They continued discussing Taeclas's requests over breakfast after the food arrived. The Deadspeaker's capability revealed itself as they spoke as she laid out the various advantages and disadvantages of their various food-producing areas. The mushroom farms she considered of low priority, as while their addition was good in dishes, they really didn't contain as much of what the body needed nor were as filling as the grains, tubers and bulbs that the demesne were growing. And while vegetables weren't as tasty or filling as grain or meats, they did contain things that the body needed that were absent from the latter.

When the woman had spoken of the dungeon farm, it had been as complimentary as Rian had said, praising the temperature, the light, the system that allowed excess water to drain from the various plots, and how orderly all the plots were.

"Working there is going to be so easy," Taeclas declared, and for once Lori could understand the wide grin on the woman's face. She could understand the appreciation for a workplace that would be a help instead of a hindrance to the work to be done. "It's all spaced efficiently, it's nice and cool, the humidity is just right… the growing conditions there are wonderful!" Then she slumped for some reason, letting out a sigh.

"So you should probably start working on the crops outside first?" Rian said.

"I don't want to! I want to work in the dungeon! It's so perfect!" That last was almost a wail, and had Taeclas's wife holding her and giving her more kisses on the cheek. "So easy to work there…"

"So you should probably start working on the crops outside first?" Rian repeated.

Taeclas let out a sob. What Rian was saying was unfortunately self-evidently necessary. After all, it was where the majority of their crops were.

Once Taeclas had resigned herself to the necessity—"At least you can have as many baths as you want," Rian pointed out, which had improved the woman's disposition a little—they'd gone on to discuss what sort of equipment she needed. Wire, yes, but how much wire, and in what state? Rian had suggested putting wooden handles on both ends of the wire to make holding it easier for her and whoever was holding the other end. "Trying to hold on to a wire with your bare hands like that is going to be unpleasant, especially if you need to put some kind of tension on it so that it's pressed again the crops properly."

"That will require smithing work," Lori pointed out.

"Most proper tools usually do. Besides, the handles will make it harder to lose track of the wire if Tae needs to put it down. Oh, don't look at me like that, how many times have you just lost a piece of thread while you were sewing because it didn't stand out against whatever you put it down on?"

Lori took his word that wire could potentially be misplaced in such a manner, though she suspected only a very careless person would do so.

"Well, I guess I'll have to do something else while the handles are being put on the wire," Taeclas said cheerfully. "It'll be the best time for transferring all my plants to a plot in the dungeon farm."

"Actually, that's right," Rian said. "Before you get started on the crops outside, you had best transfer the seedlings we'd brought into something more permanent. Uh, they are ready to be transferred, right?"

Taeclas nodded. "Yes, they're mature enough for that."

"How many plots do you need?"

After breakfast, Lori went back to her room so that she could stare at the list of things that needed to be imbued while she tended to them. Fortunately, none of them had run out of imbuement and dissolved, and so all she had to do was imbue them with magic from her core. Normally, she did this when she woke up before heading downstairs to eat, but then she usually woke up earlier as well.

Once she was done, Lori considered the bound tools she had on her desk, near the books on—

…

Once she was done moving the books into the wall recess where she kept the spare boots Rian had bought for her and covered the books with her currently empty traveling pack so she couldn't be distracted, Lori considered the bound tools she had on her desk. The wisplights weren't really necessary at the moment, since light of any sort wasn't an issue in her demesne, though she might have to bring one or two more with her the next time a dragon passed over for River's Fork. Speaking of which, she'd have to find a rock…

Her attention turned towards the other bound tools. Lori recognized most of them. They were bound tool versions of hand tools that she had seen before in carpentry workshops. Those two were clearly drills, though lacking a bit, there were two kinds of saws—a rotating saw and a reciprocating saw—though the actual sawblades themselves were missing, a tool that was shaped like a planer which had a rotating cylinder on which blades were mounted, and a tool shaped vaguely shaped like a router plane that had a rotating mechanism in the middle.

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Carefully, Lori picked up one each of the tools, realized she didn't have nearly enough hands to do that, and resorted to putting them in the reed basket she used for carrying beads. They just barely fit the basket, which was fortunately sturdy enough to hold their weight. Still, she lifted the basket carefully as she left her room, sealing the door behind her as she went down to where the carpenters worked.

The carpenters had two alcoves in the second level that was permanently theirs to keep their tools in. Piles of wooden planks were stacked in front of it, which would act as the demesne's emergency wood supply for any repairs that needed to be done during and after a dragon. In front of one of the alcoves was a waterwheel standing atop a stone basin full of water. The waterwheel was connected to a lathe and a modest sized circular saw that the carpenters had put together with the assistance of the smiths for the blade.

