It wasn't long before more game boards started appearing on the other tables, cut from scraps of plank. With the building being done on the new houses, there were apparently a lot of scraps to work with. Some were copies of the sunk board, but most were the familiar grids of chatrang, lima, pincer, and even Iskadaliya's Conquest, or simply conquest. The pieces were simple, made of circular bits of wood cut from branches and either marked or lightly burned dark to show opposing sides. Apparently no one had either the skill or time to make the more familiarly shaped pieces Lori was used to seeing.

Soon, she and Rian weren't the only ones playing over breakfast and lunch, and the dining hall was soon filled with half-finished games as people left their games in progress to go do… whatever they were supposed to be doing. Soon it seemed like half the tables had a board of some kind, and people started crowding around certain tables to watch games, eating standing up and forming crowded knots. There was no betting, but only because no one had any beads to bet with. It was not surprising to see small fruits changing hands after a game of chatrang or lima was resolved, and someone had started a list on the wall, counting some of the more prolific players' wins and losses, and at what games.

Lori would have told them to be quiet so she could go to sleep peacefully, but more often than not she was there as well, sitting at her table challenging Rian to games of sunk. For some reason, he seemed to grow progressively more bored with each game, even though he still won more than her. Lori put that down to his no doubt years of experience playing this game back when he was a child noble.

She'd managed to finish excavating the new level of the Dungeon by then. It had more than twice the floor area of the current dining hall level, meaning they had room for everyone in the event of a dragon and more besides.

"Huh," Rian said once he'd gone down to see the level when it was finished. "Well, this is nice. Plenty of room for everyone, and we won't need to crowd."

"It's not really finished yet," she said as she bound lightwisps produced by the lightwisps she'd already bound to more thoroughly illuminate the space. "I still need to put in ventilation, latrines, and places to wash and bathe, even if only for a few days. And I was thinking of putting in a second stairway to the dining hall level, to help with circulation."

"Good plan," Rian said. "And while it's not being used for that, we can put some of the mushroom crops down here where they won't be disturbed."

"No," she said firmly, shaking her head at his ignorance. "It's not safe to just have a mushroom farm connected to normal living quarters. The spores make people sick. Any mushroom crops will need to be in a completely different self-contained area, or else the spores will cause lung infections."

"Huh," Rian said, looking surprised. "I didn't know that. How do you know that?"

"I worked at a mushroom farm, obviously," she said. It had been a terrible job.

"Ah, that makes sense," Rian said. "I suppose we'll have to convert one of the shelters when the families move out, then."

"Not just the shelter," Lori said. "We do need one in the Dungeon, so that we have spore stock if the other one is altered into some sort of abomination or destroyed. It just can't be too close or sharing the air with the living quarters. Especially not my living quarters."

"So, what, you're building a third level?" Rian said.

"That was never in question," Lori said. "We need to centralize production facilities like ropemaking and such. I want you to see about having the ropers and weavers set up their machinery here, so that we don't have to move them in the event of a dragon. Anything else we can reasonably move here while still allowing it to be useable as an emergency shelter, at least until I can make a third level and make this level into a permanent production level."

Rian nodded. "Makes sense, I suppose. And it would be much cooler to work in here than outside, provided you set more active air circulation. Though that means we'll need to put someone in charge of maintaining order in the work area. At the very least, someone needs to be in charge of making sure the floors get swept and everyone at least keeps their things in their areas. "

"And make sure the non-kitchen areas of the dining hall is kept clean," Lori said.

"The women who cook are already doing that," Rian said.

"Well, they shouldn't have to," Lori said. "Find someone who's not working and put them to work. Given how late people are staying in the dining hall now because of their games, we need someone who makes sure they go back home to sleep."

"Fine, I'll find a bouncer for our dining hall," Rian said. "You know… when you first decided to come here and start your own demesne…"

If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

"Yes?"

"Did you ever think it would feel so much like managing a tavern? We have to worry about food, cleaning, a bouncer…"

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Getting adequate ventilation for the new level was harder than she thought it would be. All the air came through the dining hall, which got all its air from the front entrance and the ventilation holes that she would seal up in the event of a dragon. Adequately ventilating the second level meant either increasing the amount of air passing through the dining hall or creating a new vent to bring air directly into the second level, which meant another place she'd have to seal up in the event of a dragon.

