"Thank you for the kind words," Mikon told Riz as Lori ate, ignoring them. "That wasn't necessary, but it was nice. But you really need to be more forward if you want to flirt with Rian properly. He's a bit dense."

Riz turned to give the other woman an incredulous look. "Are you actually giving me advice?"

Mikon shrugged. "I've been helping you so far, I see no reason to change that now."

"Does this mean you've given up on him?" Riz said hopefully.

"Why would I?" Mikon said with a cheerful smile.

Riz was making a very strange face. "I suppose this means we're rivals again," she said, sounding reluctant.

"Well, no need to start now," Mikon said. "So, about being more forward—"

"You're still giving me advice?"

"Do you not want it?"

Riz looked torn, then sighed. "Fine, I'm listening…"

"Now, my advice is to touch him as often as you can," Mikon said. "Appropriately, of course. Give him a pat on the back, on the shoulder, things like that. Get him used to you touching him casually."

Riz frowned. "How is that being more forward?"

"Well, you can skip ahead to holding hands, but do you feel confident enough to go straight there?"

"… all right, I get your point… " Riz said, then paused. She glanced at her shoulder with the hand on it.

Mikon gave her shoulder another squeeze.

Riz rolled her eyes. "Oh, very funny, I see the joke now." She sighed. "I almost believed you for a moment there."

Mikon leaned forward and gave her a quick peck on the cheek. "Believe what you will, Riz," she said, taking off her hand and going back to eat.

Riz stared at her, one hand snapping up her face, which was slowly reddening. "Okay, I've been ignoring it, but I think we need to talk about—"

She cut off abruptly as Rian came back with four cups of water and Umu in tow. "Water, anyone?" he offered as Lori grabbed one of the cups and started drinking. Ah, cold, clean water…

"Thank you, Rian," Mikon said, taking a cup herself and drinking from it. "Hello, Umu. Sit with us?" She patted the bench next to her.

Umu watched as Rian sat back down on the bench between Riz and Lori and seemingly tried to gauge if she would fit in the space next to Rian, before Lori put her cup there. The blonde hesitated another moment before sighing and accepting Mikon's offer, sitting next to the other weaver. Umu had her own cup of water and a bowl that seemed to be filled with both stew and cut pieces of roast meat.

People started eating again as the singing and clapping continued, the voices changing as those who'd been singing before grew tired. Lori finished the food in her plate and her bowl and debated whether to get more helpings… Or at least, make Rian do it. Or Riz, she was there too…

"So… about tomorrow, your Bindership" Rian began.

Lori blinked, startled out of her contemplation. "What?"

"Tomorrow," Rian said. "Riz said you suddenly declared tomorrow a rest day? Even though the threshing isn't finished yet?"

Lori shrugged. "Anyone who wants to continue threshing or doing any sort of work tomorrow may. For everyone else, it's optional."

"Officially optional," Rian said, nodding. "Ah."

Riz sighed. "I'll have to tell everyone that, won't i?"

It should really be obvious with how everything isn't finished yet. "It should really be obvious with how everything isn't finished yet," Lori said. She decided to let her stomach settle a little before getting more food and turned to Rian. "Besides, I'd have thought you'd want to have a day without work interfering to be able to talk to Erzebed about what you need to know."

"Ah. And what will you be doing?"

"Going through the things that you brought back," Lori said.

"I feel compelled to point out that some of that stuff was bought with beads provided by other people in the demesne, at their request and for their use," Rian pointed out.

"Noted. So I will decide if they will be requisitioned by the government."

Rian sighed. "As your lord that you put in charge of 'dealing with people things', I feel it's my duty to point out that's a terrible idea, sets a horrible precedent—and yes, I know how you feel about precedent but I'm mentioning it anyway—and would be bad for morale. Also, you have nothing they'd accept as restitution, except maybe land, and you've made your opinion on that clear."

"Also noted. I'm still going through them. Consider it a customs inspection."

Rian gave her a sideways look, literally and figuratively. "So… you're not requisitioning, you're taking customs duties."

Oh! What an excellent idea! Lori was glad she'd thought of it. "An excellent idea. I'm glad I thought of it."

Rian rolled his eyes for some reason. "You realize that means whatever item you take duties for, some more than half of it needs to reach the person who asked me to buy it, right? There's no customs duty that costs more than the actual product in question, after all. It's usually a percentage of the listed or assessed value. Also, I need a filter."

