It seemed like Lori had barely closed her eyes before Rian was gently shaking her awake, the light on top of his head shining down on her. "It's here," he said, even as she felt it, the wave-like feeling practically on top of them…
She sat up, and he handed Lori her boots, which she quickly put on. "Everyone inside?" she asked.
"Checked four times," Rian said. "We're all in here. The houses are all empty. Not just people, everything. I had people go back to sleep to cut back on trouble, but they might be waking up soon."
Lori nodded, got to her feet and grabbed her staff. The familiar feeling of the smooth wood with the length of wire running down it was reassuring. She felt more tired than when she'd laid down, but she supposed that was a sign that she'd actually fallen asleep, if she wanted to go back to bed. "Go ahead, there's something I need to do."
Rian nodded tiredly. "Got it. Be quick, all right? The Dungeon's still wide open, it's making everyone nervous."
As he left, Lori concentrated on a spot on the floor of her room, binding the earthwisps there. The ground sank, and she carefully stepped down, planning her feet on the top of the pillar of stone. She tossed her staff down ahead of her, wincing at the clattering sound it made. Slowly, gently, keeping her hands on both sides of the opening for stability, the stone sank further.
Beneath Lori's bedroom lay her Dungeon's core, glowing brightly, filled with wisps and magic. She ignored it, orienting herself. Where was…
She shook her head and picked up her staff, then bound the earthwisps directly under the core. A pillar of stone began to rise, reaching up beneath the core. She touched the core with the metal cap at the end of her staff, and carefully wedged it in place with the pillar, wrapping stone around the end of the pillar to hold it in place. The wire running along the staff's length felt… warm under her hands. Warm in a way only a wizard could know, warm like a bound tool with a wisp bead…
She really hoped this worked.
Then she went to the wall closest to the other end of the staff and bound the earthwisps there, making a small hole.
That done, she went back upstairs to her room, sealing the way behind her.
She hurried down the stairs, where the strange charred sweet smell still lingered, and slowed as she saw the dining hall. It was full of people holding spears. Not the stone and tooth-tipped spears she'd made before, but spears that gleamed with steel points. Many were holding them level to the ground, the point towards the entrance. Someone had also carried Lori's Boat inside and had laid it on top of a table. The other one… she checked. It was still in the water, probably too slippery to get a grip on. Well, she could always make a new one…
"Rian, why are people armed?" she asked flatly.
"In case of abominations," Rian said.
"It's not over the demesne yet," Lori said.
"Well, we can't know that, can we?" Rian shrugged.
An excellent point, which she would ignore. "Step back from the entrance," she said, her awareness reaching out and beginning to bind earthwisps in the stone. She began to seal off the dungeon, rebuilding the walls she had opened and adding in stone from the pile outside the entrance. She even drew stone from the area in front of the dungeon to add to the thickness, making a bulwark against the dragon's rage. Then she carefully opened slits for air to come in and circulate, making sure they curved as they entered the Dungeon so that it would be more difficult for dragonborn abominations to come inside. She also remembered to seal off the kitchen's exhaust vents, closing them off completely. No point risking a point of entry.
People visibly relaxed as the Dungeon closed off, spears rising up. One of the spearwomen was Riz, Lori recognized.
"Rian, arrange for shifts to keep dragonborn abominations from getting into the Dungeon," Lori said as she began binding airwisps in the air slits, having them pull air in. Between that and the already existing ventilation of the dungeon, they shouldn't have trouble breathing. "As long as we need air, they have a way in. I need to prepare the defenses against the dragon—" She felt a wave, and it was right there. "It's here."
Lori closed her eyes, letting her consciousness out into the dome of darkwisps outside, the black of the night that she'd captured. Already, magic from the dragon was starting to wear it away. Distantly, there were sounds of people talking, but she tuned them out, focusing on what was important. She began imbuing the darkwisps even as she pulled them, presenting a dark dome almost the size of her whole demesne, claimed for this very purpose.
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While she wouldn't be able to perceive as much of the dragon's manipulations early on, it would hopefully keep her demesne from being devastated by much more than falling rocks and strange substances. Ugh, she hoped it didn't start dumping acid or poison gas on them. It rarely happened, but the charred sweet smell… it seemed vaguely familiar, but she couldn't place it…
She stood there, imbuing the dark outside the Dungeon even as the dragon wore away at her dome. Thoughts and vistas tried to claw and twist, but they affected only empty air thanks to her dome. Lori pushed power into her darkness, kept on pushing despite the relentless forces upon it and bit by bit, she managed to fill it to give herself some time.
