"—and the Um will be closed every fifth day for cleaning," Rian said cheerfully. "Let's all follow these rules so that we do not have any more unfortunate accidents, shall we?"

Rian was being very parental again. Lori was just glad that this time it wasn't at her. No, this time the air of 'I'm not angry, I'm disappointed, you were idiots, you know you were idiots, I know you were idiots, but I'm not going to call you that and somehow that makes it worse' he had wrapped around him was instead directed at the adults at breakfast, some of whom were clearly bruised from the early morning scuffle that had woken nearly everyone else up. Not Lori, of course, since she'd been in her room, but everyone else, certainly. By the time she'd come downstairs, Rian had been partway through detailing the rules they'd hashed out over last night's dinner over the use of the Um.

She still had to make some water clocks. While making vessels was simple enough, calibrating the hole so that it would take the right amount of time for all the water to be expended was… well, it would be time consuming, if only because she'd need to watch the waterclock to make sure it did last about that long. Making a sun clock was easy enough, and they even had a compass to help them point it precisely north, but it would be unhelpful in the enclosed confines of the Um.

Fortunately, Rian met her with good news once he was done announcing the rules.

"So, I spoke with Gunvi," he said, "and he told me he has experience making water clocks. They're not as precise as properly calibrated sand clocks or mechanical ones, but he says he can make one that will measure out about an hour easily enough, and we can calibrate it by the sun. He has enough pieces to be fired too, so he's asking for help with that."

"Tell him I'll be there at the usual time," Lori said, sitting down and accepting one of the two bowls Rian offered. She liked the potter. He kept to himself, was able to get all his materials himself, and only needed help every few weeks when it came time to fire all his pottery in one large batch, since firewisps did it much more efficiently and evenly than setting things on fire. Slowly but surely, the demesne's supply of simple pottery plates was growing, even though they were currently being unused since they were mostly eating stew, and bowls were better for that.

"Got it," Rian said. "By the way, there's a change to the plans I want to propose."

Lori raised an eyebrow. "Go on…"

"I want to put one of the former militia there with the medics to keep an eye on the place," Rian said. "I just realized that some people might be… not exactly forced, but also not completely sure they want to go there. I want someone other than the medics there to tell them that they can't come in if that's the case."

"I'll do it, Lord Rian," Riz said immediately. "I know the type… 'you'll like it once you've tried it', 'I'll show you how it's done', 'you promised you'd do it, so come on and do it', 'you'll want to once it starts to feel good'…" Her face was scowling instead of intent on Rian's reaction.

"Yes, exactly," Rian agreed, nodding. "I don't think we've got anyone here that bad… but people not listening would be enough, even without malicious intent. I just want someone there who can deal with it without risking our medics. But are you sure you want to do this, Riz?"

"Yes, Lord Rian," the woman said with a firm nod. "In fact, I can think of a few other friends who might be willing to take shifts with me on it. They'd know the type too. "

Rian opened his mouth, then paused. "I'll have to meet them before I agree to it. It's a fine line between someone reluctant and doesn't want to go, and someone reluctant because they're nervous and working up the nerve for it even though they do want it, so whoever else willing to volunteer will need to be able to tell."

Lori gave him a bland look. "And how, may I ask, would you know the difference?"

Rian coughed, looking aside. "All right, good point, but I'm pretty sure it's there!"

"A conclusion drawn from your copious experience at this sort of thing, no doubt?" Lori said, smirking.

"All right, all my knowledge is theoretical," Rian admitted, blushing. "But I refuse to believe you're any better!"

Lori shrugged. "I'm not the one making statements about how people think. But go ahead, this seems a needful measure."

Rian coughed again, but nodded. "Well, I'll still need to meet them. The Um is supposed to be where people can… relax… and if they're met by someone at the door who puts them off by being too… intense… well, it'll need to be someone understanding and a good judge of character, is what I mean."

"Of course, Lord Rian," Riz said. "I'll talk to my friends and see who's willing and can meet your needs."

"Don't take too much time with this, Rian," Lori said. "You need to get started on the boat. At the very least, draw designs I can test on a small scale so we know it will float.

"Of course it'll float, it's ice!" Rian exclaimed.

