It was very tempting to boldly say 'No', throw him into the water, then turn around to go back to her demesne.

But if what he was saying is true…

"How did no one rob you blind in Covehold?" Rian said.

Lori blinked at him. "What?"

He gestured vaguely in the general direction of her face. "You practically have 'greedy mark, please swindle' written on your forehead." The lord glanced at the other three men leveling spears at Grem. "It's not just me, right? You can see it too, right?"

Landoor looked confused, but the other two avoided Rian's gaze.

"See, they think so too," Rian said. "You're a disturbingly easy mark, Lori. Or is this just because demesne expansions are involved?"

"Additions," Lori pedanted. "Expansions involve increasing the size of the current demesne by way of outward growth."

"… noted," Rian said dryly.

"And incidentally, I have never been swindled," Lori said. "I'd never give anyone my beads for any reason."

"I feel I should have seen that coming," Rian said, nodding. He took, a breath, sighed. "So, I can almost guess, but I have to ask: what are we going to do now? Because knowing you, either we throw Grem into the water, go back home, and start massacring the new arrivals 'just in case'–"

"Wait, what?" Landoor said, shocked.

Lori glared at him "What do you take me for?"

Rian winced. "I… sorry, that was wrong of me. I shouldn't have–"

"We wouldn't just 'go back home and start massacring', we'd kill them in their sleep," Lori said. "Much safer, and they're less likely to fight back."

Grem looked up, aghast.

"I'm fairly certain she's not actually planning to do it," Rian told him. "She's just saying how she would if she did… even as I say it I realize that's probably not comforting. But, getting back to the point… what now? Do we go back or do we keep going? Because either way, we have to pick what we're doing for the night."

She supposed he was right. Lori had to make a decision.

She stared towards the demesne. The other claimed demesne, standing in the middle of nowhere.

"We go in," Lori said. She turned intense eyes down at Grem. "You had better be telling the truth."

The man kept his head bowed.

Rian sighed quietly. "Well, I suppose it's safer to camp in there than out here, no matter what we do. And we have Grem with us, so any people in there will probably not attack us on sight." He paused. "Unless someone got here first and they're the one who claimed the demesne after killing everyone inside."

Grem's head snapped up again, and even Lori gave him an incredulous look.

"What?" he said. "It's a possibility. After Grem and his people left, some other wizard and their settlers came along, claimed the place and killed everyone."

"Why would anyone do that, Lord Rian?" Landoor said, aghast.

"No idea, but it would certainly explain why they didn't send anyone to go after Grem's group and tell them it's safe to come back," Rian said. "Unless there's some sort of politics involved, and the people here didn't actually want you back or weren't waiting to for you to come back to them, in which case…" He looked down towards Grem. "Well, it's only a thought. I'm sure your friends aren't dead, Grem."

Grem didn't seem comforted by that statement.

"In the meantime, you're to disarm," Rian said. "Because right now, you're all sort of suspicious. We'd have to be a special sort of idiot not to think so. So until we can straighten this all out properly, please take off your belt and give it to me. I'll give it back when I've gotten the sword off."

––––––––––––––––––

They pulled up the anchor and let themselves drift into the demesne, using oars to conserve strength. Once on the other side of the boundary, Lori took a deep breath, claiming the air. It felt… normal, the way she'd gotten used to doing it ever since her school days. It was the familiar sensation of doing Whispering in a demesne.

Lori had to conclude she'd become spoiled, and preferred the sensation of Whispering in her demesne.

After moving some distance from the edge in case a hungry beast decided to endure the pain for a chance to get at them, they beached the barge on the bank opposite from where Grem said the settlement of River's Fork had made their Dungeon. The men helped pull the barge out of the water and started to unload as Lori bound lightwisps against the fading daylight. While it wasn't that dark over the river – the storm moon and the red moon were out and giving plenty of light, albeit tinged pink– they were in the shadow of the woods, which cut down on the amount of illumination that came to them.

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A fire was made using the firewood they'd packed along, adding to the lightwisps Lori could bind. It was a slow process, since she had to be careful and breathe now, but this was how she'd been doing it for years. It was just falling back on it.

Breath, she missed her demesne.

With the light in place, they were able to unpack and lay out sleeping rolls. Lori twitched at seeing that. If there was one thing she regretted, it was not buying a sleeping roll before she got on the ship to this continent. All these months, she'd been sleeping on the ground on top of her rain coat. The only reason she had a blanket and pillow was because she'd taken it from a dead woman's stuff.

"I'm sleeping on the barge tonight," she told Rian.

He nodded. "Yeah, I figured you would," he said. "Do try to save us if you hear us screaming for help."

Lori shrugged. She was a heavy sleeper. "I'll try."

He sighed. "I suppose that's the most I can ask for." He then held up his spear. "I don't suppose you can magic a light around this?"

