As fast as Lori's Ice Boat could move, between traveling with the current and steam jet driver mounted on it, it still took some time to get down to River's Fork. Time Lori had to spend hot and sweating even with the binding she'd anchored to her hat to keep her head cool. This time she had also tried anchoring airwisps to the exposed ice of Lori's Ice Boat, using them to make a binding that blew air in her general direction. It wasn't perfect—the breeze generated tended to carry droplets of water towards her when water splashed against the side of the boat—but it was certainly cooler than her previous trips so far.

She dreaded having to get off the boat when they reached their destination.

"Anything?" Lori said.

"No new injuries as of yet," Shanalorre replied from beside her, one hand keeping the reed hat on her head from flying off. "There is currently a degree of intermingling. If these arrivals have hostile intent, they haven't shown it yet."

That was a good indicator that this was Rian, but there was still the possibility that this was a group from the Golden Sweetwood Company, come to try and claim River's Fork for themselves, or set up another demesne on the river. Another demesne on the river could impose tolls on their ships passing through, which would be an unacceptable imposition.

Feeling her hands clenching into fists, Lori forced them to relax, took a deep breath, and began breathing evenly to calm herself. No, no, she shouldn't aggravate herself over a possibility. It was much more likely this was simply Rian come back home. It was within the time they had scheduled, after all.

Across the boat from her, Riz looked eager, something the escort of militia she'd chosen seemed to be teasing her about. At least they weren't being loud about it. The rest of the space on the boat contained the current shipment of food for River's Fork, frozen meat packed in ice to keep them cold. The demesne still had its own stores of grain, which had recently been checked and had been confirmed that no one had stolen from it again.

Though if this was Rian, they'd have to recalculate the food deliveries to account for the new Deadspeaker. Well, she'd have Yllian recalculate how much more food they needed. Lori had the amounts needed per person written down somewhere on one of the notes in her room, but she had other people to handle those matters. Now that Rian was back, he could take care of it.

They passed by an enormous beast drinking on the river bank, the Iridescence washed off around its mouth as its tongue lapped at the river water. The triple-row of knife-like spines running along its back glittered in prismatic colors as sunlight shone off them. Lori glanced at it disinterestedly, and was about to turn away when she blinked and her gaze snapped back to it. "Stop the boat!"

Everyone stared at her, but to her credit, whatshername immediately moved the lever on the driver bound tool, deactivating the binding propelling them. Still, the boat continued to move, carried along by the river and their own momentum.

"Turn us around! Turns us around!" Lori hissed, pointing back towards the beast she'd seen as she got up on her knees to see above the heads of her escort seated on the other side of the boat. It was undoubtedly the typhon beast that had ruined their hunting. If she could get a shot at it… "No!"

The typhon beast was turning away, somehow managing to not rub against the trees on either side of it as it stalked back into the woods. Lori was surprised she couldn't hear its thundering footsteps. In the plays she'd watched, beasts were always accompanied by resounding, drum-like footsteps… provided by the actual drums of the musicians… Oh.

Lori could only watch impotently as it walked further and further away from the river, vanishing from her sight entirely. Sighing in frustration, she dropped her posterior back down onto the floor of the boat, which made the boat rock alarmingly. "It's gone. Get us back on our way," she ordered.

For the rest of the trip downriver, she reviewed how to properly throw lightning and resolved to have a binding of lightningwisps ready on the way back home. Just in case…

––––––––––––––––––

The familiar sight of the Coldhold at the dock in River's Fork finally allowed Lori to relax, the tense knot in her chest loosening. That meant Rian was back, right?

Riz was up on her knees as if trying to see over the crowd of people who seemed to be unloading one of the salt barrels from the large boat. "Where is he?" she muttered.

"Get down, will you?" whatever-her-name-was the ferrywoman said as she guided Lori's Ice Boat closer to the dock. "You're going to fall into the river if you keep doing that. We're almost there, keep your bell in—" For some reason the ferrywoman glanced at Shanalorre and stuttered. "—I mean, just sit down already!"

With a sigh, Riz sat back down as the rest of the escort smirked at her.

Lori sweated impatiently as Lori's Ice Boat moved alongside the dock and was secured. By the time she managed to get off, Yllian was there, the new reed hat he'd taken to wearing recently being used to fan his face. "Great Binder," he greeted. He nodded to Shanalorre next to Lori. "Lady Binder."

Shanalorre nodded back.

"Yllian," Lori acknowledged. "Anything I should know about?"

He shook his head. "Nothing immediate, although there have been a few things. Since Lord Rian is here—"

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Tell him instead," Lori confirmed. "Where is he?" Now that she was closer—and standing—she couldn't see anyone with Rian's distinctive coloring.

"Oh, he's over… huh. He's gone. He was right there, Great Binder," Yllian said. "I'll go look for him."

"Don't bother, I'll call him," Lori said. She took a deep breath and channeled magic through her lungs, then up through her wind pipe. Her mouth closed, she claimed the airwisps inside it, forming them into a binding. Lori opened her mouth, barely noticing Shanalorre putting her hands over her ears. "Rian! Come here!"

The binding of airwisps amplified the sound of her voice as the sound passed through it, making her voice resound. Next to them, Yllian flinched. It wasn't that loud. She hadn't even bothered to put a binding of airwisps over her ears. Still, it made the crowd of people look towards her, then those carrying the salt barrel hurriedly turn back to paying attention to it.

There was a brief, pause, and then Rian's head popped up from the hatch on the Coldhold's floor. "Ah, I'd know those musical tones anywhere!" he called out cheerfully as he scrambled up the ladder. "Hello, your Bindership! You roared?" He turned his head. "Hey, Riz!" He waved.