Lori blinked, then frowned in confusion at the unrelated sentence. "What?"

"I need a filter," Rian repeated patiently. "Maybe a very fine cloth or something. We need it to act as a filter for passing water through the evaporator, so that only water gets into the storage tank. Having Iridescence start growing in the tank was expected, and passing through the demesne took care of that, but all sorts of little bits that had been floating in the water also fell in. Sorting it out by hand will be a mess. Much better to try to keep them from getting in in the first place."

"If it's a cloth, you have a pair of weavers right there. They would know better than I would," Lori pointed out. "What does that have to do with anything?"

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"Well, the ocean's not that far away…" Rian said. "All right, it's still pretty far, but in comparison, to Covehold, not that far. We had to go around a long peninsula first, and coming in from the water the mouth of the bay is kind of hard to see, which probably explains why no one else is around here except for River's Fork. But a day or two… three at most if the water jet driver isn't going on all holes, a day spent just filling up containers with salt, and we'd have enough for eating, tanning and selling to Covehold. Granted, it doesn't sell for much, but it's enough to make the trip worth it, especially since Covehold can't make it themselves. The water around them is too dirty. They dumped too much stuff into the water."

"Fascinating," Lori said blandly. "Tell me the rest in your report the day after tomorrow."

"Why then? Why not tomorrow?"

"Do you feel prepared to give me a concise report tomorrow?"

"The day after it is, then!"

Lori nodded. She was, she decided, no longer hungry. She finished the water in her cup and stood up. "Best use tonight to best advantage," she said. "I'm going to sleep. Heed what I said."

Rian blinked. "Wait, you're going to sleep?" He looked up at the sky, where three of the four moons were already rising. "Already? It's not even that late yet."

"Yes, well, I see no point in staying awake, or watching you deal with the silliness that follows," Lori said.

Rian frowned. "What silliness?"

Lori gave him a look at his revealing he hadn't stopped being any more of an idiot while he was gone, then turned her gaze towards the three women next to him. "Be civil," she reminded them again, leaving her stew bowl on the bench, and began heading towards her Dungeon.

After she passed, Umu promptly stood up and moved towards the suddenly free space next to Rian, taking hold of his arm and pressing it firmly against her front that she leaned towards him. "Welcome back, Rian," she said, kissing him on the cheek.

Riz, seeing this, pressed closer to Rian and then nervously placed a hand on his shoulder. She didn't say anything, simply kissed his other cheek determinedly, as if she could push Umu away by putting effort from her side. Behind her, Mikon rolled her eyes and reached over to correct the positioning of Riz's hand, placing her own hand atop it for good measure. She also leaned forward, pushing Riz up against Rian even more, while the weaver's other hand came to rest on the still-temporary-assistant's knee. That was all Lori managed to see as she rounded the edge of the new entryway and headed inside of her Dungeon to her room.

"So, Rian," Lori heard Mikon say breathily, though in practice the weaver was probably blowing into Riz's ear as she said it, "have you been thinking of us while you were gone?"

There was a surprised yelp from Riz. "That was my neck!"

"Oh, sorry, I missed," Mikon said cheerfully. "Move a little, please?"

Rian should be fine. He was a grown man. And if he was afraid of them ravishing him, well, he could jump into the river and avoid them with his strange ability to swim.

"M-maybe we should all sit down and t-talk about this like adults first? In private?" she heard Rian say, voice slightly muffled. "Please?

"I agree, we should talk about this!" Riz said before Lori was too far to hear anything over the sounds of singing, dancing, and now the laughter and encouragement that was coming from the rest of the crowd as they saw Rian's situation.

Humming to herself, Lori went up to her room, ignoring the people sitting around the dining hall and either doing their own rendition of what was happening to Rian or just playing board games. She took a moment to check with her awareness, but there was no one in the second or third levels, or anyone hiding in the cold rooms, or in the hallway with the treasure rooms. Good, there didn't seem to be any trouble going on. Anyone who were doing more seemed to be in the Um, their own home, or at least out of her sight. She'd… well, she wouldn't allow it, but she wouldn't bother to patrol for it right now.

She wondered if she should go and ask for that almanac Rian had mentioned. It would be nice to have something new to read before bed. Or anything to read before bed at all, save for that list on the ceiling for something or other. But it had been a long day, and she was tired. Sealing the hallway behind her, she closed her door, put aside her stone plate to wash later, and got ready for bed.

