"If she's volunteering, it would be a good idea to take her up on the offer," Rian said after Lori had finished choosing bowls and Shanalorre had related the matter to him. "I didn't want to bring it up, but people didn't really enjoy trying to go seeling late in the year. From what I gathered—mostly from Karina, admittedly—it took too many people too long to catch a single seel, though those were adult seels they caught. While she probably won't be singlehandedly feeding the whole demesne, more food is more food. That is, if you're willing to take her up on her offer."

It wasn't often that Lori found herself torn by indecision. Usually, when faced with two things she wanted to do—like going to see two different plays she had heard good things of, buying two novels, or getting two different jam rolls—her choice was 'both'… even if afterwards she'd have to work hard to restore her budget back to what it should have been for the month. This, however, as a rare situation, where her choices were truly mutually incompatible.

A part of her wanted to accept the brat's offer. She was willing and able—her tax payments had been consistent, when she could acquire them—it would help relieve the situation in River's Fork, and she might even be able to teach the children there how to do it themselves. If the terrain of the area had been what had made people cease trying to seel for food, then as someone experienced and enthusiastic about seeling, the brat could probably figure out how to adapt to the situation.

On the other hand… she had meant it when she said she didn't want the children to work. At least, not because they were made to. There was, admittedly, some ambiguity in situations like how the children were the ones who took care of the tuber plots, but as far as she could discern—she had asked Rian, and lurked in the third level, listening for complaining—that initiative had been on the brat's prerogative as she had gotten her younger siblings to help her with it, and she had managed to talk other children into helping them. However, as long as it was self-organized and no adults had been involved, then it was their own business.

For her to accept the brat's offer, however… it felt uncomfortably like putting her to work, especially since the brat wouldn't be paid. Well, no one was getting paid really, but there was something about how she wasn't going to be able to pay the brat that made the skin between her shoulder blades tighten uncomfortably… "I'll take it under advisement," she said as she took her bread and tore off a piece, dipping it in her bread. When it reached her mouth, it became the ideal, warm temperature.

"Well, don't be too long taking it under advisement," Rian said, tearing off his own piece of bread and dipping it. "I doubt her parents know, so if you take her offer, she'll have to tell her parents, and you know how parents can be. One of us, most likely me, will have to talk to assure them we can keep their little girl safe, and she'll probably have to sleep with you in your little room because it's probably not a good idea to have her sleep with the rest of us in the main cabin of the ship."

He put the bread in his mouth, chewing a bit before taking a quick drink of water. He began to stir the bowl, obviously trying to get it to cool. "That's a whole day gone, and Karina will still need to make her own preparations, whatever those are. Unless you want to delay us leaving to wait for her?"

Lori twitched. Ugh, she hated it when Rian had a point. Though… surely so many factors made it a 'dealing with people' matter? "Do you think we need to accept her offer?"

"Yes," Rian said promptly. "It won't interfere with any other work in both demesne and it will allow us to take advantage of an additional food source. Karina is known to the children of the people who moved there and thus might be able to re-establish her friendships with them and begin their adjustment and reintegration into society. It also sets a good example for others. We might need to have someone to accompany her, but we'd need to have someone do that anyway to help her with gutting and cleaning the seels she catches. At worse, I'd simply advise that we accept her offer, but bring her with us one shift later."

Lori blinked. "Why delay that far?"

Rian nodded towards Shanalorre. "Hopefully by that time the other children will be used to this demesne enough that Shanalorre will be able to accompany us back. I don't doubt that parents will want to know how their children are doing, and she can accompany Karina in her work. Even if she doesn't rule the demesne anymore, she'd be able to keep Karina out of trouble."

"I would be more than willing to return Karina's assistance in being my guide when I first came to this demesne," Shanalorre said. "however, if I were to do so, I would need someone to stay with the children, and especially my cousin, to chaperone them."

Lori looked towards Umu with a blank, flat stare, waiting for her to volunteer. The weaver was concentrating on eating her food—and leaning against Rian's side without obstructing his own ability to eat—looking very intent upon her meal. After a moment, Lori said, "Perhaps you can find someone willing to do that, Rian?"

"I'll ask around, since if anyone will be willing." Next to him, Umu began to open her mouth—

"There's no need for that, Rian," Mikon said. "My cousins Koyan and Kayas expressed their willingness the last time I asked, before the Lady Binder decided that all the children could live in her house. They'll still be willing since it gets them out of the house, even if it's only for a few days, and my aunt Kasco already gave them permission if it was for looking after the children. Though they might try to claim the bed, Lady Binder."

"The bed is for Yoshka and the other young girls," Shanalorre said. "However, if there is still room, then perhaps they can fit in. If your cousins are willing Ateh Mikon, perhaps they can stay tonight while I am present so that I may assess their interaction with the children."

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"I'll ask them. Excuse me, Riz…"

Riz muttered, but slid aside to let Mikon swing her legs over the bench they were sitting on and get to her feet. She took a moment to orient herself, looking around—presumably for a table mostly filled with pink-haired women—before heading purposely towards Lori's left.

"Setting aside the matter of Karina's volunteerism for the moment," Lori said, scooping up some soup in her spoon, "what other matters occurred?"

There was a pause.

"Uh, are you talking to me now, or are you still talking to her?" Rian asked.

