As Lori dug for stone in what would become the third level, she wondered if there would be time to convert it into a farm like she wanted before winter. Farming, from what she could tell, was mainly throwing seeds at the dirt, making sure they were watered, and keeping verminous little beasts from eating them. The farm being in the Dungeon protected the crops from the latter, and people would have plenty of time to tend to them over the winter. Not that tending to them ever seemed to take a lot of time.

It would probably involve a lot of talking to people, though. Best to wait until Rian got back so he could deal with it. Competent as she was becoming, Riz was unlikely to be able to handle all the organization involved.

Lori had to wonder what a glitter crawler was. Was it some kind of vulgarity? Hmm, she'd have to hear it used in more contexts, she didn't want to get it wrong.

She continued excavating, waiting for Riz come down and tell her it was time for lunch. By then, Lori had excavated a decent pile of stone, and the cleared space was just barely large enough for it to fit. Because of the height of the ceiling she was excavating, she was getting a lot of stone. Even with the chimneys she was planning to build, she should still have enough stone in the pile to make the changes to the front entryway of the Dungeon. Actually, if she didn't build something that needed a lot of stone soon, she was going to have to stop digging in here, since she would have a significant surplus with nothing to use it on.

…

Maybe she should make more homes… ah, but only if those who wanted it applied as a group like she had told Riz. Having a single person having a house to themselves was far too excessive. Rian didn't count. He was her lord, they were expected to be excessive. Perhaps some expansions though? Another floor could be easily done, and it was probably faster to disassemble a roof and reassemble it than it is to cut everything into shape in the first place…

"Great Binder? Time to eat."

Lori looked up to find Riz coming down the stairs. At least she still hadn't begun asking Mikon to do this in her stead. "Understood." She glanced at the stone pile, but there was no need to bring it up now. She could just take it up after lunch. She walked toward her temporary Rian and began to climb up the stairs. "Are the houses ready for me to begin construction?"

"Yes, Great Binder," Riz said, waiting for her to walk past before following. "And they've been told not to talk to you. I've checked myself, and the walls opposite the front door have been cleared of anything that would get in your way."

Lori nodded. "Good. Hopefully, I can do three, maybe four before dinner. Five, if I'm lucky."

"If I may ask, Great Binder…" Riz said hesitantly. "Why build it yourself? We have stonemasons."

"Oh? Do we have a store of mortar somewhere I wasn't aware of?"

"The clay from the clay pit would do, Great Binder. Even mud would do. It will start hardening enough once people start lighting fires in them."

"And how long will that take? A day? Two? For every house? No, much faster if I do it myself. It will let people to focus on gathering food for winter." Lori waved a dismissive hand. "If people want to work, have them do something about all the windows. Are the carpenters beginning to make shutters for all the houses to keep the warmth in, or are they waiting for me to tell them to start doing it?"

"They're already working on it, Great Binder." Riz coughed. "Rian told them to get started on it before he left."

"And you didn't mention it to me?"

"It wasn't a problem, Great Binder, and it didn't need any decisions on your part yet. Rian specified they should find a way to affix the shutters without you needing to use magic, so you wouldn't need to intervene."

Lori considered that. "Fine, as long as they can manage it. I can always seal the windows later if needed."

"If you say so, Great Binder."

"Go get lunch, I'm going to my room."

This time, Riz just nodded, heading for the kitchen while Lori went up to her room to get the sunk board. Routine, that was what she needed. Repetitive, mind-numbing routine so that she wouldn't have to think, just perform the same actions over and over again. And building several chimneys was sure to let her do just that…

––––––––––––––––––

She won against Mikon again. If nothing else, she could tell she wasn't winning the same way every time, or was being allowed to win. Mikon always made the best moves available to her when it was her turn, it was just that Lori was better at making moves that also benefited her not just on her next turn, but also on the turn after that, something that Mikon hadn't seemed to grasp yet. She was, at best, only looking one turn ahead.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

After lunch, Lori went to work, Riz in tow. The first house was standing with its door open, some woman standing there looking nervous, but Lori ignored her, just going in. Thankfully, the woman didn't try to slow her down by greeting her or any such nonsense, just stepping out of her way with a jerky bow. The back wall was, as ordered, bare so Lori didn't have to be distracted by anything. Lori knelt down and began construction, knocking a hole though the wall…

As expected, with no one talking to her, building the chimneys was simple and repetitive. All the houses were built by her to the same dimensions, so there was no variation for her to adjust for. There was a lot of standing up and kneeling, which was a glittering pain on her knees. By the third house, she'd made a little stone stool that she had Riz carry around for her (since she'd gotten the shape exactly the way she wanted it, and making the stone flow to follow her would ruin it), which helped.