A thought occurred to her, and she considered putting it off… but no, if she didn't she might be forced to sit around waiting tomorrow…

Sighing, Lori put her clothes back on, pulled on her boots—which now felt uncomfortable since she'd just managed to get her feet out of them—and headed downstairs, again sealing the hallways behind her.

No one had suddenly started playing music just because she'd left, which… was slightly unexpected. She'd assumed they'd do just that, had left so she had an excuse not to hear it… but if they didn't, they didn't. She felt glad about that, for some reason.

The bench up against the outside of the entryway wall was empty. She frowned, looking around, then chided herself and looked towards Rian's house. Sure enough there was a light there, a bright, even light that stayed still and looked to be coming from the vicinity of the table in the house. Rian still had the stone she'd bound lightwisps to. Trudging towards it, she heard someone saying, "—never even kissed a girl before, much less held hands! Mothers and sisters don't count—"

She pushed open the door. "Rian," she said.

Rian cut off what he was staying, and everyone turned to look at Lori.

"Er, yes, your Bindership?" he said from where he was standing in a corner of the house, Riz and Umu arrayed in front of him, the three forming the points of a triangle as Mikon bustled about, retrieving Rian's bedroll.

"Just to be clear, I expect you at breakfast tomorrow," she said as Mikon put down the bedroll on the bed behind the three and began to unroll it. "Even if it is a rest day."

"Noted, your Bindership," he said as the two women in front of him exchanged exasperated looks, then quickly tore their gazes from each other.

She nodded, turned to leave, then paused. "Also, thank you for the board," she added. "It has been very enjoyable."

"Also noted, your Bindership." Riz was making a face that said she was trying to be patient, and was only managing to make face, while Umu was scowling with her arms crossed under her breasts.

Lori contemplated the tableau and shrugged. "Remember, you have no shutters and there are children about."

"W-we're just talking, your Bindership!"

"So there would be no need for me to obscure the windows so no one can see inside?"

Everyone blinked, Mikon looking up from where she was laying out the bedroll on the bed.

"Don't look surprised. It's in my interest to ensure Rian has reasons to not leave the demesne," she said.

"Please your Bindership," Mikon said with a cheerful smile as she finished rolling out the bedroll.

"Wait, what do you mean plea—why did you make the bed?-!"

"So we have somewhere to sit, of course," Mikon said cheerfully. "Standing for a long, serious talk is so uncomfortable." She made a show of sitting at one of the corners of the bed, arranging her skirts modestly. She gestured towards the other corners. "Come on, let's all sit and talk about this after her Bindership leaves."

Lori finished binding darkwisps over the windows, preventing people from seeing inside but allowing sound to exit. She turned to leave.

"Wait, you're leaving?-!" Rian exclaimed.

"I'd rather not be around for this nonsense," she said. "It's the sort of thing that makes me dislike dealing with people. Physical attraction and the things people do because of it…" She shook her head. "It's all so absurd and pointless. I leave those things to you, Rian. Tell me in the morning how it goes."

"But…"

"And if any of you three touch him without Rian's express approval after this, I will consider that assault upon my lord's person and execute you all in the most violent manners I can imagine," Lori continued, her tone not changing. "I allowed you to express yourselves so that Rian would finally understand. He does. Now, you will convince him with words, because this is a civilized demesne. Is that understood?"

Silence.

"I said, is that understood?" Lori repeated calmly.

"Yes, your Bindership/Great Binder!" three women hurriedly exclaimed as Rian looked at her with an expression she couldn't identify.

Lori directed her gaze towards the pink-haired weaver. "Mikon, is this understood?" she said, face utterly serious.

Mikon nodded stiffly. "Yes, your Bindership."

Lori nodded, then raised a hand and touched her thumb to the lowest joint on of her first finger significantly. One. "Good. Rian, I'll deal with your hypocrisy about this in the morning. In the meantime, I believe you had something to discuss?"

She left and headed back to her room.

She'd probably done something people thought was wrong. Rian would know. Her mothers would know. If she bothered to think about it, she'd probably know.

She didn't care. This was her demesne—Lori's Demesne—and she could finally tell people what to do, so she would. What she knew was right would prevail now, not the nonsense that other people told her was what was right.

Still, as she lay in bed and dimmed the lightwisps after washing her plate, she found herself starring at her chatrang/lima/pincer game board and wishing she'd had one last game before Mikon started hating and avoiding her.