"Erzebed, announce to everyone that I will be adding chimneys and fireplaces to everyone's houses in preparation for winter," Lori said as she set up the chatrang board for her game with Mikon.

"You will?" Riz exclaimed, clearly surprised.

"Of course I will. Why wouldn't I?"

"You didn't before?"

Lori raised an eyebrow at her. "Was it needed before?"

"It would have been nice," Mikon muttered into her bowl.

"It would be nice to have Rian back, but we have to make do given the circumstances," Lori said. "They weren't needed then, but they will be needed soon. Hence, I'm making them. Tell everyone that I will be adding chimneys to the houses in order of those closest to the Dungeon, moving away from the main road, on the wall of the house opposite the front door. It is recommend they move anything they don't want disturbed away from that end and have someone waiting in the house to move anything else that needs to be moved. I'll start after lunch tomorrow so they have time to prepare. And anyone who complains will have to build their own chimney."

"I… will tell them, Great Binder," Riz said.

"Good. Now, after breakfast tomorrow, take me to your house."

Riz blinked. "Great Binder?"

"You're my temporary Rian right now, you get to have your chimney put in first. Rian's house already has one."

Riz continued to stare at her as Lori finished setting up the board. She considered the pieces. One set was made of pale wood, the other was heat-blackened wood. She turned around the board so that the black pieces were in front of Mikon. "You take the first move, Mikon," Lori said. After all, the woman was a beginner, and she did lose their last game, even if that game wasn't chatrang.

Chatrang, in her opinion, was a stupid game whose players had an overinflated sense of how smart one had to be to be good at it. She was always getting told that you had to think twenty moves ahead, which was something only a Mentalist was reasonably capable of. Still, if Mikon, a complete and utter beginner, wanted to play it, then who was Lori to deny her the feeling of losing at the game?

Lori kept her hands on her bowl of food as Mikon looked over the pieces. Eight militia, two lords (or two ladies, or a lord and a lady, depending on preference), four wizards, a Binder, and a core. Victory was achieved by killing the enemy binder and getting your own Binder or one of your wizards to the enemy core. There was a version children played where you won by simply getting any piece to the core, but that was for children for a reason. For one, it was even more unrealistic that most stories about complete nobodies getting their hands on a buried core and somehow becoming a Dungeon Binder despite not being a wizard. At least those stories acknowledged that getting to a dungeon's core was meaningless if its binder was still alive.

Lori had once wondered why there was only one of every kind of wizard but two lords. Now she understood.

Mikon began by moving her Horotract piece, moving it over and past the first line of militia. Besides the Binder, all other pieces couldn't move past another piece blocking them. Most people usually moved one of the militia. Lori definitely did, preferring to keep her pieces close to her Binder and core, and moving your Horotract was supposed to be an aggressive opening. Personally, Lori thought if one wanted to be aggressive, moving the militia blocking the way of your Mentalist (even though a real Mentalist would just go over them) so they could attack head on was a better option. You'd lose your Mentalist immediately, but that was what your Deadspeaker was for…

Lori moved a militia forward so she could get her Whisperer in front of her core sooner. A defensive Whisperer was simple and vulnerable to attack by a Mentalist or a Binder moving like a Mentalist, but it let her protect her core while freeing up her Binder to attack…

She and Mikon played three games of chatrang, and thankfully the weaver didn't confuse the Whisperer and the Deadspeaker. Riz stayed for all three games, sitting next to her student, watching and visibly resisting the urge to point at what piece Mikon should move. Thankfully, she didn't actually interfere, but she clearly wanted to, especially when Mikon left her pieces open to attack.

Lori won all the three games she played with Mikon that night, but each one was closer than she'd have liked. Each game also took far longer than a sunk game, and by the end of it Lori was sleepy and very much wanted to go to bed. Still, as she put the pieces back in the box and carried the game board and box back to her room while a sleepy Mikon begged an exasperated Riz for help to get back to her house, Lori had to admit that winning at a different game was just as enjoyable as winning at sunk.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

She was climbing up to her room, her board game in her hands, when she paused as a thought occurred to her. She turned around and headed for the front of the Dungeon, and then had to take a moment as she realized that she had to open the door. Huh. She'd never seen the door closed before…

Lori shook her head and opened the door, looking out. The bindings of lightwisps she'd put earlier illuminated the night, and the main street, the fronts of the houses, and some of the alleys between houses were now lit, if dimly. So she didn't need to bind the lightwisps in her eyes to see Mikon and Riz walking together, the former walking with almost but not quite exaggerated sleepiness, holding the latter's hand as if she needed to be guided. Either her temporary Rian wasn't as resistant to the idea of having Mikon's attention as she acted, or she wasn't very experienced at flirting. All of Lori's flirting experience was theoretical from watching her mothers flirting with each other regardless of whether she was present, and the times that they directly lectured her about it like the time they tried to teach her the best way to casually hold a girl's hand, but it didn't seem like Riz had even that much.

