The ice boat was finally finished that afternoon.

Lori didn't believe a word of it.

"Latrines?"

"Made and tested," Rian said promptly.

"Structural reinforcements?"

"All in place for the top deck, the water jet, we double checked all the railings to make sure they can take the weight of people walking on them because of course, and we had four of the biggest, strongest people we had try to break out of the brig," Rian said. "They, uh, broke out the first two times, so we reinforced it a lot, which is why there's that room lined with stone. We're a bit front-heavy as a result, but not enough to be unstable, and it helps act as ballast."

"The bucket for the prison?"

"It… works, and seals shut, so it doesn't make the lower decks smell. And I had a second backup bucket made in case something happens to the first one. I know you said to let them wallow in their own filth if they broke it, but if we accidentally lose it over the side… well, that just seems unfair."

Lori rolled her eyes. "The beds work?"

"The volunteers going with me and I slept on the beds the last two nights, just get a feel for them, and we also practiced washing the iridescence off so we can work on how to keep our stuff mostly dry."

Lori didn't really care about that, but she nodded. "Lights?"

"We checked them yesterday, they're still glowing outside the demesne. Do you want me to go seel them out of the river now?"

Lori nodded. "Yes, best do it now." She frowned. "Are you sure doing that doesn't hurt you? It seems really unnatural."

"It's just diving underwater," Rian said, shrugging. "I'm more worried about one of the seels or one of the smaller fursh attacking me while I'm down there." He shuddered. "Those little fursh are biters."

It was good to know that she could imbue lightwisps from her eye outside the demesne. Firewisps were still a problem, since she'd have to draw it from her insides, but maybe lightningwisps… Still, for now, the ice boat had two kinds of wisps she could imbue from a distance in it. The lightwisps were simple, just to keep it from being dark inside, and the waterwisps in various forms were being imbued by her blood in their little golden containers. There was a little of her blood mixed into the ice, just in case, even the evaporator, though one could not really call it blood anymore, since it was vapor.

"Supplies?"

"We have some stew for the first couple of days while we work on catching things from the ship, and the people from River's Fork will be bringing some supplies as well," Rian said. She raised an eyebrow at him, and he sighed. "You were right, catching seels is harder than I thought, it was a good idea to learn first."

Lori smiled smugly. "Good. The smoke box?"

"It, uh, works," Rian said. "I talked to some people, and they think it won't be able to help that much, but it's better than nothing."

"I can't make ice at a distance," Lori said. "Not cold ice, at least."

"I know, I know," Rian said. "Wrong kind of wisps, bound ice doesn't take in heat, I listened. It's a pity, but we'll make do. Fresh food will be good for us."

Lori looked at the boat, with its hull of ice with planks partially covering it on the outside, the shack-like structure in the middle, the latrines on either side. It was resting in its own dock, next to the new dock for the smaller Lori's Boat and the second Lori's Ice Boat. The wood was bare, unpainted and only minimally treated with seel fat to waterproof them. "Are we forgetting anything?"

Rian shrugged. "If we are, I don't remember it."

…Lori couldn't really fault his logic there.

"So, I suppose you're leaving then?" Lori said.

Rian nodded, and started counting on his fingers. "We'll leave the day after the holiday tomorrow."

"… what?"

"Oh, right, that's what I was forgetting!" Rian said, snapping his fingers. "Can we declare tomorrow a holiday? Or at least a half-holiday in the afternoon? After all the effort we put into building the boat, we need to celebrate it being finished. We can go and hunt the seels for the food ourselves!"

Lori raised an eyebrow. "They should have been doing that anyway."

"… yeah, we should have…"

Lori kept giving him a level, stare before sighing. "Fine, tomorrow. Set it up, no music, and in the afternoon only. AND I'll hold you to you and those going with you hunting the seels yourselves."

"We can make it an event!" Rian said. "They can watch us make fools of ourselves hunting the seels, people can eat what we catch, the children can point and laugh at us at how we're doing everything wrong and not as good as they did it…"

Lori had to admit, that sounded mildly entertaining. "You could try capturing an amount and I'll bind it in ice and keep it bound with blood on the outside," Lori said.

