The next several days fell into the same routine. Shana and Karina imbued the crops in the morning until it was too hot for them to work, then resting in the afternoon. Wizard Taeclas continued in her attempts at a hands-free sunshade, which went through several iterations as the older Deadspeaker tried to figure out a way it could be carried without hands. Shana assisted her when she was free, and because the thought of having something besides her hat to cover was very tempting. Eventually, the two of them put together a wooden frame with cord straps for carrying it like a pack, on which a modified form of the sunshade—a sheet of leaves stretched out between two branches—extended up from the frame and hung over the head of anyone wearing it.

The frame had initially been uncomfortable, digging into various places on Shana's back, but Wizard Taeclas was able to alter the shape of the frame to curve around those areas. Wearing the frame with her wet towel over her shoulders also helped, adding more padding.

The two of them made two of the sunshade frames, and Shana offered to one to Karina as well, putting on the frame Wizard Taeclas had made for her to demonstrate it.

"I can't wear one," her friend said bluntly.

"Why not? It's not very heavy, and after adjustment it's much more comfortable that it appears."

"I put the pole on my shoulders, remember?" She pointed at the two branches that rose up to support the sunshade and rose up behind the shoulders. "It won't be able to do that with these."

"We could move the support further inward," Wizard Taeclas suggested.

"Having the sunshade still makes it hard to switch the pole to my other shoulder though?" Karina said, demonstrating how she normally raised the pole over her head to do that. "It's fine. Just my hat is good enough for me. Besides, the sunshade is right over your head, so doesn't this only really work at noon?"

Wizard Taeclas stared at the sunshades they'd made with an expression of despair. "Maybe we should have tried them outside first before we made another…" she muttered.

As Karina had predicted, the sunshades weren't very useful until it was close to noon, and by then her hat was the more effective cover. The pack also took time to remove, delaying when Shana could take a bath. She used it twice, and then stopped. Wizard Taeclas' feelings weren't hurt, because the woman herself only used hers three times from what seemed like determined optimism.

Still, the Deadspeaker continued trying to make sunshades using leave and branches, taking apart the ones they'd built for raw material. It was something to do when they were resting after lunch to cool down from the heat before they went to work on imbuing the dungeon farm's crops, or at least the ones that were mature and sturdy enough to handle contact with the poles. The crops had sprouted but were still too tender to be handled roughly, but the tubers were being harvested now, and they were much bigger than usual. Wizard Taeclas had obviously included something besides quick maturation to the meaning she'd placed on them.

Other crops that they'd accelerated were also harvested, such as the vegetables that Wizard Taeclas had brought with her from Covehold Demesne. Some of those vegetables were allowed to keep growing so they could harvest their seeds to grow more, such as the leafy vegetables, but most of the vegetables were still sent to the kitchen, and soon found its way into everyone's meals.

The variety was needed as the lack of fruits from River's Fork was finally being felt. Despite being in possession of the notes from…

…

…

…

…despite this, Wizard Lidzuga had not yet managed to adapt the meaning on the fruit trees to not be so damaging to them.

"What's taking him so long?" Binder Lori muttered during dinner, glaring down at her stew. "It's been a week. Hasn't he managed to adapt those meanings yet?"

"There's a lot of Binder Koshay's—"

…

…

…

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Shana returned to consciousness with Yoshka's hand on her face. "Thank you, Yoshka," she said through the palm mashing her cheek. "I'm fine now."

"Okay!"

"So that means you can put your hand down."

"Aw…!" Still, her cousin did put down her hand, and if there was one advantage of fruit no longer being served, it was that Yoshka's hand wasn't covered in their juices.

The conversation had progressed in her absence. "—could take a look at the trees," Wizard Taeclas said. "Maybe I can see what Lidz is having problems with. I kinda want to eat fruits again too."

Lori frowned. "Can we afford for you to stop the work you're currently doing?"

"Everything I can put a meaning on in the dungeon farm has one, and a day won't make much difference to the crops in the fields outside. And it would be beneficial to see how the meanings are actually put together, so I can start experimenting on the happyfruit trees we have. That way we're not completely reliant on River's Fork for fru—"

"You're going tomorrow!" Binder Lori suddenly announced loudly. "Do what you can to get any progress done. How long do you need?"

Wizard Taeclas was startled by the abrupt exclamation. "Uh, a day or two, maybe?"

