It was, indeed, a problem.

Normally, dealing with something like this was easily amended by adding in some firewisps to generate heat for the water to draw in when it changed state. And sure enough, when Lori added firewisps to her binding the next experiment worked as intended, with the area surrounding the binding no longer losing so much heat the water outside the tube started congealing into ice.

The resulting plume of steam was hot, long, consistent and forceful… but honestly, Lori really couldn't tell if the steam resulted in more force than simply the water jet. All she'd learned said it should. The expansion from water to steam should impart more force from the expansion than simply having the waterwisps move the water, which should theoretically move any boat it was attached to faster than simply water alone.

Should. Empirically proving it, however, much less making it practical for the boats they had…

She tried to put a rock on the end of the tube and see which version of the jet's output launched it farther—a very good way of measuring which configuration generated more force—but putting one on the end of the tube proved annoyingly difficult. The initial force from the tube wasn't the most powerful, so those initial results were useless… and slightly counter intuitive. The rock propelled by the water jet went further than the one pushed by the steam jet, but she attributed that to the water having more mass than the steam. The rocks also weren't the same size, making the results invalid.

Rather than giving in to the temptation of trying to redesign the bone tube to be able to slot a rock into the path of the tube in either configuration—the thought of getting wet or getting a steam-scalded hand also helped block that flow of thought—Lori decided to simply change the configuration of the experiment. The bone tube was secured completely under the water line of the stone dock, and she activated the water jet binding, then sat there for some time trying to visually assess how fast the water was moving, both with her eyes and by how fast the waterwisps were flowing in her awareness. Then she activated the additional binding that turned water into steam, first without firewisps, and then with.

The results were interesting. With the tube fully submerged, the surrounding flowing water moved too fast to freeze into ice without the added firewisps, although the surrounding bone quickly became very cold. The steam jet, as she surmised, seemed to displace far more water from its path, at least on initial inspection, and even more when she tested it with the binding of firewisps activated to inject heat into the water so that it wouldn't need to draw heat from its surroundings.

By all indications, a steam jet would in fact propel their boats far faster than simply using a water jet. And from the fact that the bone tube hadn't cracked and started spewing bubbles of steam, the pressure within it hadn't increased so greatly that the tube had ruptured. While the wide openings on both ends probably prevented the tube from becoming true pressure vessels, it had been a concern for her.

Unfortunately, the results made it clear altering the bindings of the Coldhold's water jet driver into a steam driver would me more than she could reasonable do in a day. While the smaller boats might be converted into steam jets, since their configuration mean they'd be able to draw sufficient heat from their surroundings so that ice wouldn't form—or at least, not form and block the intake—the same couldn't be done with the larger boat.

Between the large driver being in the inside the boat and being fed water through pipes, and the fact she didn't want to risk killing herself by extracting some of her body's, converting the Coldhold's water jet driver into a steam jet driver that had firewisps to add heat to the water to assist in converting it into steam wouldn't be feasible. The only other possibly configuration would be to move the binding that turned the water into steam at some point after the water jet driver before the stream exited the pipes to provide thrust and that was just as unfeasible. The bound ice would be useless for providing heat, meaning the water would probably freeze into ice and block the pipes. And of course, there was the possibility that the increased pressure would damage the surrounding ice.

"So I'll have to simply increase the rate in which the water flows through the water jet driver of the Coldhold," Lori finished explaining to Shanalorre, who nodded earnestly, a fascinated look on her face as she watched Lori pull the bone tube up from where it had been secured. The other Dungeon Binder had asked what the point of her experiments and notes were, and she felt there was no harm in explaining. "Otherwise the boat might not be able to return upstream in a timely manner, and it would be disconcerting that to have to camp out in the Iridescence if we don't have to." The stone that had been holding the tube in place was returned to the stockpile under the dock.

"Would not adding more water jet tubes also work?" Shanalorre asked.

