"—and the smithy will be enclosed in the event of a dragon. Those are the improvements I'm making to the front of the Dungeon," Lori finished explaining. "Did you understand all that or do I have to repeat myself?" Riz had better be listening. Lori did not want to repeat herself, especially since she had explained so thoroughly.

Riz—and Mikon beside her, since Lori had been too busy explaining for them to have their usual game of sunk over lunch—both stared at the little stone model on the table. It wasn't to scale, but it sufficed to show what she was building. There was the passage to the dungeon, the wall of which she had been building that morning; the door and the level above it, where the air would come in through; the side passage that would contain the stairs to the level above the door and a passage towards the smithy area; and the bit in front of the door to keep abominations out.

"Ah… I understand, Great Binder," Riz said slowly.

Lori nodded in satisfaction. "I will be building the rest of the passage this afternoon, and we will hopefully be able to move the doors after that."

"If you say so, Great Binder. And… this is the final design?"

"Why wouldn't it be?" Lori said as she bent over to finally put all her attention on her food.

"Ah… well, if you say so, Great Binder."

Well, yes, Lori did say so.

She heard Mikon sigh. "Riz," she heard the weaver say as she scooped some soft, fatty tail meat into her spoon, "if you have something to say, tell her Bindership. You're supposed to be doing Rian's job. Rian would say something."

"He would," Lori confirmed, not looking up.

"Come on, her Bindership won't do anything to you," Mikon pressed. "Otherwise, who'd do things for her?"

"You," Lori said, glancing up.

The hand that had been patting—no, squeezing and stroking, not just patting—Riz's shoulder paused. "Er, me, your Bindership?"

"Yes."

"Ah… thank you for warning me, your Bindership…"

Lori shrugged. "You already know how to do it anyway." She fixed Riz with a look. "What are you not saying? You don't like the plan?"

"No, no, it's an excellent plan, Great Binder," Riz said hastily. "It's just… Do we really need to move the door? I mean…" Riz pointed at the model, "You could just keep the door where it is, and simply seal this opening when a dragon arrives, when you make the pit. Besides, if you move the door, chokers might get into the dungeon, since this part is open to the smithy."

Lori blinked, then frowned. Oh. Her temporary Rian was right, wasn't she? The little beasts hadn't been a consideration when she made this plan. Still…

"You're right," she allowed. "Yes, best to leave the doors where they are." Well, she supposed she wouldn't need to move it.

"And if you're going to be enclosing the smithy," Riz continued, "the smithy itself will need to be bigger. As it is now, if the smithy is enclosed, the smiths won't have any room to work safely, even if you managed to pull out the bad air from the coals."

Lori frowned. "Why would the smiths need to work? The smithy will only be enclosed in the event of a dragon."

"I don't know, Great Binder. But if you need them to make anything, it will be very difficult for them to."

Lori stared at her. "I suppose that's a point…" She shook her head. "I'll consider it. Make sure to remind everyone that I'm still working on the entrance and need them to keep staying away from the doors."

Riz nodded as Mikon sighed next to her. "Yes, Great Binder."

Lori went back to her food, her mind already on the changes she'd have to make. Well, it was no problem, she hadn't been looking forward to moving the doors anyway…

"There, see?" she heard Mikon say. Some movement in her peripheral vision allowed her to imagine the hand on Riz's shoulder. "She didn't do anything to you."

A sigh as Lori chewed. "No, she didn't…" she heard. "…thanks…"

She heard patting. "Any time."

They ate in silence for a moment. Then another sigh.

"Great Binder…" Lori glanced up, wondering what her temporary Rian wanted now. "Do the doors really need to be closed?"

––––––––––––––––––

Lori continued building after lunch. The doors were open, and Riz had the duty of keeping people away from Lori and what she was building. Well, at least her temporary Rian wasn't just sitting around and doing nothing. That had been mildly annoying to see while Lori had been working.

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She continued work on the wall, raising it up higher and higher using stone from the pile. The higher parts weren't very flat and vertical, but it wasn't enough to structurally compromise the wall, and the walls would be arch-supported before it became load bearing, so it wasn't a risk. The wall rose over the afternoon, and it was more or less completed by the time she stopped for dinner. She considered it a day well spent as she stood back and viewed the wall from the side. Well, straight and flat enough, and it was fused to the bedrock, so the minor imperfections wouldn't be enough to make it fall over.

It had taken a lot of stone, but not so much that Lori would need to resume excavating the third level for more stone before she finished. Tomorrow she'd be able to make the opposite wall, then she'd construct the raised level for the air intake. It wouldn't be needed now, so at best it would just look like a strange balcony over the demesne's front entrance, but she'd be able to start adding stone to the outside for a more permanent protective bulwark against dragons.

All in all, she'd done a good day's work, and tomorrow she'd have another day's work ahead of her, and the day after that as well. Plenty of time for her to find more work to do, or for Riz to bring new work to her attention. If she was lucky, she wouldn't have to think about Rian being gone at all beyond the part of the morning she spent imbuing the bindings on the Coldhold…

For a moment, she panicked as she wondered whether she'd remembered do that today, closing her eyes and going over the distant-feeling bindings of her blood that existed outside of the demesne, before she sighed in relief as she realized they were properly imbued. She imbued them more anyway, even the blocks of ice for preserving food. There… seemed to be one less of those than she could remember from last time, so Rian had properly chipped off the blood and passed it through the evaporator. They'd still had a lot left…

"Great Binder?"