She stared at him blankly. "Why?"

He shrugged. "What can I say, you've spoiled me. I want to take a bath and I don't want to do it in the dark."

Rolling her eyes, she breathed in, stared at the fire, and began gathering lightwisps in front of her eye, imbuing them so that they'd glow brighter as she felt for a rock on the ground, and then physically bound them to that. "Here," she said handing him the rock that seemed to possess a bright, fiery glow. "Be quick, that won't last very long."

"Thanks!" Rian said cheerfully, taking the rock. "Come on boys, Grem, let's spare Binder Lori the sight of us so she can eat in peace."

They didn't go very far, just to the other side of the barge to undress and splash into the river, but it was far enough that Lori managed to feel she was private. She breathed a sigh of relief as she sat down with her back to a tree, opened a jar of rations, filled a bowl, and began to eat. As she did, she considered the possibilities before her.

The demesne had been claimed. That fact was incontrovertible. Grem had claimed he hadn't known it would be, but hadn't been that surprised to see that it was, either. In that, his actions were more trustworthy than his statements. He had expected the demesne to be claimed. But he also wanted them here, to... what? Rescue wounded? With the demesne up, surely they could just come back, even if they had begged to be part of Lori's demesne. Yet instead, he was actively encouraging Lori to take the demesne for herself, asserting that the current claimant would be untrained.

Some sort of savant? That was really the only way anyone could 'suddenly' turn out to be a wizard. Lori wasn't a savant herself, but she'd read up on them. Unlike initiates, who had to be identified through standardized breath tests and subsequently trained, savants manifested some sort of instinctive use of magical ability. It wasn't anything special, just a knack to do one thing with magic, maybe two if they were lucky. Sparks of light, making ice, healing cuts… small, weak manifestations that could be accomplished with small magic, equal to a breath or two. They still needed to be trained and taught anyway, they just ended up being easier to find.

So, assuming that Grem wasn't completely deceiving them, only intermittently… a savant. A savant of unknown magic was controlling this demesne. Lori could almost see it. At its heart, claiming a demesne relied on the most basic of principles: taking in magic, and releasing it to bind something to your will. Using it to create a core required a certain level of advanced expertise to know the right technique. But claiming an established dungeon was much simpler, since the infrastructure had already been put in place, and all a wizard really had to do was to make it theirs by the most simple act of magic. Someone could– and it pained her to admit it– potentially get lucky just by doing magic around the core, or in contact with the core for long enough.

An inexperienced Binder, as she had found, really had only one advantage: endless magic to draw upon without having to breathe it in. They didn't learn to use magic instantly. They'd still need to be taught. A savant with a demesne… was still just a savant. They'd know only one, maybe two things.

Lori had actually gone to school. She had actually been recognized as a qualified Whisperer. In the olden days, she'd be considered a journeyer, meant to hone her understanding of Whispering, but certainly not an apprentice anymore. She could learn for herself, instead of simply being taught.

Against a savant, even a savant who knew how to make undead, or to send out piercing light, or could trap her in time, or create a twister… she could defend herself against them. And from there she could attack.

She could… kill.

And there was nothing to stop her.

Lori realized she was staring at her bowl, at the meat lying in the broth. In the slightly pink light cast by the red moon, the meat looked bloody.

Well, this was in the middle of nowhere. It was only a matter of time before someone realized that and started murdering people they didn't like.

Lori decided she didn't like whoever had claimed this demesne instead of her.

By the time Lori was finished eating, the men had finished with their wash, wearing new clothes while they hung their used ones to dry on cords of rope, made from ropeweed. When they eventually got around to some money-based economy, some brat was going to be… well, at least securely employed as a roper.

"Anything try to eat you?" she asked.

"The usual. Just stay out of the grass so the slugs can't suck your blood," Rian shrugged. He somehow looked cleaner than any of the others. "Did you leave us something to eat?"

She rolled her eyes and handed him a bowl of hot stew. "Keep them away," she said, "I'm taking a bath."

She supposed she'd been spoiled regarding that too.

"Got it," he said. "Uh, you might want to bathe slightly upriver of where we were, just in case."

She gave him a quizzical look.

He shrugged. "Look, nature called. We waited until after taking a bath, at least. We'll all probably take care of the, uh, other matter later."

Lori's face twisted in disgust. "Well… at least I don't have to dig a latrine," she muttered. "We have a shovel. Make sure they bury it."

"Yes, Binder," he said, looking mildly embarrassed.

Why did she think leaving her demesne was a good idea again? Ah, right, someone said there was an unclaimed demesne. Next time, she was going to stay home… and have Rian check the place first to see if it was worth leaving.

Shaking her head ruefully and muttering to herself, she picked up her staff and went to have a bath.