After a night of finally getting to sleep in her own bed, Lori woke feeling only the usual degree of wanting to curl back and sleep. As she finished putting on a new, clean set of clothes, she eyed her bedroll and the clothes in her pack, and debated whether she should keep putting off doing her laundry. And whether she could wash her bedroll in her room or if she'd have to carry it out to the laundry area…
"So, as I was saying last night," Rian said brightly, "would you be willing to authorize using some of the copper to make new cooking pots for the kitchens?" He seemed to be feeling much better that morning, sitting up straight with that annoying smile on his face.
"Find out how many pots are needed and how much copper the smiths will require," Lori said. After all the smelting, removing the slag that wasn't copper and pouring everything into ingots, they had returned with over three thousand, eight hundred sengrains of copper, but there was no need to be wasteful. They would probably need to sell some of it in Covehold for things they couldn't make themselves yet.
"I'll ask and get you the details by lunch," Rian nodded. "Also, as your lord in charge of telling whether it's hot or cold, I should tell you it's gotten a bit colder, so you should probably make it a bit warmer."
"Noted," Lori said. "Is that all?"
"In addition to the pots, when we got back people reported there was a strange taste in the bathwater," Rian reported, making Lori sit up straight. "It only became pronounced while we were gone, and seems to be in all the water coming through the pipes."
"Is anyone sick?" Lori demanded, leaning forward.
"No, everyone's fine so far," Rian assured her. "We're not having a crisis or anything, and no one's gotten sick but it does have people concerned. The problem doesn't seem to be coming from the river, since drinking water from the aqueducts is still fine, though that's been having its own problems, since it's gotten so cold it's sometimes slush. It hasn't gotten to the point where people need to start melting snow, since scooping up slush from the drinking water basins is still easier, but it might become an issue as winter progresses."
Lori frowned. "I'll investigate it." The river was fine but the water in the baths had a strange taste? That meant the problem was in between, and the only thing between the two was…
Lori groaned, remembering the exhaust valve she'd put in the water hub for her Dungeon's and the smithy's exhaust. "I think I know what the problem is. I'll fix it."
Rian nodded. "We might need more storage for more firewood. I've been informed that as winter gets colder, people work less, eat less, and just stay in bed as a family to stay warm, only getting up to tend to the fire." He glanced at Riz as he said it. "I'm… not sure if it'll get that cold, but best to prepare for it. Maybe move some of the firewood down to the unused hallways in the third level so they're not just out there if a dragon comes."
"I'll leave that to you," Lori said.
Rian nodded, then seemed to remember something. "Ah, you asked me to remind you that you were going to make the laundry area usable again when we got back from River's Fork." Next to him, Umu, Mikon and Riz all nodded in enthusiastic agreement.
What was he… oh, right, Lori remembered now. "I will deal with the laundry area issue after I deal with the water."
It wasn't procrastinating, it was necessary immediate creation of infrastructure for her demesne!
After breakfast, and adjusting the bindings of firewisps keeping her Dungeon warm, Lori went out to the water hub. In the middle of the boiling tank, where the water was boiled hot enough to turn into steam while at the same time prevented from turning into steam by another binding, the end of the exhaust vent for the smith and Dungeon's air protruded. She'd put it there because the temperature of the water would discourage anything… would discourage most things from entering it, much less trying to crawl into the vent to enter the dungeon, but apparently there had been a side effect she hadn't anticipated.
Sighing, she made an isolated pool for the vent exhaust, where the water that covered the vent wouldn't mix with the rest of their water, and moved the output of the vent there, forming a new vent through the bedrock and using the displaced stone to seal the old output vent. The water became black with what Lori recognized was soot as she did this, and Lori hastily blocked off the pipe leading towards the reservoir in the dungeon to prevent the sooty water from being pulled up. She deactivated the binding that fed the boiling pool so that no more would be added in, then drew the heat out of the water in the pool before binding the water and moving it out of the pool to dump all of it into the river.
Lori waited a few moments, then activated the binding that filled the pool again, tasting the water as she did so. There was no discernible taste, only a pleasant coolness, and it seemed like she'd managed to get all the soot in the pool with the old water. She reactivated all the bindings again and watched the water start to boil. Hopefully that would solve the problem.
Though… the vent had been adding smoke and waste air all week. How much of the affected water was in the reservoir?
Lori sighed, rubbing her head. Well, it was only bath water. It should be cycled through soon… though if a dragon were to suddenly appear…
She sighed again.