"Huh, that's an idea. Long-term emergency food storage," Rian mused. "I suppose if we cut off the part with the blood, and, I don't know, drop it in the evaporator, it will be your signal to stop imbuing it."

That was a thought. "Be careful," Lori warned. "Once the ice is no longer bound, it will be so cold the air will start solidifying."

Rian perked up. "Ooh, I just had an idea. Make some of those ice blocks with no meat in them, and when we need to freeze food we take one, cut off the part with blood and throw it into the smoke box with the food."

"We'd have to remove or at least block off the smoke," Lori pointed out. "And surround the smoke box in ice to hold in the cold."

She knew she was right not to believe the boat was finished!

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

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Fortunately, it didn't take long to make the changes. The container for the food had been made sizable, since they had been hopeful they'd be able to fill it, and it was a simple matter to line the insides and lid with bound ice to hold in the intended cold. She put in a drop of her blood discreetly in the corner and made it part of the water so she could keep it imbued. If needed, Rian could chip off that blood and the ice would come unbound and start acting cold. A knife would be enough, though it would take some dedicated chipping…

Still, she made the modifications while Rian found someplace to store the ice she'd be making, so she'd know how much she could make…

In the end, Rian decided the ice would go inside the chest they were meant to cool so that it wouldn't have to be moved very far, taking up almost all of the space with a little hollow space on one side for food, with that hollow getting bigger the more of the bound ice they removed the blood from and used. The hollow, by her estimation, would be able to hold at least two, maybe three meals worth of meat for all the people on the boat if they had small servings. As long as they only opened the chest briefly and didn't do anything stupid like try to grab the unbound ice, which would be extremely cold, it should last for a long time.

Lori waited, but Rian didn't suddenly have a bright idea for more work for her to do that day, and she tentatively allowed that maybe the boat was finally finished.

Maybe.

She wouldn't believe it until it was sailing away beyond her demesne and not returned for three days.

Lori drew blood with her syringe and used little drops of it to make large chunks of ice to store in the chest, which took up the rest of the day, if only because she had to make sure that there was enough space to pull out at least one block of ice from the chest. The air outflow water valve she made for when the chest was going to be a smoke box was repurposed into drainage for when the block inevitably melted to water.

It wouldn't be for a while, since the blocks were so cold they had no firewisps in them at all, compressed into the coldest, hardest form of ice possible, but it would happen eventually, and when it did, it would be best the food wasn't drowning, though they might need to poke the drainage hole with a stick to clear any ice in it from water freezing again. It could be sealed with a stopper in the meantime, and she had Rian get some cord so that the stopper could be tied to the chest and not get lost.

All told, making the hopefully final-final-final modifications and partially filling it with blood-bound ice took up the rest of the afternoon. She'd do the rest tomorrow, once she'd recovered and made more blood.

As Lori sat down at their usual table for dinner, Rian waved to the room to get their attention. "So, it's taken…" he made an exaggerated show of counting on his fingers, "uh, a lot longer than I thought it would, but we've finally managed the ship that will let us go to Covehold. Hopefully we'll make it there and back before winter sets in, or else it's going to be a very interesting trip." There was a polite murmur of interest and what sounded more like relief than celebration.

"So, in celebration of this, her Bindership has graciously allowed me to announce that tomorrow we'll be having a little holiday in celebration." There was an immediate increase of interest. "She says we can have tomorrow afternoon off. So after lunch, people who are interested can come down and see the ship, while the crew of volunteers and myself try our hands at catching seels for food. Just us." Rian chuckled. "I can already hear all the children telling us we're doing everything wrong."

There was a small laugh at this.

"The day after that, we'll leave for Covehold. Everyone going, make sure you're packed and ready to go. Okay, that's everything. Enjoy your dinner everyone!"

Rian actually managed to get their food for them this time, putting the two bowls on the table and letting Lori pick one.

"You'll have to do this for her while I'm gone," Rian told Riz, who was sitting between him and Umu this time. The blonde seemed annoyed by this. "Otherwise she's liable to starve to death. Make sure she gets to pick which bowl she wants, don't just give her one."

"Rian, I've been sitting with you for months, I know how it's done," Riz said dryly.

