Rian was the first out of the boat and over the side, pulling it up onto the shore to beach it properly so it wouldn't drift away. Grem scrambled down to help as Lori and everyone else tried to keep from falling over. Some people in the crowd helped, pulling them up, and one grabbed the anchor and stuck its hooks onto the ground. She heard greetings in the thick, northern accent, on the theme of 'Grem, you're back!' and 'You're still alive!'.

"Everyone!" Grem cried with a big smile on his face as Lori tried to get back on her feet, opening his arms wide in greeting. "I've come back! Rejoice! We have found a new demesne not far from here, and a new Great Binder! We are here to bring everyone back with us so they can all be safe!"

Lori had never been one for public events, but didn't rejoicing usually sound louder?

As Lori straightened, gripping her spear– how was she supposed to hold this? Should she hold it like she did her staff? Would that look suspicious? Would that point her out as the actual Binder?– she saw people shuffling awkwardly and looking at each other, as if daring someone else to say something first "Grem!" someone said from the crowd, stepping forward. A man stepped forward from the crowd, his pale hair unevenly trimmed, as if he'd had to cut it himself, or at least had a barber who'd had no idea what they were doing, but he had a welcoming smile on his face. "You're safe! Thank the alknowledge for that! We were just about to send someone to go looking for you!"

"Lasponin!" Grem cried, opening his arms wide, and he and other man– probably this 'Lasponin' person, but for all she knew that was some kind of informal greeting from their demesne– engaged in some sort of fierce, nearly martial hugging ritual or greeting with a lot of laughing and slapping each other on the back. "You're alive! And everyone else is still alive too! This trip has been worth it already!"

Lasponin smiled at Grem, then turned that smile towards Rian and everyone else. It was a curious, pleasant smile, not exactly welcoming but merely waiting to see if a welcome was appropriate. "And who are all these fine people?"

Grem laughed and pulled Rian into a one-armed hug that looked a lot like a choke hold. "This fine fellow is Rian, the lord of the demesne that we found upriver!"

"Help…" Rian said, making exaggerated choking sounds. "Save me… I can't breathe… losing consciousness…!"

Laughing, Grem released him, and Rian took big, heaving breaths, theatrically bending over with his hands on his knees. He feebly waved a hand in greeting. "Ah… hello everyone. Uh, we come in peace?"

Grem let out a laugh. "Hah! He doesn't seem like much, but he was very kind. Greeted us with bowls of stew and chairs when we arrived at their demesne, and not a word about visitors' tax!"

"Not that we're implying you should reciprocate," Rian said, finally straightening and offering one of his charming smiles. "Though not having to pay visitors tax would be nice, as we're flat broke. Besides, we just had breakfast. Oh, where are our manners?" He turned and started pointing. "Um, that's Lori, don't worry about the glare, she's always like that." Glare? What glare? She wasn't glaring, her face was tranquil and blank! "The skinny one is Deil, and next to him is Tackir. And may I present his Bindership, Binder Landoor. He, uh, doesn't talk much. Not really any good at public speaking. Or any sort of speaking at all, he's awkward when he talks to people. But he's a nice guy, and even came all the way out here so we'd be able to bring the wounded back with us faster."

Lori kept herself from nodding in approval. Good, an excuse for the idiot not to talk. And he looked like he even understood it, since he was keeping his mouth shut… and for some reason was raising his nose even higher in the air, like he was trying to see people through his nostrils. Ugh, was this behavior based on some stupid story he liked?

As intended, everyone focused their gaze at Landoor, looking nervous. Really, that 'looking through your nose at them' wasn't doing you any favors, you idiot. Lasponin gave the idiot a nervous glance, glanced at Grem (who nodded encouragingly), and sketched a bow, "Um, welcome to our humble settlement, Great Binder," Lasponin said nervously. "We are honored by your visit. If it pleases you, we can speak about this further in my office?"

