Demesne

River's Fork was at a place where two rivers joined together to make an even bigger river. Both rivers were pretty wide and deep, so to cross one of them and get to where River's Fork was now, someone—Karina said 'someone' because if she said 'Shana's inay' her friend would stand there for a bit and then slap herself, and she didn't want that to happen—had gotten some big rocks and sank them into the river to make a place where it could be forded.

It was still too deep for Karina to cross without getting all her clothes wet, so one of the big uncles they'd met with when they'd found Lord Yllian had picked her up and carried her. Someone did the same for Shana, and they got across that way. Lord Rian spent the whole time telling Karina to not go seeling there, because all it would take is for her to slip and she'd fall, hit her head, and she'd be swept into the river and they'd never see her again.

"But I can swim," she protested. For some reason, the uncle carrying her—Uncle Vov, because lots of names got shortened to 'Vov' for some reason—shivered. Grown-ups could be so silly about swimming, but it was really easy and fun!

"So can I, and I wouldn't want to risk slipping, falling, and hitting my head, because I know I'd get swept into the river and never be seen again," Lord Rian said. "And you know I'm better than you at swimming. No seeling on the ford. Besides, why would you even try? The seels can't even rest there, the water keeps pushing them off."

Well, she supposed that was true. Still, she could feel Shana looking at her, and Karina knew she wasn't going to get a chance to try any time soon.

Once they reached the other side of the river, they followed it downstream to where the new people were camping. Karina watched the trees out of habit. While there were no more of the big, children-eating beasts in the woods back home, she heard that there were still some here. One of them had nearly eaten Wiz Lori—or had tried to before Wiz Lori had hit it with lightning—so there might still be more. While Karina could hunt chokers and some of the small seed-eating beasts that kept trying to go after their crops, she didn't want to try her luck against one of the leapers, especially when she didn't even have a stick—er, seeling rod in her hands!

Shana told her that here weren't any big beasts nearby, and she would know since she was a Dungeon Binder and they just knew things like that because magic, but Karina didn't feel better until Lord Rian let her borrow his walking stick. It wasn't pointy, but having it in her hands made her feel better.

When they reached the camp that the new people were living in, the first thing that Karina thought was that they had very nice tents. They were all big, the canvas was thick and didn't have any holes in them, and were so nice the almost looked like little houses. The tents probably didn't leak at all, and even had a kind of door made from flaps that could be tied together. They were all set up neatly like the houses in a village, or the dining tables in the Dungeon, so there was a little street between them.

A bunch of people who Karina recognized from yesterday walked up to Lord Rian, which meant it was time to be quiet and not interrupt because grown-ups—and Shana—were going to talk about grown up—and Shana—stuff. There were two of those old men from yesterday, a tall man with a big chin, and a pretty woman with long yellow hair and a black dress.

"Good morning Wizard Otin, Wizard Xiasam, people who I haven't met yet but are presumably also wizards," Lord Rian said cheerfully. "How are you all? Well rested, I hope? Had a chance to recover from the rigors of your journey? Feet no longer wanting to launch a rebellion and join a different body? Also, I can't help but notice that Yhallisu is conspicuously absent. Is he all right? Not injured, surely?"

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"Yhal has decided that he is… insufficiently skilled to negotiate with you, and so it was decided that I would speak in his stead," the pretty woman said, glancing at Shana. She was making a Wiz Lori kind of face, and sort of stood like her too, with feet apart and back straight. There was a metal thing hanging sheathed from the belt at her waist, and Karina didn't know if it was a sword or a wand like Wiz Lori had. Or maybe both? "I am Rilianne."

"Ah. Well, it's nice meet you, Wizard Rilianne. If I'm wrong about you being a wizard, now's the best time to correct me." Lord Rian stopped talking for a bit. "Wizard Rilianne is it, then. My name is Rian, and regrettably I am currently Binder Lori's lord in charge of both Lorian and River's Fork Demesne. After you get settled in, would you like a job?"

"Are you attempting to bribe me?" Wiz Rili said, staring at Rian like she couldn't believe he'd just done that.

"No, of course not. That would be very unethical," Lord Rian said confidently. "I'm trying to recruit you. Totally different thing, though admittedly there is some overlap depending on the time and place." He tilted this head. "Admittedly, I might retract the offer depending on how well you do. If you're not as competent as I hope you are… well, I might need to look for someone else."

Wiz Rili stared at him the way Wiz Lori did sometimes.

"Also, allow me to present her Bindership, Dungeon Binder Shanalorre of River's Fork," Lord Rian said, turning and waving his arm towards Shana. Inay had told Karina that no one really did that in real life, and it was only something actors did when they were doing plays, but that clearly wasn't right because Lord Rian did it all the time. Well, a lot of the time, as long as he wasn't tired.

Shana had a Wiz Lori face on too, the kind that made it look like she was sad and unhappy, except it wasn't exactly a sad or unhappy face. Whenever Karina had asked Wiz Lori about it, she'd said she hadn't been making a face, and was just sitting and looking at nothing. Karina didn't know how you looked at nothing, since you needed something to look at, but it was probably a magic thing. She wondered what nothing looked like, and if this meant Shana could look at it too. "Whisperer Otin. Mentalist Xiasam. Deadspeaker Rilianne. Horotract Madsmif. I see you are doing well," she said. "I hope that your stay has so far been restful?"

"It has… Binder Shanalorre," the old man with the leather patch over his eye said. Wait, hadn't that been on the other eye yesterday? "I… apologize for not properly greeting you sooner."

"Apology accepted. I was busy seeing to the needs of my demesne, so I did not have any time to spare for such formalities in any case."

"And I'm sure you probably know everyone else better than I do," Lord Rian said, gesturing to the aunts and uncles with them. "And the cute one in the middle is Karina, who decided to come along for moral support."

Ah, that was her. She put on her brightest, most friendly smile. "Hello," she said, waving at them in greeting. "It's nice to meet you. You're all wizards?"

"Yes, little girl," the tall one with the big chin said. He had a friendly smile as he nodded. "Yes, we are."

Karina nodded, and moved so she was standing between Shana and the wizards who might kill her. She held Lord Rian's walking stick in her hands, though she didn't hold it up. It wasn't a seeling rod, after all, so holding it like that turned it into a club.

For some reason, the two old wizards and the pretty woman looked at each other.

Lord Rian clapped his hands together, making everyone look at him again. "So! It's been three days. Have you finally come to a decision about whether you want to join and settle in River's Fork?"

"Your three conditions were conveyed," Wiz Rili said. "However, we would like some further clarification."

"Ah. So this isn't going to be a quick answer to a yes-or-no question." Lord Rian sighed. "Honestly, I expected to have this conversation a lot sooner, but at least we're having it. Do you have someplace where we can talk at length?"

Wiz Rili nodded. "If you will come this way?" She moved her arm, telling them they should follow her.

"Well, we'll leave this to you Rilianne," the old wizard with the eyepatch said. "Yllian, why don't we talk?"

Lord Yllian glanced at Shana before saying, "Not while I'm on duty, Otin."

The old wizard glanced at Shana, and Karina moved to keep herself between the two. That one eye glanced at her, and she gave another smile and wave. "I see… well, when you're free, if that's all right."

Lord Yllian looked at Shana again, who nodded. "When I'm free," he said.

The three men all glanced at Shana before slowly walking away, occasionally looking back to glance at her again.

Lord Rian watched all this, shrugged, and turned back to Wiz Rili. "Lead the way please."