"… as seed crop for the next harvest, then," Rian concluded. "Speaking of which, now that she's done with the flood barriers, Binder Lori will probably need more people to roll rocks for her again so she can build more farm plots."

Lori nodded. Yes, all the soil in the third level had to be dealt with, after all.

"And speaking of farming…" Rian paused, as he set aside the stone tablets he'd previous been referring to for different ones, "we will also be expanding the current fields once winter is over." There were excited murmurs at those words. "I realize this much has been obvious, since with all the trees we've been felling we have much more new space. I'm told we have more than enough hands to handle such an expansion come harvest time. Growing ropeweed will be part of the expansion, as well as other crops whose seed crop have been growing in the Dungeon farm over the winter. The tentative allocation of space for crops will be put up in the passageway once it is finished."

"Her Bindership has also agreed for the need to establish a new, much more permanent tannery. After examination of its location, she has decided it's much too close to the river in the event of a flood. We ask the tanners and hunters who have been treating and processing the hides and skins so far to help choose a better site that's further inland and away from the river."

People made faces at that for some reason. Fortunately, Rian seemed to understand. "Yes, yes, we're aware there will be a smell, but would you rather the tanning alchemicals get into the air or into the water you drink? By now all the men have used the evaporator enough to know how much of it the tanners have on hand. Do you really want all that gold water to get into what you drink?"

The meeting continued on and on. Unlike previous meetings, where people aired whatever they were (allegedly) thinking, to which Rian either responded or she made a ruling, most of it was announcements of her decisions, as well as reminders. There was the planned next trading expedition to Covehold, which Rian would be joining again so he could see if he could find buyers for the beads she'd made.

The beads themselves weren't mentioned, but Rian had informed her there was a good chance Shanalorre knew already from gossip and rumors. Since it was early in the year, they didn't have much of a stockpile of leather and furs yet to trade, but after a few weeks, they will have gathered more than enough of a surplus of salt to sell. Rian also put out the reminder that they would be resuming going back to the ocean to harvest salt, and asked for volunteers who might take it up as their… well, not exactly trade… occupation? Yes, their mostly permanent occupation.

Speaking of occupations, there had been the request from the waste haulers that the binding she had used to desiccate the Dungeon's latrines before they'd been able to dig out the others be added to all latrines permanently. The petitioners had been very straightforward about the fact this was from a wish to reduce the smell, with making the waste far lighter and easier to move around being a secondary consideration. Lori had been mildly inclined to deny the request, but Rian had pointed out how it could reduce the likelihood of people getting sick, as well as making her demesne more sanitary, and she had finally agreed. It would mean making modifications to the latrines to better vent the water that would be extracted from the waste, but that was a relatively minor change.

Lori had debated using their copper to draw out wire to help make such bindings permanent—she didn't know off the top of her head how many latrines they had in the demesne, but that just meant there would be exactly that many binding for her to perpetually renew. The alternative was to use beads to maintain such bindings, but that would still need wire, even if in lesser amounts.

Those considerations weren't mentioned in Rian's announcement, however. Only the fact that she'd opted to provisionally install such a binding on the Dungeon's latrines—once she had time to make the changes needed to vent out the steam that would be produced—while the matter of doing so with the rest as still 'under consideration'. Said consideration would involve measuring how much wire it would take to connecting all the latrines to the core, and what she could also connect the wire to in the meantime…

"Now, I've received some petitions from people who wish to move out of the shelter, and have confirmed their willingness to live together," Rian continued. "To that end, we will be building two new houses—"

"We?" Lori interjected flatly.

"—her generous Bindership who is far too good for us has agreed to build two new houses once the snow melts and the ground is clear enough for her to begin work," Rian said smoothly without even changing expression. "It will most likely be built at the top of the rise, near the row of houses there. There is also the possibility that it will be the start of a second row of houses, but her Bindership has still made no definite decision on that." Rian glanced sideways at her but said nothing more. He had wanted her to make a second row of houses and move everyone there, then use the old houses as workshops, storage, or temporary housing for any immigrants. His reasoning was that it would cut down on people comparing each other's homes, as well as moving them a bit further up and away from the river.

"Since this will drastically reduce the number of people living in the shelter," Rian continued, "once arrangements for the remaining residents are made, the shelter will be reallocated, though at this time we're not sure what it will be. Though it probably won't be made into storage, given how vulnerable it was to a dragon the first time. If you have any suggestions as to what the shelter can be turned into, please inform me as to your ideas—not right now!—and I'll propose them to her Bindership."

