Leaving should have been simple. Rian should have only needed to tell some people they were going, everyone would have gotten on the boat in an orderly fashion, and she'd have been on her way back to her demesne. Even if she'd be leaving again the following day to get back to work on her new other demesne's dragon shelter, the rest would do her good.

It should have been, but it wasn't.

"There's no reason for you to leave with them," the woman Lori vaguely recalled was Shanalorre's aunt was saying to the other Dungeon Binder. She was using that annoying voice that people thought sounded like they were being reasonable but was clearly only condescending. "You're finally back home, and as I understand it there are no births you needs to assist with."

"The Great Binder ordered I accompany her," Shanalorre stated the obvious. "So I will. I'm under her authority now, mushka. We all are. That was the agreement."

"That's no reason for you to leave," the interfering woman repeated as Lori gave her a flat look, force of habit from years of living in a demesne she didn't rule keeping her fist from striking the woman's face. The woman was holding Shanalorre's shoulders possessively, in a way that was probably starting to hurt. "You're… this is your demesne. You outrank her here."

"No, I do not. This is her demesne now," Shanalorre said, and apart of Lori was viscerally satisfied at hearing the other Dungeon Binder using the 'being reasonable but really just condescending' tone. "The only reason I am not dead so Binder Lori can take the core is because she finds me more useful alive than dead. I'll be perfectly safe, mushka. If the Great Binder wanted me dead, I would be already."

For some reason, this perfectly reasonable argument didn't immediately convince the woman with the incorrectness of her assumptions, because her hands visibly tightened on Shanalorre's shoulders.

"Mushka, that's almost painful," Shanalorre said. "Please let me go now, I do not think the Great Binder wants to be delayed any further. We will likely return tomorrow, or the next day at worst."

"You don't need to go," the woman insisted.

Before Lori finally stepped in and acted on the impulse to end her meddling with a swift fist to the face, whatsis-ian—Lori checked her rock—Yllian intervened. "That's enough, Vyshke," he said, voice quiet but sharp. "The Gre— Binder Shanalorre made an agreement with the Great Binder. We won't have you breaking it just because it's inconvenient for your mothering."

The woman turned to glare at him, and in that moment of inattention, Shanalorre was able to bend down, out of the woman's grip and with some dignity turned away to move towards Lori. The Vyshke woman tried to go after her, but Yllian stepped in to physically bar her way.

"Take care for things while we're gone, Yllian," Rian said as Lori began heading for the boat once Shanalorre had presented herself. "Someone's probably going to go try and steal some food tonight, so watch out for that, all right?"

"Your warning is noted, Lord Rian," Yllian said in a dry, flat voice, and Lori could hear the 'don't tell me something I already know' in the tone, even as he continued to bar the Vyshke woman's way.

Lori let the nonsense fall behind her as she started walking towards the Coldhold, a spring in her step at the thought of going back home. It was raining again, but she'd replaced the blood in the evaporator and imbued it, so any water that got into the boat could be taken care of. Water dripped onto her hat from the branches of the dome above, and she adjusted her collar to make sure none of the water went down her neck.

Shanalorre was wearing no such protection from the falling water, but she seemed unbothered, simply keeping pace with Lori as they continued heading down to the boat. "I apologize for my aunt," Shanalorre said quietly. "She is only concerned for my well-being." A pause. "Though I must ask, why am I accompanying you back? I have no objections to doing so, but I am simply curious."

Because she didn't want Shanalorre out of her sight, because she didn't want Shanalorre to potentially plot rebellion with the people still loyal to her, because she thought this demesne was still likely to break out into violent uncivil unrest and she didn't want to lose her healer to that…

"Because I think this demesne is still likely to break out into violent civil unrest and I don't want to lose my only healer to that," Lori said bluntly. "I might not care to understand people, but I know enough to understand that resentment, selfishness, thoughtlessness, contrariness and spite don't just disappear in a week. The idiots who are more idiotic than everyone else will probably try something, and once we leave is a possibility."

"But if that's so, shouldn't we stay to mitigate it?"

"No," Lori said bluntly. "I have another demesne to take care of, one I like more because it actually has self-discipline and doesn't try to destroy itself as soon as my back is turned." Not actively destroy, anyway. "Besides, should anything come up, Yllian can deal with it better using violence, and if I—and you, I suppose—were here he'd have to divert militia towards protecting us rather than dealing with any foolishness."

"Our deal was that you treat the people in my demesne as you have treated your own," Shanalorre said quietly.

"And if any of them had reached this level of criminality, I would have treated them this way." She tilted her head thoughtfully. "Well, I'd have had Rian treat them that way, but Yllian is a fitting substitute. Do you assess that he is a needlessly cruel man?"

Stolen story; please report.

"No, of course not."

"Then no one should die unless they prove themselves to be an active, unreasonable danger to someone else," Lori said with finality. "At worst, you'll have a few broken bones to take care of tomorrow. Or do you feel that the people here will act significantly more malevolent just to steal food?"

"I… understand your reasoning," Shanalorre said slowly, "but it still seems like we're abandoning the demesne."

"How is it abandoning them if we're back by tomorrow? A more logical case for abandonment would be my absence from my primary demesne for over a week, or your own absence during the early spring had that absence been deliberate. Compared to that, this is nothing. You are overestimating the importance of this place."

Shanalorre nodded slowly. "I… understand, Great Binder. Thank you for correcting my perspective."

