"This is your house now," Lori told Shanalorre the next morning after breakfast. The bed Shanalorre had been using in the shelter up to now was being carried inside by four burly men and Rian. He… honestly didn't seem to be of any help whatsoever. "Once the bed is inside, I'll build you a table. Do you know where you can get wood for your fireplace?"

"Yes, Binder Lolilyuri," Shanalorre said, standing next to Lori.

"Once they finish moving in your bed, and I've finished with your table, the carpenters can start to work on installing some shelving for you, so you can put your things there. Tell them where you want the shelves installed." She'd have to assist so that the wood can be secured to the stone walls. "Remember to keep the shutters and doors closed, lest bugs and chokers get in. If there are leaks or any other problems, inform Rian, and it will probably be repaired eventually."

"I understand, Great Binder."

Next to Shanalorre, her cousin was looking at the stone house curiously, glancing at the identical houses on either side. "This big house is all Shana's now?"

"No, Yoshka, just the one in the middle," Shanalorre said patiently. "It's many houses built next to each other, so it looks big. Our new house is that one." She pointed. "Do you want to see inside?"

The little girl nodded, and without waiting for her cousin headed towards the door, where the men carrying the bed—and Rian—had managed to get it inside.

Lori glanced at the other Dungeon Binder. "Are you sure about this? Speaking from experience, having so many people in your home every day can be greatly irritating."

"They're my friends," Shanalorre said, as if that actually explained something. "And besides, while I am admittedly a terrible Dungeon Binder, it should be within my capabilities to provide at least these few under my care shelter and comfort." A pause. "Well, comfort, at the very least, as I had no direct hand at the shelter. But the opportunity presented itself, so I should take advantage of it. My original intention was to slowly have everyone move to the shelter when they've become used to the demesne so as not to exhaust the welcome of our friends, but this is better. It allows the other children to be relatively near the people they know, it's more private than the shelter, and it won't impugn on the few people still residing in the shelter, so they will not have to worry about the presence of children."

Well… Lori supposed she could understand that reasoning. "You should probably enter and direct how the bed should be oriented," she instead advised. "Otherwise you might have to move it yourself."

Shanalorre blinked. "Ah, yes. Thank you for the suggestion, Great Binder. I should do that." She hurried inside after her cousin as Lori patiently waited outside with the pile of stone and her stone-shaping tool that she was going to use to build Shanalorre's table.

When the men finally left, giving her a nod or bow in passing, Lori finally entered the now less-crowded house.

Her immediate impression was that it was a bit dark. Even with the door and window shutters open, the inside of the house had a certain gloom to it, which she didn't think had been present in any of the previous houses. Both the individual ones, and the row across the road had both seemed far brighter inside with the doors and windows open. Shanalorre's cousin was looking around curiously, but from expression she was clearly disappointed. The bed had been placed parallel to one of the long walls, but some distance away from the fireplace, presumably so that it would be within the cone of heat the fireplace would be radiating. Shanalorre was also looking around, but her gaze seemed more assessing, and she was looking down at the ground for some reason.

"Yeah, it's a bit dark," Rian said, standing off the one side and looking around and up. Lori followed his gaze, starring up the beams and rafters of the roof above. Thankfully, there were no obvious points of light on the roof signifying some sort of leak. "It's the angle, the fronts of the houses are facing the wrong way for the sunlight to really get in here for most of the day. If I'd known, I'd have suggested putting windows in the back on either side of the fireplace." He nodded towards the wall in question.

"Does it really matter?"

"Well, it makes it harder to keep the house properly swept if they can't really see the floor. And while most people work outside or in the Dungeon, there are some people who have work that can't be done there. The chandler's been making soap around his house for months now since he doesn't have anywhere else." He snapped his fingers. "Which reminds me, a few people have been making inquiries as to where it might be possible for them to have workspaces separate from their homes. Some, like the chandler in question, needs to boil ashes, which… well, that's dangerous."

Lori frowned. Another thing she had to build. "I'll consider the matter. Regardless, it will have to wait until we return on the next shift. Has Shanalorre said where she wants the shelves to be?"

Shanalorre looked up from her contemplations. "Yes, Great Binder," she said, gesturing towards the wall opposite the bed. "As to the table, could it please be installed over there, in that corner near the window? If I need to use it, the window will best provide light there. Even at night, I believe the lights you placed outside will be sufficient for me to see the writing on the planks."

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Lori stared at her. Then she turned towards Rian.

"She volunteered to help me, and has actually been able to," Rian said, shrugging. "Which is a great relief. Yllian's not around to help collate the inventory numbers for me, and it gives her something to do that's useful to the demesne but isn't too taxing. And I must repeat, she volunteered."

"You said that already."

"I felt it was important, so I repeated it."

Lori shook her head, then turned back to Shanalorre. "Do you have a bath bucket?"

"Not yet, Great Binder."

"Go to the carpenters and correct that. Do so for the other children as well, and see to it that they're issued soap, as well as stress to them that the soap should be conserved."