"Your presence—" Lori paused, then deactivated the binding of airwisps. She hummed to make sure, then nodded. "Your presence was missed, yes."

"What? I can't hear you! Wait a moment, I'll come to you!"

For some reason, Yllian started coughing, his head turned to one side and a hand covering his mouth. Lori still took two steps away, nudging Shanalorre towards him. If he'd caught something, she wanted it washed before it started to crystalize. Shanalorre dutifully raised a hand and reached for Yllian's bare elbow. "Lord Yllian, I'm to check you for any sickness. Again," she said. "Once more, the Great Binder finds your unexplained coughing concerning."

"O-of course, Lady Binder," Yllian complied, and Shanalorre's hand touched his bare elbow. A moment later, she lowered her hand.

"No illnesses," Shanalorre reported as Rian finally reached them, for some reason hand-in-hand with Riz. "Lord Yllian seems to have just had some saliva go down the wrong tube."

"Be more careful," Lori chided. "It would be inconvenient for me if anything happened to you."

"Isn't it wonderful to hear how much she cares about us?" Rian said, one hand theatrically rubbing at his eyes as if removing tears. The lantern he was holding in that hand swung, striking him in the mouth. "Ow. Ah, my actions had immediate consequences, I see."

Lori rolled his eyes. Useless thespian. "Rian, report," she said. "Were you successful?"

"Yes, your Bindership," he said cheerfully, imaginary tears forgotten. "All goods sold, everything on our shopping list purchased—and I even got you some nice things at a low, low price—and new people recruited. And they're nice people too! I'm sure you'll find them perfectly tolerable if you need to talk to them."

"I don't care about nice they are, I want to know if they're capable," Lori said.

"Oh, they're very capable," Rian assured her. "Uh, although…"

"What?"

Rian coughed. "Well, they have… not so much demands as things they'd like to do."

"I'm not giving them land," Lori said flatly.

"I've explained your land grant conditions to them. Uh, to be honest, Taeclas is already thinking of a plan to set up a vegetable farm."

Lori gave him a flat look.

"That's the female Deadspeaker we recruited," Rian clarified. "If you give me a softened rock, I'll write out her name and even put in a small sketch so you can tell her apart from everyone else."

She blinked. "You can sketch?"

"Eh, a little. It's been years, and I'm wasn't very good at it, but I can give it a try again." A thoughtful look came over his face. "You know, I think I'll withdraw the promise of a sketch until I've had time to practice a little."

"I'll get you the rocks," Lori said. She frowned. "Why are you carrying around a lamp?"

"Oh, this is one of those nice things it was able to get you at a low, low price," Rian said.

"Why would I need a lamp?"

"You wouldn't, but I thought you'd enjoy having a professionally-made wisplight to examine."

Lori's eyes immediately snapped to the lamp, examining it more closely. She finally noticed the bead receptacle, the switch, the adjustment knob… "You bought a wisplight?" Next to her, Shanalorre was also examining the bound tool, the younger Dungeon Binder's eyes intent.

"Actually, I bought a whole bunch of bound tools," Rian said cheerfully. "Including several carpentry tools. They were cheap because Covehold had run out low-denomination wispbeads to fuel them. Of course… that was before we sold all the wispbeads there. I expect the price of bound tools has since risen as they've become useable again."

Lori blinked, before gritting her teeth as she realized she had completely missed that possibility. "Good work," she complimented. "Where are they?"

"Still in the front room. Wasn't sure whether you'd want to unload them here or Lorian. Though I recommend letting River's Fork have half the wisplights I brought for them to use. Then you can reconfigure the ones into something else… like, say, a bound tool to move air around to keep your unfortunate, very useful lords from overheating at night and being unable to work the following day?" Rian said with a bright smile, his finger flicking between himself and Yllian.

She gave him a flat look, then sighed. "I will consider the matter," she said. She took a deep breath. "Now… about the Deadspeakers you recruited…"

"Ah, right, their dema—not demands, just things they'd like to do!" Rian corrected himself hastily. "Uh, you see, one of them, L—I mean, the male Deadspeaker wants to spend time sketching, recording, and studying the local plants, beasts, bugs and fursh. Which means he'll need time… you know, not working."

Lori stared at him. "He follows the Mysteries of Alknowledge?" she said, though it was more a statement than a question.

"Him and his sister, though I get the feeling she's not very dedicated to it," Rian confirmed. "As your lord, I recommend letting him. Not necessarily everyday—after all, we're feeding him on the understanding he does work that contributes to the demesne—but some kind of scheduled, regimented free time for him to do his research is a small price to pay for his skills and the work he can do. You know, like letting him take every fourth or fifth day off, or only letting him have time off once he's done the day's scheduled duties of something. Who knows, his research might be useful. It's certainly a small price to pay to keep him satisfied."

"I'll be the judge of that."

Rian nodded. "Yes. You will." He smiled. "Do you want to meet them now or do you want to hear how the trip went and what loot we've got?"

Lori rolled her eyes. He should know the answer to that. "Report," she ordered.

"Yllian, can you show our new people around and take them to lunch when it's time? I need to exposit to her Bindership."

"I'll take care of them, Rian."

Rian nodded. "Shall we talk about this on the ship? That way I can also show you what we brought back."

Lori nodded back. "Acceptable. Shanalorre, come with me. Take note of the additions to the inventory."

"Yes, Great Binder. Welcome back, Lord Rian. The Great Binder was saying how your presence was missed."

Rian smiled. "Wishing she only had one person she needed to talk to about things?"

Obviously. "Obviously."