Rian looked down and set aside the tablets in front of him, pulling the last, which was just his wooden plank. "Now, we're almost done. Her Bindership and I have spoken and she has declared we will be building more support buildings this year. We will probably be able to build a dedicated sawmill, once an appropriate site has been chosen—" there were a burst of happy sounds at that, probably from the sawyers and carpenters, "—and it shouldn't be too much trouble to add a gristmill to that, as we will hopefully have more vigas this year."

That produced a general increasing in happy sounds in general, and Lori added her own happy sound to that. Just the thought of having more bread on a regular basis…

"Finally, we will be expanding to better take advantage of the land on the other side of the river. I know that will be difficult since we have to cross over by boat, but now that we have things properly set up on this side, we have a bit more leeway to go exploring there and think about how we can use what's there." Rian shrugged. "Off the top of my head, I think we should move all attempts to tame and domesticate chokers and any other small beasts we discover to that side of the river, where we can keep them away from the crops we already have… and, you know, people they might attack?" There were people nodding in the crowd. "Though I ask everyone to be careful when they do so. We've left that side mostly untamed ever since we established—"

"We?"

"—ever since then-Whisperer Lori established the demesne. Any beasts there have had all that time to adapt, and they probably haven't learned to be wary of people, so— and some of you are giving me that 'stop telling us about what we already know' look, so I'll shut up now." There was laughter, both from Rian and some people in the crowd. "All right then. Now, for the moment we will not be trying to expand the agricultural fields to that side, since between the river and lack of infrastructure any grain we plant is just going to get eaten by beasts and bugs, but it should be all right to try and plant what saplings we can coax to sprout, and if anyone can manage to get a whole field of ropeweed going, that would be absolutely wonderful. I'm sure we'd all want a new set of trousers and shirts this year."

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

There were sounds of agreement at that, and Rian sighed, setting aside. "Well, that's all the matters prepared in advance. Now we come to the difficult part of the meeting. All right everyone, does anyone have any issues they want to bring up—that doesn't involve land!" he finished hastily.

"When are we going to get land?" someone said before Rian had even managed to finish talking.

"What did I just say?-!" Rian just barely managed say in a reasonable volume, clearly exasperated. "I just said it! And I said it this morning before breakfast too! And yesterday after dinner! And in the baths every day before!"

"Easy for you to say!" someone in the crowd said, hiding in anonymity. "You're already a lord. What about the rest of us?"

"So you want my job where you have to talk to Binder Lori every day for the rest of your life and do everything she tells you?" Rian said.

There was silence.

"That's what I thought…" Rian said, looking sideways at Lori. "So do you want to skip this question?"

Lori considered it. "I will answer," she said eventually, "if the idiot who brought the question has the nerve to stand up and show me his face to hear it."

There was another brief silence. Then there was a wave of movement from the crowd A nervous-looking man suddenly found himself sitting exposed while everyone who had been around him finished stepping away, some raising their hands to point.

Lori nodded. "You, stand up. Everyone else, you may sit down again." After a moment, she added, "And thank you."

The man looked nervously insistent on sitting until someone pulled him up to his feet on their way back to their bench. Then he stood, and went from just being nervous to looking nauseous.

"I am not going to remember your name, so spare me any pointless introductions," Lori said, a binding of airwisps amplifying the sound of her voice. "In a way, you're all very lucky. No matter how annoyed I become of any of you, most of you can always go back to hiding into faceless anonymity to annoy me again. Most of you. And even when you have the misfortune of my remembering you, Rian will do his best to protect you. Unless you annoy him." Lori glanced sideways at her lord. "I'm sure you've noticed he's looking very annoyed right now."

The lone standing man suddenly looked even more nauseous. Rian, for his part, made a show of leaning back with his arms crossed, mouth set in a very straight line. He didn't say a word.

"Now, I could take this moment to lecture you on the various histories of land ownership," Lori said. "I could point out that in nearly all demesne, the land is considered owned by the Dungeon Binder, and any who 'own' land are technically maintaining a hereditary, transferable lease, which they have to pay rent on in the form of land taxes. And I suspect that some of you actually know this. Most of you, probably."

"Actually, that's news to me, but it would make so much sense," Rian said. He didn't smile, his face remaining set, his mouth returning to a line.

