Before her injury, Lori would have gone back to digging out the niches and alcoves of the second level, which were only partially done. It wasn't strictly necessary—people had slept on the floor before, and since they'd have their belongings with them, they could just lay out their bedrolls on the ground—but it would be more space efficient, getting sleeping people off walking and standing areas.

Now that had to be put on hold. Priorities had changed.

Her demesne needed metal. Technically, they already had it, but they needed a secured source of it, not just limited supplies. It was why they were so sparing with the metal stock they had. It was why Lori had agreed to Shanalorre's proposal. Metal was one less thing they would need to buy from Covehold, and could become something they could sell to Covehold instead.

Given she was still working on how to create beads—another gap in her education that in hindsight she should have remedied, if it could have been remedied—and it was extremely unlikely people would just part with the beads they had for buying supplies—if they still had any—they would need some products to sell. Lumber was not an option, as it weighed too much and was too big for any vessel they eventually made, and food was unlikely to be travel well. They had, at best, seel pelts and skin, although given how small the seels the children had been catching, the sale value was questionable.

But metal… metal traveled well, had good value and unless Covehold had managed to set up an actual regulatory body of some sort—which was unlikely—as long as they could find the right buyer they'd be able to sell it at a reasonable price.

That meant getting it out of the ground.

If River's Fork had been a demesne Lori controlled, that would have been simple. Earthwisps would have pulled it out of the ground easily, and refining would also be simple, since firewisps would reach the temperatures metals needed to start smelting. Admittedly, that was as far as she knew where metallurgy was concerned.

She had Rian go see one of the smiths—or even all the smiths—to get the ore sample confirmed. "If they need it melted, tell me and I'll make time after lunch. There's no point in doing this if this is just useless shiny rock like gold."

"Gold is still… better than nothing?" Rian said hesitantly. "We can make lighter cooking pots with it. Well, relatively lighter. And it'll be useful once we have acids. Or even just for putting in people's mouths as replacement teeth, since it won't rust."

Lori tilted her head. "Huh," she said. "A sound point. I'd still prefer copper, though. It's hard enough for use in tools. Acid vessels are good, but nails, blades, needles and work knives would be better at this point."

"Hope for copper, got it," Rian said.

"And find out who had previously worked in the mine before the dragon occurred," Lori said. "If any of them survived, that is."

"That's morbid," Rian said. "What will you be doing?"

"Resource management," Lori said.

"Meaning?"

"I'm going to get the dragon scales that I had to leave behind due to my injury."

Rian gave her a flat stare. "You'll be taking Deil and Tackir along so you don't decide to sit on it again. If you're too lazy to walk, have them carry you. In fact, I'll tell them that myself."

"I'm not going to sit on it," Lori said irritably. "I don't need minders."

"Yes, well, this is government at work: taking action to prevent something that's already happened," Rian said. "Don't forget to bring your hat."

"If you start acting like my parents again, I will sink you into the ground."

"The violence inherent in the system will not stop me from doing my duty to keep you alive."

Lori rolled her eyes. "Oh, fine. But not them. It'll be a waste of their time."

"You don't even know what they do."

"They smell like sawdust, they're either carpenters or sawyers." Lori tilted her head in consideration. "More likely the former, I don't remember seeing them in the sawpits. There's no need to remove two of our carpenters from work they need to do just to indulge your paranoia."

"I can accompany her, Lord Rian!"

Riz was suddenly there at Rian's other side, having scrambled over the table. "I'm sure I wouldn't be missed much," the former militiawoman said.

Behind Rian, Lori could see Mikon visibly thinking very hard if she should scramble over the table too.

Lori let out an impatient breath. "I'm going to get my hat," she said flatly. "If she's coming, she better be ready when I come down." She turned and went to get her hat and the map. Then went back to get her board and take it to her room with her. They hadn't even managed to play.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

––––––––––––––––––

She put on her coat this time, to physically protect her arms. Not that she'd be riding any rocks, but still. As Rian had joked, governments took action to prevent something that had already happened. And she was the government, after all.

When she came down, Rian was in the midst of giving Riz hasty instructions. The latter seemed to actually be listening, nodding at his words.

"—her uninjured, all right?" she heard as she approached. "It'll be embarrassing to go back to Shana after only three days to get her fixed again."

"You can count on me, Lord Rian," Riz said. "I'll make sure nothing happens to the Great Binder."

"I won't hold you to that," Rian said with a sigh. "That's what the other guys said last time."

They looked towards Lori expectantly, but she just walked past them.

"Ah," Rian said. "Better follow her, she's not going to wait. I'll take care of bringing your bowl back for you."

Lori heard footsteps following after her.

Why did it feel like people were watching her go?

––––––––––––––––––

She got back before lunch, completely uninjured.

