They ate lunch—bread, meat stew with tuber chunks, and fruit—with Lori trying to ignore the nonsense happening in front of her. It was difficult. Rian was making a big theater production about how much he was enjoying the food. Not a small production, where the audiences stand, there's only a single person operating between one to three instruments by themselves to provide accompaniment, and costumes are more often than not the thespians' normal clothes with a towel or blanket to give the impression they're wearing something else. This was a big production, with cushioned and slightly reclined seats, a full band with a conductor, elaborate costumes, and a salacious scene involving actual nudity from the waist up and the kinds of sounds that came from her mothers' room the nights before she had to remind them the soundproofing in their apartment was terrible.

She never understood why so many perfectly good plays had those scenes. They added nothing useful to the plot. She usually took the opportunity to step out and buy some more snacks, since she wouldn't miss anything important.

The comparison was mostly from the sounds Rian was making. While they weren't as loud as her mothers, they certainly seemed to have as much emphasis as he ate his bread, holding it folded like a tube filled with stew and slowly eating it from one end.

"…missed this…" she heard him say, sounded almost in tears as he chewed a mouthful of bread, tubers, stew and meat. "Missed it so much…"

"Lord Rian, don't talk with your mouth full," Shanalorre scolded. "Eating and breathing utilize the same tract. If you try to do both at the same time, the food going down your throat could be diverted to your lungs and obstruct your airway." Her words had the rote cadence of something she'd literally repeated word for word many times, and the tone was exasperated.

Thankfully, that convinced Rian to lower his troupe's production budget.

After lunch Lori had Rian call the two Deadspeakers to her table so she could speak to them again. This time she made sure to make clear that she only wanted to talk to the Deadspeakers and not the women with them so that Rian wouldn't bring all of them.

Technically he did exactly as she had ordered, but given the two women had followed them anyway…

Lori resolved to simply ignore them.

"Now, as Rian has informed you, I control two demesnes," Lori began.

That made the two blink. "I thought Binder Shanalorre was the Dungeon Binder of River's Fork?" Taeclas said, Rian having reminded her what their names were.

"Presently, yes, but she is also my subordinate as she has surrendered to my authority," Lori elaborated. "As such, River's Fork is one of my demesnes. My primary demesne is further upriver. Taeclas, you and your wife will be coming with us to settle there, so that both demesnes will have a Deadspeaker for assisting with growing crops."

"Don't worry, you'll still have free housing, use of the bath house, and everything else I promised," Rian assured them. "You just won't be here when you have it."

"Why me, though?" Taeclas asked. "Why not Lidzuga?"

"You're better at meanings involving plants and Lorian is where we've planted the bulk of our crops," Rian said.

"Ah…" Taeclas nodded. "That makes sense…"

"Um… your Bindership?" Lidzuga ventured. "What about my… probationary period?" Taeclas turned to him curiously.

"Its condition will be revised appropriately," Lori said. "You will be informed of what standards you will need to meet to qualify for what you are requesting."

"Um… just to be clear, my probationary period technically hasn't started yet?"

"No, it hasn't," Rian interrupted. "But I'm sure any contributions you take up at your own initiative will be counted positively towards you." He glanced pointedly at Lori. She rolled her eyes but waved her hand dismissively. Well, if he was going to work, it was only fair that it was counted in his favor, as long as it didn't result in anything detrimental. "Why don't you ask Lord Yllian if he knows anything you could help with? But only after you've moved into your new house properly and had a chance to enjoy the baths. How did you like the food, by the way?"

"A bit thick, but it was delicious," Lidzuga said enthusiastically.

"It could have used a little ground nigrum," Taeclas commented.

"It was all right, but it could have used more vegetables besides tubers," Taeclas' wife added.

"Could have done with more bread," Lidzuga's sister declared.

"That last is exactly what we are trying to rectify," Lori said blandly.

"Brother, grow more crops so we can have more bread."

Lori approved of those priorities.

––––––––––––––––––

Once four of the lamp-shaped wisplights that Rian had brought back from Covehold had been left with Yllian to use at his own discretion, as well as giving him a reminder that Lori would be speaking to him again about the contents of the letter from the Golden Sweetwood Company—which he had been too busy to open yet—Lori made her way back to her demesne on the Coldhold. Unfortunately, her private room was still full of cargo, beads, and bound tools used in woodworking, so she didn't have any privacy, but given what the insides of the boat smelled like… well, it needed airing.

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

Shanalorre had asked to remain in River's Fork for the afternoon so that she could do maintenance on her residence there, which Lori granted. She would be coming back later in the day aboard Lori's Ice Boat, keeping the brat company, as the brat had gone to River's Fork that morning to catch some of the local seels for the demesne's food.

The wisplight that moved air was currently hanging from a peg next to Lori, its lightwisps deactivated and the binding of airwisps angled down slightly, blowing air against the side of Lori's head. The boat was full, and gave the impression of being slow as they made their way upriver, going against the current. Well, Lori supposed that made sense. Between the cargo, the men operating it, the two newly arrived women, and half of the escort that Riz had arranged—the other half had stayed behind to escort Shanalorre back later—the boat was riding noticeably lower in the water.

"We're riding noticeably lower in the water," Lori noted to Rian as he sat down next to her from whatever matter he'd been seeing to.