"It would, but they cannot simply be attached at any point of the boat," Lori said. "The Coldhold's water jet driver is designed to be controllable and allow the boat to stop when needed without interrupting the bindings providing it with propulsion. Adding further external water jet tubes, while allowing the boat to move faster and be better able to travel against the current of the river, would also not be connected with these control mechanisms. The boat would not stop until the imbuement on the external tubes were depleted, which would be inconvenient when one wishes to stop because they have reached their destination."

"I see…" Shanalorre said, glancing towards the Coldhold next to them. "Will you be building a new boat that will take advantage of the results you have uncovered?"

"Eventually," Lori said. She bound the waterwisps of the water clinging to the bone tube, binding them to turn into vapor. The air around her hands holding the tube became very cool, though the feeling quickly dissipated. "However, such a boat will require a different arrangement of components. Providing heat to assist in the conversion of water to steam will be the primary necessity." That would probably require metal components. Well, more metal components. Tubes instead of wires, perhaps even pressure vessels…

She paused, then looked sideways at Shanalorre. "Does River's Fork contain possible deposits of iron?"

"There were traces found in some of the nearby hills," Shanalorre said promptly. Nearby, her new note writer looked up from his plank. "Indeed, traces of possible deposits in several nearby hills was the reason that location was chosen to found the demesne. To prevent possible taint of the local water from vitriolic or caustic substances, it was previously decided that the extraction of most of the seams would be delayed until the demesne had more equipment, alchemists and Whisperers to safely facilitate the process."

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

Lori nodded. Concern about the release of such substances into the local water was why mining was conducted with care. While the copper ore that they had mined only needed smelting to be extracted, not all metals were as convenient or safe to handle. She vaguely remembered that there were metal ores that existed as amalgams of metal and crystalline vitriol, though it had only been mentioned in passing when they had been shown how to separate water and oil of vitriol in one of her classes a long time ago.

Huh. She was surprised she'd remembered that little detail. Perhaps she was starting to utilize Mentalism? She remembered that some aspects of it became usable without need for conscious thought as simply breathing in magic enabled it…

…

No, no, best not to get her hopes up. Remembering random trivia more memorable than someone's name wasn't unusual. There was no reason to think she'd done some unconscious Mentalism or anything like that…

––––––––––––––––––

"So, how did the tests go?" Rian asked immediately as he sat down across from her at dinner.

"They went well," Lori said. She'd taken the time to leave her rain coat and hat in her room after drying them, and the air flowing over her previously humid arms was a welcome relief. Thankfully it hadn't rained until after her experiments were completed. The notes hadn't been ruined, thankfully, but the handwriting wasn't as legible.

"Define 'well', please? Did you find out something useful? Are we going to have to delay a few days to put some new thing on the Coldhold?"

"Yes. No. Did you manage to get enough volunteers? Will we be able to go tomorrow or do you still need a day?"

Rian hesitated, then sighed. "Yes, but not enough. Unless you feel safe with only six other people coming with us, not counting Shanalorre's original party?"

Six would put them at parity with Shanalorre's contingent. She didn't want parity, she wanted to outnumber them, and have enough people to put between her and any violent malcontents in River's Fork so she could use her Whispering for violence! "Of course not. Get more tomorrow."

"That was the idea," he said dryly. "So… besides Yllian, have you considered appointing more lords? Or ladies?"

"No."

"No, you haven't considered it yet, or no, you're not going to?"

"Yes."

He slumped, then sighed. "You realize you're going to need to appoint at least one more, right?"

"Oh? I need to, do I?" Lori said flatly.

Rian pointed across his body towards… Yllian… sitting some distance past Umu on his other side. "Unless you change his orders, he'll have to stay here with Shana to keep an eye on her. So you won't have an authority to represent you in River's Fork. Of course, given he has family there, he might just resign his lordship so he doesn't have to stay here away from them. In which case, you'd need to appoint a new lord anyway to replace him, because I can't run two demesne at the same time!"

That last sounded nearly strangled as Rian leaned towards her emphatically.