Actually, from what Lori could recall, Riz hadn't ever flirted with Rian the way Mikon had. No physical actions to draw his attention, like breathing in to emphasize her chest, no pressing against him suggestively…

Lori clearly needed to sleep, she was thinking of stupid things. Yawning, she pulled the door closed again and headed up to her room to sleep.

––––––––––––––––––

Riz didn't stand up to make a loud announcement like Rian would have. Instead, she arrived late to breakfast.

"It's done, Great Binder," Riz said as she finally sat down for breakfast. Lori and Mikon had already started with their food, and their first game of sunk had finished, with the second being set up. "People will be expecting you after lunch."

Lori blinked. "They will?" she said. "How? You haven't told them yet."

"I told some people, and told them to tell other people," Riz said. "I started with my mother so that she could get the house ready, then moved on to the families who lived closest to the Dungeon." She sighed. "I'll… have to double check to make sure people got the message after I take you to our house, to make sure that people are ready for you, but they should know, so they only have themselves to blame for not listening to what they're told."

Lori nodded. On the one hand, she could recognize how her temporary Rian was making any difficulties someone else's fault for not listening to what they were told. On the other hand… Lori could respect that. "Excellent reasoning and priorities. I'll have to see how long it takes me to finish adding a chimney to a house, but hopefully I will be finished within a week."

She probably wouldn't be finished within a week.

"So, we'll probably get a chimney in a few days," Mikon muttered.

"If you're cold, you could sleep in Rian's house," Lori said as she reached out to make her move, scooping up stones and beginning to drop them spinwise. "You're helping take care of it after all, and it's not like he's using it right now. I'm sure he wouldn't mind if you got his fireplace a little dirty."

Mikon sighed. "It's just not the same. Besides, I wouldn't feel safe sleeping alone."

"A pity," Lori said blandly. "Perhaps you'll get lucky and someone will offer to let you sleep with your head on their lap."

The weaver paused a moment, giving Lori a look, but dropped the subject, making her move on the board.

Lori turned back to Riz. "You'll be coming with me as I make the chimneys."

Riz paused in her eating. "I will?"

"Of course. I need someone to make sure people don't bother me with inanities and demands they have no right to make," Lori said.

"Ah. Of course. I forgot. Very well, Great Binder," Riz said, nodding in understanding.

"Good. Anything I should know about?"

Riz hesitated. "I… have a petition being raised to you that I doubt you will like."

"It's not for land again, is it?" Lori said with a scowl.

"Uh… technically?" Riz said. "People are asking for houses."

"People already have houses," Lori pointed out.

"Not… everyone..." Riz said. "Every family has a house. However, the unmarried people and the three married couples who don't have children or extended family are still living in the shelter. Ever since you made a house for Rian, they've been… petitioning to have their own as well."

Lori raised an eyebrow. "Has the shelter become more cramped somehow since every family in the demesne moved out? Do we have a Horotract in our midst making mischief?" There had better not be…

"Not that I know of, Great Binder," Riz said. "But some people feel that if Rian has a house to himself, then they should get one too."

Lori gave her a blank look. "They may have a house if they can build it themselves," Lori said.

For some reason, Mikon and Riz glanced at each other. "That's it?"

"And the moment they decide to build it, they have to move out of the shelter."

Riz and Mikon both nodded. "Ah."

"And if I don't like where they put their house or anything else about it, I'll demolish it."

Riz nodded again. "Ah. I will tell them that, Great Binder."

"If they persist, add that they have to buy the land before they will be allowed to build their house."

"I think all the rest before that will be enough to discourage them, Great Binder," Riz said, a small smirk on her lips.

Lori tilted her head, considering. "Alternately, a minimum of six people can petition for a house as a group, on the understanding they will have to live together in that house."

Riz tilted her head. "Can I wait until next week to tell them that, Great Binder?"

"Take as long as you see fit," Lori agreed.

Mikon chuckled quietly. "You're getting better at this, Riz," she said. "That sounds like something Rian would have said."

Lori would have to agree. Despite how coddling Rian could be, he could be surprisingly vindictive sometimes. "Don't worry," Lori assured her. "While your competence has increased, this is still a temporary position."

Riz sighed in relief. "Thank you, Great Binder!"

The three of them focused on their breakfasts, and Lori and Mikon continued their game as the sounds of another morning in progress rang around them.