Landoor imperiously acknowledged with a nod, then seemed to just ignore the man, staring at Rian. Rian in turn gave Lasponin an apologetic smile. "Like I said, not good with talking. But he takes care of us and he works hard doing it, so we like him anyway." He turned to Landoor and bowed. "Your Bindership, perhaps you should stay by the boat, rest your legs, while we go and talk to Lord Lasponin here, find out the state of the wounded for you?"

Landoor nodded, vaguely waving a hand in a stupid-looking way as if trying to convey meaning without talking, then sitting down. Argh, don't just put the staff on your knees, you idiot! You'll chip the quartz!

"Great!" Rian said cheerfully. "Lori, you come with me, in case I need a runner. Deil, Tackir, stay with his Bindership will you, you know how he gets lonely."

The two nodded. Lori did as well. Her lord was showing his capability to think and adapt, and she approved, especially the excuses he made to explain away Landoor's muteness. Good thinking, that. She might even tell him so, if she felt like it. Giving the idiot one last glare that promised unpleasantness of a vague and unspecified variety if he did anything to her staff, she scrambled down from the boat, careful not to impale herself on her spear.

"Oh, you can leave that Lori," Rian said, gesturing at the weapon. "We’re through the Iridescence, so we don't need to watch for beasts anymore, now that we're safe in civilization."

She gave him a flat look, but hefted the spear back onto the boat. Well, it wasn't like she knew how to use one of those things properly anyway. That done, she followed after him, standing behind him like she'd used to follow her mother when they'd gone to market.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Lasponin had been speaking quietly to some of the men while Grem waited politely at a distance where he probably couldn't hear what was being said. Did they distrust him now? They should, he was full of lies. Lies and pretty promises. Eventually the man waved to them, and Grem followed him confidently, Rian and Lori trailing after. Lori tried to concentrate and sense any voids of wisps behind her, before she remembered she couldn't do that, as this wasn't her demesne.

Yet.

Still, she did glance back, and sure enough four people just happened to casually be walking in their direction, with some more around the boat even as the rest slowly dispersed. Lori quickly turned back as if she hadn’t noticed them and quickened her pace to catch up to Rian.

Lasponin's office turned out to be a house on the trunk of the main tree inside the dome, situated off the ground. They had to climb stairs composed of thick branches sticking from the main trunk, sticking out and flattened like steps for a pace before eventually splitting and beginning to grow like proper branches. Lori paused, taking in the blatant disregard for sustainability even as Rian and Grem both followed the pale-haired man up the stairs like they'd seen it all before. Already little sprouts of new growth were sticking out of the steps. Shaking her head, she followed them inside.

The floor was made of smooth, living bark, and the walls were made of living wood as well. There were round, knot-like holes of windows that were shaded leafy canopies layered like shingles that were clearly growing unnaturally. It went deeper into the main tree than it seemed from outside, forming an entry room that seemed like a general use space, while a curtain door showed more rooms had been carved into the tree. Sleeping quarters and food storage? That seemed the most likely.

The outer room they entered had simple wooden furniture. Not living wood, but simple benches and a low table held together by joinery and carpentry skill, not unlike the furniture they had in Lori's Demesne. Lasponin offered them the benches first, as a good host, and waited for Rian and Grem to sit down first. Lori sat down in another, smaller bench. It was a bit low for her, and she had to place her legs awkwardly. But it was a chair.

Finally, the pale-haired man sat down. "I'm sorry I can't offer you anything to drink," he said. "But we had to reserve our alcohol stores for medical purposes."

"Sure," Grem said with a wink. "'Medical' purposes. Right."

"I'm serious," Lasponin said as Lori looked around, noting the design of the place. It smelled… wooden. Parts of the floor's living wood was getting trampled and torn, obviously too delicate for dedicated foot traffic. "We had to use them to keep infection out of wounds. With the demesne down, the air was full of dustlife again."

Rian frowned. "Sorry, my medical terminology is… well, practically non-existent, but dustlife… you mean those small things, eats flesh, makes things smell bad, causes disease, invisible to the naked eye?"