Lori nodded. Truthfully, she wanted to stay more than a night in her demesne. She wanted, as always, to never leave. That wasn't possible, of course. There was work to be done, and she had responsibilities as this place's Dungeon Binder… miserable and soggy as this place was.

––––––––––––––––––

It was past mid-afternoon when they got back, and while Lori didn't have to participate in the far too lengthy reunions that were occurring, the way they filled up the docks and the stairs going over the flood barrier kept her essentially trapped on the boat until enough people had managed to get out of the way. She spent the rest of the time until dinner luxuriating in her private bath and doing her laundry, since she'd been wearing the same clothes for far too long.

When she went down to eat, it was finally wearing clean clothes, carrying her sunk board for the first time in a while. At her table, she found Shanalorre waiting for her, the other Dungeon Binder's hair still wet from what was obviously her own soak in the baths.

"Lord Rian asked me to inform you that he won't be joining us for dinner tonight," Shanalorre said. "He returned to River's Fork with the new volunteers to relieve the people that were left there, and he said it was highly likely that the ship would not return until well after dark. He also said that as you were not answering knocks on your door, that he was accompanying the boat to use the illumination you gave him to help light the way, as you have both once more forgotten to put external lights on the Coldhold."

Lori paused as she took a moment to comprehend what her subordinate had just told her, then sighed as she realized that, yes, she had forgotten to put exterior lights on the Coldhold for navigating in the dark. Though to be fair, they didn't really travel on it at night… except in this instance… and actually, wouldn't they have needed to do so back when she had been injured and infected?

"Remind me to correct that tomorrow," Lori said with a sigh as she finally sat down and put the sunk board down on the table in front of her. She opened the container of stones she used to play and began to set the board. "Did Rian leave any other messages?"

"No," Shanalorre said, "though he did ask me to speak to people on your behalf in his absence. I'm unsure of what he meant."

The hand that was placing down stones stilled slightly. Oh, yes. She'd forgotten about that. Lori eyed Shanalorre, who looked back at her with tranquil inquisitiveness, clearly expecting, or at least hoping, for an explanation.

Finally, she said, "It shouldn't come up, but with Rian absent, I need you to be the one to speak to people and either tell them what I need them to do or find out what they need. Rian usually does it, but he's not here, and…" She frowned and looked around the dining hall. There were several flashes of pink hair, but many of them were over features of Mikon-faced women, and there was no sign of anyone whose face she could make out. "Do you know where Ezebed is?"

"Erzebed… Oh, you mean Riz," Shanalorre said. "I believe she accompanied Lord Rian and the new volunteers. I gather she will be remaining in River's Fork tonight to act as a squad leader for the volunteers on Lord Rian's behalf."

Ah. Well, the woman didn't want to be considered for the post anyway, but Lori had been hoping she could tell Shanalorre what she needed to do. "A pity." Lori put the rest of the stones onto the bowls of the sunk board and hoped Shanalorre wouldn't ask her for further clarification. She'd never actually had to teach someone to take Rian's place, since Riz had been nearby for long enough that she had a good idea of what the position entailed.

From the crowd, Mikon and Umu suddenly appeared. The former was using what looked like Rian's plank of wood to carry four bowls of food and some cups, while the latter was carrying a jug of water and a plate stacked with disks of bread. "Your Bindership," Mikon said with a warm smile as she carefully put down the plank. "I'm sorry for talking to you, but Rian asked me to bring you food while he was gone. Oh!" Her smile widened as she saw the sunk board. "Are we playing tonight, your Bindership?"

Lori simply moved the board between them in lieu of answering, taking one of the four bowls and a cup for herself, and her share of the bread when Umu put down her load.

"Here," the blonde weaver said with a gentleness that Lori had never heard before as she handed Shanalorre one of the bowls. "Rian asked us to get food for you too, Lady Binder."

Lori's eyebrows rose at the strange address. "Lady Binder?" she said. Her tone demanded explanation.

The gentleness vanished as Umu found herself the focus of Lori's attention. "Ah, w-well, people aren't quite sure what to call Binder Shanalorre, y-your Bindership," Umu said. "Calling her 'her B-bindership' too would be confusing when you two are together, and since she's a Binder but also sort of your lady, some people have been calling her that."

That… was almost sensible reasoning for her idiots. So much so that she was immediately suspicious. "Did Rian come up with that?" she said.

The two women opposite her looked at each other, clearly considering how they should answer and all but confirming it. "Yes," Mikon admitted.

"I do not mind being called such," Shanalorre said. "I suspect the alternative is being referred to as the Little Binder. And as a female subordinate of Binder Lolilyuri with standing at least equal to, and in the case of Uncle Yllian exceeding that of a lord but no longer equal to the Great Binder, I suppose it would be accurate for me to be a considered a lady."

Lori grunted. She eyed Shanalorre for a moment, but… well, the suggested nomenclature certainly helped with properly stratifying the hierarchy, and contextualizing Shanalorre's rather unorthodox position. "I'll consider it," Lori said. "Your move, Mikon."

As the pink-haired weaver enthusiastically opened the game, Lori started eating her food. One night's rest, and then… and then it was back to work. She'd need to finish the dragon shelter, make sure they had latrines that would keep waste properly isolated, make sure they had a water supply that wouldn't be tainted by those latrines, make sure they had reliable air circulation and lights, make sure they had a sturdy door to bar dragonborn abominations from getting into the mine…

Tomorrow, she'd do all that. Tonight though, she'd sleep in her own bed, in her own room, and rest.