Lori trudged to work, each step heavy as she walked up the slope towards the sawpit area. The sawpit itself was at rest, since no large logs were being cut up into planks. Instead, dead wood, branches, and roots such as the strange growth that had sprouted from the old latrines, pieces too small to be used for building material that had been gathered over the months and left to naturally cure were being cut down to size. Now they were being cut down into smaller pieces for firewood, and a stockpile was being built up for winter. Or at least, the early parts of winter.

The cut firewood was being put into orderly piles on cleared ground next to the curing sheds that held their stockpile of cut planks and large, squared-off blocks of wood in case they needed planks cut to a different size, for some reason. The piles were low, and as she had told Riz to tell them, the wood was inside lines she had marked on the ground yesterday. Off to the side was the pile of rock she had excavated from the third level-in-progress yesterday, ready for her to use. There was another pile in progress, made of cut log segments each a half-pace long, being stacked up to cure naturally over the time.

Both piles would need a storage shed built around them, but for now she was going to build the one for the firewood first. Lori sighed and got to work. A part of her wanted to just sit down and do all the work with her Whispering, but she knew that was a terrible idea. She need to see what she was doing if she was going to be making load-bearing structures, so she knew it was properly shaped. Lori began taking deep, even breaths, taking in magic from the air even if she didn't really need it. She reached out through her dungeon's core, and from there to all the wisps in her demesne, binding the earthwisps of the pile of excavated stone and imbuing them with magic from the core.

The stone flowed, things like layering and natural cleavage lines melding together as the rock moved under her direction towards one end of the marked off area. Lori had the stone follow the lines she had made, fusing with the bedrock stone she had drawn up and exposed as she began to build the walls of the structure. The work was familiar and she was able to lose herself in the familiar actions of making sure the walls were properly vertical so that the weight of the stone went straight down so it would be stable. She had to make an internal wall, temporarily cutting the structure in half as she added the curving, half-cylinder stone roof.

It took her all day to finish the structure, with a break for lunch, despite the fact she didn't have to make any windows or add any support for openings in the walls, and both ends of the structure opened out so that firewood could easily be stored in and retrieved. Slow work, when she was usually able to make it much faster. At the very least, Lori would usually have been at able to make both storage sheds by the end of the day. She made an effort to start the walls for the other shed, but she could already tell she'd need more stone. It was already late afternoon, and Lori just wanted the day to be over already so she could have her dinner and go to bed…

Sighing, Lori stopped working as she ran out of stone, the walls barely ankle high, and probably a dangerous tripping hazard. She began to trudge down back to the Dungeon. Tomorrow, she'd have to excavate the third level again, get more stone, then finish storage shed… then she'd need to expand the mushroom farm… Actually, she might need to do that first, since that would give her stone for the shed… She should have thought of that sooner…

Lori let herself be pulled down the slope to the Dungeon's entrance, then turned as she reached the wide, flat area directly in front of it. She passed the smithy, where the smiths were putting away their tools for the day, the forge's coals banked and the door and chimney closed to hold in the heat. And standing across from the smithy was a house. There was a circle of stones in front of it and to one side so it didn't block the way to the door, the ground in the middle of the circle darkened with old ash from old fires. Around the circle were a couple of benches and other places to sit.

Inside the house, she could hear people—probably three people—hurriedly cleaning, despite the fact they didn't live there. Even as she watched, there was a brief exclamation, then a panicked sound as of a cloth being snapped around. A moment later, a large bug flew from the door. Only the size of her thumb, the wings on its back buzzed as it was routed out of the house. Absently, Lori bound some airwisps, producing a sharp jet that pushed the bug in the general direction of away from her. After several months, the bug population of the demesne seemed to finally be recovering. She supposed it was only a matter of time before bug meat started appeared in the stew. She hoped they tasted decent. They didn't have much in the way of spices to flavor the food. If they were lucky, some of them would be like chlyp and would only need to be boiled until they turned yellow…

No, wait, chlyp tasted best with salted lard. And they didn't have salt. Lori sighed.

A blonde woman stepped up to the door, sweeping dust out with a feather-bristle broom. She looked up and paused for a moment as she saw Lori, but Lori was already turning away and heading for the Dungeon.

A bath. She needed a bath. Why is it that despite the fact she didn't lift anything heavier than her staff and mostly stood around and walked so she could see the walls she was working on better, she still became sweaty? It couldn't have been from heat, the firewisps in her body took care of that…

And she still needed to do her laundry.

Sighing again, Lori headed for her table through the mostly empty dining hall and sat down, folding her arms on the tabletop and laying her head down. She'd just close her eyes for a moment… just a little moment… After all, it wasn't like she had anything better to do…

Someone was poking her in the side. They were annoyingly insistent about it, and Lori grudgingly lifted her head, looking sideways to glare at whoever was foolish enough to not just annoy her, but physically touched her to do it.

The brat stopped poking her. "Wiz Lori, it's dinner time," she said. "You need to eat before you go to sleep, or else your tummy will hurt."

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For a moment, Lori just lay there and glared at her one taxpayer. Then she sighed and pushed herself to sit up, wincing at the twinge on her back. "I'm up, I'm up," she said. "Now go back to your family and eat."

The brat nodded, turned and nodded at the woman sitting across from Lori then headed back to… wherever it was she sat for her meals. Lori thought it was somewhere in the back corner next to the stairs, where there was a slight breeze from the air being circulated up from the second level.

Lori couldn't bring herself to care all that much.

Still, she leveled an annoyed glare at the two women sitting across from her, her temporary Rian most especially. "Really?" she said, her tone distinctly disgruntled. "You got a child to wake me up? What, you didn't have the nerve to do it yourself?"

