nodded. "If you'll excuse me, Binder Shanalorre, I have things to attend to. Rian, see me after you've had a chance to sleep."

"Yes, your Bindership! Will sleep as ordered!"

After all, she had bindings to imbue, expansion to perform, and once Rian was awake again she was having him take her out to the edge of the demesne so she could make beads. The former two, she could do from the safety and isolation of her sealed off room, where Shanalorre's militia—whose faces she wouldn’t be able to tell apart from everyone else—wouldn't be able to ambush and kill her.

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Due Diligence

After recording the day's date on a stone tablet, Lori set about doing what chores she could from the safety and security of her own room. As she imbued the bindings around her demesne—she was still considering whether she should wire some more to her core using the copper they now had available—she examined the thing she had made that she had been planning to use in making beads today. It was a copper ingot set into stone, with the stone shape to form a sort of rectangular bowl such that the ingot made up the base. It reminded her of the mold they'd used to pour the ingots into shape. Forming the thing had taken some time, mostly because she had to get around to it, but she'd finally finished it yesterday.

It was probably silly to just use whole copper ingots in her experiments with beads, but it was far less time consuming than trying to have the smiths heat and hammer the copper into shape, and besides, this minimized material loss. Really, all she needed was a metal to conduct magic with, the shape was irrelevant. In addition, it made it easier to recover the metal afterwards.

The plan had been to place Iridescence in the bowl, and then used the metal as a conduit to start forming the binding that would amalgamate with the colors to form a bead. She had hoped to test if the binding could be imbued while the bead was being formed, and she had needed a more conveniently shaped tool to do it in than simply her hand or the end of her staff.

If it worked, then she'd be able to use the principle to make beads of a specific size, or close enough. Since beads naturally formed spheres, growing outward from the seed of Iridescence, if she could make a receptacle that would lift forming beads away from the metal contact point once it reached a certain diameter, that would result in a self-sizing mechanism. Of course, it would need to be light and easily portable on the sled, since they'd need to keep moving it out towards the edge…

If it worked. Otherwise… well, she didn't want to do Rian's idea of forcibly seeping beads to reduce them down to size! It was so wasteful!

Sighing, Lori put the bowl aside and double-checked the list of things she needed to imbue, just to make sure she'd completed it for the day. Until Rian woke up, she wouldn't be going to the edge to make beads, and she wasn't leaving her room lest she be assassinated. With nothing else to do, Lori began expanding her demesne, letting her mind wander during the imbuing stages. There were further experiments to be done on the white Iridescence, like heating it far beyond boiling and burning it under direct flame, but that had to wait until the winter ended and she could do it outside…

Wait, had she told Rian to tell everyone to keep the existence of the new beads secret from Shanalorre and her militia? Lori groaned as she realized she hadn't. Well, that was… undesirable. Still, they couldn't really do anything about it besides try to extort their boats for it as a 'toll fee' when they resumed going back to the ocean for salt…

Shaking her head to dislodge the annoying—and distracting—thought, Lori went back to expanding her demesne. Ever since she had altered her approach, it was no longer so fatiguing, so the schedule of expanding in the afternoons so she could go straight to sleep was no longer really necessary, and with her stuck—er, that is, defensively secure in her room, she could probably expand seven, maybe more times today as she lay back on her bedroll to get comfortable…

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Lori jerked awake. What…?

There was a knocking sound and she sat up as she realized she was sleeping on her bedroll. Why were they disturbing her? It was the middle of the night!

Grumbling, she rubbed her eyes of sleep sand and arose from her bedroll. The only thing keeping her from stomping as she made her way to the door was the fact that her feet wore only socks and the floor was stone.

She unlatched her door as she muttered darkly about going back to sealing off the passage to her room, then all but flung the door open. "Who died?" she ground out, glaring at, of course, Rian.

"No one died," he said cheerfully. "The baby was born healthy and Missus Keyyara is fine as well."

Lori stared at him blearily. "What?" Why had he woken her up in the middle of the night to talk nonsense?

He sighed for some reason. "The baby? You know, the reason we both woke up last night to get Shana from River's Fork?"

She stared at him, then shook her head as memory finally returned. "Oh, yes, yes, the baby…"

"Anyway, I'm up now and came to get you for lunch since you didn't come down on your own and were ignoring me calling you." Rian tilted his head, as f realizing something. "Were you sleeping?"

"I was until you knocked on my door," she said. It was lunch? "It's lunch time?"

Rian nodded. "Yes. are you coming down to eat or do you want to keep sleeping?"

Going back to sleep sounded very tempting, but Lori pushed the thought away. If she went to sleep she'd just keep sleeping and never get anything done. "I'm coming, I'm coming," she said. "I'll just put on my boots."

Rian nodded. "Can I talk to you while you do? There's something I wanted to discuss without our guests hearing."

Their guests? Who were—oh, right. "Fine, fine," Lori grumbled. "Close the door after you." She headed to her bed to put her boots back on.

Rian stepped in after her, closing the door behind him. "The doctors have talked to me and asked if we could negotiate for Shana to stay one more day, maybe two."

Lori sat down heavily, glaring at him. "What?" she demanded.

"They said that if either the mother or the child got sick or infected, it would take them that long to start showing symptoms," Rian said. "Since Shana's expertise is healing and not, say, getting rid of the causes of disease, she can't really do anything until after someone gets sick or injured. At least, that's what the doctors who have experience working with Deadspeakers said, and I can understand their reasoning. As the mother and child are now, according to Shana there's nothing 'wrong' that needs to be healed, but the doctors are worried that she might not be able to provide a proper diagnosis of a more subtle ailment."

