Over lunch, Lori and Rian discussed matters. River's Fork was progressing and remaining relatively stable, and people were all regularly eating in the dining hall now, even if they did so far earlier because of the lack of resources for lights. As she had ordered, he brought back a large amount of the fruit. Fresh pink ladies and hairy blueballs, and some of the older micans and golden buds they had in storage.

"Excellent," Lori said. "Put half of that in with the general food supply for distribution and set the rest aside for me."

Rian raised an eyebrow. "We filled all the cargo containers in the ship with them."

"I know what I said."

"Ah. I should have realized that it was all too good to be true. You're planning to keep all the good fruits for yourself so that you can have sweet snacks any time you want, aren't you? Figures…"

Lori blinked. Then her head slowly began to tilt sideways.

"Oh. Uh, I might have just made a horrible mistake…"

"Yes, you did," Riz sighed.

Eventually, Lori shook her head. "Regardless. There's something I need the fruits for. You may distribute the rest with the current meals."

Rian sighed. "Yes, your Bindership."

"That being said, I'm not to be disturbed for the rest of the day."

Her lord blinked, surprise. "That's… rare. What about emergencies?"

"Define 'emergency'?"

"Uh… sudden arrival of new people, significant infrastructure damage, dragons, fires, floods, and any of the children getting injured…"

Lori considered that. "Fine, you may disturb me for any of those emergencies."

"All right, then. You know, in stories you'd say some sort of hyperbole you're not to be disturbed for, and then that thing would happen and we wouldn't disturb you about it."

"Well, I expect you to be smarter than those kinds of badly written comedy characters."

"They're usually written for dramatic irony and to mock the shortsightedness of the arrogant. Does that mean I can interrupt you even for an emergency that's not on the list?"

"… all right, fine. But don't interrupt me for anything else! I have things to do."

Rian glanced down at her shirt. "Laundry day?"

"I have things to do."

"Of course. Please wash your socks before you ask me to sew them."

"What sort of person do you think I am?"

"Not the sort of person to get drunk before noon?"

––––––––––––––––––

After lunch, Lori locked herself in her room and did something she'd been putting off.

She did her laundry.

Loin cloths, chest wraps, shirts—she liked the fit better than blouses—trousers, and most importantly her socks, they all had to be washed. Unlike Rian, it wasn't like some woman was going to conveniently volunteer to do it for her, so she had to do it herself. At least she had enough soap for it.

Doing the laundry wasn't exactly an unpleasant chore. Over the months of doing it, she'd built her infrastructure. A little stone stool for her to sit on so she didn't have to squat, a flat washing surface covered with the ridged pattern of a washboard, flowing water… mostly it was all time-consuming. First she inspected all of her clothes for holes and worn seams, which were fortunately not that common, all the while once more chiding herself for not having done this before she'd worn the clothes and given them some ripeness. The socks she would sort later after washing, so she could give Rian the ones that needed to be darned.

Once all the repairs had been made, she set about washing them. She anchored lightwisps on the ceiling above her and made them shine brightly with a cool white light so she could see her clothes clearly. Her chest wraps, loin cloths and socks first, because they were smallest and easiest to wash. Shirts next, because they were soft and white. Then her trousers for last, since the heavy cloudbloom weave needed a bit of effort to clean. Also, she used the trousers she wasn't washing yet to cushion the stool she was sitting on, so that the cold hard stone wouldn't make her bare posterior go numb.

When all her clothes had been washed and wrung of as much water as she could squeeze out with her hands, she careful dried them the rest of the way by binding the waterwisps still in the clothes. She took care not to remove all of the water—that would damage the threads—leaving her clothes just dry enough.

For a moment, she considered washing her bedroll and blanket as well, but… well, it was a bit too late for that. She'd need to sleep soon, after all, and washing those two was very time consuming.

When all the clothes had been sufficiently dried and removed from her bath room, the last thing she washed was herself. Splash, soap, scrub, and she was able to refresh herself. Even if she couldn't get hot or cold, washing so many clothes was always sweaty work, which was why she'd long since taken to washing her clothes naked. It was more comfortable and practical that way.

