Demesne

So, I wrote a bunch of Karina stuff but ended up not liking where it was going. It was less 'cute girls doing cute things' and more 'Sayaka killing people on the train', in mood if not in actual content. So rather than trash it, I figured I'd give it to you guys. Might still use parts of it later, but for now it's on the cutting room floor.

Then I remembered I had a whole file of cutting room floor stuff.

From Chapter 428:
Karina was glad that Shana was happy.

"Yoshka, you need to be careful when eating," her friend scolded, although it wasn't very convincing since Shana was smiling as she said it, using a piece of bread to wipe around Yoshka's mouth. The little girl obediently sat still and let the area around her mouth be cleaned, then opened her mouth to eat the piece of bread. "We all worked very hard to grow all this food, and the Great Binder—well, she spent time catching these seels, so you need to be careful when you eat."

"Yes, Shasha! When are you coming home?"

"It will be after the dragon passes," Shana said patiently, taking what was left of her bread and dipping it into her stew to eat before any more of it was used to wipe her cousin's mouth. "Now, finish your food, properly."

"Yes, Shasha…!"

Karina smiled as she watched the two of them. Shana had been sad and mopey ever since her cousin had left to go back to living in River's Fork. While the dragon showing up was bad, the fact that it meant all the children in the other demesne had to come to Lorian meant that Shana's cousin had a reason to visit again. The two were practically hand in hand, which was good because with all the other children returned, Shana was busy being in charge of them again. That meant having them put all their packs into the alcove they were sleeping in, reminding them to wash their hands before meals, and to not be so noisy when people were going trying to sleep.

From Chapter 434:
"You are not coming with us. You and Lori might not consider yourself a child, but the rest of us do, and we are not putting you in that kind of danger. If you try, I will have someone stand next to you constantly bringing up the all subjects that make you just stand there with a blank look on your face," I said.

She stared at me, and despite how Shana tried to keep her face composed, flickered across it like sunlight through leaves. Shock. Distress. Hurt. Pain. Anger. Consideration. Resignation.

From Chapter 439:

"Hey, I want us to have wizards too, you know! It's just she's worried that they'll obey the Golden Sweetwood Company over her, and she doesn't like having challengers to her authority." And she's worried they'll try to kill her to take her demesne, or set up rival demesnes, the thought of which she can't stand… "If she could be absolutely sure the company wouldn't try to place itself as a rival authority… well, she'd still be worried, but not as much as she is now."

"Is it so onerous to not be the absolute authority in a demesne?"

I stared at Yllian. "You've met Lori. She's doesn't trust people to know better than to piss in the water reservoir, she's certainly not going to trust anyone to have some kind of power over her."

"Someone has power over everyone at some point."

"Yes, and she believes that as Dungeon Binder she should be that person." I sighed. "Yllian, you are not increasing my confidence that the people of the company are not going to be a problem for Lori."

Yllian hummed. "Rian, do you know why we formed the company in the first place?"

"As a practical matter, probably to make it easier to make the purchases needed for moving a significant number of people and settling them in this continent," I said. "Bulk purchase can be negotiated to be cheaper than small purchase, and it probably made it easier to fund the use of a ship to transport you all. A company would also be a better position to get a loan from a bank, as well as other institutions, when you reach the point that the readily available money runs out, which it probably did already."

Yllian hummed. "Rian, do you know why we formed the company in the first place?"

I waved a hand dismissively. "Either you were tired of negligent lords, you wanted a new start where you didn't have to answer to uncaring authorities who didn't understand your circumstances, you wanted a demesne where the Dungeon Binder was one of your own and would take your concerns seriously, you're all secretly dragon worshippers and wanted a demesne where you wouldn't be seen as suicidal at best and murderous at worst, you wanted a demesne where everything wasn't so expensive that you were working just to live to do more work, you're running from debts, you wanted to fulfill your childhoods fantasies of being an all-powerful Dungeon Binder who didn't have to do what your mother told you, you wanted a peaceful retirement that wouldn't be boring where you could be assured of a good future for your families, or you just wanted all the land you could grab because rich people had land, so if you had land too you'd be rich. Was it at least one of them?"

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Yllians's eyebrows had risen. "Has someone told you already?"