"She probably wouldn't," Lori nodded, disgruntled by the logic of it. "She's just a savant, after all, not a fully taught wizard." She sighed. "We'll bring it up during lunch. Have they asked to be returned to River's Fork yet?"

"Not yet," Rian said. He chuckled. "According to the people I asked, they spent all morning soaking in the pools in the baths. Until the doctors asked for Shana's help when Missus Keyyara started giving birth, anyway. Don't worry, they were well-behaved and there weren't any complaints. More like people are amused."

"I didn't ask for the exposition and don't care," Lori said, finishing getting her boots on. "Come on, let's eat."

Rian nodded falling into step behind her as she opened the door to her room and headed down. "Will we be going to the border this afternoon, or are you putting that off until tomorrow?"

"We're going," Lori said. "There's a test I want to run that will hopefully improve efficiency."

"Oh good, more notes to take," Rian said, sounding far more cheerful now. "I hope the efficiency improvement is as good as the improvement of the expansion procedure."

"Rian, how would you even be able to compare them? They share no relevant parameters at all."

"Qualitatively. Either you start producing three times as much as before because you find an easier method, or you manage to make as much but in less time. Not actually needing to physically be on the edge would be nice too. "

"Unlikely."

"Please don't destroy my wonderful dream with cold, terrible facts," Rian begged as they made their way down the stairs.

Lori found herself glaring as she made her way to her table and saw some idiot was sitting on her bench. Oh, and Binder Shanalorre was there too, but that was fine, she was a Dungeon Binder. Before she could make her displeasure known, she heard Rian sigh and dart ahead of her. She slowed her pace slightly as she watched him get to the table ahead of her and start whispering frantically to the impertinent fool who apparently hadn't learned from this morning.

The man got up reluctantly, and moving around to the other side of the table and sitting in front of Binder Shanalorre. Probably one of the people that came with the younger Binder to keep her safe. Lori gave him a displeased look as she sat down at her usual place in the middle of the bench, turning to acknowledge the other Dungeon Binder sitting a pace away from her. "Binder Shanalorre. I am told the birth had occurred and was successful."

"Yes, Binder Lolilyuri," Shanalorre said, nodding to her in acknowledgement. "Both of them are well and currently in excellent health. However, I'm not sure as to how long that will last."

Lori gave her an intent look. Was this a threat of some sort? "Oh?"

"Yes. You are aware that I am a savant, are you not."

"Of course."

"As a savant, I can only perform healing. Or at least, that is how I can most easily describe what I can do. However, to heal, there must be something to behealed. Torn skin, broken bone, parts of th body that are too hot or are not functioning properly. Do you understand?"

"I follow the reasoning, yes."

"Currently, there is apparently nothing wrong with me two recent patients. However, I cannot be definitely sure, not the way I would be if they were in my demesne. In my demesne, I can perceive, to a degree, people's bodies. They are exceedingly complex and I do not understand them, however, I have noticed that sick people have… an increased concentration of… something that responds to my magic."

"Life," Lori said helpfully. "That is what Deadspeakers manipulate."

"Thank you. Life, then. However, I am not in my demesne, and my ability to perceive this… life… is extremely limited."

"I am familiar with the limitation," Lori said blandly. "In my own way."

"Of course. While my two patients are currently both well and do not require healing anymore from their experience, this current limitation means that I cannot declare with any degree of certainty that my patients have not contracted some form of illness, despite the preparations of the doctors and medics whose directions I followed. Therefore, in due diligence, I would like to request that I be allowed to remain in your demesne for one, perhaps two more days to monitor the situation of my patients. That length of time is more than enough for them to begin displaying symptoms should they have become infected or otherwise contracted some illness."

For a moment, Lori stared down at the shorter Dungeon Binder. Then she turned to look at Rian. Rian's eyebrows were up, and he gave a shrug when he met her gaze. "I'm… sure we can continue to support our guests for that long without significant foreseeable problems, though of course it's the unforeseeable ones that will bite us. Especially with the recent tuber harvest, that's added a little more to our food situation."

Not really what she had been demanding answers about, but good answers nonetheless. "I see no problem granting this request," Lori said. "Two days, was it?"

"At most," Binder Shanalorre nodded. "Then I will need to return to my demesne and deal with the situations that have doubtlessly arisen there."

Ah, yes. Lori could sympathize. She didn’t think she could leave her idiots alone that long without them doing something stupid either. "Then you are welcome to stay in my demesne for that long, Binder Shanalorre. Will that be all? Do you need a message sent to your demesne to inform them of this change of plans, lest they assume we are holding you against your will?"

"If you would be so kind, Binder Lolilyuri. I will have one of my men sent with such a message."

"Rian, arrange it," Lori said.

"Yes, your Bindership. Before or after that inspection we have to conduct?"

"After, obviously. We'll go once we are done with lunch."

"Lord Yllian, please coordinate with Lord Rian as to who will be sent," Binder Shanalorre said.

The man on the other side of the table from Shanalorre nodded. "Yes, Great Binder. Is there anything in particular you want sent?"

"Perhaps ask your aunt to send you additional clothes or something?" Rian suggested. "For the trip back."

Yllian eyed Rian sideways, but nodded at his Dungeon Binder.

"I suppose I was cold, even with the warming stone Lord Rian lent me," Binder Shanalorre said. "Very well, please send a message to my aunt requesting additional clothes."

Lori made a mental note to remember to make more warming stones for Shanalorre to put on her person for the trip back. It wouldn't do to waste all those negotiations and preparations only to lose their only healing-capable Deadspeaker to the cold, after all.

How fortunate Shanalorre had brought up the matter herself. Now they didn't need to trade away or lose anything by having to request it of her. The matter had been outside of the terms they had negotiated, after all. If Lori had been the one to bring it up, Shanalorre would have had an opportunity to demand more resources as recompense…