"Well?" Lori asked Rian later that day as she sat in her small room on the Coldhold, imbuing the light there as her lord leaned against the door frame. It was just past the afternoon, and lunch sat heavy in Lori's stomach..

"Well, on the one hand," Rian began, "They have records at least, with entries that at least seem regular and consistent, and counting all the entries and factoring for the productivity lost because of the dragon and the delay in our checking if they were still alive, all the days when the miners were working are accounted for. So they have a basis for saying they have between eleven and thirteen thousand sengrains. Though it's not much of a basis."

"Why the discrepancy? Two thousand sengrains is a lot."

"I did say it's not much of a basis," Rian said. "Given how heavy rock is, two thousand sengrains worth of probable error is actually pretty easy to reach. As for why our numbers were so low, well, our men are miners, not accountants. Sometimes they forgot. It was nothing more than a possible minimum, anyway." He hesitated, then sighed. "On the other hand… the daily counts is measured in full loads of a cart, and it doesn't seem to make any distinction about how full the cart is, or whether it's the same cart each time. They don't even give a daily estimate on how many sengrains each cart is. As far as I can tell, their claim of eleven to thirteen thousand sengrains is just an estimate someone made by counting the number of cartfuls, so it's perfectly possible even they don't know exactly how much ore there is. I couldn't really tell if the amount of raw ore they showed us corresponded properly to the amount they said they excavated, not short of measuring it all, since the piles aren't a specific weight or volume or anything. The best we could do is interview our miners, who said that the amount of ore in the piles has remained consistent."

For the first time, Rian actually looked frustrated. "So if they're cheating us and are hiding an amount of the ore somewhere else, it's not so much that our miners could notice. Given how much ore has been excavated, that might amount to a cart or three, five at the most. That's still less than one in a hundred of the overall numbers they're claiming. They've probably lost about that much from ores falling off the cart in transit and getting kicked around for the whole life to the mine."

Lori nodded. "In your opinion, are we being cheated?"

Rian looked down, actually frowning in thought. "I'm inclined to say 'no', if only from how clumsy everything has been. I don't know if the ploy was all her idea, but I'm willing to bet she didn't know that the ore could be used to make dye when she originally made the agreement. I certainly didn't know the ore could be used for that until a few days ago, when I was asking the smiths which of them were willing to come with us to help supervise the refining and they brought it up. Given she's been straightforward with us before, there's a good chance she was convinced to try it like that, and she went along with it not realizing the consequences. If they had secreted any amount of ore, it would have been in their best interest to not bring any attention to any possible abnormalities and just get you to start smelting everything. Instead, Shana brings up the ore question. Technically, that wasn't them cheating us, it was simply not telling us how much more valuable the ore could be as a dye component than as a metal. They were still perfectly willing to abide by the ratio set by the agreement. They even implicitly offered to increase our share of the refined metal."

Lori frowned. "So you feel we should go forward with the refining."

"No." Lori blinked at Rian's blunt declaration. "Even if they might not be cheating us, they certainly tried, even if only by trying to be coy about wanting to keep some of their share of the ore in an unrefined state. It's a slippery slope from little games like that to secretly hiding substantial amounts of the ore so they get more than the share we agreed upon. It's a betrayal of trust, minor as it was."

"What trust?" Lori said. "They're another demesne. We don't trust them."

"We trusted them enough before to leave our people's lives in their hands, provide them with the water wheel ventilation fan, trade with them, supply them with ice, and essentially look the other way while they no doubt asked our miners to help in the post-dragon reconstruction and repairs," Rian said. "I know you knew about that, even if you didn't say anything."

She glared at him. "What does this have to do with anything?"

"I think someone might have come to the erroneous conclusion that just because we've trusted them before means we're idiots," Rian said. "That thing with the ore might be something they just thought to throw in at the last second in all innocence, or it might be them testing how far we can be pushed. While you obviously still trust them, either way we've reached the point we need to push back a little."

"I don't trust them," Lori insisted.

