Demesne

"—and then we went back to the dome, and Shanalorre, Yllian and I started debating and marking out the expanded boundaries for the dining hall, and possible sites for the shelter that will inevitably need to be built first so that everyone has some place to stay in case house building isn't finished before winter," Rian completed. He held up a sheet of paper. "I have them here, in case you want to look them over before going to check things out in person. Then we came back home, and here we are."

Lori took the sheet of paper. It had a map of what she presumed was the dome. There were markings noting the positions of the remaining houses, which listed which ones were currently occupied and which ones were empty or being used for storage of tools, firewood, and other things. Rectangles had been drawn, with notes like 'shelter site 1', 'shelter site 2', 'dining hall expansion', 'bath house expansion'…

She nodded, setting it on the empty bench next to her that Shanalorre usually occupied. "Very well. Stay after dinner, we will discuss their relative merits so you can convey them tomorrow."

"Ah, speaking of tomorrow, I think I should take one of the smaller boats so we can send the Coldhold to go gather salt," Rian said. "With all the new arrivals, we probably don't need to bring in our own people to get all the work necessary done."

"We?"

"Usually when you say that you're subtly implying I don't actually do anything and you do all the actual work, but in this instance is it because you have no intention of going to River's Fork?"

Lori gave him a flat look. "As soon as the wizards have been removed from the vicinity," she said tearing a piece of bread to dip it into her stew. As nice as Rian's method of eating bread and meat was, it wasn't exactly something that could be replicated with stew and flatbread. A bun, yes, but you'd need to hollow it out. She dipped the bread. "I will draft instructions for them to follow. That should be enough to keep the demesne functional."

"Huh. Well, I'm glad you finally trust other people enough to think they could do as good a job as you can," Rian said. "I'm sure the other wizards will follow your instructions exactly and not just do what they think they can get away with because they're all older than you and think they know better."

"It's just imbuing. Even a student can follow such a simple set of directions."

"All right, first, that seems like a horrible waste of their capabilities if you're just going to have them imbuing. Second, what will the Horotracts and Mentalists even imbue? The only magic in the demesne is Whispering made by you, or Deadspeaking. Your Bindership, you have other wizards now. Even if you're afraid that they're all going to start making their own demesnes and killing each other, at the very least have them do things that will be useful to the demesne."

She rolled her eyes. "Like what?"

"Well, off the top of my head, if we have the Horotracts expand the interior of the baths to accommodate the sudden growth in population, we can put off building a bigger bath house for a bit and focus everyone on shelter," her lord pointed out. "They don't even need to mess with time to get everyone in and out faster, just make it bigger to accommodate two or three times as many people."

…

Ugh, she hated it when he had a point.

"Fine, we'll have them do that," Lori said. "The Mentalists can get started gathering all the rocks that will be used as building material for the shelter. The Whisperers can make wisplights. Just have them put light on rocks and imbue them. Have them replace all the bound tools. It would help reduce the possibility of fire, too."

"And there's always having them do the annoying fiddly bits that you hate and take up a lot of your time," Rian said dryly. "You know, like making sure the floor is level and the walls are plumb. Just imagine not having to get on your hands and knees—because this is River's Fork, so you can't just do it standing up and using your staff might be awkward—to level the floor to your exacting standards and instead just being able to yell at someone for not being able to do such a simple thing. Just imagine! You get to be the angry supervisor telling people to do their work over again and threatening to withhold their pay if they don't do it exactly the way you say!"

…

…

…

That was a very appealing image, and from the longing and slightly envious looks on the faces of the women sitting on the other side of the table they thought so as well.

Sadly, doing so would mean the wizards would be in her presence, which would be very dangerous for her. "You will be in charge of overseeing them and making sure everything is done properly," Lori said regretfully. "Feel free to yell at them and threaten to withhold their pay."

"We're not paying them, though?" Rian said.

"It's the principle of the thing, Rian."

"As you say, your Bindership."

As it turned out, Shanalorre also had a few proposals that she was seeking Lori's approval on, all meticulously listed out on a sheet of paper she'd given Rian, with attached sidebars. One of them was on the disposition of the remaining unoccupied houses in Rivers Fork. Her proposal had been to assign the limited housing—there were only eight houses left, twelve if one counted the ones being used for storage—to use them to house the children among the new arrivals so that they would be safe and comfortable. Her proposal had made it clear she meant only the children. Given that by her count there were 46 children, trying to fit adults into the houses as well would be too problematic. However, the proposal included having some adults being invited to live near the children to initially chaperone them until the rest of the new settlers could be accommodated, one way or the other.

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Another proposal had been to have the Whisperers and Mentalists excavate an expansion to the dragon shelter for the raw material, although there was an addendum there to have the Horotracts survey the dimensions of the hill first to be certain as to what directions it would be safe to expand towards. A sidebar suggested that a well be dug for the dragon shelter, although it admitted the feasibility of that was uncertain given the active copper mining and the fact they'd need to set up latrines nearby.