"Just making sure. She might not eat it if you do it the wrong way. It'll be the first time I've left her alone for so long, I think it would be easier for her to adjust if we keep her routine the same as much as possible."

"That would be appreciated, yes," Lori nodded.

"Don't worry, she takes care of everything else, food and water is all you need to take care of," Rian said. "You just need to get her food, make sure no one gets to talk to her, and talk to people for her if she needs something done. Assume she doesn't know anyone's names or who anyone is or what they do or… anything. Pretty much the only people she can recognize are the people at this table, Karina and maybe some of the carpenters. Oh, and Landoor, but only because he annoys her. Keep him away from her. You should be fine, it's all easy to remember."

"Do you really have to go, Rian?" Umu said. "Can't someone else be the one to go instead?"

"Are you volunteering?" Lori said, making Umu start. Did they think she couldn't hear them? She was sharing a table with them, why wouldn't she hear them? "This is usually when you try to volunteer for whatever Rian needs done."

"N-no, not me, but…" Umu shuffled on the bench, looking awkward.

"Please don't tease her, your Bindership," Rian said.

Lori shrugged and went back to eating.

"I agree with Umu," Mikon said. "I wish you didn't have to go." She sighed. "But you're a lord, so I suppose you have to go represent her Bindership and things."

"Basically," Rian said. "Besides, if I don't go, no one will feel safe going either. Then we'd never get anything done. Besides, it should only be for a few weeks. That's much shorter than it took us to get here by going overland. We'll be fine."

He looked so confident, Lori almost believed he really meant it.

Almost.

"You still have to organize tomorrow's holiday," Lori said. "Your idea, your problem."

"Yeah…" Rian sighed. "Well, that's what the morning is going to be for, I guess." He tilted his head. "Huh, I wonder… hey, your Bindership, can I declare that the members of the expedition get priority use of the Um?"

"Rian, if you want to take a woman to the Um, just go and do it."

"It's not for me!" Rian said hastily as the women next to him turned to look at him. "Some of the people going with me are married, I figured they should get the opportunity to… you know."

Lori couldn't help smirking. "Including yourself?"

Rian rolled his eyes. "You know I'm not," he said.

Lori nodded. "True, you already have your house, I suppose you don't need to use the Um…"

"Lori, you put nice, big, open windows on my house that I have no way of closing," Rian said. "Which I still need to get fixed before winter, otherwise I'll freeze to death. Not that I'm not grateful for the house as a whole, but I think anyone will agree it's completely unusable for that, not that I have any reason to use it for that in the first place. I'm lucky there aren't that many bugs I need to keep out."

"I'm sure Umu can help me keep an eye on it for you while you're gone, Rian," Mikon said.

Umu, who'd opened her mouth to volunteer as usual, nearly stumbled over her words. "Y-yes, I can keep an eye on it for you Rian."

"There, see. No, don't bother saying we don't have to, we were the ones who offered, and besides, you won't be here to do it yourself," Mikon continued relentlessly.

Rian sighed. "Well, put it that way… thank you for the offer Umu, Mikon. I'd appreciate it if you could check my house every so often to make sure something else doesn't start living in it and eating the clothes and things I left behind."

Mikon raised a hand and patted him on the shoulder. "You are very welcome Rian. Don't worry, we'll take care of your house while you're gone, right Umu?"

The blonde weaver looked completely torn, but managed to reply, "Yes, leave it to us Rian. We'll take care of it."

"Well… all right then. Thank you both very much."

Mikon gave him another pat on the shoulder, then leaned in and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "No problem Rian. We're happy to help." She turned back to her stew.

For a moment, Rian just sat there as if he wasn't sure what had happened. He blinked, then his head jerked to stare at Mikon, who was passively eating. "Did you just…?" he said, confused.

Mikon turned towards him, looking completely innocent and befuddled. "Did I what?" she said.

Rian opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again, then shook his head. One finger rose to his cheek. "I guess I must have misunderstood…" he said as if trying to convince himself. On his other side, Riz and Umu were looking at Mikon suspiciously.

Lori, sitting across from them, just kept on eating, wondering if Mikon would do the same with Umu at some point…