When Dungeon Binder Lolilyuri, Lori to most, awoke that morning, it was by snapping violently awake knowing a dragon was coming.

"About time," she muttered to herself as she got out of bed. She reached out to the bindings of lightwisps she had anchored to the corners of her room, checking their imbuement out of habit even as she activated them. Light filled her room, making her wince at the sudden illumination, and she closed her eyes out of habit. Doing so immediately made her want to lay back down and sleep, so she forced her eyes open and got to her feet, taking inventory.

Her pack containing a change of clothes, a small leather bag of wisp beads she had made, a small jar of dried fruit, another small and very tightly secured jar of honey, and a small coil of copper wire was ready and had been ready for some time, but she ignored that for now. Instead she stood up, feeling the pleasantly cool stone floor of her bedroom under her feet, and staggered to her private bath. She had water there, and Lori splashed water on her face to wake herself up all the way.

The water was also pleasantly cool on her skin, and the sensation was enough to wake her even further.

For a moment, Lori just stood there, contemplating the utterly unpleasant task she had before her. She didn't want to do it. Unfortunately, doing so had been part of the conditions that she had agreed to with the Dungeon Binder of River's Fork Demesne for the latter's submission to Lori's authority. And at this point, she had invested so many hours of work and resources that to break her word and dissolve the agreement would result in a massive loss for her.

Lori reminded herself that going forward with it wasn't a sunk cost fallacy. It wasn't a matter of putting in good resources after bad. She'd already gained from the exchange. It was just extremely unpleasant for her. Unfortunately, it was an unpleasantness she'd undergone before, and unlike previous times, she couldn't even tell herself it would be the last time, that she would never do it again.

Taking a deep breath, she straightened up, wiped the remaining water off her face with her hand and headed back to her room.

Through her connection with her Dungeon's core, Lori felt the pressure the dragon's presence exerted on her demesne's wisps like a wave lapping on the shores of a river, pushing at the grains of sand. She could already discern the direction it was coming from as she pulled on her leather rain coat, settling the familiar garment over her shoulders. The pack she'd prepared went over one shoulder, and she checked it one last time. In their leather sack, the wispbeads rolled against one another, cloudy white and the size of one of her thumb joints.

Securing the sack and the pack, she glanced at her hat, with its wide brim and conical point. On the one hand, she shouldn't need it, since she would be underground. On the other hand, she wouldn't be underground on the way there…

Lori grabbed her hat and put it on her head, then pre-emptively secured it by tying the cords under her chin. If nothing else, the previous two times dragons had passed over her demesne it had become very windy, so best to keep it on.

She grabbed her staff from next to her bed, heading for the door. The passageway beyond was narrow for her Dungeon, only a pace wide. Lori turned towards the stairs at the end of it that led down to the main floor of her Dungeon as she bound the earthwisps of the hallways behind her to narrow the passage, keeping people from getting to her room. Normally, that wouldn't be necessary, but…

To her surprise, the doors of her Dungeon were already open. People were coming in carrying sacks improvised from blankets, rolls of bedrolls and pillows, all heading down to the second level of her demesne. They made way for her as she passed, pressing themselves to either side of the entrance to her Dungeon and stepping out of her way. Beyond the stone defensive entryway into her Dungeon, she could hear Rian's voice, her lord calling out orders and directions.

Lori scanned the horizon, but even knowing where the dragon would be coming from, she still saw no physical sign of it. That in itself was a bad sign. The further away she could feel the dragon's approach, the longer it would take to pass over her demesne and leave them be…

She concentrated on her connection to her core, and through it all the wisps in her demesne, feeling for bound lightwisps, and found two that were moving despite being anchored to earthwisps. One was right outside, just beyond the entryway crowded with people. She went towards it.

It was dark outside, though the predawn sky was slowly brightening to blue along one distant horizon that was obscured by trees and distance. Lightwisps she had anchored to the corners of buildings provided illumination, however, letting her see people already at work removing things from their homes, running to and fro, carrying things, and pushing what seemed like all of the demesne's carts and barrows.

Rian stood there, and despite the fact he wasn't actually doing anything special, he seemed to stand out even though he wasn't significantly taller than anyone else. It might have been the rock with the binding of lightwisps at his feet, dramatically illuminating him from below. He was speaking to various people, quick exchanges of words before they were on to do some unknowable thing and he moved to speak to the next person.

Lori reached out to the darkwisps all over her demesne through her connection to her core, claiming, binding and imbuing them as she always did when there was a dragon. Around them, the gloom seemed to grow just the slightest bit thicker, but she couldn't have the darkwisps dispersing in the light of day before the dragon arrived. She walked towards Rian, people stepping out of her path as they recognized her.