"It was my idea, your Bindership," Mikon said before Riz could reply. "We weren't sure if you'd be angry if—"

"Mikon, shut up," Lori said. Mikon's teeth clicked together as her mouth snapped shut. She gave Riz a flat look. "You. If you need to wake me up, wake me up. Talking to me is explicitly part of your job, so do it."

"Yes, Great Binder," Riz said. At least she was no longer stuttering nervously.

"You used to be more competent. Inexperienced, but competent. Was that only because you were trying to impress Rian?"

"No, Great Binder," Riz said.

Lori stared at her for a moment, expression completely flat. It might just be that she had woken up in a bad mood. She pointed with her spoon. "Start eating." She followed her own order, stirring her stew with her spoon—it had been getting increasingly more bland—before starting to eat.

Riz made to do just that, but hesitated as she reached for the bowl. "You pick first," she said to Mikon.

"Oh? Well, if you're sure," Mikon said… and picked the bowl that had noticeably less meat floating in it. She began eating the same cheerful, unreadable smile on her face.

Riz looked down at the bowl left, then at Mikon. Face bemused, she began to eat.

Relative silence descended on the table once more, while around them the dining hall buzzed with annoying cheer.

"Well?" Lori demanded after several spoonfuls had gone into her stomach. She didn't feel like eating, not really, but she knew she needed to.

Riz paused. "Uh, well what, Great Binder?"

"Did you clarify about the lightning?"

Riz jerked to attention. "Ah, yes! Nazu said that they'd just put in some fresh spores, so they needed you to use lightning on it to help increase the yield." A look of barely veiled annoyance came over her temporary Rian's face. "He said you knew what it was, since you'd done it before."

"Yes," Lori said. "I knew what he meant. But you didn't and you didn't ask. Next time, I might not know what they need, so you need to get into the habit of finding out everything before getting it to me. Unless you like having to go do it twice?" She hadn't needed to tell Rian this. Rian had always been thorough and diligent in his work. she'd just told him what she'd needed done and made clear all the details were up to him, and he did it, only informing her when it was finished or there was a problem he felt she needed to know about, either because it needed a decision on her part or Whispering work.

"No, Great Binder," Riz said, barely holding in a sigh. Next to her, Mikon kept her eyes on her bowl, but she reached up and patted Riz on the shoulder. Riz barely twitched, just accepting the gesture.

"Good. See that you remember it. What else?" Lori went back to eating as her temporary Rian visibly wracked her mind, trying to remember.

"Ah, we have bugs trying to nest in the back rooms of the baths," Riz said. "The bath workers have been reporting there are a lot of bugs crowding around the seams of the doors when they go to refill the reservoirs there. Some have gotten in and nested or laid eggs in the water. They think it's because of the season. They've been dealing with it, but… ah, well, it's something you should know about, Great Binder?"

"Better," Lori said. "You're right, I haven't foreseen that. I'll see what I can come up with, you go ask the smiths if they have what they need to make fine mesh." She glanced at Mikon. "If they can't, which is likely, we'll need to use fabric."

"Use fabric for what, Great Binder?" Riz asked.

"As a barrier to keep the bugs getting into a heat outlet," Lori said.

"Ah… I see," Riz said.

"No, you don't," Lori said. "Don't pretend you understand if you don't. It makes you look both ignorant and foolish. Saying you don't know just makes you look ignorant, but at least you're admitting to it so you can change it."

Riz flinched again. "Yes, Great Binder," she said.

Mikon reached over and patted her on the shoulder again.

Lori nodded curtly. "Good." She turned back to her meal. "Is there more?"

Riz had taken her hands off her bowl. "The farmers said we'll need to harvest soon, Great Binder. They say they need a place to store the grain so the bugs can't get at it, and they'll need a people to help them harvest."

"Did you ask how much storage they need?"

"No, Great Binder."

"I trust you will correct that?"

"Yes, Great Binder."

"Good. Make the arrangements for the people you need for the harvest."

"Yes, Great Binder."

Riz had taken her hands off the table, and they were now out of sight.

"Riz, do I look like your mother?"

The strangeness of the question made her temporary Rian blink. "Uh, no, Great Binder."

"Then don't treat me like it," Lori said. "I know the 'yes, mother', 'no mother' routine. I am not asking you to do something unreasonable, simply what I know you can do. Is that unreasonable?"

Riz opened her mouth—

"If you say, 'no, Great Binder', I will be even more annoyed than I am now."

Riz's mouth clicked shut. "That is not unreasonable, Great Binder," she eventually said.

"So why are you making fists under the table?"

Riz said nothing.

Lori stared at her. "Are there any issues you know of that cannot wait until tomorrow morning?"

"No, Gr—There are no issues I am aware of, Great Binder."

"Then tell me in the morning." Lori bent down over her food and went back to eating.

Eventually, Riz lifted her hands from under the table and continued eating as well.

Around them, the silence persisted.

Lori finished eating, pushed her bowl away, got up and headed for her room.

Once she'd sealed the door and hallway behind her, Lori sat down on her stone stool and started undressing. She pulled off her boots, examining it for wear. It was still in good repair, although she noticed a few subtle cracks here and there, and the soles were getting more worn. She set them aside, pulling off her socks, and paused.

One of her socks had a small hole in it, a hole that hadn't been there that morning.

For a moment, Lori just sat there, her eyes staring but not seeing. Then she pulled off her socks and set them aside. She stripped down naked, then went over to the niche in the wall were she kept her unwashed clothes, and began to bring them all to her bathroom.

That night, she stayed up doing laundry, and only managed to get half of them washed.

Eventually, she just surrendered and went to sleep, the remaining clothes left soaking in the water.

Lori couldn't bring herself to care.