Lori wasn't sure when she woke up the next day. She had not bothered to go outside and look.

She wouldn't have left her bed, never mind the sweet blackness of unconsciousness, if it were not for the fact her gold water wanted to flow and her inner darkness was very insistent on being unleashed, and while her bath was very useful, it could not be used for dealing with human waste. So down her dungeon it was to use the latrines there. Thankfully the seats were clean, even if what was below it was still full of yesterday's unleashed darkness. Well, she supposed that meant even those who normally cleaned the latrines were doing as she had said and were staying in bed.

Actually, there was a very good chance they hadn't cleaned while the harvest had been ongoing either…

Well, the latrines had been designed to have a large capacity for when a passing dragon lingered. It had more than enough capacity to still be usable if it missed a day or two of emptying.

Once she had divested herself of darkness and gold, Lori had returned to her room to sleep some more.

When she next roused, it was to a gentle knock on her door. She had been sleeping lightly at that point, and had first thought she had merely imagined it, but the knock had come again. The softness of the previous knock had seemed to be because she'd been asleep, but this next knock had been equally soft. Lori waited to see if they would knock a third time, waiting for Rian's voice to call out to her, but after the third knock there was only silence.

Growling, Lori got to her feet, her now-swept floor no longer gritty on her bare soles as she walked to the door, undid the latch, and pulled it open. "What?" she demanded.

Rian was already almost at the stairs down when she opened the door, and he gave a start at her cry before turning around. "Oh. You're awake. Uh… sorry, did I wake you up?"

"I am, and you did," Lori said irritably.

"Ah… Sorry. I knocked softly so I wouldn't wake you if you were still asleep, but I guess you're a very light sleeper."

No, Lori had simply been half-dozing, on the border between sleeping and waking, but she felt no need to exposit that to him. "What is it?" she asked.

"Uh, a few of us were thinking of making a little bread for a late lunch. It's just going to be a little salted flat bread and some fruit, since we don't want to try building up the oven for baking. Do you want some?"

Lori frowned. "Don't we have meat?"

"All of it's frozen, and I'm not really sure about how to cook enough for everyone awake right now."

"I thought we've been making smoked and cured meat? Wasn't the fact that could be eaten without being cooked one of the reasons we make it?"

"Aren't we saving that for rations for the trips to Covehold and emergencies?"

"There's no meat for the Dungeon Binder to eat. That is by definition an emergency."

"We have bread and fruit, it's hardly an emergency."

"I'm the Dungeon Binder. If I say it's an emergency, it's an emergency."

"Ah. Perfectly sound logic. Well, I doubt anyone is going to complain about having meat, but as someone who ate a lot of it, you might regret this."

"It's meat, Rian. Unless it's completely bland or has too much vinegar, I'm not going to regret eating properly prepared meat."

––––––––––––––––––

As Rian had said, there was only a relatively small group of people in the dining hall. What he had neglected to add was that many of them were children. Shanalorre was also there, along with her cousin and Mikon's two cousins who helped the other Dungeon Binder tend to the children she was responsible for. She and the brat were working to keep the children in order, which mainly involved keeping them out of the kitchen, where Mikon, Riz, Umu and a few of her idiots seemed to be cooking.

Well, Umu and Mikon were cooking flatbread, being assisted by a third woman she didn't recognize, though she could confidently say she wasn't one of Mikon's cousin, whatshername who named plants or whatshername's wife. Riz was preparing dough to be cooked along with someone else Lori didn't recognize, while one of Mikon's cousins was handing then out to the children as the other gave them fruit and a cup of water. Not many people seemed to be awake, though it was possible that they'd chosen to go to the baths first.

Even as Lori thought that, she saw some people enter her dungeon and look towards the kitchen hopefully. From what she could see behind them and beyond the entryway, it was only a little bit past noon, probably not that far past the time she usually finished eating lunch. It was no wonder people were waking up. One would need to be injured or a truly special kind of lazy to still be in bed at this hour

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"Just wait in your chair, I'll come back with some food before I go and get the meat," Rian said, not waiting for a reply as he headed towards where the bread and fruits were being passed out, conspicuously waiting his turn behind the children already there.

It was some time before her food arrived, but her chair had a backrest, so she was able to just lean back and close her eyes. While still a bit sleepy, she no longer felt exhausted. Her head no longer ached from the strain of having done Whispering for so long, but from experience she knew that she still needed more rest, hence the holinight of the following day. If she was going to be resting in any case, she might as well enjoy herself.

Rian eventually returned with a plate—notable since the children just grabbed the food with their hands, though it at least the brat was making sure they washed beforehand—containing two disks of bread and some fruit. Two golden buds and two pink ladies, much more than what everyone else had gotten, but she didn't complain. Lori just started eating.