A third proposal had been about having any temporary shelters that would be built in the dome not be semi-cylindrical, at least not on the outside. There had been a simple drawing of a rectangular block that was excavated the way Lori's dungeon had been, while on top structures had been set up. The latter was more vague, but there was a sidebar that suggested that they could be houses, workshops, and more storage. A note at the bottom said that it was because building downward was uncertain and difficult at the moment, and any underground structures would be vulnerable to damage from growing roots and spring flooding. There were multiple sites suggested for the shelter, with one being noted as 'central', another noted as being 'convenient in the event of dragons', one was marked 'convenient for work', and still another was 'convenient for construction', although there were no sidebars explaining why. Perhaps Shanalorre thought their advantages were obvious. They weren't.

"Inform her that I approve the first proposal and need more information to make a definite decision about the other two," Lori said. They had finished dinner and the table had been cleared so that Rian could lay out more papers. Ah, paper, so wonderful! Certainly not anywhere as heavy as planks. "Have the Horotracts conduct the survey first. If necessary we can get building material from the stone of the riverbed, but an expansion of the dragon shelter is now undoubtedly necessary."

Rian nodded. "And when are you planning to visit River's Fork to see all this with your own eyes?"

Lori grunted. "Do I really need to?"

"You did agree to treat the people in that demesne the way you'd treat the people here," Rian said. What? What did that have to do with anything? "If people here needed you to build something, would you just stay in your room and send notes telling them how to do it?" He shrugged. "Alternately, would you have us use infrastructure you weren't satisfied was up to your high standards? Come on, you have that nice, new lightning jig. You'll never get to use it if you just stay in your room." He paused a moment, and gave Lori a mild glare. "You'd better not be using it in your room."

There was just enough motherliness in his tone that Lori had an urge to flinch and claim all her homework was finished. She had to remind herself she was beyond homework and excuses, and womanfully glared right back at Rian. "Of course I'm not using the lightning jig in my room. What kind of fool do you take me for?"

"Didn't I have to stop you doing experiments that set the air on fire in the Um?"

"I don't see how that's relevant," Lori said, waving a hand dismissively. "Have them gather the materials. There's no point in me starting to build if there's nothing to build with."

"Understood. Though as your lord who deals with 'dealing with people' matters, I think you need to make an appearance tomorrow. First, your new subjects need to see you, and so you can put the fear of you into them. Tomorrow is the safest you can be, since only a small number of the new settlers will be at the dome and the wizards had orders to stay camped at the edge for now. If they're not…"

Rian trailed off, and Lori waited for him to close the idea with some sort of dramatic turn of phrase.

When he just kept being silent, she frowned. "If they're not…?" she prompted.

"Well, if they're not, then they're defying not just your authority, but Shanalorre's as well," Rian said. "And while them defying you would require you to respond, them also defying Shanalorre would mean she can respond as well, and she's already stated that she would personally beat anyone who challenged her authority. Except I know you and you would never let your authority be undermined, but I can't think of what you might do to reassert your authority yourself without killing someone. At the very least, you can't do any less than Shana, so you'll have to at least beat someone with your bare hands without magic, and as none of them will be wizards, it would actually be possible for you…"

Rian looked at her. She stared back.

He sighed. "On the other hand, if you don't show up in River's Fork and make yourself known, it makes you look weak, uncaring and irresponsible, and we both know you're only one out of three at worst. Regularly making an appearance will also serve to constantly serve to portray you as being in a position of strength because it would involve you ordering wizards to leave the dome, showing you can make them do so."

"I can make them do so," Lori pointed out in annoyance.

"Hmm… well, I question whether people you think are out to kill you are really the best people for you to trust to obey your orders."

The resounding impact of her fist coming down on the table like a hammer made Rian flinch back in surprise. It certainly surprised Lori, who had all of a moment to stare and wonder why she'd thought doing that had been a good idea before the pain hit and confirmed that, yes, it had been a terrible idea. It wasn't excruciating pain, but she had just slammed her fist down on a solid wooden table at a reasonable fraction of full force. She winced, flexing her fingers even as the ache immediately began to lessen to a throb.

Huh. Perhaps Rian had a point about most of her injuries being self-inflicted. She hated that.

"Uh, do you need me to go get some ice from the cold room for you?" Rian asked, looking at her still-clenched fist.

"That won't be necessary," she said curtly, massaging the side of her hand one last time before setting down her hands.

"If you're sure…" he said, before he let out a sigh. "Your Bindership… Lori… are you all right?"

"I'm fine," she said curtly, waving her hand to dismiss the subject and flinching as her hand ached as a response.

"Lori… you've been spending the past few days making and remaking and rebuilding a weapon," Rian said, his voice soft and low as he leaned towards her slightly. "You didn't bother to do that when you realized you had to deal with an abomination of literally the largest beast currently known in existence. You just found something that worked and made a lot of it with the intention of just using more and more until it stopped being a problem. So I have to ask again: are you all right? Really all right? Because it seems to me that you're afraid."