In the end, she went with the first option, opening that second stairway down to the new level and binding airwisps to draw air down one stairway and have air be expelled out the other, creating a constantly moving current of air. It made both levels very windy as a result, and she had to adjust the binding to keep dust from being drawn in through the ventilation holes near the kitchen and getting dirt on the food. It also made the dungeon a bit too cold at night, requiring her to add a binding of firewisps over the vents to heat the air up to a comfortable temperature. Still, she was glad she managed to make an elegant solution.

"Those stairs are a menace," Rian said as soon as she showed him. "I mean, the stairs are breezy enough to potentially push you over. That's just asking for trouble."

Lori created large ventilation slits parallel to the stairs to draw in and expel air, allowing air to circulate without making the stairs themselves too windy to traverse safely. She also added a small ventilation hole to the hallway that led to her rooms, to keep the air fresh.

With that done, she began sectioning off the second level. Walls were raised between support pillars near the wall, creating small rooms that she estimated were large enough for at least one family, to discourage people just setting their things down at any open space and blocking the way. Lori drew out stone to form niches in the wall that resembled the sleeping niches in the huts in River's Fork, to serve as added sleeping space in addition to laying on the floor. She also raised stone benches along the walls to either side, to serve as seating or another place for people to sleep.

"Those look really uncomfortable," Rian said when he said as he was calling her to dinner. "Wouldn't it be better to make the benches from wood? I mean, you can still raise the legs out of stone, and we'll just have our people lay planks over them. They'd be softer, lighter, and at less risk of collapse. That would be much less work on your part."

At which point she put him in charge of organizing the workers who'd be putting down the wooden fittings to make the benches and sleeping niches after she raised up the stone supports to lay them on.

"Speaking of which," she said over dinner, "I thought you were building a boat to go to Covehold Demesne for supplies? What happened to that?"

"It's a reduced priority," Rian said, reaching towards the game board and starting his turn. "With all the wood we need right now for planks, it's a bit wasteful to make a boat by hollowing out a whole tree, especially since we need every bit of wood we can get. Besides, no one has time for it. Everyone, especially the new people, are very motivated to have adequate preparations for the next dragon."

Lori nodded in approval.

"By the way, I won't be able to play with you tomorrow night."

Lori froze. "What," she said flatly.

Rian leaned forward and hissed a barely audible, "I have to fold my laundry."

Lori continued to stare flatly at him, unamused.

"Don't look at me like that," he said. "I really do need to do it, or else it'll drive me insane. Look, how about I arrange for someone to play with you in my place?"

She kept giving him a flat stare, then let out a huff. "Fine," she said reluctantly. "As long as I don't have to talk to them, and they understand I get the first turn."

"Conversation will be purely optional on your part," Rian assured her.

Lori grunted. "They'd better know the rules at least. I'm not explaining it to them."

"I'll be sure to find someone who fits your very special needs," Rian said. He finished his move, adding stones to his bowl. "Your turn."

Lori was already regretting this.

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The next day, Lori continued on with the development of the second level, dragging in excavated stone and using that to raise walls along the edges of the room to partition them into alcoves. It was tempting to also raise the stone supports for the benches and eventual sleeping bunks, but that would be too time consuming. For that day, she focused on the larger-scale works. The walls were simple and could be done quickly, and so she did.

When dinner arrived, Rian quickly came with food, walking away as soon as she picked a bowl. She watched him go, annoyed and resolved to chase him down if the replacement he'd chosen was insufficient.

"Wiz Lori?" a child's voice said. "Lord Rian says you need someone to play with?"

She turned. It was the brat.

Lori hadn't actual seen her in a long time. It had mostly been in passing or at a distance, since she ate with people who Lori presumed was her family. The girl had filled out in the past few month, though she was no longer plump. Instead, she seemed to have acquired solid, lean muscles, and her skin had taken on a dark, tanned shade. With her sun bleached orange hair, she looked like a piece of kindling someone had lit on fire. She was holding a bowl full of stew for herself.

"Do you know how to play sunk?" Lori asked, getting right to her purpose, her stew half-eaten next to her.

The brat nodded. "I watched you and Lord Rian play," she said. "And Lord Rian made sure to tell me the rules."

Lori gestured across from her. "Show me then," she said, taking another spoonful of dinner as she waited for the brat to round the table. She watched as the brat put the stones into the bowls—Rian had apparently taught her the 49-stone version, since that was the one they'd been playing lately—then waited for Lori expectantly when she finished.

"You move first Karina, I'm still eating," she said, waving a negligent hand.

The brat immediately reached into a bowl, taking all the stone and dropping them all turnwise around the board.

"You realize that's the most predictable opening move of all, right?" Lori said as the brat finished her turn, setting aside her spoon and reaching for one of the bowls to make her move…