Lori had gone straight to her previous destination this time. She'd only wanted to get the aggregation of dragon scales she'd made last time. That was it. No detours, no riding on rocks or whatever Rian was afraid she'd do. Just go straight from Dungeon to clearing, gather all the dragon scales, and bring it back to store in the treasure room.

And as soon as Riz tentatively volunteered to read the map for her when they ended up in what turned out to be the clearing she'd been aiming for last time, they did just that!

Really, Rian was needlessly worrying about nothing.

She'd dismissed Riz, and extracted the dragon scales from their covering of packed dirt by herself, taking the materials to the treasure room. Technically, there were two treasure rooms. There was one that stored the ingots of metal and other material resources the other people in the demesne had brought, kept safe in the dungeon in the event of a dragon since metal was heavy and after the first time, no one wanted to try lugging them from their house in a hurry. This contained packets of nails, bar stock, ingots and other things, all neatly labeled and separated, with a stone tablet only Lori could alter recording who owned how much of what. Rian had half-jokingly compared her to a bank that didn't offer any interest to anyone.

She had to admit, that had been funny.

The other, more important treasure room contained the things that she had claimed. Dragon scales and altered materials touched by dragon claws, mostly. While many had been identified—iron, copper, tin, gold and now anatass—some were curiosities, like the black material that had once been a house's roof. She wasn't sure what she'd do with it, though a part of her was already resigned to parting with the iron and copper if they really needed it for anything.

The only consolation she had was her treasure room was fairly large. Certainly larger than the first one, although that was because she really couldn't stack things very high, since she was reluctant to alter their shapes—metal was hard to alter with earthwisps alone, you also needed firewisps to do it properly—and so she'd been leaving them on the floor and occasionally stacking things if they seemed stable. They often weren't. A lot of it was very irregularly shaped. Hence why her personal treasure room was so much bigger: she needed the floor space to lay out everything.

Still, it was a satisfying morning's working, completing something that had been left unfinished, and Lori was in a good mood as she met Rian for lunch.

"Are you doing anything this afternoon?" she asked.

"Yes, but it's not urgent," Rian said as he put down two bowls on the table. Lori picked one and he kept the other. "Do you need me for anything?"

On either side of Rian, Umu and Riz both paused in their eating. Behind them in the next table, Mikon had a strange look on her face, and empty space on the bench around her.

"You're to take notes," Lori said. "You volunteered for it, remember?"

Rian's eyes widened and a smile spread over his face. "Oh, you're doing it now? This afternoon?"

"After lunch, as soon as I get the equipment I need from my room," Lori confirmed. "After that, we'll have to see."

"We'll be doing it outside then, not in the Dungeon?" Rian said, looking strangely happy.

"You're not doing anything," Lori told him. "I will be conducting the experiment, you will simply take notes."

"I'll be learning," Rian said cheerfully. "That's not nothing. That's the key to making dreams come." He frowned. "I'm going to need a bigger plank. I don't want to run out of writing space just when things starting getting interesting."

"I think you're overestimating how much writing needs to be done," Lori said.

"It's not like we're using pens and paper," Rian said. "If I need more writing space, I want to know sooner instead of later. Wood is heavy."

"Well, if you insist, you can put it in the boat," Lori said.

Rian blinked. "We're taking the boat?"

"We'll need to," Lori said. "I can't conduct the experiment inside the demesne."

Rian stared at her. Then he sighed. "See, this is the sort of thing that needs to be written in the experimental notes. 'Experiment was not conducted inside demesne'. Are we going to need the ladle and buckets?"

Lori opened her mouth to respond then paused for a moment. "Actually, yes, I think you will," she said thoughtfully.

"Well, I'm glad I found out now instead of later," Rian said blandly. "Otherwise we'd have needed to go back and get them."

"I don't think your laundry will be ready by the time you get back, Lord Rian," Umu said. "They're still a bit wet. Maybe tomorrow morning."

Rian blinked, as if remembering someone was actually sitting next to him now. "You really don't have to Umu. Really, you don't."

"Nonsense, Lord Rian," Umu said. "If you actually knew how to do your own laundry, you'd have done it before now. Just leave this to me, all right?"

"Rian, focus," Lori said, getting his attention back. Reluctantly, he turned towards her. "Get the boat—"

"Lori's Boat?"

Lori rolled her eyes at the interruption. "Yes, of course that one, it's the only one we have right now. Get the wood you think we need and put it on the boat and get it ready to move. I want us on our way as soon as we finish eating."

"Is that your way of telling me to eat faster and then go get things ready?"

"It's my way of telling you to eat at all," she said, pointing at his untouched bowl. "Eat."

"Now who's acting like a parent," he said, taking his spoon and starting to eat.

"If I were your parent, I'd be giving you embarrassing advice for getting women to go to bed with you," Lori said blandly. He obviously needed it.

Rian nearly choked on his food.