"That means you'll have to stay the night in River's Fork," Rian pointed out. "Otherwise half your day will be spent going back and forth."

"Oh." Wizard Taeclas glanced at Mistress Rybelle. "I'm not sure I want to be gone for that long… "

"Well, you could go back and forth for a couple of days, but I'm not sure how much work you'd get done that way. You'd be spending half your time sitting around on whichever boat you're using, baking under the hot sun and bored out of your mind…"

He ceased his description as Wizard Taeclas shuddered. "No, I don't want to bake anymore!"

Shana interjected. "If it's a matter of not having a place to stay the night there, I can offer you the use of my office. It's not much, but you can roll out your bedroll there. I cannot make any promises about how cool it is, however."

If anything, Wizard Taeclas seemed to wilt further at the reminder. "I don't want to bake anymore!"

"…why don't we let Tae deal with her pain for a moment," Rian said gently. "Speaking of River's Fork, however, I think it's finally time for us to speak to Yllian about what the Golden Sweetwood Company's reply said, if only so we can include any preparations that need to be done into our work schedule."

Binder Lori made a face, turning her gaze to look at Shanalorre. "I am not relinquishing my demesne," she said.

"I'm sure that it's very unlikely that they'll ask you to. But, you know, they might want to settle in River's Fork and Lorian since we already have established infrastructure for surviving the winter. Would you turn them away if they wanted that? Imagine it, a large infusion of skilled workers, tools, processed materials such as metals, people other than me who know how to coordinate and administrate…"

"That sounds like something you want," Binder Lori said flatly.

"Yes, because I can barely be a functional lord over the people we have now. If we take in new settlers and you don't raise any new lords or ladies, I am quitting, and I don't care what that does to our current legal code!"

Shana frowned. "Something would happen to our legal code if Lord Rian abdicated his position?"

"I'd abolish the list on the right," Lori said, pointing to where the demesne's laws were listed next to the dungeon's entrance.

Shana, Wizard Taeclas and Mistress Rybelle turned to follow where she was pointing. "That's… half the laws, right?"

"No, the laws are the list on the left," Shana corrected. "The Great Binder is talking about the list of things everyone has a right to do: living, owning property, assumed innocent unless proven otherwise…"

Wizard Taeclas and Mistress Rybelle turned back towards Binder Lori. "So… if Rian stopped being lord, you'd… what, take everyone's stuff?"

"I could," Binder Lori nodded before focusing on her stew again, raising a spoonful to her mouth.

"But… you won't, right?"

Binder Lori didn't reply, her mouth moving in a slow leisurely chew.

Wizard Taeclas waited expectantly, even as Binder Lori continued to eat.

Finally, Rian sighed. "You're not going to get an answer. She's doing the 'ominous dramatic silence' thing."

"Eh? But… you're not really going to quit, are you?"

Rian hummed, raised a finger… then bent down and focused on his stew, raising a spoonful to his mouth.

On the other side of Ninang Riz, Mikon sighed. "And you wonder why you're the only lord her Bindership has raised…"

As Wizard Taeclas started pouting at getting two non-answers, Rian swallowed, "So, now that you've had time to consider, will you be taking Shana's—"

"Shanalorre," Binder Lori corrected, not looking up from her bowl.

"—Shanalorre's offer to stay overnight in her office?"

Wizard Taeclas made a face, but she had been the one to volunteer her services in helping Wizard Lidzuga. "It's not too hot at night, is it Sha…nalorre?"

"I would say it would be a bit cooler than here," Shana said. "While there's no assurance of a breeze, being under the dome means greatly reduced sunlight and heat, and the deadspoken wood doesn't get hot as easily as the stone of the houses here."

"… that doesn't sound so bad…" Wizard Taeclas said thoughtfully, then glanced at her wife. "Though… I don't want to leave Rybelle all alone…"

"It will only be one night, Tae," Mistress Rybelle said. "Perhaps two if you're not able to do it in a day. I'll be fine. At least I don't have to worry about gangs and fire here."

"I suppose…"

"Look at it this way, Tae," Rian said. "You have very strong motivation to get results as soon as possible."

"Maybe I shouldn't have said anything…" Wizard Taeclas said.

"Too late," Binder Lori said. "You said there'd be fruit"

Wizard Taeclas sighed.