Wearing her last set of clothes, Lori headed downstairs to get some stone from the stockpile near her dungeon's entrance. There had been… two on the first prototype, and… two more on the second?

––––––––––––––––––

"No socks?" Rian said as Lori sat down on her bench, wearing her last fresh set of clothes. Already sitting on the bench, Shanalorre gave Lori a nod that was returned, while the other Dungeon Binder's cousin played with what looked like a beast and a sweetbug that had both been carved from wood. Who had made that?

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"They're still drying," Lori said, looking away from the two toys. "Rian, do we have any of the large containers we used to store vigas that are empty?"

"Uh, you're not planning to alter it or anything are you? Those big jars take a long time to make."

"No, I'm not planning to alter it, I just need one. An empty one that's clean and dry inside."

"How clean? Is a little dusty on the inside fine?"

Lori titled her head. "That should work."

"I'll get one cleaned up for you tomorrow, then."

"Good. Have you and Shanalorre discussed the logistics of her suggestion?"

"Does that mean you're allowing it, Great Binder?"

She waved a hand dismissively. "I leave the logistics to the two of you. How long will this visit last?"

"At least two days," Shanalorre said. "The children will stay overnight."

"That's just long enough for them all to appreciate getting to see each other," Rian said. "And we don't need to bring any additional food for the children. Though we should anyway, give the demesne more of a buffer."

Lori grunted. "How is our food holding out?"

"Hunting's still going well. The problem is still being able to recover enough meat during a hunt before other beasts smell the blood and come to eat their fill, but they've started getting wary of us, and the hunters have been getting better at luring the beasts near the demesne before putting them down, so we've been able to bring more and more of the beasts home." Rian shrugged. "We still have to be careful though. The beasts are wary, but they still consider us more food than threat."

"What about seels?"

"The children are in charge of that, but they're still regularly bringing in a good catch. The children left in River's Fork are doing the same, though of course it's far less." Rian looked over Lori's shoulder with a smile. "Karina actually manages to catch a significant portion of the seels each day when she's there. I mean, she's not feeding the demesne by herself, but the food stores would certainly feel it when she's not around."

Lori nodded. Yes, the brat very clearly needed to be compensated. She added them to the list.

"Uh, on a slightly related note… when are you going to do more work on their dragon shelter?"

She hummed thoughtfully. "When I feel like it."

Shanalorre turned to stare at her.

"And when will that be, your Bindership?"

"When I can stand to leave here to work there again. I have research in progress here that I have been delaying. Once that research is finished, I'll have time to get around to it."

"And if a dragon arrives before then?" Shanalorre said quietly.

"Didn't you manage to survive a dragon by sheltering in the mine?"

Shanalorre's voice was completely flat. "We were lucky. It is ill-advised to rely on that luck repeating."

"Well, what do you expect me to do?" Lori said, matching her tone as she turned to meet the other Dungeon Binder's gaze. "I can hardly protect them by raising darkwisps around the mine. I have no connection to the demesne's core. I cannot give the dragon shelter the same sort of protection as I can this place, and those protections that I can, I am in the midst of developing. Development takes time. I've done what I can."

The two of them stared at each other.

Rian coughed. "Uh, we could… add thick doors to the entrance? You know, something that can keep out dragonborn abominations? Since, uh, the mines don't have those yet. Sort of a glaring oversight on everyone's parts, when you think about it…"

Lori frowned. "Doesn't the mine already have doors? I remember mounting doors in the mine."

"No, those doors were to keep thieves out of the food stores."

Huh. "Well, do it then. Make three layers of doors, just to be sure they can keep things out." Redundancy was never unnecessary when it came to dragons.

"Before or after they finish with your tray?"

Lori turned away from Shanalorre to turn her flat look at him.

"Right, right, afterwards. We'll need you to mount the doors into the stone, though. "

She waved a hand dismissively. "Yes, yes." She turned her look back on Shanalorre. "There, the dragon shelter will have permanent doors. Happy now?"

