Shana was willing to try to use her meaning in ways it probably wasn't meant for to get rid of potential threats in River's Fork.

Actually, I had no idea if her meaning actually is meant for just healing. Both Lidz and Tae had allowed themselves to be healed by it to try to analyze and perhaps replicate the meaning, but they both said that the meaning was a complicated thing, and that Shana applied and activated the meaning very quickly, such that they couldn't really identify more than a few parts at a time. Shana's attempts to tame the life into the meaning slower resulted in her failing to do so, as slowing down to that degree forced her to leave the state of instinctive application that allowed her to tame the meaning. According to Tae, Lidz and Lori, this wasn't unusual for savants, who usually deciphered and flow diagramed their own instinctive binding, meaning, formation or vista many years after they'd started learning how to actually use magic, once they had managed to become familiar with the complexities of their particular branch.

Despite this, we'd learned a few things about Shana's meaning. It only worked on living flesh, it worked equally effectively on broken bones, torn or bruised flesh, illnesses caused by infection—Tae suspected it worked on poisons as well, but we hadn't been eager to test that—while not actually removing the cause of the illness, and the meaning required a notably large amount of imbuement. The latter wasn't a problem for Shana, as she was a Dungeon Binder, but Tae and Lidz both agreed that anyone else trying to use the meaning would need either a bead or a significant amount of time breathing in and accumulating magic.

Shana had identified a significant number of mobile meanings in her—in River's Fork Demesne, so much so that she claimed to lose track when trying to count them all. Only a small fraction of them were in the vicinity of the dome and dragon shelter, however, and it was agreed that she'd focus on expending the imbuement on those. More concerning was her report there seemed to be some in the river at various depths, which implied that some seels had probably become dragonborn abominations as well, and that there were meanings larger than a house. Fortunately, the latter were immobile, and Shana believed they happened to be rooted trees with perhaps other things unfortunately mixed in.

"It might be advisable to retain some of those dragonborn abominations as a source of wood or some other resources, depending on what component parts are included in their structure," Shana mused.

She sounded so much like Lori that I shuddered from the top of my skull to the bottom of my spine. I had to remind myself there were worse people to act like than Lori, there were worse people to act like than Lori, there were worse people to act like than Lori…

Nevermind the fact most such people were actively murderers, nonconists, and providers of unfair wages, there were still worse people to act like than Lori. And I supposed that Shana had a point about the resources.

Shana didn't actually need all that much effort to disrupt the rampant life walking around her demesne. All she needed to do was claim each one, her precedence as the demesne's Dungeon Binder—well, as the one connected to the dungeon's core, at any rate—allowing her to override the dragon's lingering claim on the life, and then use her one meaning on them, forcibly disrupting the meaning the life had been previously been tamed into. That was usually enough to cause them to stop moving, and if it wasn't a second application at Shana's meaning usually sufficed.

"It's probably not necessary," Lidz commented. "If those were undead, then all they would be doing is having the joints of their extremities moving according to the last instructions left in the undead's life-emulated thoughtways."

"I have no idea what that last thing you said was," I said. "Some kind of special meaning in the brain?"

Lidz made a circling gesture with his hand. "Yes and no," he said. "It's been long confirmed that Deadspeaking has some overlap with Mentalism when it comes to the meanings for creating undead through deadcrafting, just as Mentalism has some overlap with Whispering when it comes to lightningwisps. Any brain matter of sufficient mass can be induced to produce thoughts that can in effect control the meaning itself, which is how undead can follow sufficiently detailed simple instructions."

"Sufficiently detailed simple instructions sounds like an oxymoron," I commented.

"Not at all. You see, since undead can't think you need to specify every little thing they—"

"As fascinating as this discussion of aspects of Deadspeaking that I am not versed in and am forbidden from learning is, I need to ask you all to either cease this conversation or continue in a different location," Shana interrupted, her eyes closed as she continued concentrating on something only she cold perceive. "Hearing you is very distracting."

"Sorry, Shana. I'll let you get back to work."

She nodded, eyes still closed. "I shall report to you when I have cleared the river and the environs immediately around the dome and the dragon shelter."