A stone pillar rose from one end of the stone basin, its purpose to pour water onto the waterwheel to make it turn. Once, Lori had needed to keep a binding imbued constantly so that water would flow up a pipe to be fall down over the waterwheel's paddles. Now, however, the need to do that was gone. Instead there was a little bead receptacle on the stone pillar so the carpenters could activate the waterwheel themselves as needed instead of opening and closing a sluice.

The carpenters noticed her approaching, of course, and one of them stood up to meet her, bowing as she approached. "Your Bindership," he greeted.

Lori stared. He was wearing a cloth on his head, more to keep his hair out of his face than to absorb sweat—Rian had assured her that the second level was comfortably cool—and on that cloth was embroidered the word 'Deil'. The thread used for the embroidery was undyed ropeweed thread, the same as the head cloth—that had better have been a corner scrap—and to make the word stand out the embroidery had used wide lines.

She glanced at all the other carpenters, all with innocently Rian-like looks on their faces. All of them were also wearing head cloths, which were all also embroidered.

…

Well, that was wonderfully convenient. And the man's face was just vaguely familiar enough that she was fairly certain he was, in fact, named Deil.

"Deil," she said, and the man nodded, "Rian bought and brought back several bound tools from Covehold Demesne. Do any of you know how to use these tools?" She placed her basket on the work table next to the lathe and began pulling out bound tools.

She left the carpenters with some beads to happily try out their new tools. Lori didn’t know what new product of woodworking the demesne might need at the moment—she left matters like that to Rian—but she had the impression if there wasn’t anything needed the carpenters would find something to make.

With that done, she headed down to the dungeon farm in the third level. Taeclas and her wife were already there, being assisted by the brat and Shanalorre as they slowly removed seedlings and vegetables from pots onto some bare farm plots. The farm plots were new, made by Lori during the past month as she waited for Rian to get back with seedlings from Covehold Demesne. While she hadn’t expected them to need all that space, Lori had been of the opinion that it was better to have a surplus of farming plots when the seedlings arrived than a deficit. And since hers was the only opinion that mattered…

Besides, if there was any excess space, they could easily plant more tubers or grains there. Those crops wouldn’t be in time with the rest of their ilk, but since they had Deadspeakers now, they could easily be made to be.

For her part, Lori stayed only briefly as she anchored bindings of lightwisps over the farm plots that were being worked on. The bindings were specific, and needed certain ratios of visible and unseen light to be able to properly produce sunlight that plants could utilize. She didn’t know how they utilized sunlight in their growth, only that they did.

She could hear Taeclas talking happily as she explained to the brat and Shanalorre what each plant she was transferring was, what sort of care it needed—she was apparently separating plants according to how much watering was needed—and how to tell they were ready to be harvested. While most of them were food crops Lori recognized—everyone knew what sharrods and clapper roots were—it had been surprising to hear that one of the plant that the woman had brought with her from Covehold Demesne—and from the old continent itself, apparently—was a sweetgrass plant.

"It was really hard for me to keep Honey alive in Covehold," Taeclas explained to her attentive listeners as she carefully moved the plant from its pot. "Honey needs warmth to grow properly, and even though she's been doing better this summer, for most of the year the poor dear is suffering from the cold. But I think I can get Honey to grow here in the dungeon farm. Truthfully, it could stand to be a little warmer, but—"

“How warm does it need to be?” Lori said as she stepped up behind the brat to look down at the plant in question.

"Oh, hello L—" Taeclas began, only for Shanalorre to reach forward and gently place a finger over the woman's lips, shaking her head. "Ah, right. Hello, your Bindership! Ah, sweetgrass needs it to be fairly warm. About… uh, not quite as warm as it is around noon. Maybe mid-morning warm? Sorry, I don't really know how warm that is by the quicksilver glass."

Lori considered that. “Don’t plant that one just yet,” she said. “I’ll arrange a room for it that can be kept at an elevated temperature.”

“Ah, would you? That would be wonderful! I’m sure Honey will appreciate it a lot, won’t you Honey?”

“…” Lori ‘…’-ed. “Are you… talking to the sweetgrass?”

“Her name is Honey! And she’s very thankful that you’ll be giving her a nice warm room, your Bindership!”

Lori stared at the woman, then looked sideways towards… whatshername, the wife. The blue-haired woman, for her part, simply smiled and shrugged as she directed a fond look towards the Deadspeaker.

For a moment, Lori considered sending Taeclas back to River’s Fork and getting the other one who wanted time off. People didn’t normally give their plants personal names, did they?

Though… if she sent back Taeclas, the woman would take her plants and sweetgrass back with her…

Lori resolved to speak to Rian about this, and perhaps have her lord subtly spread the word to have people keep away from the woman. There was a good chance Taeclas might be insane.

…

Well, she’d give the woman some time and see if this possible lack of sanity negatively affected her ability to work.