"Yes, but that's a common misconception," the man said. "They're not invisible, just too small to see. They're visible through a parvusight of sufficient enhancement, and some Whisperers can see them too, with the correct binding on their eyes."

"Ah, thank you for clarifying," Rian said, nodding as if he actually knew what any of that meant. He probably did. Her useful lord was full of surprises like that. "Wasn't sure if I was thinking of the right thing, since I'd only read about it in passing in a book once." Rian, what sort of bizarre books do you read? "But given your familiarity, can I assume you're a doctor?"

"Yes, I am," Lasponin said. "I'm the senior-most of the doctors in River's Fork."

Rian nodded. "We came here to help transport the wounded to our demesne because we didn't know about… well, this," he said, waving at everything. "But since we're not on any sort of time limit anymore, there's no longer any rush. What can we do to help?" His face was earnest and sincere and all that heroic rainbow.

"Are you serious?" the doctor said.

"No, I'm Rian," was the quick reply.

Lori snorted as Grem let out a chuckle. "See?" he said, thumping Rian on the back, making the smaller man wince. "A good man, this one."

"We brought some boxes of preserved meat in the boat," Rian said. "It's not much, but it should keep you fed for a while until more people can get back on their feet and hunt, or whatever you did for your food before all this."

"That's… very generous of you," Lasponin said.

"Nonsense," Rian said, waving away the words. "We're neighbors, right? It's only civilized we help each other. We're the only ones out here, after all. Who else can we turn to?"

Lasponin frowned. "Is your Binder aware of this generosity?"

"My Binder has entrusted me to handle all negotiations and dealings with other people," Rian said guilelessly as Lori tried to stare a hole into the side of his head. Sadly, no piercing light came from her eyes. Stop just giving things away and find out who the new Binder was! "Has yours done the same?"

The doctor frowned. "What?"

"Well, you're negotiating with us," Rian said. "So while I can assume that you've officially been entrusted to do so, I'd better check, just in case. I don't want to be wrong and have your Binder mad at me for not going through proper channels or anything like that."

"I could ask you the same," the doctor said. "How do I know that your Binder truly has entrusted you to negotiate on their behalf, Lord Rian?"

Rian gestured, and for a moment, Lori's heart jumped as he seemed to be pointing right at her, before she realized the boat with Landoor and the other two was somewhere behind her. "We can ask them, if you like. In fact, we can have it written down. It'll be on a stone tablet though, we're kind of low on paper right now."

"I… no, that won't be necessary," the doctor said.

"If it'll be a problem, this doesn't have to be anything official," Rian said with a friendly smile. "Just some people talking amongst ourselves in maybes and possibilities. In my experience, Binders are seldom unhappy about a problem being already solved by the time they find out about it."

"Ha! Koshay liked solving problems," Grem said. "Why do you think we have all these trees like this? He made it to keep the rain off while we built."

"It seems… kind of inefficient," Rian said.

"Well, he liked solving problems. He just wasn't very good at it," Grem said.

A pained look came over Lasponin's face.

"Ah. Sorry, I…" Grem trailed off.

"Yes… sometimes I do too," the doctor said.

There was a heavy silence.

"Um… should I come back at a better time?" Rian said, looking between the two of them.

The pale-haired man shook his head as if to clear it. "No, no, now's as good a time as any," he said. "I don't claim to speak for our Binder, but I'll bring your proposals to them and they can decide."

Rian nodded. "Sure, that works for me," he said. "Now, Grem wasn't very specific, but there was mention of broken bones. Our boat isn't very big, so we can't take many, but how many of those whose families had to leave them behind are fit to travel even a little? No offense doctor, but I'm sure they'd much rather spend their recovery time with their families, if at all possible."

"Well, I'm glad to say that it's all of them," Lasponin said. "Our Binder was able to heal them soon after they claimed the demesne."

Deadspeaker. Likely a savant. Likely a healing savant.

She could take them.