Lori put the spoonful in her mouth, swallowed. "Yes."

Rian and Shanalorre exchanged glances. Then he waved towards her.

"During your absence, there were no injuries that required my presence," Shanalorre said. "Though I believe that might change in the future. After we finished planting the tubers, and she instructed me that they needed to be regularly watered, Karina began seeling at the river."

"So I discerned."

"Some of the other children have joined her. I declined her invitation to learn at the moment, but some of those in my care accepted." Shanalorre paused for a moment, and a concerned expression came over her usually composed face. "I fear that she might soon do herself an injury. While the other children are seeling ones that they appear to be able to easily handle, Karina appears to be working towards catching larger prey. At the very least, her seels are always bigger than everyone else's."

"That's… concerning," Rian commented.

She nodded, seemingly in agreement. "I have been cautioning her, and to her credit, she seems to be perfecting her technique for catching adolescents so that she may seel them consistently. However, once that happens, I fear she will attempt to move on to much larger prey."

"I'll be careful!"

Shanalorre looked over her shoulder. "It is still worrying. I do not wish you to come to harm. I don't want anyone else to come to harm again." That last was spoken with surprising vehemence, even if the other Dungeon Binder did not raise her voice. She blinked, swaying slightly, then closed her eyes and began to take deep breaths in a way Lori was deeply familiar with. Eventually, her breathing returned to normal. "Beyond that, I have nothing more that I think needs to be reported, Great Binder."

Lori nodded. "Very well. Continue as you have been. Rian?"

"I've talked to the carpenters, and the last house should be done by tomorrow morning," Rian said. "It could have been done today, but there was no sense of urgency, especially with the other projects. Do you want me to make the announcement about them tomorrow?"

She nodded again. "Do it during breakfast. I want you to be present to coordinate the inevitable disruption that will result."

"I thought it would be something like that. Some of the barrels are also finished. I'm going to have them packed with food so that they're not just full of empty space when we take them to River's Fork." He sighed. "My biggest concern is someone decides to try fermenting booze inside them. I'm almost certain that part of the stolen food was being used to do that. Speaking of which though, I realized an oversight on our part. And I say 'our part' because both of us didn't think about it."

"Oh?" Lori said, her voice flat.

For some reason, Rian looked up at the ceiling. "Despite our proclamation of you now being in charge of River's Fork, it's only recently occurred to me that we—and by we of course I mean you—did not publicly update the demesne's legal code to reflect this." He pointed in the general direction of the list of laws near the door. "I mean, I know it's based on militia law, but I don't really know what that is. The specifics, I mean. From context, it's what the militia operate under, but I don't know it."

Riz grabbed her bowl and remaining bread, and stood up hastily.

Without looking, Rian reached out and managed to snag her sleeve. "It's okay Riz, I'm not going to ask you to tell us about it. Should we assume it basically covers the usual spirit of 'don't be horrible to each other' that most laws do?"

Riz glanced at him, then eyed Lori for a moment, before slowly sitting back down. "Basically," she admitted. "It's got specific punishments for things that are a bit more forgiving than civilian law, but it's kind of understood that if you break any of it, you're getting a lot of dangerous glitter-work where you'll be taking your chances more than usual. And your officer can also decide to hand you over to be punished under civie law. Depends on how he feels and how badly you've rainbowed."

"Hey, watch the language! There's children in the next table!" someone at another table said.

"We've glittering heard rainbowed swearing before!" a high-pitched, girlish voice said from the table full of children.

"Irla, don't speak that way. You know how delicate adults can be," Shanalorre said blandly. "And wipe your mouth."

"Sorry, Lady Binder!"

"Ah, the wild frontier, where the children swear like militia," Rian sighed, sounding theatrically nostalgic. "Anyway, I believe it would be in… well, your interest to at least integrate your code of law with the one that River's fork is familiar with. While I'm sure it would be easier to just replace it entirely with your laws, they might have more specific, situational clauses since it sounds more extensive. Of course, your laws take precedence, but it doesn't really cover something like, say, accusing someone of something they didn't do. Under your laws, that's technically not illegal, though the accusation will likely reach you or me, and you'll probably set some terrible punishment for wasting your time once we've settled the matter."

"If I may, Great Binder?" Shanalorre said. "I familiarized myself with our laws as a part of my duties as Dungeon Binder. With your permission, I can organize which parts of the legal code can logically be subclauses of the laws that you established, and present it to you for your decision as to which parts to retain or leave off? It will reduce the amount of decision making that need be done if examples of punishments for specific ranges of wrongdoing are already prepared in advance."

Lori and Rian both blinked and stared at her. She stared back.

"Shanalorre, no offense to you," Rian said, "but that's the saddest thing I've heard this year. The only reason anyone your age should be completely familiar with a demesne's laws is if Lori came up with it, resulting in a short list."

"It was my responsibility. What sort of Dungeon Binder would I be if I were not familiar with the laws we've established?"

Lori found herself nodding in approval. Despite her many, many, many failings, Shanalorre's dedication to her former position was undoubtable. "Very well. Do so. When you finish, give me the plank and I will peruse it for consideration. Rian, see to it she has a plank. A personal plank, since she will likely need to do more writing in future."

For some reason, Rian sighed. "Yes, your Bindership."