After recording the day's date on a stone tablet, Lori set about doing what chores she could from the safety and security of her own room. As she imbued the bindings around her demesne—she was still considering whether she should wire some more to her core using the copper they now had available—she examined the thing she had made that she had been planning to use in making beads today. It was a copper ingot set into stone, with the stone shaped to form a sort of rectangular bowl such that the ingot made up the base. It reminded her of the mold they'd used to pour the ingots into shape. Forming the thing had taken some time, mostly because she had to get around to it, but she'd finally finished it yesterday.

It was probably silly to just use whole copper ingots in her experiments with beads, but it was far less time consuming than trying to have the smiths heat and hammer the copper into shape, and besides, this minimized material loss. Really, all she needed was a metal to conduct magic with, the shape was irrelevant. In addition, it made it easier to recover the metal afterwards.

The plan had been to place Iridescence in the bowl, and then used the metal as a conduit to start forming the binding that would amalgamate with the colors to form a bead. She had hoped to test if the binding could be imbued while the bead was being formed, and she had needed a more conveniently shaped tool to do it in than simply her hand or the end of her staff.

If it worked, then she'd be able to use the principle to make beads of a specific size, or close enough. Since beads naturally formed spheres, growing outward from the seed of Iridescence, if she could make a receptacle that would lift forming beads away from the metal contact point once it reached a certain diameter, that would result in a self-sizing mechanism. Of course, it would need to be light and easily portable on the sled, since they'd need to keep moving it out towards the edge…

If it worked. Otherwise… well, she didn't want to do Rian's idea of forcibly seeping beads to reduce them down to size! It was so wasteful!

Sighing, Lori put the bowl aside and double-checked the list of things she needed to imbue, just to make sure she'd completed it for the day. Until Rian woke up, she wouldn't be going to the edge to make beads, and she wasn't leaving her room lest she be assassinated. With nothing else to do, Lori began expanding her demesne, letting her mind wander during the imbuing stages. There were further experiments to be done on the white Iridescence, like heating it far beyond boiling and burning it under direct flame, but that had to wait until the winter ended and she could do it outside…

Wait, had she told Rian to tell everyone to keep the existence of the new beads secret from Shanalorre and her militia? Lori groaned as she realized she hadn't. Well, that was… undesirable. Still, they couldn't really do anything about it besides try to extort their boats for it as a 'toll fee' when they resumed going back to the ocean for salt…

Shaking her head to dislodge the annoying—and distracting—thought, Lori went back to expanding her demesne. Ever since she had altered her approach, it was no longer so fatiguing, so the schedule of expanding in the afternoons so she could go straight to sleep was no longer really necessary, and with her stuck—er, that is, defensively secure in her room, she could probably expand seven, maybe more times today as she lay back on her bedroll to get comfortable…

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Lori jerked awake. What…?

There was a knocking sound and she sat up as she realized she was sleeping on her bedroll. Why were they disturbing her? It was the middle of the night!

Grumbling, she rubbed her eyes of sleep sand and arose from her bedroll. The only thing keeping her from stomping as she made her way to the door was the fact that her feet wore only socks and the floor was stone.

She unlatched her door as she muttered darkly about going back to sealing off the passage to her room, then all but flung the door open. "Who died?" she ground out, glaring at, of course, Rian.

"No one died," he said cheerfully. "The baby was born healthy and Missus Keyyara is fine as well."

Lori stared at him blearily. "What?" Why had he woken her up in the middle of the night to talk nonsense?

He sighed for some reason. "The baby? You know, the reason we both woke up last night to get Shana from River's Fork?"

She stared at him, then shook her head as memory finally returned. "Oh, yes, yes, the baby…"

"Anyway, I'm up now and came to get you for lunch since you didn't come down on your own and were ignoring me calling you." Rian tilted his head, as if realizing something. "Were you sleeping?"

"I was until you knocked on my door," she said. It was lunch? "It's lunch time?"

Rian nodded. "Yes. are you coming down to eat or do you want to keep sleeping?"

Going back to sleep sounded very tempting, but Lori pushed the thought away. If she went to sleep she'd just keep sleeping and never get anything done. "I'm coming, I'm coming," she said. "I'll just put on my boots."

Rian nodded. "Can I talk to you while you do? There's something I wanted to discuss without our guests hearing."

Their guests? Who were—oh, right. "Fine, fine," Lori grumbled. "Close the door after you." She headed to her bed to put her boots back on.

Rian stepped in after her, closing the door behind him. "The doctors have talked to me and asked if we could negotiate for Shana to stay one more day, maybe two."

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Lori sat down heavily, glaring at him. "What?" she demanded.

"They said that if either the mother or the child got sick or infected, it would take them at least that long to start showing symptoms," Rian said. "Since Shana's expertise is healing and not, say, getting rid of the causes of disease, she can't really do anything until after someone gets sick or injured. At least, that's what the doctors who have experience working with Deadspeakers said, and I can understand their reasoning. As the mother and child are now, according to Shana there's nothing 'wrong' that needs to be healed, but the doctors are worried that she might not be able to provide a proper diagnosis of a more subtle ailment."

"She wouldn't," Lori nodded, disgruntled by the logic of it. "She's just a savant, after all, not a fully taught wizard." She sighed. "We'll bring it up during lunch. Have any of them asked to be returned to River's Fork yet?"

"Not yet," Rian said. He chuckled. "According to the people I asked, Shana and her party spent all morning soaking in the pools in the baths. Until the doctors asked for Shana's help when Missus Keyyara started giving birth, anyway. Don't worry, they were well-behaved and there weren't any complaints. More like people are amused."