Lori nodded. "If I had to guess, some of you are here because of explicit promises from…" Lori hesitated and frowned. "Uh, the dead ones."

"I'm going to assume you forgot their names after they died because you had to stop using them," Rian sighed. "Whisperer Elceena and Deadspeaker Ahnree."

"I'll take your word for it," Lori said, shrugging. They were dead, after all. No point remembering. The soul is well known for disappearing after death. It was why claims didn't survive past it, after all. "I might not remember names very well, but I can remember what I overhear. That woman was entirely too free with promising land to everyone." She shrugged again. "Perhaps if she had actually lived, she'd have carried through with her promises. Perhaps they were all just the lies she knew you wanted to hear, to make you follow her. However, she's dead, and her promises with her. I'm the Dungeon Binder of this demesne. And I didn't promise any of you a thing."

Lori didn't see anyone actually wince, but it felt like they should.

"You, nameless annoyance," Lori said, making it clear she was talking to the man who was standing. "You asked a question. You will be answered." Lori didn't even bother to not glare. "Previously, I said that the matter of land allocation will come up a week after I think of a way to charge taxes, did I not?" She ignored his frantic nod. "Between then and now, I came to several conclusions. Firstly, I've concluded that the most important use of land we currently have is growing food. Does anyone dispute this? Does anyone feel that there might be a better use for the land than planting food that will keep us from starving?"

No one replied, which was almost surprising. No one let out a forceful 'yes' of dispute either, which she thought might actually have been within the realm of possibility.

"Good. The second most important use for the land within the demesne is growing needful materials that isn't food, like wood or ropeweed. Would anyone care to dispute this?" Again, there was a lack of replies. A few were actually nodding. "The third most important use is for erecting infrastructure, whether that be homes or needful facilities like the clay pit, the tannery, and the baths." More nods. "I will give the people who keep pestering for land a chance. One chance. Here and now, you may make the case that you need land for any of these things. That you can and will, develop that land to grow food for the demesne, or use it to erect infrastructure that we need such as the tannery and the clay pit."

Lori saw people straighten in their benches. Next to her, Rian's head snapped to look at her in surprise.

"There will be conditions, of course," Lori said. "If you claim you need that land to grow food or cash crops, then you will have to prove you can use it to grow the item in question. By yourself, without assistance from any of the other farmers, or anyone else. You cannot use any of the demesne's tools like its shovels, hoes or whatever to prepare your fields. You can't use any of the demesne's buckets and pots to get water. You can't take water from the irrigation cistern, or use any of the desiccated waste as fertilizer. And of course, you'll have to source your own seeds."

There was an exclamation at this, but for some reason a few people started laughing.

"However, I am not unreasonable. Should you remove it from the latrines yourself, you can have all the nightsoil you can carry. You'll have to make your own shovel and bucket, lest you carry it in your bare hands, but I think that's only reasonable. The same goes for if you wish to use it to grow needful material cash crops. And if you wish to set up a facility, then you will have to prove you can do so yourself." Lori tilted her head. "However, in that particular instance, I will not deprive you of material assistance. I am aware that while many craftsmen know how to use the tools of their trade well, actually building the tool is usually best left to other people. Therefore, in that instance, you may try to convince the smiths and carpenters to build you what you need for your facility. How you will compensate them for their time is up to you, but you will need to provide the materials they will require."

"This is outrageous!" another person hiding in anonymity declared. "It's unfair!"

"It's what the potter, the tanners and hunters who operate the tannery, the ones who operate the kitchen, the weavers, the ones who operate the mushroom farm, the sweetbugkeepers, the ropers, and the sawyers do," Lori said calmly. "It would be disrespectful of their skills and efforts to not hold others to the same standard. Incidentally, I am hereby awarding the ownership of the claypit, the kiln and the attached drying shed to Gunvi the potter, and the land that the tannery currently stands on will be in the joint ownership of the people who operate it, at least until the newer, relocated tannery is built, at which point the lease will transfer. Oh, and the same to whoever has been making charcoal as well. Though I shall inspect the extent of the land you have been using before making a final declaration." She knew someone had been making charcoal in her demesne for some time now, she'd just never needed to meet them.

Lori was half-expecting stunned silence, but instead she got an uproar.

Still, the airwisps amplifying her voice managed to cut through the noise. "We will discuss taxes at a later date. Now, who would like to step forward and justify why they should have land?"