For some reason, Riz raised an eyebrow. "Boats made of ice?" she said, sounding… tired?

Rian nodded enthusiastically.

"Lord Rian… those things melt," she said gently. "And I doubt the Great Binder wants to be stuck in one keeping it solid all the time. You need to weight the keel so it doesn't just roll over, and that will only last until the ice around the weights melt and the whole thing capsizes… believe me, we have a lot of young, stupid whisperers filling the rivers with little ice boats and trying to make a big one for some reason or other. They always melt."

"But this time it won't melt," Rian said. "Binder Lori was able to think of something."

"If it's blood, so does every young Whisperer with time on their hands," Riz sighed, making Rian stare at her as Lori suddenly straightened. "Everyone tries blood sooner or later. It's in all the stories, after all."

Wait, what? But she… she thought… in school, they said… she was told it didn't…

"I hear they're not supposed to do that, since it's dangerous for some reason, but you know how young fools who've heard too many stories are," Riz shrugged. "But maybe it could be different, if it's the Great Binder doing it…" By her tone, she was clearly just trying to placate Rian.

"Uh… well, we still need to try!" Rian said, though he looked like someone had taken the steam from his driver. "After all, how else are we supposed to build a boat?"

"I'm sure you'd know best, my lord," Riz said, with the sort of smile you give to children who say that they'll become a Dungeon Binder someday. It was a look Lori was very familiar with.

"No, I don't, that's why we have to actually try the idea first before we can really say either way," Rian said. "At worst, ice will still work as floatation elements. They still float, after a—"

"Rian!" Lori interrupted. "Eat already!"

––––––––––––––––––

It was time to start digging again.

Between the aqueducts and basins, the row of houses, the retting tank, the laundry area, the paving, the latrines and the Um, they'd finally managed to use up all the stone Lori had excavated in digging up the second level, save for the reserve pile to armor the dungeon with should a dragon arrive. Since she still needed to build a third bath house to relieve their still-overburdened hygiene facilities, it was time to dig again.

She started by expanding their food storage areas.

Lori had blocked off the hallway that had led to the original reservoir, in case a dragon arrived before she could dig a new one. Now she partially opened it again, and began to dig side corridors. After all, it was best that the food be kept in the same level as the kitchen, to make food preparation easy. The long-term food storage cold room there was nearing capacity. Soon they'd have to either start eating it or seal it off completely until the food had to be eaten. Either way, they needed more storage space.

Coincidentally, they also needed more building material. So it all evened out!

By lunch, she'd managed to excavate a large amount of stone for any further building projects as well as made a new storage space. While it was small—not even a twentieth the size of the second level—it was more space for storage, and as soon as the carpenters could build a door for it, she'd be able to make it into another cold room for more food.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

And when it was eventually filled, there was still the wall across the hall to excavate.

Hopefully this would be enough to build the third bath house. The location had been long chosen already, a spot near the saw pits so that those working there, as well as cutting down trees, would be able to have close access to it, with the expended water to flow down and irrigate their crops, which were turning out well. It was also being made with an eye towards the future, since she planned any future homes to be built in the same area…

But that was a later consideration. For now, she had to work as a pottery kiln.

Not immediately, of course.

First she checked the pieces that Gumvi had already finished and had dried for any lingering moisture. After all, they were kept near the laundry area, there was a possibility of some kind of misting that added moisture to the clay. After checking, he and his assistants would load it into the kiln, carefully laying them out on the few racks there.

The last piece to go into the kiln were the water clocks, which she had to carefully dry by drawing out the waterwisps from them while taking care to keep from ripping apart the clay. A small spout was sticking out of the side near the bottom, and both she and Gumvi had checked it to make sure it wasn't blocked before putting it in the kiln.

Afterwards, they had sealed the kiln with mud packed and shaped by earthwisps, then lit the fire beneath it to start gradually increasing the temperature and adding ash to the inside of the kiln. Once it grew hot enough, Lori bound the firewisps so that they would continue to slowly increase the temperature while the potter carefully checked the color of the glowing pottery through a small hole. When he gave her the signal, Lori stopped increasing the temperature and instead bound the firewisps to maintain the heat while the hole was closed to prevent contamination and further temperature changes. The same was done for the hole where the wood was inserted.

