The delivery of the next batch of miners, which was a bit larger than usual and required four trips, went without incident. Lori suspected they would not be put to much mining, since a lot of them were northerners who had originally settled in River's Fork, but as long as Shanalorre was willing to pay the cost of housing and feeding them, she was willing to look the other way. Many were people who had been injured hunting the abominations, who were otherwise in perfectly good health. They weren't dead, after all.

More and more abominations were hunted down as repairs were done to homes. Some people who were owed renovations due to the ruling at the last community meeting took this opportunity to call in the request. Lori allowed it under the condition that their homes would be worked on last, to discourage people from doing it when there was still more urgent work to be handled.

Lori had spent the day securing the now-finished waterwheel and stone flywheel for the carpenters and onto the lathe they'd build for it. Since it had to be able to stop, unlike the waterwheel in River's Fork, instead of moving the water in a trough under the wheel, she had made a binding that raised up water above the wheel and the carpenters could open a sluice to make it fall down over the wheel's paddles using an overflow arrangement similar to what she'd made for the baths. It had worked quite well, and the carpenters seemed to be looking forward to using their new lathe. The saw to go with it was already being designed…

"A lot of people don't actually want fancy rooftop decks and such, they want the folding beds and the overhead lofts for storage and more sleeping area," Rian said after he got back from a day of ferrying people to the other demesne. "May I suggest having the carpenters build those instead of regular beds when possible? It's a lot more work, but it's the furniture we need. "

"Don't you have a bed?" she said as she set down her sunk board and began putting the little stones into bowls. It was the first time in days she'd actually felt relaxed enough for a game. "I distinctly remember that."

"Some people have beds," Rian admitted. "Most of the houses have one. A lot of people still sleep on the floor though, since there's no room for more. Hence the folding beds and things."

Lori frowned thoughtfully. She remembered her experiences sleeping on rock. Back then, sleeping on a hard layer of wood was a vast improvement on her circumstances. "Assign one of them to start working on beds once the repairs are finished, and tell them to recruit as much unskilled labor as possible. We will have to divide our attention between beds and finally building the boat we will use to go to Covehold."

Rian blinked. "We will?"

"Yes. We have just endured a dragon. Now is the best time for travel since we are unlikely to experience a dragon any time soon," Lori said. "Dragons tend to avoid one another, so we have a respite before another one potentially comes. Leaving and returning within the month is the safest time."

Rian nodded slowly. "Yeah, you're right. And we have enough wood to get started and still have enough to spare for anything the demesne needs built. "

"Please tell me you have a design," Lori said.

"Ah…" Rian hesitated timidly. "Tomorrow?"

"Rian! You've had months! You said you already had drawings!"

"I did! Then I erased them because I only had the one piece of wood! Don't worry! Last moment panic is a wonderful motivator!"

Lori sighed as she put the last stone down. Preparations complete, game ready. Well, he had a point, she certainly passed enough exams studying on sheer panic…

"Just to be certain," Lori said, "so that we're envisioning the same sort of boat, in addition to all the people, it will need to have storage for cargo, supplies, a water jet, water storage, latrines, and at least three prisons."

Rian paused. "Oh right. Though isn't specialized prison rooms a bit too much?"

"No," Lori said flatly. "Prisons. See that they are accounted for in the design."

"In a water-going vessel, I'm pretty sure the term is a 'brig', not a prison," Rian said.

Lori stared at him blankly. "Why?" Why have a different word for the same thing just because it was on a boat? "Why have a different word for the same thing just because it's on a boat?"

"Well, a brig is temporary, it's only for while they're on the boat and the intention is to unload them as soon as possible. A prison is a more permanent arrangement."

Ah. That made a little more sense…

"Well, get that design down and don't erase it this time," Lori said. "You have until the day after tomorrow."

"No, let's make it tomorrow at dinner. If you put it away any further I'll never get anything done…"

He cut off as Umu, Riz and Mikon arrived with food and water, sitting down on either side of him. Lori reached over and took one of the five bowls. Everyone else started to eat.

For a moment, Rian just sat there. "Couldn't you have just told me the food was ready?" he said. "I could have gotten our food myself."

"This was faster, Rian," Umu said, smiling brightly. "You and her Bindership were talking about important matters."

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

"Focus, Rian," Lori said as Mikon made her first move. The woman was getting better, but Lori still beat her last time they'd played. "In addition to making the boat design, I need you to train at least three ferrymen."

Rian opened his mouth, paused. "Can you please explain the last word you just used, just to be certain we're thinking of the same thing?"

Lori rolled her eyes as she replied to Mikon's move. "Ferrymen. People who can convey miners to River's Fork using the boat in place of you. Using a tiller isn't complicated, but you'll need to train them to not be afraid of moving fast and knowing the best time to lift the water jet out of the water to slow down."

"Ah, I actually have an idea for that," Rian said. "I just… fuck, where's my plank…?"

Umu reached down to her other side and held up Rian's plank and burnt stick.

"Thanks," he said, moving his untouched food to the side.

Mikon, who was sitting next to him today with Riz on her other side, pushed it back without looking up from the game.

Rian stared down at it. "Or maybe I should eat a little first."

