Days passed. Work continued. The walls for the new row of houses started going up, and eventual placements of doors, windows and fireplaces were marked. They were intentionally taller than Lori thought was needed for structures that size, almost five and a half paces high, so that the large families that Rian was choosing could find a way to fit their members somehow, even if it was only when they were sleeping.

Shanalorre, having recovered from her blood loss, was assigned to accompany the loggers with… uh… Lord something-ian. Mostly this meant she was to stay out of their way and kept away from all the sharp objects they were carrying. Lori also saw her passing by the building site to get water from the basin and bring back to the logger to drink, which was probably a useful way to pass the time. For some reason, the brat accompanied her. Lori wondered about that, but simply shrugged it off. It wasn't like the children were assigned any work, and as long as she wasn't trying to go seeling with the river as deep as it was. she was free to do what she wanted. Yllian, it turned out, was helping with the logging, which Lori doubted was really conducive to keeping sharp objects away from Shanalorre, but at least he was being useful. Well, people knew to keep sharp objects away from their healer.

When the walls—complete with fireplaces and chimneys this time—of the new row of houses were finally raised and marked with the locations for the doors and shutters, Lori decided it was finally time to get around to inspecting the charcoal burners.

"Huh. I'll be honest, I thought this was just something you'd never get around to, like actually learning how to do other magic," Rian said as they walked in the general direction of downstream, through the untouched trees above the submerged river bank. The undergrowth was covered with scatted patches of sunlight. The air somehow managed to be hot, annoyingly humid, and randomly cool at the same time, depending on the direction of the wind.

Lori turned to glare at him. "I'm working on it," she said through gritted teeth. It wasn't that she hadn't been trying—unlike him, she had few things to occupy her nights beyond expanding the demesne when she felt she had the patience to make the binding across the border and rereading her almanac.

Rian nodded. "Well, as long as you keep trying. Anyway, while we're alone, there's something I've been meaning to tell you."

She frowned. "You couldn't tell me all those time we were in your house?"

Shrug. "I didn't think you'd want the three of them to know. Or at least, know without you explicitly deciding to let them know. I had some of the scouts do another survey of the demesne, with a special emphasis on any possible resources near the edges."

What? Why? "What? Why?"

"So that they'd go to the edge, obviously," Rian said. "You never really said if you wanted the fact that you've been expanding the demesne to be a secret. We've certainly talked about it at meals enough that anyone paying attention could eventually realize, and certainly Riz and her friends have all they need to put it together. But to be safe, I asked the scouts to keep their findings secret for now. Although that also won't last. The hunters would certainly have realized by now it takes a little longer to get to the edge than it used to."

Oh. He was talking about the demesne's expansion. "Oh. You're talking about the demesne's expansion."

Nod. "Unless you've significantly expanded the demesne in the last week—" she hadn't, she'd just made about half an expansion binding that's she'd sort of left to start dispersing, "—then according to the estimates of the scouts, the demesne has grown about three hundred and fifteen paces in radius, give or take a few paces. They can't really be precise, but they figure it's in that range. So congratulations. Our demesne grew well over half a taum this winter."

Half a taum?-! That was… that was… "How much land area is that?"

Rian chuckled. "Normally this would be where I tell you an obscenely huge number, but I'll be honest, that was more calculating than I wanted to do. I think 'six hundred paces more diameter' is about the most comprehensible number for both of us." The grin his face broke into seemed filled with his strange love of large numbers getting larger, but for once Lori could almost understand. Six hundred paces of growth for her demesne was a significant increase.

She tried to remember how many days of working to expand the demesne that had taken, but annoyingly all the days simply blurred together like faces in her memory. Still, it had been most of the winter…

"So… do you want this growth kept secret?" Rian said. "I mean, it might make the people who want land bother you for land more since you'd have more to give away now, but anything on the subject would make them do that."

That sounded annoyingly true… "We will not make an announcement of it, but I see no reason to actively restrict the information," Lori said. "As to those who would make a nuisance of themselves because of the fact… I leave them to you."

Rian sighed in resignation. "Well, if I'm expecting it, then at least I'm emotionally ready for the work," he said.

Lori rolled her eyes. "How much farther?"

"Close. Krezz won't be there, since he's probably collecting more wood or helping with the logging, but I can show you. "

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Indeed, they soon came to a clearing among the trees. From the half-rotten stump near the middle, the clearing had probably been made by a large tree falling, though there was no sign of that trunk now. Lengths of fallen branches that had been cut into forearm-long pieces and arrange neatly in an unfamiliar, circular manner. Not far from it was a pile of earth, it's texture different from what was underfoot. Off to one side was what Lori thought was another mound of dirt at first, but on closer inspection turned out to be a small, one-person shack made of fallen branches and packed mud.

"Is… this it?" Lori said, looking around. She had… well, she had honestly expected something bigger.

"It's all Krezz needs," Rian said. "Before you ask, the shack is necessary infrastructure. When making charcoal, the burner needs to be nearby at all times to make adjustments, so Krezz—er, the charcoal burner—has to sleep nearby to keep the burn from going out of control."