By the time they'd closed the hole and bound the firewisps to maintain the temperature, it was already dark. At that point, they could leave the kiln to go eat, and Lori's part was mostly done, with the firewisps imbued with enough magic to last them until the middle of the night, with a little binding of lightwisps to warn when the binding faded away. The potter and his assistants would take turns watching the kiln, and once they saw that the lightwisp was gone, would start adding wood to it so it would cool down slowly and evenly. Then there'd be a few days while they waited for the kiln to cool down completely, painted it with ash, and then fired it again one more time to let the glaze set.

But for that night, Lori's part was done.

She headed into the Dungeon, where dinner was in full swing, and headed straight to her room to bathe. Her skin felt sticky with oils, sweat and ash, and it was probably time to change her clothes. She'd have to do laundry that week again as well…

When she came down a little later in fresh clothes, feeling much cooler and cleaner, Rian was standing at the base of the stairs leading to her room. She was, of course, immediately suspicious that something had gone wrong.

"What happened?" she demanded.

"Why do you think anything happened?" he asked with a smile.

"You're here instead of at the table," Lori pointed out.

Rian shrugged as if to acknowledge the point, but he didn't stop smiling. "There's something you need to see,"

Lori let out a loud huff of exhalation. "Who died and who was found near the body?"

That made Rian blink, his now obviously-fake smile slipping a little. "W-what?"

"I suppose it was inevitable that people would finally start murdering each other," she said. "It was probably jealousy, someone saw someone else going into the Um with a third person and became irrational with emotion—"

"No one died!" Rian interrupted. "Nothing bad happened and I'm not trying to show you a corpse that we're trying to keep secret to keep people from panicking. AND no one's anything was stolen… that I know of. No, I just need to show you something."

"Rian, if it's something in your trousers, I am kicking it," Lori said blandly.

"Well, it's not something in my trousers," he said, sounding exasperated. "Will you just come so I can show you? I promise it's a good thing! Please?"

Lori sighed. "This better be worth delaying dinner."

Rian, color him, just smiled.

He led her down to the second level as she focused on her sense of the wisps around her, feeling for voids sneaking up behind her. To her surprise, there were many people in the second level, just standing there as if waiting. Was this a trap? Some kind of ambush? Rainbows. She still hadn't found a second lord, and now she'd have to replace Rian once he made his treachery clear.

She pushed through the way that thought made her heart clench as she kept her face smooth to keep from betraying her realization, getting ready to soften the ground to sink everyone into it…

However, they were all just standing there, their hands clasped in front of them. None seemed to be carrying weapons, and she ignored the way her heart clenched further as she recognized many of the people there. She could almost, almost think of their names…

"Tah dah!" Rian said, gesturing towards something standing on the floor between them and the waiting people. "What do you think?"

Lori blinked and focused a little lower. It was… a bed?

"Is that a bed?" she asked, confused.

"It's a bed," Rian confirmed.

And indeed, it looked bedlike, with four legs raising it just high enough to sit on comfortably. However, instead of a normal bed with several planks laid out to form a flat surface, there was instead a rectangle of wood around an empty space. Across that empty space were cords. They went back and forth, up and down, and even diagonally in both directions, coming in and out of a series of holes that had been drilled into the wooden frame. The cords wove together, creating a series of octagonal holes between them. There was even a short and decoratively useless headboard at one end.

"Go ahead," Rian said as she stared, "touch it. It's really springy." He bent down to demonstrate, pushing down on the weave with his hand. The whole weave flexed slightly at his touch but seemed remarkably taut. Hesitantly, Lori did the same. The cord felt rough but strong under her hand as she pushed.

"Interesting," Lori said, keeping a part of her attention on feeling for voids of wisps. Still no one was coming up behind her, though there were some people at the stairs they'd gone down. Archers? "But what's the point?"

"Well, it's yours," Rian said. "Your new bed."

What.

"What?" she said.

"It's your new bed," Rian repeated, suddenly grinning. "The weave is much softer than wood, so even without a bedroll, you can lie down on this and relax without getting a sore back. After all, we can't have our Dungeon Binder coming down with back ache. It took a lot of people to spin the ropeweed for this until we could make cord, then I had to weave it all like this because this isn't just something the weavers could put together. Their weaving is completely different. It took me weeks, and my fingers hated me, but you needed a new bed. Everyone here helped make it." He gave her an apologetic look. "Sorry I didn't realize how uncomfortable you were sooner."