"Lori, we've stayed so late trying to confirm the amount of ore that we'll likely have to sleep over and you don't seem to be worrying they'll attack you in your sleep."

Lori blinked, then her eyes widened as she realized what Rian was saying. "Do you have any reason to suspect such a danger?"

"No, I don't, but shouldn't you have?"

Lori waved a dismissive hand. "If you think it's not a possibility, then there's no need to worry about it."

Rian, who'd been in the middle of saying something, blinked, his mouth hanging open. He looked at Lori strangely, tilting his head sideways. Then he shook his head. "W-well, regardless, we need to show them our trust has limits, and I feel they've just pushed it. I suggest we force them to deal with the consequences of damaging that trust. It acts as a punitive measure to express your displeasure, while disincentivizing doing any action to damage that trust again in future."

Lori tilted her head slightly. "My displeasure, you say?"

"Well, it's not like you're pleased, right?"

"Are you suggesting I sink Binder Shanalorre into the ground?"

"No, of course not. Mostly because I think her people will kill us all, but partly because that can't be as easy for you outside your demesne. No, I'm suggesting doing something really unpleasant."

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

"Such as?" Lori asked.

Rian smiled, or at least showed his teeth. "We show her how much harder it is to do business with someone who doesn't trust you."

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Later that afternoon, Lori met with Shanalorre in the latter's office. The small space was surprisingly, or unsurprisingly, warm, and the windows were covered with what appeared to be oiled or waxed cloth, which let in some amount of light. Given the dome above and how much snow was on it, that amount wasn't much, and so the majority of the light was emanating from the binding on the end of Lori's staff, because while other people might have to tolerate the choice of darkness or flickering hot flame-light, she didn't have to.

"You wish to change our contract?" Shanalorre said.

"An addendum," Lori said, "in light of recent matters. Due to how much of the ore being removed for rendering to powder was not recorded, we are left uncertain with how much of the ore is, in fact, still left." She struggled to maintain the wide smile on her face. Honestly, how did Rian keep doing this for so long? It felt so strange on her face, and the muscles she needed to contort for it ached. "And while your records were thorough, your storage practices are sadly not of an equal standard. We cannot be certain, for example, of how much ore is in every freestanding pile. "

"The total amount of the ore is specified in our records."

"Unfortunately, due to your storage practices, that can't be confirmed," Lori said. "The amount in each pile is unspecified. Thus, we wish to extend the contract slightly, and ask you to continue to house, feed and warm our miners, as well as ourselves, as they go over each pile to measure how many carts of ore in total are present. Fortunately, today's total isn't in doubt. I'm sure it will take no time at all to have all the piles be measured to see how many carts of ore they contain to ensure that the total corresponds to the amount in your records." Lori could feel one of her cheeks starting to twitch as she forced herself to keep smiling.

"Could you not simply rely on the records we've kept?"

Ah, good. There was one of the cues that Rian said meant she could stop smiling. She did so, her face settling back to her usual tranquil expression. "We could… but that is currently not prudent. After all, you've recently acted duplicitously with regards to the ore. It would be best to independently confirm the amount of ore in question."

"You think we've stockpiled ore in secret," Shanalorre said flatly.

Shanalorre's lord and the two militia to either side of her stirred slightly, realizing along with their Binder what was being implicated. Standing next to her, Rian made an exaggerated show of relaxation in response, as did the other two men of theirs with him.

Lori ignored them, staying with the line of discussion Rian had suggested. "Not at all. However, we note that nowhere in your records is it mentioned exactly how much ore you… tested for viability."

"The amount was negligible."

"And I'm sure a thorough accounting of how much ore is in the piles will confirm that," Lori said. "Unless… there's some reason you don't want your records confirmed?"

For a moment, Shanalorre sat there silently. "And if I refuse to accommodate this… addendum?"

"Why would you wish to refuse such a perfectly reasonable request? Besides, this ensures a more exact division of the metal and ore."

"That does not explain why I should not refuse to accommodate this addendum," Shanalorre said.