Lori opened her eyes, finally hearing what was going on around her. The shifts were being divided, and Rian was trying to figure out how to cook food with their limited air. Lori walked past a surprised Riz, heading towards the wall that hid her core. Where was the hole, where was the hole…
Ah, there it was. She put one finger next to it as she closed her eyes again, sending her awareness back to the darkwisps she'd bound above. She imbued even as she reshaped the darkwisps, pulling a tendril towards and into the Dungeon. Lori stood there, tapping her finger next to the hole to remind herself where it was as she her eyes hovered between closed and open, seeing though a wavering slit between her eyelids. The pure black of the darkwisps—which still seemed far brighter than the dragon had been—streamed through some of the air slits, and she raised one hand lazily as if trying to wave the darkwisps into the hole.
She really hoped this worked.
"Uh, Binder Lori?" a voice tried to distract her, but she ignored it, focusing on what she was doing. "What's happening?"
"Quiet," she said, trying not to get distracted. The darkwisps streamed through the hole and into the core. She needed them to touch the metal on her staff… one would think it would work to touch the core itself, but no, apparently it didn't work that way…
There. Was that it? Needing to divide her attention so many ways made her wish she'd learned how to do Mentalism already. Well, at least she could stop tapping her finger… She kept imbuing the darkwisps above in the way she'd already become used to as a Dungeon Binder, as she tried to do it in a way she'd only done twice to see if it could actually work…
She hadn't had enough wire, after all.
The Dungeon Core contained power, all the magic that she had available to her as the Dungeon Binder. Just as the core of her self acted as the center of her body, where the magic she breathed in flowed only to course through her and out into the world, so did the Dungeon Core act as the center of the demesne, letting the magic it held flow through the wisps within its borders. She had learned to draw power from the core through her, and through the very demesne itself.
At its heart however, the core was magic. Solidified magic attuned to wisps, smooth as glass, hard and nigh unbreakable… Just like a bead. One that didn't run out.
All she had to do was pull/push…
There!
Lori opened her eyes and sighed in relief as she felt power from the core filling the darkwisps as if she'd allowed another Whisperer to override her claim… only she still claimed and controlled it… No, no, no time to waste trying to describe new and strange feelings. She'd managed to finally use a wire with her core on one end and a binding shoved into the other to create a pseudo-bound tool that would never run out of magic! It something she'd been trying to build—and lazily (and now guiltily) putting off—since the first time she'd had to defend her demesne from a dragon. It had been a thought lurking in the back of her mind as she tried to get her hands on wire.
It had been a way for her to sleep next time a dragon tried to ravage her demesne.
Her spine wanted to soften and her limbs to collapse like a piece of underwear with its tie strings cut, and for a moment she was tempted to let it…
No. There were still things to do. No one had eaten yet, and the water in the reservoir was inaccessible for drinking or washing. She had to fix that. It was good that this had worked, or else she'd have needed to try to attend to those things in bursts while keeping track of the darkwisps above…
The thickness of the wire seemed to be allowing a decent rate of draw from the core, despite it being untarnishing steel instead of gold. It was at least managing to maintain the level of imbuement on the darkwisps despite the dragon's depredations. She could fill imbue it faster… but she'd need to pay attention to it…
"Rian!" she called out.
"No need to shout, I'm right here," he said from directly behind her.
She did not jump, no matter what anyone said. She came to attention and turned in a commanding fashion. "We'll need food and water. The pipes I once used probably aren't clean enough to use now, but I'll take care of that later. I need some people to get started on breakfast so we can all eat."
"That would be very nice, yes," Rian nodded. He nodded towards Riz, standing nearby. "Riz, stay with her Bindership and help her find people for what she needs, which in this case is starting breakfast, so after that go down and get the kitchen crew. I'll stay here and take charge of making sure nothing gets in through our airholes." He was wearing his sword, she realized. It was, she supposed, a mark of the seriousness of the situation.
"Yes, Lord Rian," she said, nodding sharply.
"I thought we'd talked about that?"
Lori resisted the urge to roll her eyes at this childishness as Riz looked like she was trying to keep from blushing. "Ah, sorry L– Rian."
"Find me those people," Lori said blandly.
"Yes, Great Binder!" she scuttled off, still carrying her spear.
Lori turned to Rian. "Try not to get the air slits clogged, we need them."
"No promises. It'll depend on how small and aggressive they are."
Outside the dungeon, there was a throaty sound like something was trying to breathe and not doing it very well. Then another. And another.
"I leave that to you," Lori said blandly. "Yell if you can't deal with it. Try to do it before they break in."
She headed for the reservoir at the back to get water as Riz headed down to the second level where people were staying.
Outside, the dragon remained silent even as she heard the strange cries getting too close to their air slits.