"Please focus on the river," I said. "I'm planning to go get Lori as soon as possible, so as soon as you confirm the river is relatively safe, we're going. You should hopefully have time to focus on the environs while we're on our way there."

Another nod, eyes still closed.

"Thank you, then!" I said cheerfully. "Shall I tell Yoshka she can nap on you?"

Another nod, this time accompanied by a small, un-Lori-like smile on her face.

Personally, I didn't see how having her cousin near her would be less distracting than the interrupted exposition Lidz had been giving me, but it obviously made her happy, and so it was the least that I owed the little girl who'd had to grow up into an old (Lori) woman far too fast.

----------------------------------------

With one boat ready and my needing to talk to Shana about the state of things in River's Fork so I knew what to expect, I had set some people to shoveling the space outside of the entryway clear of dragonfrost while the second boat was being carried up. Just the ground, since at the moment there didn't seem to be any reason to try and scrape the stuff off the walls, and I didn't want us releasing the air that had been solidified.

Stolen story; please report.

When I stepped back outside after leaving Shana, most of the space had been cleared, though there was a lot of disturbed earth where the dragonfrost had stuck to the ground. The dragonfrost itself had been piled up in the corner of the flood wall under the water hub shed, a bare corner that we really didn't use for anything except as a good spot out of the wind to roast meat during holidays. It was a good enough place for it, I suppose.

The sun was nearing its peak when Kolinh and the ones with him came back, their snowpads making them look awkward as they walked towards us. It would have been funny, but a syrupy golden goo was smeared on the ends of some of their spears, the disturbingly sweet-smelling substance that dragonborn abominations had for blood.

I left fitting the second driver to the carpenters as I headed to meet with Kolinh, my gaze going to the stained spearheads and then down to the people holding them. Thankfully, no one seemed to be bleeding, and they were coming back with the same number of people they'd left with. "So, what's out there?" I asked Kolinh as he finished taking off his snow pads.

"Plant abominations," he said. "Plant-beasts. Plant-bugs. Undead plant-beasts. Perhaps undead plant-bugs as well, it's hard to tell with bugs. We'll need axes to properly put them down. Probably longer hafts on the axes if the carpenters have the wood for it, but if not we can make do."

"Not fire?" I asked, then immediately answered myself. "No, that's a stupid idea. Being on fire wouldn't stop the things from moving, and they'd take time to burn."

"Fire is for later, when we've chopped their limbs off and have them in a pile," Kolinh confirmed.

"Can they fit through the dungeon's air vents?" I asked. "Do we need to worry about the things getting inside?"

Kolinh let out a sigh. "No, thank the Great Binder."

"Can't be, Lori doesn't know Deadspeaking and Shana only knows the one thing."

That got me an eye roll. "You know what I mean."

"In my defense, Lori would have said it if she were here," I pointed out.

Kolinh gave a sideways nod, acknowledging that. "They shouldn't be a problem. The wood bits stuck on them keep that ones that have wings from flying, and they're all too fat to fit in any case. We'll just have to keep them from getting in the front door."

I nodded. "Do you think you'd be able to deal with anything bigger, like a leaper or a waddler?"

He hesitated. "Normally, I would say that we have enough people, but I don't like our chances of doing it while wearing snow pads."

"Then for now, we step back and focus on clearing the ground of the dragonfrost, since that seems to be the bigger limitation than the actual abominations themselves."

"Dragonfrost?"

I shrugged. "We had to call it something. Unless there's already a name for this stuff that I'm not aware of?"

Kolinh nodded. "Dragonfrost it is. Once it's clear, we'll have somewhere safe to fall back to and deal with anything large with more bodies and spears."

"Which will probably have to wait until tomorrow," I said. "I'll be heading out to get Lori after lunch, so rest up and work on clearing off the frost until we come back. You can get started on the laundry area and around the baths. Hopefully we'll be back later today, but at worst it will be a few days."