He turned toward her as she drew close, giving her a nod. "Your Bindership," he greeted. After the summer heat that had everyone in her demesne—well, everyone but her—sweating at all hours of the day and some parts of the early night, seeing him without any dripping down his face was almost strange.

"How are you all already awake?" Lori asked. Despite all the activity, the night—well, early morning, she supposed—was calm and cool.

"Shanalorre," Rian said by way of explanation. "She woke up screaming about the dragon coming and started running around knocking on doors to wake everyone up. Then she… uh, collapsed into a ball of nerves and crying for a little bit…" He sighed for some reason. "And then she calmed down and insisted on organizing the children to move down to the second level with everything they owned. I think she's still down there getting them settled down. "

Ah. Yes, the former Dungeon Binder of River's Fork Demesne—technically she still was, but only until Lori finally managed to get around to learning enough Deadspeaking do her own healing—would feel it, wouldn't she? While the other Dungeon Binder didn't know how to use any magic beyond the healing meaning that she was able to perform instinctively, she was still perfectly capable of perceiving life with her Deadspeaking.

Well, at least they were already starting the evacuation into the Dungeon. At the distance the dragon was coming from, they had several hours to get ready, so people should be able to get most of the valuables into her Dungeon…

Unfortunately, she wouldn't be around to see any of it.

"Is the boat ready?" Lori said.

"Clowee's waiting with your ice boat to take you downriver as fast as she can. She should have enough time to take you there and back before the dragon gets here." Rian grimaced. "We might lose the boat, though. It'll probably be too wet to pick up out of the water as it is."

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"Beach it," Lori said. "I'll get rid of all the ice once I feel it on solid ground. You should at least be able to save the frame. If that's too heavy, just remove the steam jet driver and as much of the wood as you can take. That's the part that will be difficult to replace."

Her lord nodded. "River's Fork probably doesn't know a dragon is coming. Do you… do you think we can risk Clowee waiting there so she can take the rest of the children back with her?"

Lori considered that. On the one hand, the children of River's Fork would be far safer in the shelter of her Dungeon. On the other hand… "The only way any children in River's Fork will die is if I do. As I am not going to die, then neither will they."

Rian opened his mouth. Paused. "All right…" He sighed. "Well… here's hoping this works. After all, it's not like we really practiced this beyond the one time you tried it."

"The idea is sound," Lori said.

"The idea relies on you actively paying attention to something that's not right in front of you," Rian countered. "While you're presumably also doing something else that needs your attention. And while you're somewhere you don't want to be and would be trying to distract yourself from."

Lori gave her first lord a flat look. "Should I stay here and let everyone there die, then?" She ignored the way some people people standing nearby looked at her at those words.

Rian shook his head. "No, of course not. It's the right thing to do, even if a selfish part of me if screaming it's not the smart thing to do."

Lori had to agree. Well, partially agree. It didn't matter if it was the 'right' thing to do, but a part of was screaming it wasn't the most intelligent decision she had ever made. Still, she had given her word…

…

She really should stop giving her word to do stupid things.

"Well, enough talk. Once everyone is evacuated to my Dungeon—" that she wouldn't be in, a part of her wailed, "—signal me, and I'll start sealing up everything up and altering the entryway. I still need to secure the Coldhold before I leave"

Rian nodded. "Everyone should be ready to go as soon as you're done. Talk to me before you go, there might be a few things you can seal up on the way downriver."

Lori tilted her head, then nodded. "Fine." She turned and headed for the dock.

The dock lay beyond the stone wall that was meant to hold back the spring floods from the areas that they used near the river. Said wall hadn't been there when they'd built the dock, but it was there now, and will likely be for the foreseeable future, which was to say, forever. At the docks, two boats waited, one significantly bigger than the other. Both were made of wood and ice

At the moment, the larger one was her main concern. The Coldhold was too big to try to fit into her Dungeon, but given all the time, effort, materials and engineering they had invested into the boat—not to mention the plans they had that centered around it—it needed to be protected from any damage the dragon could cause.

Fortunately, they'd had a contingency plan in place to for just this eventuality. They'd even sort of tested it last winter.

Lori ignored the other, smaller boat and the people waiting near it for the moment, putting them out of her mind. She reached out to the wisps of her demesne though her core, claiming the earthwisps of the stone she had long ago left stockpiled in the water under the boat. The stone flowed like liquid, and she carefully shaped them to raise up the base she had made long ago.

During testing, she managed to do this in a little over an hour. However, given how the dragon was still distant and yet on the horizon, Lori chose not to rush. The point was preserving their boat, not damaging it so badly it didn't matter what the dragon did to it.