Lori could only stare, first at him, than at the strange woven bed, then back at him again, then finally at all the people standing opposite them, on the other side of the bed. She could recognize some of the weavers—Mikon and Umu were there, looking at her instead of Rian—many of the carpenters—Deil and Tackir where both there, looking expectant instead of nervous—the ropers, and a few other people…

She didn't need a new bed, what she had was fine. Yes, this was nice, but completely unnecessary…

All she could do, however, was push down on the woven cords making up its surface again, noting how much give it had despite being so firm, so not like the wooden planks under the completely ineffectual layer of laundry and raincoat…

Lori opened her mouth—

"Also, we have a bedroll for you," Rian said brightly, and her head turned to look up at him so fast she swore she heard something in her neck 'snap'. "It took a while because Umu and Mikon had to weave the fabric for it, then had to sew it together by hand, but it's new and no one died on it."

The two in question stepped forward, holding something large between them, and laid it out on the bed. It was… a bedroll, in the same way her staff was a twig. The large rectangle of fabric was thick. Extremely so. This wasn't a bedroll that had been worn down by months of travel and made to be compact as well as barely functional. It was practically a pillow, it was so thick. The fabric was the same pale brown color of the fabric she'd seen being woven of the looms, and it had been sewn together with tight, precise stitching. A lot of work and effort had gone into this…

She thought back to Umu and Mikon massaging their fingers at dinner.

"You… made this?" she said before she could stop herself.

Umu seemed hesitant, but Mikon nodded. "Yes, your Bindership," she said. "When Lord Rian explained you didn't have a bedroll…" The pink-haired woman shook her head. "Well, you deserved something better to sleep on than a hard bed, after all you've done for us. This was the best we could make, with what we have."

"The hunters have been separating all the down they could gather from the beasts we've been eating, and we've put them all into this," Rian said. "So until it goes flat, you officially have the softest bed in the demesne. You don't even need a pillow, you can just double it up under your head."

A bedroll. They made her a bedroll. A bedroll…

Her eyes welled, and it was all she could do to keep the tears from flowing down her face as she turned them into cold vapor.

"Thank you," she said, keeping her head bowed and glancing away so that the vapor wasn't obvious. "Thank you for…" she swallowed.

Rian loudly clapped his hands together. "Well, come on men, let's bring her Bindership's new bed up to her room, she won't be able to carry it there herself. Step back please, your Bindership, let us handle this while you open the door."

Open the door. Open the door to her room, yes…

It took remembering the fact that all of her laundry was spread out on her bed to dispel the strange fugue from her mind and make her rush ahead of them to her room, leaving the door open behind her for them to bring her bed up. By the time they arrived, she was able to bundle up all her laundry into her rain coat, which had been stashed in her bathroom.

The old, hard wooden bed was removed, and the new bed, with its strange woven surface, was put in its place, the old one carried out. Umu and Mikon put the new bedroll—her new bedroll—on top, as well as a folded sheet.

"It's a spare blanket," Umu said, not meeting her eyes and almost seeming to speak to no one in particular. "For when winter comes, or you need to launder yours…"

Lori nodded. "Thank you."

The blonde twitched and stepped out after with everyone else, leaving Lori alone in her room with her new bed.

Slowly, hesitantly, she sat down, sighing almost comically as her posterior sank into the thick bedroll, at the feeling of the weave flexing beneath her…

She was still sitting when Rian stuck his head back in through the doorway. "Are you coming down any time soon? Because dinner is going to get cold."

Lori blinked through her tears. At some point she'd stopped turning them to vapor. "Yes, yes, I'm coming down," she said, glancing at him. He nodded and stepped out, his footsteps walking down the hallway, and she was finally able to wipe her face.

She got to her feet and paused. Then she turned and opened her private cold room, pulling out one of the sacks of fruit she still had left. It was cold as ice under her hand, and her clothes got wet as she lifted into her arms.

Closing the cold room behind her, she headed down for dinner.