Kolinh nodded, even if he looked a little reluctant. As a seasoned militia leader, even if it was as an engineer, he was probably a much better choice to lead Lori retrieval than me. However, it would be best if I were present to pick her up if Lori was being… strange, since it was my job to talk to her on behalf of everyone else. And if anything happened to all of us, I wanted someone to keep Shana from trying to be Dungeon Binder of two demesnes and be able to help Taeclas run Lorian.

Was this thinking morbid? Cynical? Fatalist? Of course! As a lord, I work for the government, after all!

----------------------------------------

Lunch was eaten quickly so that we could go on Lori retrieval as soon as possible. Lori would have been very annoyed at seeing how little lingering there was at the docks, how short the goodbyes were, and how quickly we were able to get underway. It was to be expected, since most of those people sitting in the two boats now heading downriver had militia experience. Only Lidz, Clowee, and myself didn't have any, and I'd made my farewells to Mikon and Umu quick.

There were fourteen people divided between two boats, which left plenty of room to spare in case we had to bring more than just Lori back with us. Everyone was alert and watchful, since there might be dragonborn abominations in the water, twisted vistas just hanging in the air, and insane thoughts acting as either invisible solid obstacles in midair or… actually, I don't know what exactly the effects of insane thoughts were beyond that. I've been told repeatedly that Mentalism couldn't affect other people's minds, but if that was the case, why were the so-called insane thoughts released by dragons such a threat?

…

Well, I had someone here who could provide exposition, so…

"Hey, Lidz," I said as I steered us downriver, Clowee having volunteered to operate the other boats, "why are insane thoughts from dragons so dangerous? It's never really been clear to me. I mean, Mentalism can't affect other people except with physical force, right?"

Wait… why is everyone who hear me looking uncomfortable?

"Mentalism normally can't affect other people, yes," Lidzuga said, and yes, he also looked uncomfortable.

"'Normally' you say?"

"Yes. The Mentalism of dragons is not normal and have been known to inject incorrect information into the natural thought-meridians carried along the body's nerves. These disruptions vary, but are not limited to causing abnormal heartbeat, abnormal breathing, sensory hallucinations, irrational induced emotions such as fears, thoughts directing voluntary movements being redirected to other parts of the body, and in some extreme cases insane thoughts could cause temporary mental illnesses such as schismatic personalities, difficulty determining reality, delusions… the list goes on."

"Oh. That's… absolutely horrifying. I'm actually regretting asking."

"It's not as bad as it sounds," Lidz hastily assured me. "All the effects are temporary, so once the imbuement runs out you should be fine… as long as it's not something that affects your heartbeat, breathing, other bodily functions…"

"Lidz, I already regret asking, please stop making it worse."

"Sorry."

We headed downriver in uncomfortable silence.

"Really, only dragons can do this? Dungeon Binders and Mentalists haven't been able to figure out how to replicate it?"

"Oh, they have, but it's usually using a combination of Deadspeaking, Whispering and Mentalism in conjunction, not simply pure Mentalism the way dragons do…"

"I genuinely can't decide if that's bad or even worse…"

"It's not so bad," one of the militia with us, Tlevin—who for some reason was called 'Wet' by his friends—said with a happy, reminiscent smile on his lined, weathered face. This immediately caused nearly everyone else on the boat to groan and had those sitting next to him elbow him or smack him on the head, whichever was more feasible, giving him annoyed looks for some reason.

"No one wants to hear from you, Wet!" someone said.

Tlevin just shrugged, smiling.

I probably shouldn't ask. I'll probably regret it.

…

I asked. "What do you mean?"

"Well—"

"I'll tell it, Wet." Surprisingly it was Daising, one of the medics we were bringing along, who spoke. She turned towards me. "This fool walked into an insane thought that gave him a sensory hallucination centered on his pelvic region."

…

"Ah. And that's why people call him 'Wet', I take it."

"You're telling it wrong, Dai!"

"Lord Rian understands what happened. No further explanation is needed," the medic said, giving Wet an irritated glare.

"You didn't mention that it happened seven times!"

Seven….?-!

"Really, seven?" I found myself asking.

"Seven!" the man said proudly.

…

I think understand why people are annoyed at him now.