"I took a guess at every reason someone might want to leave the old continent to live on this one," I said. "Which one is it?"

"A little of everything, I suppose. It had been getting harder and harder to live Lombuyar Demesne, and in the militia specifically. We were getting fewer and fewer wizards in our ranks because more and more had turned to working in the working in the farms and factories there…" He sighed.

From Chapter 453:

Rian still didn't look up. "I'm not going to let you willfully ignore viable options just because you don't like them. If the options exist, they need to be actively considered for the situation, even if your considered answer is 'no'. As your lord, I'm supposed to give you good advice, not just the advice you want to hear. You should have read enough history and story to know what happens to people who do that. It's your prerogative to ignore the advice, but it's my duty to give it. So no, I will not comply with never bringing up the subject again, not when Shanalorre is far more useful to you and both demesnes if she actually knows how to properly do Deadspeaking."

"If she knew how to Deadspeak, she would be a threat," Lori pointed out.

"If you still think she could possibly be a threat to you, you obviously haven't been paying attention," Rian said, finally looking up from his work and giving her a flat look. "Unlike me, she complies with you every order, and you obviously trust her to do so. If you're going to order her to never learn deadspeaking and expect her to obey, why don't you just order her to never use Deadspeaking against you instead?"

"Because if Shanalorre doesn't know how to utilize Deadspeaking, she can't use any against me," Lori pointed out the obvious.

"If you sincerely expect her to be willing to utilize Deadspeaking against you, she wouldn't care about following your order not to learn Deadspeaking and just learn."

From Chapter 456:
All it needed to do was continue on its way…

The abomination's head turned, and for a moment its single remaining eye faced Lori. Its foot settled on the ground as it paused, and Lori got the strangest feeling it was looking right at her.

For the first time since it had appeared, a sound arose from the abomination. Lori heard a distant growl, and before her eyes typhon began turning in place, slowed a bit by the branches on its tale knocking against the trees on either side of it.

"…"

From Chapter 487: (from a future chapter, but as it shows absolutely nothing important, you guys can have it.)
The furs that Shana's aunt had brought them smelled a bit musty, but beyond that they were clean and warm. While the heat of summer was gone, the fall wasn't quite chill enough to really needed the furs for blankets, but they felt nice to lie down on when laid on top of their bedrolls. Yoshka was already asleep, and thankfully her snores were cute and quiet instead of loud. Karina remembered when her brothers and sister snored like that. Now there were just getting loud.

She and Shana lay on either side of the smaller girl, and even though the other girl was moving, Karina knew she was still awake.

Karina woke up as she felt Shana gently pulling away from a still-sleeping Yoshka, tucking the smaller girl back in as her friend got off their shared bedroll. The windows were still dark, the only light coming from the glowing magic rock that Wiz Lori had given Shana. It was a really nice rock, brighter than a candle but not hot, and they could cover it up with something and not have to worry about it setting fire to anything.

Rubbing her eyes, Karina sat up and looked around in confusions at the unfamiliar room before she remembered this wasn't Shana's house back home. This was Shana's office is in River's Fork, which was like a house but only for working… so it was a workshop without sawdust or weird smells. "Shana…?"

Shana looked towards her. "Go back to sleep, Karina," she said quietly.

Karina frowned, squinting a little as she peered at the window. It was covered with paper, so she couldn't see outside, but she knew now what morning light looked like through paper. It was hard to tell because of the light from Shana's magic rock, but it looked like it was still dark outside. "Is it morning already?" she asked, stretching to wake herself up.

"Not yet," Shana said. "You don't need to get up yet, Karina. I'm just going to take a walk."

She yawned. "I'll go with you," Karina said sleepily as she carefully got to her feet. "You might run into a chocker or something."

Shana frowned slightly. "Karina, I have a stick. I'll be fine."

"But I have a sharp stick," Karina said. "That's even better."

This wasn't the first time she'd caught Shana getting up in the middle of the night instead of sleeping. Most of the time her friend was just going to the lavatory—Wiz Lori did not like people just watering anywhere, and anyone caught doing it would get beaten—but sometimes Shana would wander around in the dark, just walking between the houses and among the fields, or go down to the Dungeon.