Lori's eyes blinked open, and realized she'd started leaning on the wall at some point. She focused her gaze on her tem—on Riz. "What?" she said sharply.

Riz winced, but held her ground. "It's time to eat," she said. "You still have some time to refresh yourself."

Lori stared blankly at the woman, then looked around. The sun was low and orange, the lightwisps she'd bound to the outside of buildings starting to visibly glow as the area slowly darkened in twilight. "Yes. Fine." She stood up straight, running her hands through her hair. It was getting a little long again. She'd have to borrow the scissors from the doctors… "Thank you," she said curtly, turning and heading towards the Dungeon.

Her temporary… assistant fell into step beside her. "Great Binder…" Riz said hesitantly, then lowered her voice. "Are you all right?"

Lori didn't bother to look at her. "I'm fine," she said flatly, stepping into her Dungeon and turning to climb the stairs to her rooms. She was halfway up and binding the stones that barred to way up so she could pass through before she realized Riz was following her. She turned and frowned down at her. "What?"

"It's just… you were standing there with your eyes closed for a while, but you didn't look like you were sleeping," Riz said. "Rian never mentioned anything about that. I was wondering if it was something I should be concerned about."

"There's no cause for concern. I'm fine," Lori repeated. "Now stop following me, I'm about to seal off the stairs."

Riz stayed where she was as Lori moved the stone back into place, climbing back up to her room alone.

Once she was inside, Lori sat down heavily on her bed, her posterior coming to rest on the wooden frame rather than the spun cords that wove through the otherwise empty space in the middle. Her head drooped down and fell into her hands. For a long time, she just sat there, staring at the stone floor and concentrating on her breathing. Eventually, she slipped into the familiar breathing exercise for taking in magic that every wizard is taught, and she let the almost instinctive movements calm her.

"Stupid Rian," she muttered. "Get back here already…"

She sighed, then pushed herself back up to her feet. Dinner. She just had to eat dinner. She'd already been here for some time, so she'd take a bath later…

Lori went down to her Dungeon's dining hall to find dinner about to start, with people lining up to get food. It was far harder to navigate between the tables with them so occupied with people, but she managed it, skirting around the edges of the room so that there were only a few tables in her way.

Her table had the expected two people sitting there. Riz and Mikon were just sitting down next to each other on the bench, the former carrying three bowls of food, the latter three cups and a pitcher of water. Lori sat down on her bench quietly and pulled one of the bowls towards her. She started to eat, focusing on her food.

"Great Binder, the farmers say we need to harvest soon. In the next three to five days, they say. The grains are almost ready, they said," Riz said.

With an effort, Lori tore herself away from the obscured depths of her bowl. "What?"

Riz hesitated. "Ah, I said that we need to harvest soon, Great Binder."

Lori nodded in acknowledgement, then shook her head to clear it. Right, work. She had work to do. Responsibilities. Something to keep her occupied. "Have you made the arrangements?"

"Yes, Great Binder, people are ready to help with the harvest as soon as we know what it is," Riz said. "The sickles have been sharpened and are ready to use, though I'm told we'll need more next year if we're going to bring in a bigger harvest in a timely manner."

Another nod. "Good. Then take care of it. I'll have things to do, and there doesn't seem to be anything I'm needed for." She'd already made the storage for it some days ago, after all. Lori bent back down towards her food. "Anything else?"

Quiet, murmurs, and then a sigh. "Uh, will you be playing chatrang tonight?" Riz sounded embarrassed as she said that.

Lori paused again, then glanced up. Riz looked like she'd just sighed, while next to her, Mikon was studiously pouring herself a cup of water. The weaver raised the cup to her lips and drank.

"Not tonight," Lori said. "I don't feel like it."

Riz blinked, and she and Mikon exchanged looks.

Lori was suddenly struck very strongly by the memories of her mothers doing that far too many times during dinner. That same confused, unsure look, one that usually firmed before one of them suggested a terrible idea and Lori was forced to go along with it because they insisted…

Riz opened her mouth, and Lori already felt herself getting ready to stop, a remembered anger building up in her chest…

"All right, Great Binder," she said, and Lori's anger suddenly stumbled, tripping in confusion. Riz continued, no longer looking at her, but at the woman next to her. "Just asking." Her gaze was more… emphatic.

Mikon sighed, and Lori's remembered, imagined anger disappeared, and she wasn't in front of two women raising her, just two women who sat across from her at meal times. Riz was focusing on her food, apparently having nothing more to say, and Mikon looked… disappointed? Like… she'd actually been looking forward to playing…

"Just one game," Lori found herself saying. "After dinner."

Both women looked up, one confused, the other hopeful.

But Lori was going back to eating. Eating was something to do… and after eating, going up to get her board was something to do… and after that, setting up a game and beating Mikon was something to do…

Around her, the sounds of the dining hall blending together were a familiar murmur. If she didn't look at who was in front of her, everything almost seemed normal…