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"All right!" Rian declared after he'd eaten a little. "So, my idea. I thought of a way we can stop the water jet flowing without needing to pull the whole thing out of the water." He started drawing then paused. "Uh, give me a moment, I need to set this on fire—"

Lori sighed. "Give it here," she said, holding out a hand for the stick he was holding. It was Mikon's turn, she had time. Rian handed it over, and Lori reached out to bind the water in her cup. She increased viscosity and coherence, then dumped the water onto the table, where it lay quivering like a ball of clear, frozen honey, except it wasn't green. Then she bound it into ice. Heat puffed out, and she bound the firewisps as they leaked out, sticking the end of the stick into the binding. The top of the stick began to glow, and she carefully shaped the heat to char the tip of the wood. Wordlessly, she handed the stick back as she made the frozen water flow back into empty bowl before putting the firewisps back into it. She reached towards the pitcher the other women had brought and poured herself another drink.

"Show-off," Rian said. "All right, here's my idea." He began drawing.

As soon as Lori saw the first circle, she said, "You want to make a ball valve. A disc-type ball valve."

Rian stopped. "Well, now I just feel silly," he said, letting the burn stick fall on the table pettily.

"I've worked in shops, I know what a ball valve is," Lori said blandly. "The problem is building it to the fine tolerances needed to be completely water tight. This isn't the sort of thing you just build by hand with rocks. You need molds, precise measurements, precise tools."

"But it doesn't need to be completely watertight except where it pivots," Rian said.

Lori sighed. "Rian, if the ball valve sealing one end of the waterjet is in anyway weak, the negative pressure built up by the void created by removing all the water will cause structural damage to the valve's structure, and might even cause it to implode."

"But as long as the water is just churning, it shouldn't cause any changes in pressure," Rian said. "The ball should be able take the pressure of the water just moving around inside, it's not like it's going anywhere."

The two stared at each other.

"You know, I think the two of us are having different ideas about what we could use a ball valve for," Rian said slowly. "How about you start first, since you don't think yours will work? Because I'm pretty sure it's not my idea."

Lori didn't show any embarrassment. She wasn't embarrassed. At all. There had simply been a simple miscommunication, and since Rian was her lord in charge of that, it was clearly his fault. "Using a ball valve to seal the end of the water jet so that water can't get in or out. The problem is putting a ball valve on the entry end would potentially cause a void, and putting it on the egress would cause a catastrophic build-up of pressure. Neither is an insurmountable problem to a properly made ball valve, however the problem is I doubt we have the tools and materials to make such a thing."

Rian listened intently, nodding as if he understood—at this point, it was a one in two chance whether he actually understood or was just making a show of understanding—and waited for her to finish. "Yes, I thought of that, and decided against it for the same reasons you did. No, this is something different. It's still a ball valve, but it was inspired by the suction tubes you made for the baths."

Lori blinked. "How do you know about those?"

"I looked while the carpenters were measuring for the levers that disconnected them." Rian shrugged. "It seemed interesting. But putting a ball valve on the end wasn't my idea. No, my idea was to put the ball valve in the middle." He picked up the pen again as Mikon finished her turn. The other women were finished eating and were just sitting around, looking awkward. At least Mikon had their game.

Rian finished drawing and pushed the plank towards her. "See, instead of sealing off the water jet with a ball valve, you put the magic here, in the middle, on the flap. When it's closed, it'll just make the water swirl around in the ball. Or at least, I think it should. And if that doesn't work, we could poke an air hole on top like this so that air can go in to prevent imploding. If we put it in the right place and design it right, the air hole can be covered when the valve is turned and aligned to be a water jet."

Lori stared at the drawing.

"Bad idea?" Rian asked.

"It's… an idea," Lori said slowly. "It might be difficult to implement on the smaller boat where the water jet is mounted on the tiller, but in a large boat like the one we're planning to build… Building the ball valve might be problematic, though."

Rian shrugged. "It doesn't have to be a ball," he said. "A ball is best for efficiency, but with what we have, a box shape is more exact. It's easier for us to measure and cut precisely if we make it with squares." He began to draw a cube with a square flap in the middle. "If there's one thing I know our carpenters can do, it's make exactly measured boards."

"We can't make it out of wood," Lori pointed out. "It needs to be stone or bone so I can bind the wisps to it." Though admittedly with precisely cut boards to base her dimensions on, she could a mold using stone… or better yet, ice…

The flap, she realized. Put the binding on the flat, not the interior of the tube or ball valve…

She stared at the drawing, not really seeing it as her mind thought of alternate configurations for the idea. Bindings on the flap, which moved and rotated…

"You can have until the day after tomorrow for the boat design," Lori said absently.

"That's too much time for last moment panic—"

"Then procrastinate," Lori snapped. "Do something else. I have something I need to test."

"Oh, can I help? Perfect way to procrastinate."

Lori rolled her eyes. "Fine, fine, you can help. Maybe you'll think of something."

A flap that rotated out of the way, with bindings on only one side… if it could turn to a loop so that it could expend the force of the binding safely… or not just flaps, but tubes that pivoted… or slid along a recess…

Lori would need help with this. This needed straight lines and precise edges, and that meant tools.

Well, she'd already made the waterwheel for the carpenters and needed to build a permanent smithy for the smiths anyway. They might as well use them for her benefit. And what was for her benefit was to the benefit of the demesne. So everyone benefited.

Mikon nudged the sunk board slightly.

Oh, right, it was her turn. Lori reached for the board absently, her mind still thinking about moving parts with bindings on them.