The trip to River's Fork was uneventful, save that Lori suddenly became cold when she passed through the border of her demesne and into the world outside. Argh, why did she keep forgetting about that? She hastily claimed some firewisps from her coalcharm and made a binding to keep herself warm. Fortunately, the little room retained heat very well since the bound ice around it was a pefect insulator, so it grew warm quickly, but it was still annoying to forget.

She spent part of the trip idly looking for a good way to anchor the firewisps to herself, and settled for putting on her raincoat and anchoring the binding to the darkwisps that came to be underneath. Her arms and back were pleasantly warm as a result, and she was working on adding some airwisps to the binding so she'd have some warm air around her legs when the door opened slightly and a hand reached in to wave at her.

For a moment, she was annoyed at the interruption, until she remembered she'd put up a binding of airwisps to muffle the sounds of people talking in the next room. Out of habit, she willed the binding of airwisps to deactivate before remembering she couldn't do that anymore and awkwardly reaching for her staff. It took her a moment to remember how to reach through the wire wrapped around her staff and deactivate the binding of airwisps. Immediately there rose an annoying din of conversation from outside. "What?" she demanded, wincing as a sudden rush of sensation from her posterior told her she'd been sitting on it for too long.

The door opened the rest of the way. "Ah, I thought it was something like that," Rian said as he stepped inside and closing the door behind him. The din wasn't all that muffled by the gesture, hence why Lori had put down the binding. "When you weren't responding to people knocking on your door… well, anyway, we're here. Or at least, we've entered the boundaries of River's Fork's demesne and will be reaching our destination soon."

Already? Well, she supposed that from the feeling of her posterior enough time had passed. "Very well. And Shanalorre? She hasn't come down yet."

"She's been enjoying the view from the top deck," Rian said, smiling absently. "Was almost acting like a child again, the way she was just looking at everything, even if it was the Iridescence. I guess she's been stuck under that dome for a long time, and there's not really much to see when you're sledding in winter the way she was… "

"…she's safe, then?" Lori said, shaking her head as a strange sensation seemed to crawl up her spine. "She didn't fall off the boat in her foolishness?"

"Yes, she's still alive. No children were harmed on this trip, they simply enjoyed themselves."

Lori rolled her shoulders, trying to ease a strange tightness on her back. "Good, good," she said absently. "Well, tell everyone to get ready." She reached for her side bag of firewood and began to tie it back onto her waist.

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The skies threatened rain as Lori climbed up from inside the Coldhold and the thought idly occurred to her that if it rained, there would be no way of keeping water from getting into the interior of the boat. They'd probably have to fix that when they got back…

Her first view of the center of River's Fork was a miserable sight. The foliage on the dome of woven branches was uneven and seemingly random, with some parts covered with new growth while other parts were still bare and dead. The leafless branches seemed even more of a pointless decoration than usual. Directing her gaze lower, she found a pile of rubble. It took a moment of staring before she realized this was River's Fork's attempt at a flood barrier. It… well, it looked like a pile of rubble laid out to make a crude wall. Rounded river rocks, debris from the mine, what looked like mud and attempts at packed dirt, even buried and muddy hides…

Lori had to wonder how successful that had been, since it currently looked like… well, a pile of rubble. She vaguely remembered some mention of them covering it with clay and lighting fires atop it to try and bake the clay solid. That would explain some of the less identifiable debris that didn't look like rocks.

It hardly looked like a prize worth conquering. Indeed, it hardly looked like it was worth anything at all.

For once, their arrival was slow to be noticed. Only now were people stopping what they were doing to look towards them, a few moving in their general direction. Already, the militia who had accompanied Shanalorre had disembarked, walking towards some of the people heading towards them. From the enthusiastic way one of the departing militia had started to hug the group he'd approached, they were probably family.

Shanalorre was standing there next to—Lori fumbled under her rain coat for her belt pouch, eventually pulling out the rock—Yllian, looking out over the dome with a slight frown. Next to them, Rian waited with a relaxed air, looking like he had nothing better to do but stand there all day. His sword was on his belt, but for some reason he had a pace-long length of wood—the curves and dimensions made her think it was a formerly a tree branch—in hand, one end resting on the ground like a cane. Riz stood next to him, also frowning out at the dome.

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

"Rian, why do you have a cane?" Lori said.

"Technically, it's a baton. Though if you think it's too long to qualify, a club will do," Rian said cheerfully.

"Noted," Lori said flatly. "Again, why?"

"In case there's trouble," he said. "These are our people now, and historically, only the really bad rulers turned their swords on their own people. This way if something happens, I can get involved without having to use a sword." He tilted his head. "Didn't you notice we were carrying staffs down in the hold instead of spears?"