She managed to make four chimneys that afternoon. Lori told Riz to have people light a fire in it that night, but to stay back in case any of the stones exploded. It shouldn't, since she'd altered the stone so that there were no bubbles or cracks, but if it happened, she'd have to repair it. Oh, and possibly send anyone who'd been hurt to River's Fork, provided they didn't bleed to death on the spot.

"Put that with the rock pile," Lori directed Riz as they approached the Dungeon. "I'll be using it tomorrow."

Riz sighed. "Yes, Great Binder."

Lori nodded, then paused. The door to Rian's house was open, and she could see the outlines of two people inside, clearly cleaning hurriedly. Riz followed her gaze, putting down the stone stool.

Inside the house, a dark outline looked up, paused. They raised a hand and waved at them. Riz waved back awkwardly. It was probably Mikon, since it was the taller of the two outlines in the house.

"I, uh… better help them," Riz said. "So the house is clean faster…"

Lori rolled her eyes. "It's not like Rian is going to ask who's been cleaning his house while he was gone. Honestly, given the history of how effective it was, you're better off just kissing him as soon as you see him if you want his attention instead of volunteering. It's never worked for Umu."

Shaking her head, not bothering to listen to whatever reply or excuse Riz made, Lori went up to her room to take a quick bath before dinner.

––––––––––––––––––

Days passed, and Lori made new chimneys. She got better at it, going from being able to finish eight a day to twelve a day. Thankfully, Riz was able to ensure that no one tried to talk to her. It was a pleasant surprise, not having to deal with deviations of her plans from people not being ready or following the directions she'd provided. She'd almost expected at least one idiot not following orders and needing to be made an example of, but no such thing happened.

She did see Umu though. Unfortunately, the blonde weaver had made enough of an impression that even after two weeks of not sitting in the same table as Lori, she still remembered the woman's name, and seemed unlikely to forget any time soon. Umu was there waiting for them when Lori had to build the chimney for what was probably her family's house. The weaver didn't speak, didn't make eye-contact with Lori, just bowed and stepped aside to let them in. She did stay in the house while they worked, but that wasn't unusual.

The woman hadn't been back to the table since Rian left, which was understandable, since without Rian the weaver had no reason to be there. Lori fully expected her to come back when Rian did.

The Dungeon Binder put the encounter out of her mind, and continued making chimneys.

Slowly, more and more houses got chimneys. She never saw them in use during the day, but then, no one cooked at home. All the food was cooked in the kitchens of the dining halls. Still, she saw some people beginning to carry firewood out of the storage shed as the days passed. At night, when she passed the entrance of the Dungeon, she faintly saw smoke rising from the chimneys of some of the houses, the flickering firelight through some of the windows.

Well, she supposed it was good that people were making sure their chimneys were working, but honestly, it wasn't that cold. The night air, while cool, was still perfectly temperate.

"People are taking a lot of firewood from storage now that they have chimneys," Riz said at dinner when Lori was halfway finished with putting in the chimneys. Next to her, Mikon was glaring thoughtfully at the chatrang board. "I don't think they're using them, it's more likely people are getting a stockpile at home, but I'm having people concentrate on gathering more firewood for now."

"Good," Lori said, nodding in approval. She'd also started to notice people were stockpiling firewood in their homes when she'd gone to put in the chimneys. "I'll set up more storage once I finish with the chimneys."

"May I suggest not putting the new firewood storage near the sawpit, Great Binder?" Riz said. "Put them near the houses. That way, come winter, people won't have to walk as far. I'll find people to keep the storage full of wood at all times."

"I'll leave that to you, then. Include firewood among the things for people to gather on the other shore, in addition to food and ropeweed."

Riz pursed her lips, then said hesitantly, "I… don't think that's the best use of time, Great Binder. We're barely managing to get the ropeweed collected in a day across the river as it is."

"Then just have them gather the wood in one spot and we'll collect it later. It's wood, it's not like it's going to fly away."

"Yes, Great Binder."

Slowly, Mikon took one of her militia that Lori had taken out of play and placed it next to her Deadspeaker, reviving it and using it to block Lori's Mentalist. The weaver leaned back, looking satisfied.

Lori tapped her Whisperer, then took the militia out of play again since it was within her Whisperer's range. Mikon groaned, muttering recriminations about how she should have seen that. She glared at the board as she was back in the same position as before.

Humming pleasantly to herself, Lori ate her dinner, listening to the pleasant hum of the dining hall around her.