Shanalorre nodded. "Yes, Great Binder."

"Good. Rian, see to it."

"I'll add it to the list of things we need built," Rian said. "And speaking of which… don't you already have a stool? Why do you need a new one for your shed?"

"I'm not going to be working while squatting on the ground, so I need a higher seat."

"All right, fine, but why have the carpenters do it? Can't you just put together one from bone? Probably not the table, that's too big, but a chair-like thing is in your skill range, right?"

…

"Fine, tell them to stop making the chair. And the table can be replaced with removable, mobile supports for the tray."

"I'll tell them. I think they were planning to do something like that anyway. I've spoken with the coppersmiths, by the way. They say they can help do the experiment tomorrow. And they recommend you provide the heat so that we don't have to spend all day trying to melt the copper."

Lori nodded. "Do they have a mold for the metal?"

"They had Gunvi—er, the potter—make them one a while back, but it hasn't been used yet. Should I tell them it won't be needed?"

"No… best we not use any more bindings than needed. Having a crucible or mold made of bound ice might cause a reaction."

"You could test it? Make a container from bound ice and see what happens?"

"Perhaps later. Right now, it would be best to simply remove as many variables as possible."

"Ah. Good idea. Maybe—" Rian cut off as Mikon, Riz and Umu put seven bowls of soup, a plate of as many round disks of bread, cups, a pitcher of water, and several fruits on the table. He turned towards the three, a vaguely betrayed expression on his face. "Hey, it was my turn to go get the food!"

"You were busy speaking to her Bindership," Mikon said a cheerful smile as Lori took a bowl, one of the bread, counted up the various fruits, and took a pink lady and a golden bud for herself. "We didn't want to interrupt you."

"I'm sure you can find some way to make it up to them later, Rian," Lori said as Yoshka cheerfully pointed at the fruits, and Shanalorre grabbed a mican and a pink lady for the little girl.

"Your Bindership, with all due respect, please don't help."

"Now Rian, her Bindership gives wonderful advice that's worth heeding," Mikon said.

"She does?-!"

She did? "Of course, I do," Lori said. "Why do you sound so surprised?"

"I'm trying to imagine Mikon of all people actually coming to you for advice and you actually giving anything useful, and failing utterly."

Mikon pouted at him in a way Lori knew was flirtatious. "What do you mean, 'me of all people'?"

"I can't imagine any subject you'd actually need her Bindership's advice, except perhaps accounting or tax evasion."

Lori snorted. "Rian, don't be silly. As if I'd give anyone advice on tax evasion when I'll be the one taxing them."

"You're not actually denying having tax evasion advice."

Lori shrugged.

"Your Bindership… did you leave the old continent to escape criminal charges for tax evasion?"

She pointed with her spoon. "Eat your food, Rian."

He rolled his eyes but bent down and started eating. Yoshka, to no one's surprise, had eaten the fruits first, so Shalanorre was now using a piece of bread to wipe fruit juice from the girl's face.

There was a brief silence filled with only the sounds of the dining hall around them and Shanalorre gently scolding her cousin to be neater when eating as everyone just ate.

"So… what did you ask her Bindership for advice on?" Rian finally asked.

"Marriage laws," Mikon said brightly.

Umu and Riz turned to stare at her as Rian started to redden. "You, uh, could have asked me?"

"Perhaps later. When we're ready." She winked at him. Rian couldn't redden further, so he hastily turned to focus on his food as Riz reddened beside him.

"Please stop flirting," Shanalorre said, "the Great Binder is starting to look nauseous."

Lori reached across the table, took one of the fruits that Mikon had picked for herself, and gave it to Shanalorre.

Shanalorre nodded, but reached back across the table and put it back close to Mikon, since her arms couldn't reach that far. Lori shrugged. Well, it had been Shanalorre's fruit, so she could do whatever she wanted…

"Oh no…" Rian muttered. "We're going to have a fruit-based economy, aren't we?"

Lori rolled her eyes. "Of course not, Rian. That would be very silly."