"I didn't ask for the exposition and don't care," Lori said, finishing getting her boots on. "Come on, let's eat."

Rian nodded falling into step behind her as she opened the door to her room and headed down. "Will we be going to the border this afternoon, or are you putting that off until tomorrow?"

"We're going," Lori said. "There's a test I want to run that will hopefully improve efficiency."

"Oh good, more notes to take," Rian said, sounding far more cheerful now. "I hope the efficiency improvement is as good as the improvement of the expansion procedure."

"Rian, how would you even be able to compare them? They share no relevant parameters at all."

"Qualitatively. Either you start producing three times as much as before because you find an easier method, or you manage to make as much but in less time. Not actually needing to physically be on the edge would be nice too. "

"Unlikely."

"Please don't destroy my wonderful dream with cold, terrible facts," Rian begged as they made their way down the stairs.

Lori found herself glaring as she made her way to her table and saw some idiot was sitting on her bench. Oh, and Binder Shanalorre was there too, but that was fine, she was a Dungeon Binder. Before she could make her displeasure known, she heard Rian sigh and dart ahead of her. She slowed her pace slightly as she watched him get to the table ahead of her and start whispering frantically to the impertinent fool who apparently hadn't learned from this morning.

The man got up reluctantly, and moving around to the other side of the table and sitting in front of Binder Shanalorre. Probably one of the people that came with the younger Binder to keep her safe. Lori gave him a displeased look as she sat down at her usual place in the middle of the bench, turning to acknowledge the other Dungeon Binder sitting a pace away from her. "Binder Shanalorre. I am told the birth had occurred and was successful."

"Yes, Binder Lolilyuri," Shanalorre said, nodding to her in acknowledgement. "Both of them are well and currently in excellent health. However, I'm not sure as to how long that will last."

Lori gave her an intent look. Was this a threat of some sort? "Oh?"

"Yes. You are aware that I am a savant, are you not."

"Of course."

"As a savant, I can only perform healing. Or at least, that is how I can most easily describe what I can do. However, to heal, there must be something to be healed. Torn skin, broken bones, parts of the body that are too hot or are not functioning properly. Do you understand?"

"I follow the reasoning, yes."

"Currently, there is apparently nothing wrong with my two recent patients. However, I cannot be definitely sure, not the way I would be if they were in my demesne. In my demesne, I can perceive, to a degree, people's bodies. They are exceedingly complex and I do not understand them, however, I have noticed that sick people have… an increased concentration of… something that responds to my magic."

"Life," Lori said helpfully. "That is what Deadspeakers manipulate."

"Thank you. Life, then. However, I am not in my demesne, and my ability to perceive this… life… is extremely limited."

"I am familiar with the limitation," Lori said blandly. "In my own way."

"Of course. While my two patients are currently both well and do not require healing anymore from their experience, this current limitation means that I cannot declare with any degree of certainty that my patients have not contracted some form of illness, despite the preparations of the doctors and medics whose directions I followed. Therefore, in due diligence, I would like to request that I be allowed to remain in your demesne for one, perhaps two more days to monitor the situation of my patients. That length of time is more than enough for them to begin displaying symptoms should they have become infected or otherwise contracted some illness."

For a moment, Lori stared down at the shorter Dungeon Binder. Then she turned to look at Rian. Rian's eyebrows were up, and he gave a shrug when he met her gaze. "I'm… sure we can continue to support our guests for that long without significant foreseeable problems, though of course it's the unforeseeable ones that will bite us. Especially with the recent tuber harvest, that's added a little more to our food situation."

Not really what she had been demanding answers about, but good answers nonetheless. "I see no problem granting this request," Lori said. "Two days, was it?"

"At most," Binder Shanalorre nodded. "Then I will need to return to my demesne and deal with the situations that have doubtlessly arisen there."

Ah, yes. Lori could sympathize. She didn't think she could leave her idiots alone that long without them doing something stupid either. "Then you are welcome to stay in my demesne for that long, Binder Shanalorre. Will that be all? Do you need a message sent to your demesne to inform them of this change of plans, lest they assume we are holding you against your will?"

"If you would be so kind, Binder Lolilyuri. I will have one of my men sent with such a message."

"Rian, arrange it," Lori said.

"Yes, your Bindership. Before or after that inspection we have to conduct?"

"After, obviously. We'll go once we are done with lunch."

"Lord Yllian, please coordinate with Lord Rian as to who will be sent," Binder Shanalorre said.

The man on the other side of the table from Shanalorre nodded. "Yes, Great Binder. Is there anything in particular you want sent?"

"Perhaps ask your aunt to send you additional clothes or something?" Rian suggested. "For the trip back."

Yllian eyed Rian sideways, but nodded at his Dungeon Binder.

"I suppose I was cold, even with the warming stone Lord Rian lent me," Binder Shanalorre said. "Very well, please send a message to my aunt requesting additional clothes."

Lori made a mental note to remember to make more warming stones for Shanalorre to put on her person for the trip back. It wouldn't do to waste all those negotiations and preparations only to lose their only healing-capable Deadspeaker to the cold, after all.

How fortunate Shanalorre had brought up the matter herself. Now they didn't need to trade away or lose anything by having to request it of her. The matter had been outside of the terms they had negotiated, after all. If Lori had been the one to bring it up, Shanalorre would have had an opportunity to demand more resources as recompense…