She hadn't, actually. "I left that sort of planning to you," she said. Lori turned towards Shanaloore. "We're wasting daylight, and I'd rather we not be caught in the rain. Show me the core so we can get started."

"Yes, Binder Lolilyuri," Shanalorre said. She glanced sideways at… at Yll… Yllian? Probably Yllian. "Lord Yllian"— ah, Yllian, she was right! "—I regret interfering with your reunion with Auntie Erisha, but may I ask you to accompany us a little longer, please?"

"Of course, Great Binder… your Bindership," he said, nodding first to Shanlorre, and then a bit belatedly to Lori herself. She met the almost lapse with a flat, unamused look.

"Into the dome, then, I suppose?" Rian said. He glanced up towards Riz. "Riz, could you ask everyone to come up and get ready to escort everyone ashore?"

"Yes, Lord Rian," she said, and Rian winced for some reason, even as she looked amused. Still, she moved around Lori with alacrity, heading down the ladder into the lower floor of the boat and calling out that everyone was to get ready to move, get moving you glitter crawlers, has civilian life made you fat and slow?

As Lori waited for their escort to come up, a man and a woman approached the boat. Shanalorre glanced towards them, then turned towards Lori. "May I disembark, Binder Lolilyuri?" she asked. "I need to greet my Aunt and Uncle."

Lori frowned. "Why?"

"Because she probably actually likes her relatives and missed them while they were separated?" Rian said.

She directed her frown at Rian. "Her uncle, by her own admission, has worked to undermine and usurp her."

Her first lord gave her a bland look. "What does that have to do with anything?"

The two stared at each other for a moment. Lori waited for Rian to smile or make some indication he was joke, but he simply returned her stare. Was he actually serious?

…

Well, there was really no reason to keep Shanalorre safe aboard… "Fine, you may go down," Lori said, waving her hand dismissively. "Be ready to accompany me to the core when the escort is ready."

"Yes, Binder Lolilyuri," Shanalorre said, bowing briefly to her before she moved with alacrity over the walkway to the oat's outrigger, and from there to the dock. Lori checked her rock as… Yllian, glanced at her, but she waved him off, and he also disembarked from the boat, moving towards one of the women who'd approached the boat.

Lori watched the other Dungeon Binder idly as she moved lightly over the broken ground on her way to meet the pair of people who were probably her aunt and uncle. The woman moved to hug the Dungeon Binder, which supported her supposition, but to her surprise the man did the same. What?

Her confusion abated slightly as, after the affectionate greeting, the man started scolding Shanalorre. She couldn't hear what was being said, but it was definitely a scolding. That seemed more in line with the man she vaguely remembered. She watched, but unfortunately Shanalorre didn't move to beat him for his insolence. Well, it was to be expected. Shanalorre wasn't as strict with discipline as she should be, after all.

By the time their escort of volunteers was ready, all armed with long staffs not unlike the ones they'd used in the quarterstaff competition during the holiday months ago—and why did that memory come so easily to her when she hadn't thought of it in literal months?—a small crowd had finally gathered. The ones among them carrying spears had relaxed when—Lori checked her rock—Yllian had gestured for them to stand down, grounding the butts of the spears, and standing more relaxed and simply curious.

Others in the crowd, however, were not as disciplined. While some had only come and were looking curiously, a few were making displeased faces. They did nothing, didn't approach, but simply stood there and glared. Lori noted they seemed to be glaring at both her and Shanalorre equally. Some of the malcontents then, though their lack of action implied they were using Lori and Shanalorre's arrival more as an excuse to shirk work than anything else.

Lori disembarked from the Coldhold, the escorts moving to surround her as Rian conferred with Riz, and then gestured towards… Yllian? Probably Yllian. Probably Yllian seemed to sigh and excused himself from his probably-wife with visible reluctance, moving towards Shanalorre. He interrupted the scolding her probably-uncle was delivering—she had been quietly unmoved, putting up with the nonsense with stoic patience from what Lori could see—and there was a brief exchange of words with the probably-aunt. For some reason, the probably-uncle looked up to glare at Lori, then reached down to grasp Shanalorre's shoulder.

Shanalorre glanced at the hand on her shoulder, then then said something. Her probably-uncle responded with a scowl as the probably-aunt gave him a disapproving glare, and then Shanalorre was grasping the thumb of his hand and twisting it outward, removing the appendage from her shoulder as she stepped away, walking towards Lori. Yllian fell into step beside her, glancing towards the probably-uncle, who the probably-aunt had grabbed and was starting to scold. The two started arguing where they stood as Shanalorre and the lord approached Lori.

"Shall we go see the core then, Binder Lolilyuri?" Shanalorre said, gesturing behind her towards the dome.

Lori nodded impatiently. "Yes. The quicker this is finished, the quicker we can start getting to work on my new demesne."