Stone rose out of the water to build walls around the boat. Given the boat was five paces wide, fifteen paces long and eight paces tall from the bottom of the hull to the top of the platform people used to see ahead of the boat for the one steering, that was a lot of stone. The stone flowed around the beams for the outriggers that helped the boat maintain its balance, because she was not going to try to enclose those as well.

Lori encased the boat in a shell of stone, which she cautiously collapsed inward to force out water and air, while being careful not to damage the boat. Once she'd removed all that she safely could, she had the stone seal itself tight, keeping out water and air, then added more and more stone to both weigh it down and to put solid mass between the boat and the dragon. Then she carefully sank the whole block of stone beneath the water of the river, watching for water trickling into the block. The stone held however, and she began to move the stone block, fused to the river bottom, towards the center of the river to put as much water between it and the dragon that was coming.

By the time Lori had secured the boat in the middle of the river, the light of morning had arrived, obscured by the darkwisps she had imbued. Those hung in the sky like dark clouds, and lingered near the ground like fog. Her stomach made its presence and emptiness known, but she ignored it. Given how people were still milling about, bringing things to her Dungeon—the weaver's families seemed to be carrying inside as much raw ropeweed as they could—it was unlikely that anyone was making breakfast.

She found Rian not far from where she'd last seen him. He broke off the conversation with a man she vaguely recognized as one of the carpenters, obviously waiting for her. "The Coldhold is secured," she told him.

He let out a sigh of relief. "Well, that's one worry out of the way," he said. "You're going now, then?"

Lori nodded.

"All right. You can seal up the mushroom cave. Everyone's moved their things into the Dungeon, so now we're just trying to move as many of our supplies in as well. All the vigas is in there already, so now we're working on the planks and beams."

Lori frowned, looking in the direction of the wood storage and curing sheds. "Tell them to stop that," she said. "Bring in the benches and tables, and what beds that can fit, especially from the hospital. After that, seal off the Dungeon at your discretion and signal me when the boat gets back, and I'll start altering the defenses." The wire to her core that would imbue the darkwisps had been in place for a long time now, all she had to do was touch a binding to it. "I'll sink the wood into the ground again. That seemed to work reasonably well the last time."

Rian glanced up, then nodded. "All right, you heard her Bindership," he called to the people standing nearby. "Let everyone know."

"Yes, Lord Rian," they all acknowledged with a complete lack of synchronization and chorus.

Lori turned away, heading back to the dock and ignoring the overwhelming urge to go inside her Dungeon and just stay there.

The other boat was still there waiting for her.

Lori's Ice Boat was far smaller than the Coldhold at only three paces wide and five paces long. Like the other boat, it was a hull of ice built around a wooden frame for strength. The outside was clad with planks to prevent damage to the ice from impacts, and the inside had planks to prevent slipping on the wet ice as well as somewhere to sit.

Several people were waiting for her, the ones she'd ignored earlier. There was the ferrywoman who operated the boat—whose name Lori couldn't remember—two men whose faces were vaguely familiar—not that she could remember their names right then—a man she vaguely recognized as one of their doctors—again, no name came to mind—and Erzebed, Riz for short, one of Rian's lovers and Lori's temporary Rian when the actual one was unavailable. "We're going," Lori announced, getting onto the boat made of ice. Ahead of them, darkwisps lay all the way to the bottom of the river. Lori reached out through her core and moved the darkwisps on the river out of their path so that they could see where they were going using the lightwisps anchored to the front of the boat.

She sat as the others scrambled after her, finally putting down her staff and pack. As soon as everyone was on the boat, the ferrywoman moved the mechanism of the steam jet driver. Water flowed, and Lori's Ice Boat slowly began to pull away from the dock, moving rear-first into the current of the river.

"Here, Great Binder," Riz said, handing Lori a leather sack as the boat began to turn, the front pointing downriver. "Rian said this was for you."

Lori blinked in surprise. She'd been getting settled in to start sealing up the cave with part of their mushroom farm and their water hub shed. "What is it?"

"I think it's fruits."

Lori snatched the sack away with an unseemly haste that seemed to amuse the militia woman from whom it had been plucked. The mouth of the sack was folded instead of tied shut, and when Lori finally managed to get it open, a selection of fruits met her eyes. Happyfruits, pink ladies, micans, golden buds and hairy blueballs were all mixed together, and apparently enough time had passed none of them were wet with condensation from being taken out of the cold room.

Her stomach conveniently reminded her it was still empty, and had been since she'd woken up at least an hour ago.

"Erzebed," Lori said, still staring at the fruits, "remind me to seal up the mushroom cave and the water hub as soon as I'm done eating."

"Yes, Great Binder."

The reminder set, Lori grabbed a golden bud and started peeling it open. Work could wait, she had breakfast to eat!