"Still…" Lori mused, looking around the clearing as if that would let her find more. It wasn't even all that big, an irregular ovoid about six paces long and four to five with in the middle. "I thought there would be more infrastructure."

Rian shrugged. "Well, we don't really have much in the way of resources to make them. At least, not for someone in his profession. I'm told that a kiln would usually be used to make the charcoal, but it's not like we have any baked bricks to make one with right now. Though it would actually be a good idea. It's more efficient and cuts down on the work of making the charcoal, or so I'm told."

Lori completed her circuit of the clearing. All told, it was a minuscule little patch of land that wasn't near anywhere… including their own village. "Why here?"

Rian pointed in the direction of where she could hear the river's waters flowing. "There's a little bit of clay that way," he said, "which is what Krezz uses to cover up the charcoal pile and make it airtight. Also, we generally haven't expanded much in this direction beyond harvesting the nearby ropeweed, so it's unlikely he'd have needed to move any time soon from logging or other resource gathering. And of course, it's an easy walk, which is important when he has to carry the charcoal back."

"Hmm…" Lori hummed thoughtfully. "I'll have to define the area more solidly than just this clearing." Maybe stone markers marking out the corners of the area that had been leased. "Find out the specifics of the kiln that needs to be built."

"Ah, I have that already," Rian said. "Not very big, but it needs to be lined with clay to retain heat. And of course the stone needs to be carefully chosen so it doesn't have any cracks, because any air pockets would cause it to explode. Not too different from the pottery kiln and the furnace, really, but it's not shaped the same. The wood needs to reach a high temperature, but with insufficient air to burn."

"Can he build it himself? Or have a stone mason do it?"

"I think so. It's sourcing the stone that's likely to be the problem. Stone's heavy, after all, and most people are busy with other things."

She waved a hand dismissively. "I'll move the stone here, and leave it softened to make working on it easier. I'll have to bring stone here to mark out the boundaries of the lease in any case. Remind him it is a lease, and that it was bestowed for the purpose of him developing facilities to make charcoal, not build a house or pass the lease on for beads." Which they don't have anyway.

"He understands, your Bindership. May I suggest you make the area big enough for him to be able to make a small storage building for the coal so that chokers and the weather doesn't get at it?"

After marking the boundaries of the lease with lightwisps—she'd get to making it out of stone later—Rian took her to the proposed site of the outdoor mushroom farm. It was far more developed than the charcoal burners. There were strange, chimney-shaped stacks of alternating logs arranged in rows under the shade of the trees, and there were square plots of smaller twigs and leaves demarcated by rocks.

Unlike the charcoal burners, there were actually people here. One was using some kind of tool to gouge holes into a log, while another was in the process of stripping a dead branch of leaves and other outgrowths with a knife. A third was in the process of using rocks to make another plot around a pile of crushed twigs, leaves and random scraps of wood. A fourth was taking mushrooms from a basket and cutting off the base, separating the two. This last person had a cloth tied around her mouth and nose, and Lori remembered something about spores from mushrooms being harmful when exposed…

"As you can see, your Bindership, these good people are hard at work at making a productive mushroom farm," Rian said loudly, making the four look up in surprise. They stopped what they were doing uncertainly, standing at attention to face her.

"Is all this space really necessary, though?" Lori said, looking around.

"More space means more means to grow things," Rian said. He gestured around. "The open space means it's easier to stack more of the logs to grow the mushrooms on." He chuckled. "And even if the land you'll be leasing them will only be twice the area of the cave farm, there's really no reason why they can't put more logs outside of that beyond their ability to keep maintaining them."

Lori gave him a flat look.

He shrugged. "I'm just saying, production could easily be increased. Granted, it's not exactly going to be able to produce enough to keep everyone in the whole demesne fed by itself, but it's a useful and easy source of food that can be easily dried to preserve it and it keeps for a long period of time if necessary. Very good food to bring on the Coldhold so we don't have to bring along jars of stew, meaning there's more room for other things."

"It's always about food with you."

"You say that like it's not what's keeping us alive. Every little bit of food helps."

All right, that was fair. "All right, that's fair," Lori admitted. She turned to the four in front of her. "And you are the ones who are working to earn the right to lease this land, I presume?"

A woman stepped forward, "Y-yes, your Bindership. We're the ones who set up the mushroom farm near the Dungeon. There's two more, but they're out collecting more mushrooms to bring back and try to grow."

Lori raised an eyebrow, looking around. "So the lease of this land is being divided among the six of you?"

"Y-yes, your Bindership."

Lori hummed thoughtfully, looking around. She nodded. "I'll be back later to demarcate the boundaries of the lease. Carry on. Come, Rian." She turned and headed back towards the Dungeon. Rian fell into step behind her as Lori heard quiet sighs.

Once they were some distance away, Rian said, "You don't know how big the area of the mushroom cave is, do you."

"Find out, and then tell me what double of it is,” Lori ground it out annoyance. "I'll go get stone to make the markers."

"Do I just go by the area of the first floor, or is the second floor's area part of the measurement?" Rian asked brightly.