Next she went out to the laundry area. The place was deserted, the hot water in the long basins rippling in the breeze, snow melting on the stone and the areas immediately around the basins. Lori didn't even need to force herself to feel the cold. This area was obviously too cold to be used properly—wait, not completely, several people seemed to have hung shirts to dry on the mostly empty washing lines.
Lori walked back and forth, wearing her rain coat and her pointed leather rain hat to keep meltwater out of her hair, trying to judge how best to do this. Pillars supported a wooden roof that was meant more for shade than protection from the rain and snow, a mix of warped and cracked planks that had gaps between them for light, and panels made of branches laid out in parallel, secured by ropeweeds, what looked like shavings of bark, and leather scraps. Snow was piled on many of the latter, blocking off the light, and a few had icicles growing down from them
A part of her just wanted to take water from the snow and the river, turn it into ice and use that to make walls to keep the wind out so she could put in bindings just under the roof panels to warm the area. It was very tempting… no, that would just be another thing she'd need to keep imbued—
"Hey. Want some company?"
She blinked and turned to see Rian standing next to her. "No," she said. Why would she want company? "Aren't you cold?"
"Very much so," Rian said. "But with so few people outside, if you had some kind of accident and fell into the river, or slipped, fell and broke something, there would be no one to see, so as Lord I've decided to keep an eye on you to keep that from happening."
"And if something happens to you because you're out here?" Lori asked.
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He shrugged. "My death wouldn't make the demesne collapse. I'll risk it. After all, you already have my potential replacement lined up, so it's not a problem for you."
Lori gave him a flat look. "Well then, make yourself useful," she said, pointing towards the laundry. "I need to raise walls and trap in heat so that the laundry area can be usable again. How can you see this being done?"
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Lori was almost not surprised that Rian actually proved useful. For one, he pointed out the walls didn't need to be load bearing, only strong enough to not collapse under its own weight and sideways pressure from wind and snow building up against it. She had forgotten about snow building up. While Taniar Demesne was far enough north that they had snow during winter, actual snow on the ground had been rare for her. Between the street sweepers, the mountain that the demesne's Dungeon had been built inside acting as a wind break for the city, and the fact that she generally stayed indoors, she wasn't used to thinking of snow in those terms.
So the walls made from stone previously excavated from the third level were relatively thin compared to her previous constructions, and tilted slightly outward so that it would actually be resting on any snow banks that built up around it, supporting the wall rather than being a load. It had required some stone support buttresses at intervals, but that wasn't too difficult. Lori had even bound snow and ice and packed them against the outside of the walls to give the process a start.
A wall on the side of the laundry area facing the river was obvious—with openings for the used water to flow out through, of course—but deciding where the entrances into the laundry area should be on the other walls had required discussion. Lori had been all for making the openings in the middle of walls on either end of the laundry—to get in from the baths and to get out to where the drying lines were—but Rian had pointed out that meant that cold air coming from the river or parallel to it could potentially get into the laundry area and be trapped inside, likely making one side noticeably colder than the other. And while his suggestion of using a curtain of warm air in front of the entrance to actively push any cold air out seemed workable, it would be another binding she'd have to make on top of a binding to warm the air in the first place.
In the end, Lori made an opening in the middle of the wall opposite the one facing the river, with short, stubby stone walls on either side of it to disrupt the flow of air and minimize the wind that could potentially get inside. Another wall slightly inside the opening forced people entering to go sideways, but also blunted any wind coming directly through the opening. Since there was a natural rise on that side of the laundry area, any such wind would be minimal.
"It's already getting pretty warm," Rian commented, unwrapping the sock he had wrapped around his face as Lori held up a hand, trying to judge how much of the wind from outside was getting in. She had to admit, her hand didn't feel as chilly as she thought it would. "I don't think you need to add anything more to make this place usable. Just let it get warm overnight from the hot water and by tomorrow people should be able to start washing their clothes here again."
Slush fell through one of the gaps and landed on his hair with impeccable comic timing. Huh. She thought that sort of thing only happened in novels.
They both looked up towards the ceiling, and Lori had to step aside to avoid water that was starting to drip. She didn't know if it was melt water or condensation. "Perhaps not completely usable yet," she said flatly.
Through her pointed hat, she felt slush drip down onto her head.
The binding of firewisps she eventually placed just under the patchwork roof prevented heat from passing through to the snow and slush above, greatly minimizing the melt and dripping. Instead the heat was made to flow down the walls and finally be released from the ground in front of the entrance. It wasn't Rian's suggested curtain of air, but the added heat there helped mitigate the cold air coming in from outside, even if the heat did make it a little muddy from the snowmelt. She also bound lightwisps to the corners of the laundry area, since between the overcast sky, the snow on the roof and the new walls, it was just a bit too dark to work in comfortably.