The bread was warmer than usual, no doubt because the bread was fresh from the pan, and there was just enough salt to keep it from being bland. After what seemed too soon, however, the bread was gone. Following the bread with the fruits provided the flavor the former was lacking, although they were all too brief.

As she ate, she considered her situation, idly noting that more people were entering her dungeon. Obviously she couldn't just stop expanding the demesne, especially given how much better she was faring. However, she clearly needed to pace herself. No more week-long all-day expansions. Expansion sessions would have to be shorter. Perhaps three or four days of expanding the demesne, followed by one day of rest or only moderate Whispering? That would do for a start.

…

The day after tomorrow. The bindings she maintained would hold that long, so she could afford the rest.

With nothing more to do, Lori would have preferred to go back to her room and nap again, or perhaps passed the time with reading. While she kept getting frustrated at the beginning primers and kept going back to the beginning of the books, the almanac was far less frustrating and full of random bits of trivia that were interesting to know, and thus entertaining. However, there was still meat to come, and she was going to rainbows get to eat that meat!

The smoked and cured meat weren't kept in the cold room, but instead with the jars of vigas that were stored in her dungeon, sealed in their own container. While the meat was meant to be an emergency food, the small curing and smoking shed they had could only produce a relatively small amount of dried meat, hence why most of it was reserved as rations for the Coldhold. The meat apparently had to be stored in a relatively dry place, and the binding she'd placed to keep humidity out of those alcoves—she made a note to place one on the newly excavated storage room—kept the old storage area in that state. She supposed that with the new storage area those alcoves could be returned to their original purpose.

Eventually, Rian came back, and he wasn't alone. Umu, Mikon, and Riz were with him, each with their own bread, fruits and, most importantly to Lori, a bowl contained what were clearly thin slices of meat. A cursory glance showed her that other people had taken their places in the kitchen, but that wasn't important because meat.

"Here you go," Rian said cheerfully as he placed the bowl on the table between them. "Take your pick, your Bindership."

Lori stared at the meat. It was supposed to be meat, right? "It looks overcooked."

"It's supposed to look like that."

"And dry."

"It's supposed to be like that."

Lori tentatively picked up one of the slices. "And… stiff." She waved it back and forth, and the meat barely bent.

"That's how it's supposed to be."

Rian had an innocent expression on his face again, and Lori began wondering if she'd made some sort of error in judgement.

Still, it was meat and it was likely edible, as Rian had eaten it before. Lori raised it to her mouth, bit down and began to chew.

…

At least, that was the idea.

After a moment, Lori took the alleged meat out of her mouth. She could clearly see where she had bitten down on it, as there were wet teeth marks, and her mouth was filled with the taste of salty meat.

"Don't worry, it's supposed to be that hard," Rian said cheerfully. "How does it taste? Not bland, I hope?"

…

Lori met his eyes and once more bit down into the meat, this time as hard as she could, then pulled her hand back as she tried to rip a piece off. At first it resisted her, but she kept pulling as she ground her teeth back and forth, trying to tear through…

To her relief, the meat parted, and she ended up with a smaller piece of meat in her mouth that was she was finally able to maneuver to her back teeth so she could start chewing in earnest.

…

Lori was regretting eating this meat.

Eventually, however, she managed to swallow the piece she'd bitten off, then glanced down at her hand. She was still holding a large amount of so-called meat there. "This is what we gave you to eat on the Coldhold?" she said with something approaching horror. This was practically inedible, if only because it was nigh impossible to chew!

"Only when we couldn't catch something and butcher it," Rian said.

Lori stared at the alleged meat in her hand again. Well, it was certainly a strong incentive to catch something to eat. "Why are we making this?"

"Because it's meant to be a food preservation method," Rian said. "Did you know that dustlife can't grow without water? Curing and smoking the meat dries it out, depriving dustlife of anyway to grow and keeping the meat edible."

"This is edible?-!"

"You ate it, didn't you? On the Coldhold we usually stewed it before eating it. Really helps soften it up to edible levels."

"It's not bad," Riz said. She'd gotten a piece right after Lori, and was chewing it with every indication of actual enjoyment. "Pretty good, actually. And it's warm and soft, which is always good. Much better than frozen solid."

Lori twitched as she glared at her lord. But… well, he had warned her that she would regret this…

"Rian, remind me to place a binding to keep humidity out of the new storage area the day after the holinight," Lori said. Then she bit into the alleged meat again.

"Wait, you're still going to eat it?"

Lori pulled the meat out of her mouth to reply, as she hadn't managed to tear another piece off yet. "Of course. We can't waste food."

Regrettable or not, food was food.