"The children should also be shown the laundry area," Rian interjected. "And either they'll need to learn to wash their own clothes, or have someone wash their clothes for them, which seems a bit much to ask from the parents who already have children. Unless you want to ask the apprentice newlyweds to do it? Make it part of their training?"

"Do it," Lori agreed.

"Make the newlyweds regret the idea of children, got it," Rian said. "Shanalorre, why don't I help you and Yoshka go and get your things from the shelter so we're get out of Binder Lori's way while she makes you a nice new table? She probably won't be done by the time we get back, but at the very least she can get started. Then you can go show the other children the baths."

"The help would be appreciated, Lord Rian," Shanalorre said. "Come Yoshka, let's get your things from the shelter an bring it back here. We'll be sleeping here with the others from now on."

He started following after them. "You don't need to call me 'lord', Shana. Just 'Rian' will do. You too, Yoshka."

"Yes, Lord Rian."

"Shana, I feel like you're mocking me."

"Not at all, Lord Rian."

"There's that feeling again…"

Their voices faded with distance. Lori took a moment to prepare a weak binding that will start warming the wood in the curing shed. It wouldn't be close to a proper cure, but it would prepare the conditions inside the shed, and she could fairly safely leave it unattended so she could make the table, then start curing things properly when she was done. With the binding in place, she went outside to retrieve the stone she'd taken from the stockpile and move it into Shanalorre's new house.

––––––––––––––––––

It took two trips to retrieve all of Shanalorre and her cousin's things from the shelter. They first brought along the bedrolls and blankets, and furs that Shanalorre had used to stay warm the previous winter, then went back for the clothes and other personal effects, such as the bucket.

Lori had managed to finish the basic shape of the table, though after Shanalorre had come back the first time she'd lowered it slightly so it would be of a size with the other Dungeon Binder. For Lori it would have been just short enough to be mildly irritating.

"Oh no," Rian said the second time they'd come back, with the clothes and smaller effects, "she's making another sacrificial altar." At the words, Shanalorre's cousin looked at what Lori was making curiously.

"It's not an altar, it's a table," Lori snapped at her lord. She gestured towards the stone she was slowly pulling outwards from the central portion, so that it would have enough of an overhang for legs to fit under it when a person was seated on some sort of chair and strong enough to support their weight if they sat on it. Also, she realized Shanalorre would need some kind of chair. Or at least a stool of some sort. "How is this an altar? There are no grooves for blood and other fluids to drain down, no drain holes that let those fluids be caught in a bucket, no hole for setting the fire to burn the sacrifices… it's not that my tables look like altars, it's that altars look like tables!"

"You say that, but the fact it looks like an altar and can only be found in my house, and now Shana's house, is going to set people talking and making up rumors. Again," Rian said. "Thankfully most everyone can count, so they don't think we're sacrificing people, but still."

She waved a hand dismissively. "We don't have nearly enough condemned criminals to make that viable." Then she frowned. "Wait, are there people expecting that sort of thing?"

"No, most people are from edge communities. If they did sacrifices, it was a few symbolic handfuls of grain and a cup of booze, maybe a small beast when they were having a particularly prosperous time. I think sacrifices like that are a more central practice. If there are any Dungeon worshippers, no one seems to feel strongly enough to make a spectacle of it, or ask to make an official event."

"I know a few people who moved here do praise the Dungeons for their blessings," Shanalorre said. "However, as militia they have a less fervent view of the practice."

"So… is it an altar or a table?" Shanalorre's cousin asked, sounding confused.

"It's a table," Lori insisted. "Rian, make sure Shanalorre has a stool she can use with this."

"I'll put that on the list of things I wished you'd told me before you gave Shanalorre a house," Rian said dryly. "Don't worry, we'll take care of it."

Lori nodded. "Good. Now, I have to finish this so I can get on to curing wood…"

"And that's the sound of you being kicked out of your own home, Shana. Come on, let's go and not bother her Bindership. Why don't you show everyone where they can get soap?"

"Yes, Lord Rian. Come, Yoshka."

Lori nodded in approval, already going back to working on the table. Ah, being back in her demesne was so great! She didn't have to touch the stone at all, so her hands were free to use her stone-shaping tool.

Humming happily to herself, she eventually managed to finish with the table, taking the rest of the unused stone outside with her. For a moment, she was tempted to just leave it outside, but she sighed and took it back to the stone stockpile outside of her Dungeon. This was her demesne, she couldn't let it be slovenly, after all.

Then she headed towards the wood curing shed, and sat outside it as she cured wood for the rest of the day, listening to the familiar sounds of the saw pit as they cut logs into beams and planks, and watched the sky turn gray, once more about to rain.

It did rain, but she had on her hat and rain coat, which she buttoned closed. The falling water dulled the sounds of the sawpit, but they didn't cease working. Fortunately, the rain wasn't so thick that the glow of the lightwisps she'd anchored around her demesne's building became visible, and the downpour soon ceased, though the sky remained overcast.

Outside of the wood curing shed, Lori continued to sit, the water that her raincoat and hat hadn't repelled pleasantly warm on her skin, and simply smiled, thinking of the future.