It took her all day to finish building the walls, taking a break for lunch. Rian stayed with her, using a beast-jaw shovel to clear what snow he could from where she was working so that she mostly didn't need to divert her attention to using waterwisps. The two of them worked in relative silence, save for when Rian intercepted people coming to them and sent them on their way, or when she wanted him to shovel or prioritize one pile of snow over another.
Compared to the hurried, almost frantic pace of the past few days as she mass-smelted copper ore, this slow, thoughtful construction was positively relaxing.
"All right, everyone!" Rian announced as people gathered and waited for dinner, standing on his bench while Lori set up her chatrang board across from him. "I'm happy to announce that her Bindership has finished enclosing the laundry area, and by tomorrow morning it should be warm enough to use." There was actually a round of applause and some cheers at that, which was new and quite surprising. "Sadly, the drying lines are not similarly enclosed, but at least you don't have to try and do your laundry while taking a bath anymore." For some reason this was followed by laughter. "I caution everyone that it's probably still a bad idea to use the laundry area for baths, as well as the outside showers, but at least we all have more time in the day to take baths now." More laughter for some reason. "That's all for now. Please be reminded of the new woodcutting assignments, and remember to control your fires so as not to waste wood. If you want to get warm, just come by the Dungeon, there's plenty of heat."
Lori paused at that, but… it was true, wasn't it? Well, she didn't see any reason to make an issue of it. It wasn't like people had started sleeping there…
After one more laugh, Rian sat down with a sigh as Lori finished setting up the board. "Ugh, what a day… "
"What are you complaining about?" Lori said, waiting for Mikon to get back with the food so that she and the other woman could start playing. "I did all the actual work."
"When has that ever stopped anyone?" Rian said.
Lori tilted her head in acknowledgement of his point. "I'll be in my room studying the almanac and conducting research I've been putting off," she said instead. "Call me down for meals there tomorrow, all right."
Rian seemed to perk up at this. "Oh, research? More tests? Anything I can help with?"
Lori was about to open her mouth to tell him 'no' when she paused as she realized something. "Yes, actually," she said. "I need you to operate one of the smaller boats for me. I have to set something up at the edge of the demesne. It will be a quick trip. "
Rian nodded. "I'll ready Lori's Boat. It's been a while since the two of us have ridden on the old girl. After breakfast, or will you need more time?"
"That will be acceptable," she agreed.
Rian nodded. "Ah, by the way, I forgot to tell you earlier. The smiths say they won't need much copper, only about three or four ingots, but they also need tin. They need to line the pots with tin or else it will turn green and food will literally rot through it as its being cooked."
Lori blinked. "Oh… yes, that sounds familiar." She considered it. "How much tin?"
"Not a lot," Rian said. "Just enough to coat the inside of the cook pot, and only the inside. It will wear away, but that's supposed to take years, and by that time we should have more tin, or gold."
Lori blinked. "Gold?"
Rian nodded. "Gold is better than tin for this sort of coating, since it looks nicer, conducts heat better, lasts longer and doesn't corrode, but since you've had the gold drawn into wire, they didn't bring it up, since you might be planning to use it for something."
Lori titled her head, then nodded. "We still have some dragon scale. Tell them to use gold. Tin is better off used for more useful things. Best to make the useless metal actually good for something. I still have all the wire I need."
"I'll tell them, then."
Riz slid into the bench next to Rian, who greeted her with a smile and an enthusiastic hug that was still a blatant attempt at using her for warmth. The woman endured it with a fond smile. "Rian," she said, "why is there so much firewood in our house now?"
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After dinner, Lori returned to her room, staring at the new reminder for the laundry area's heat displacement binding and lightwisp bindings.
There was no putting it off any more, and until she put down a marker to signify the current edge of her demesne, trying to expand would be… well, not useless, but definitely not verifiable. So, this first for tonight…
"All right, all right, all right…" she muttered to herself, opening the almanac to the section on Mentalism flow diagrams and strange reminders. She had absolutely no idea what they were supposed mean, but it looked like a textbook, it made her feel better, and maybe it would inspire something. "Mentalism, Mentalism… what do I remember? Come on, come on… Mentalism uses thoughts, which can only be found inside the body…." She frowned. No, wait, that wasn't right… "…can only be naturally found in the body…" Did that mean it can be found unnaturally outside it? No, wait, of course, there was thought force, that was outside the body…
Lori muttered to herself into the night, staring unseeing at the open book on her lap.
Her last thought before she fell asleep was that she should probably write this all down…