"Ah, so you will have your own people perform the labor necessary properly account for the amount of ore in the piles? Well, I have no problem with that. I simply assumed you did not have the labor force necessary for it, since you needed to hire workers from our demesne to perform the mining."

"I do not see why such an accounting is necessary. We kept careful track, and the amount is in the records we showed you."

"Which cannot be verified," Lori said flatly. "Due to your storage practices. And so it becomes necessary to go over the ore once more to account for the amount present. Unless you were excessively zealous in your testing for the viability of converting the ore into dyes?"

For a long moment, they both stared at each other, the lord and militia on Shanalorre's side of the room looking tense, in stark contrast to Rian's relaxed pose. Truthfully, Lori could have done with Rian being a little tense himself. Her grip on her staff was tight, and the chunk of ice hiding inside the light at the end of her staff, surrounded by the illumination provided by the binding of lightwisps so as not to be seen, was ready to explode into steam.

Finally, Shanalorre said, "I will need time to consider your proposal."

"You have until tomorrow morning," Lori said. "At which point, we shall simply take our share of the ore and leave. Of course, without an exact accounting, we might find ourselves unknowingly excessive in our zeal to transfer what belongs to us onto our boat. But don't worry. I'm sure the discrepancy will be negligible."

"I find that doubtful."

"Oh? Do you have some sort of reason to doubt my word, when I say that the discrepancy will be negligible?" Lori said. "Have I recently tried to trick you in some capacity, to make this distrust warranted?"

Shanalorre did not reply.

"I shall leave you to your considerations, Binder Shanalorre," Lori said, rising smoothly from her seat. At least it wasn't a short stool this time. "Please have your answer ready by tomorrow morning. If you wish to inform me sooner, or have a different matter you wish to raise, I will be on the Coldhold."

"You are staying?"

"Yes. We wish to be in a position to confirm none of the ore was… accidentally misplaced in the night, so that none of the amount is in doubt." Lori gave her opposite a nod. "Good day to you."

Rian's solution was simple enough: make River's Fork literally pay for their breach of trust by forcing them to continue to provide housing for their miners, as well as Lori and her group, which essentially doubled the number of people to feed, as the miners sorted and measured the mined ore.

Since River's Fork's records had merely counted the number of carts of ore, the process of accounting was, essentially, having them stack the ore in the biggest cart River's Fork had—because, as Rian had pointed out, the records had also not specified which cart was used—to more or less count how many carts worth of ore had been stockpiled.

Such a task was unlikely to be finished in a single day, or even two, and while River's Fork likely had the grain reserves to continue feeding that many people, having to feed so many people for what was, essentially, an extended inventory with no direct benefit to the demesne would be punishing… as intended.

For while Lori might have been willing to accept such lax records from someone of who could be relied upon… Shanalorre's ploy that morning had cast doubt on that reliability. Thus, this punitive measure, which consumed both their time and their resources, and in the end would only grant them exactly what they had agreed to already. The general outline of her words had been planned by Rian to emphasize this, and while she was loathe to just repeat what she had been told, Lori had to admit that Rian was better than she at using words to manipulate others, to emphasize that this was a direct response to what Shanalorre herself had acknowledged had been 'too much to hope for'. That the hope had not only failed, but had added piss to what had once been an impeccably clean reservoir.

Of course, if Shanalorre refused, then they would do as she had said: pack the ore into the Coldhold and leave. This would, of course, take multiple trips. But surely River's Fork could not deny them their due, after already denying them their reasonable request for a proper accounting…

At that point, both Rian and herself foresaw only violence in one form or another. Both had come to the conclusion that it would be a costly but assured victory. After all, they had more people, and they had Lori, whose magic would be far better disposed towards violence than Shanalorre's savantism. And Shana would know that.

As she left her counterpart's office, Lori hoped, very quietly and very strongly, that the other Dungeon Binder would take the logical course of action.

Having everything break out into violence would be so tiring, after all.