"Yeah… it's why Tae and Lidz started fusing planks of the deck together. We needed to minimize the amount of water that reached the hold below decks whenever we had a big wave splash on the side. It's a good thing we had the evaporator or we'd have filled up. Oh, by the way, all four of them know about the bound tools. You know, in case you wanted to keep it secret from them for some reason… well, it's too late. The wisplights and the steam jet driver were too obviously bound tools."

"Your inability to keep the existence of my bound tools secret is noted."

He nodded. "On that note… would you be willing to talk to Tae about them? She and Lidz were really curious about them, and… well, I think she just wants to talk to you."

Lori gave her lord a blank look, then tilted her head to look past him. Taeclas was standing next to… whatsisname next to the tiller of the boat, looking at Lori and Rian. When she saw that Lori was looking at her, the Deadspeaker smiled brightly and waved. Lori tilted her head back to look at Rian again. "I don't want to talk to her."

"What, you don't want to brag to someone how amazing you are for rediscovering the secret of making bound tools?"

"I do not need to explain myself. My accomplishments are self-evident."

"So you're just going to sit here brooding dramatically all the way home?"

She gave him an offended look. Brooding? She hadn't been brooding, her face had been at rest and perfectly relaxed! "I wasn't brooding."

"Then what was that face you were making?"

"My face was at rest and perfectly relaxed!"

"Ah… my apologies, then. Though… as your lord, I think you should talk to her."

"And why would I want to do that?"

"So you can establish a baseline of how she acts, which you can use to identify if that behavior changes and she suddenly now wants to kill you and take your demesne?"

She glared at him. "That's your job."

Rian shrugged. "I'm not around all the time. What if I'm on a trip to Covehold? Who do you trust to tell you things like that when I'm not around?"

…

Ugh, she hated it when he had a point. That was twice since he came back!

"Fine," Lori grumbled.

Rian turned and gestured toward Taeclas. The woman didn't quite run from where she'd been standing, but she did move very quickly, actually sliding to a stop in front of Lori before sitting down on the opposite bench, perched on the edge of the seat.

"Tae, don't run like that!" Rian said. "You might slip, fall, and break your neck! We've talked about this!"

"Sorry," Taeclas said as Lori turned warily to regard her. "It's just… well, we had to talk about serious things earlier, and then we had to go because you had to talk to Lidz, and then lunch… "

"Yes, I am aware of what had occurred previously," Lori said as she carefully bound the darkwisps in her right ear canal. They were covered by her hair, so it wasn't noticeable when a line of blackness began to draw itself from her ear and down to her clothes. She claimed the darkwisps there, imbuing them and forming a binding she spread across her body. She kept her hands folded on her lap as she made lines of darkwisps move under her forearm, hidden from Taeclas' view. If she was attacked, it would take Lori a moment to wrap the exposed parts of her skin with darkwisps to prevent the Deadspeaker from claiming her life. She wasn't going to be surprised by a sudden attack!

"Of course, of course… sorry, it's just… I've never actually met a bound tool artisan before," Taeclas said. "I knew a few people in school who wanted to be one, but all the ones I knew who took the course hadn't finished their apprenticeships yet when I'd gotten my certification. I thought it took years to learn to be an artisan. I have so many questions!"

Lori leaned back as the wizard all but left her seat. The woman's eyes were wide, and her… smile?— showed a significant amount of teeth.

"Tae, sit back down, you're being overenthusiastic," Rian said, leaning forward slightly so part of his body was between her and the Deadspeaker. "You're going to fall off the bench if you sit like that. Lean back until you hit the boards. Calm down. Breathe."

Taeclas took a breath so deep it had to be theatrical—decent theater, padded benches but no back rest, small band of musicians, cheap costumes made of thin cloth and bad dyes—that she released loudly. "Sorry, sorry. It's just… I've never actually met a bound tool artisan before!"

"You've said that already," Lori said. "There is no need to repeat yourself, I didn't forget."

Taeclas nodded. "Right, right… So, I've always wanted to know, why aren't there any bound tools that reproduce Deadspeaking? I've heard of bound tools that reproduce Whispering, bound tools that reproduce Mentalism—everyone's wanted a force blade at one point!—and bound tools that reproduce Horotracting, but the only bound tools that reproduce Deadspeaking are those bead receptacles they put on some kinds of undead, and those still need a Deadspeaker for them to work properly."

"I would not know," Lori said. "I am not actually a bound tool artisan, as we both understand the term. I never went beyond gaining my certification."

Taeclas blinked. "Then where did you learn to build… well, that?" she said, gesturing at the deactivated wisplight moving air into my face.

"I taught myself."

Another blink. "Isn't that… dangerous?"

"Why?"

The other woman's mouth opened… and stayed open as her brows knit thoughtfully.

"Um… I realize you must have said something thought provoking, but as someone who's not a wizard, can you exposit what it is?" Rian said. "The audience wants to know so we can react appropriately."

Lori turned towards him, even as she watched the still open-mouthed Deadspeaker out of the corner of her eye. "At no point during my education was I warned that trying to create or replicate bound tools was dangerous. I was told using my body's internal wisps was dangerous, I was told using lightningwisps, firewisps and lightwisps in certain ways was dangerous, and I was warned that trying to establish a demesne was dangerous—"

"—because it was treason and the demesne you're from will kill you," Rian said, nodding.

"—because it was treason and the demesne I originated from would kill me. However, bound tools carried no such warnings… and knowing what I know now, I understand why."

"They never warned me trying to make bound tools was dangerous!"

Lori turned back to Taeclas, who had finally closed her mouth again. "Yes," she said blandly.