Lori tilted her head. "I suppose you have a point," she said. "I'd rather you stayed nearby to deal with things here, so someone else will have to deal with River's Fork…" Admittedly, she hadn't really thought that far ahead, concentrating on more immediate events. Getting the boat ready to go to River's Fork and assert her authority over it—after ensuring the core was where she had been told it was—suppress any dissent, move the malcontents away and then begin moving people in to best exploit the demesne's resources…

Ah, wait, she'd need to build infrastructure first. Shelters, baths, a better communal kitchen, better food storage…

Just thinking about it made her heart feel like it was being clenched in her chest, which was why she hadn't really thought about it. It was like trying to found a demesne all over again, except with less people, and she'd have to do it without the convenience of her core…

Perhaps she could still change her mind. Just bring Shanalorre to River's Fork and leave her there… but no, then she'd have to go back to fulfill their agreement to build a shelter for the demesne, among other things. Unless she didn't…

But she had given her word. And while she one day intended to break her word… it would be for far greater gains than simply avoiding an inconvenience. A very annoying inconvenience. A very annoying, stressful inconvenience.

…

Well, ruling two demesnes was never going to be easy. All the biographies and histories she'd read agreed on that.

Hopefully, she could avoid the common failure of overly focusing on the well-being of one at the expense of the other. It was almost always the same point of failure as well, where the Dungeon Binder was just too distrustful and didn't do the sensible thing and place a subordinate in charge of one of the demesne so that the Dungeon Binder… wouldn't have to… keep dividing their focus and resources… between the two…

…

She hated it when Rian had a point.

Lori glanced at her rock. "Yllian," she said. "If the malcontents were removed, could you manage River's Fork's day to day affairs and not starve yourselves to death?"

"That would be doable, your Bindership," Yllian said.

"Maintaining the trees that need to be maintained? Switching everyone to communal meals and enforcing it? Preventing theft from supplies? Farming?"

"Not all of it," he said immediately. "We won't have enough manpower. The work, at least. We should be able to switch to communal meals."

Lori stared at him. "Fine. Once we travel to River's Fork, I'm leaving you there as lord. You'll be reporting to Rian, who will come at random so that you can't simply present a convincing farce in his presence. Your goal is to implement communal meals to control and regulate food expenditures while maintaining the plants that have meanings on them, and whatever else can be done with the manpower you have. Once I am satisfied with implementation… we shall see."

She turned towards Shanalorre. "I will assign someone else to watch you."

Shanalorre nodded. "Of course, Binder Lolilyuri."

"Your Bindership… A request," Yllian said suddenly.

Lori stared at him, but gestured for him to continue.

"I would like to ask that you move all the children in River's Fork to Lorian before you transfer the malcontents."

Across from her, Rian suddenly straightened in surprise.

"I am not taking hostages," Lori said flatly. History was a bit mixed as to the results of that—sometimes it ended with better diplomatic relations, sometimes it resulted in one demesne knowing exactly how to destroy another—and so she didn't want to risk it. "If this is your idea of trying to advise me—"

"Uh, your Bindership?" Rian interrupted, and she turned to glare at him. "Perhaps ask him why?"

She stared at him flatly, then turned back to Yllian. "Why?"

"So that we'll know they'll be safe in the event of a dragon," Yllian said. "Take them, let them live here, and we will do anything you ask of us with gratitude."

"Join us, we have hot water," Rian murmured. "It would work. It removes a similar amount of people from the demesne as removing the malcontents, but without the loss of any able bodies…"

Next to her, Shanalorre twitched. A strange look came over her face. "I… should have thought of that…" she said quietly.

Lori glanced between the three of them. Yllian's face was unreadable, which… well, wasn't unusual for him, or for her. Rian nodded at her, likely seeing this as a useful means of manipulation. The strange look on Shanalorre's face became clearly distressed.

She took a deep breath. "Fine. But if I feel that River's Fork is not properly under control—" or rebellious, "—then they shall be returned to you. Understood?"

"Yes, your Bindership. With luck, we might even be able to impose some discipline on the malcontents before they're transferred."

"If you could, you'd have done so already," Lori said.

For the first time, Yllian smiled. It was a grim smile, but a smile nonetheless. "Yes, but this time… we won't have to worry about the children."