The next day, Lori woke up and resigned herself to needing to leave her demesne. Again.

She promised herself this would the la—second to last time she'd ever need to leave her demesne ever again, ever, for any reason! And this time she'd keep that promise!

But for now, she had commitments to fulfill, things to do, people to meet, things to build…

Sighing, she pushed herself out of bed.

Her boots were still holding out. The soles were getting more worn, but at least the uppers hadn't cracked or separated. That was good. Rian had said he'd had someone look her shoes over, but she had no idea what she'd do once they needed replacing.

Her socks though…

She frowned down at her increasingly thin socks. There was another hole she'd just noticed, one she'd have to sew… or ask Rian to. She had to admit his sewing, when it came to socks, was better than hers.

She wondered how much socks cost in Covehold. Surely they wouldn't be too expensive, right? Or did anyone in her demesne know how to make socks?

Actually, how did you make socks…?

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Lori felt her whole body go tense in annoyance as she looked upon the volunteers to go mine in River's Fork. There were eleven of them, most of them young men who were making a lot of noise as they talked to each other. A few she actually recognized, and one of them she could actually name.

She grabbed Rian by the shoulder, dragged her surprised lord a little way off, and hissed, "What is he doing here?"

"Uh, you'll have to be a little more specific," Rian said. "There are seven people there that could apply to."

"Him! The idiot! Landoor!"

"Oh," Rian said, nodding. "Well, I think he wants to mine because he thinks it will let him find a core buried in—"

That was as far as he got before the aggrieved scream of "THAT'S NOT HOW DUNGEON'S WORK!" ripped itself from Lori's snarling lips.

"Ow. Too loud," Rian said, sticking a finger in his ear and wiggling it around as if to clean it. "I know that, and you know that, and now I'm pretty sure most people know that, even if they don't know what part specifically, but you know how he is. He still half-thinks he's your heir from—please don't yell again, I don't deserve it!"

Lori managed to grit her teeth back against the next exclamation that wanted out. "Who's in charge here?"

"Um, you?"

Lori rolled her eyes. "I meant among the miners."

"There's no one really in charge, though Karina probably comes closest. They really respect her."

Lori sighed. "I said miners, not minors!" She pointed for emphasis.

"Oh… OH!" Ugh, why did Rian have to pick this morning to be useless? Did he not get any sleep again? "No one's in charge, really. I mean, they all showed up because they could be spared for a week."

Lori sighed. "Find the most responsible one and put him in charge to make sure they don't do anything stupid. We'll do two trips so the boat isn't dangerously full."

"Ah. Well, it's been a while since we've gone really fast. Though if I start screaming, stop the boat immediately, it'll mean the tiller finally broke off."

She gave him a piercing look. "Is that likely to happen?"

"We're going fast on what was originally a barge meant to be pulled along the water by people," Rian said. "I'm surprised things haven't broken yet."

Lori gave that some thought. "I'll grab some bones so we can repair any leaks."

"I'm… not sure how they'll take that, but yeah, a few might be good."

"We'll be able to talk about the latrine situation on the way."

"Oh, right, I forgot about that…"

Lori sighed. "Well, I'll go get the bones, you make sure they have their bedroll, blanket and clothes for the week. We should be ready to go when I get back."

They were not ready to go by the time she got back.

It turned out some of them had assumed that they would be brought to River's Fork in the morning and brought back to her demesne at night. As a result they wasted time waiting for people to come back with the necessary implements.

The delay didn't put Lori in a good mood, but they were able to set off with the half that had managed to get everything ready first. This time Lori made it VERY clear that they would be coming back for the next batch, and they had better be ready by then.

The ride passed in uncomfortable… well, not silence, there was the usual screaming by people not yet used to Lori's Boat's speed in the water. Lori knew better than to tell them to shut up. They seemed to insist on screaming for longer when she did that. That's what it felt like, anyway.

They passed the compacted stone dome Lori had put the bowls with her blood inside. Already a glittering layer of Iridescence was covering the surface of it, and Lori knew a similar layer would have appeared in the space inside, on everything but the glassware she had put her bloody water in. She'd come back to get them on the way back. The stone bowls she'd made the day before, as well as the case with her syringe and other things, lay in the pack at her side. Next to it was the hollow stone cone of the funnel she had made.

Thankfully, Rian's prediction about the tiller breaking didn't come to pass, and they arrived at River's Fork well before noon, despite the distance. From their previous trips, as well as Rian's conversations with the former militiamen who'd made the journey on foot, they estimated that the path along the river between the two demesne was around forty taums, though given all the curves and bends, a straight-line between the edges of their respective demesne was probably closer to thirty-five taums, perhaps even just thirty.

Lori intended to have her demesne expand to cover every one of those taums.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

For now, however, it was a wild frontier covered in tainted colors, which they were thankfully able to just move quickly through. They didn't even need to stop to splash themselves with water to wash off any iridiation.

People were clearly waiting for them when River's Fork came into sight. Lori adjusted the speed of the water jets, slowing them down to a relative crawl and letting their own momentum beach them. There was a harsh skidding as the flat bottom of the former barge dragged across the mud and river stones, but she had long since cleared this beach of anything that could damage her boat.

"We're here everyone," Rian said in the overly cheerful tone of his he used when he wanted to improve people's spirits. "Everybody off!"

He stood up, stepped over the side of the boat, and then reached back to help the nearest person follow after him. Despite it being a simple box that barely moved now that it was partially beached, for some reason people seemed very reluctant to get off, and it took some coaxing on Rian's part to get them to step down and from the boat and began unloading their bedrolls, blankets and clothes.

Binder Shanalorre was among those waiting for them, looking unassuming in a plain, undyed dress. Lord whatever-his-name was standing next to her on one side, with Shanalorre's aunt—Lori remembered that much, though the name currently escaped her—on the other. There was no distinctly arrayed militia with them, though there was a small crowd behind her.

Lori gave the other Dungeon Binder a nod from where she sat, impatiently waiting for the boat to finish unloading so they could get the next group and be back before sundown.

After a while, Binder Shanalorre seemed to sigh, then gestured to her lord, indicating Rian. They spoke briefly before Shanalorre walked towards Lori.

"Binder Lolilyuri," she said.

"Binder Shanalorre," Lori replied in acknowledgement, not getting up from where she was sitting, putting herself under the other Binder's eye height.

"I expected to hear back from you sooner," Shanalorre said.

"We set no definite time-frame as to the start of this cooperation, only a tentative endpoint," Lori said. "Besides, it took time to gather volunteers. Incidentally, we will be returning next week to take this batch back with us and bring in another batch."

Shanalorre frowned. "That wasn't part of the agreement."

"Which is why I am informing you now rather than just coming back next week," Lori said. "Apparently, no one wanted to be separated from their families for longer than that. In future, we might be able to leave them here for longer than a week, but for now, that is what we have to work with."

"I… see," Shanalorre said. "Very well then. Those conditions are acceptable provided the transition occurs smoothly."

"I can't promise that," Lori said. "The second batch will likely be as ignorant as this batch currently is, and will need to be informed of proper procedure. The third batch as well, if members of the first batch decline to volunteer again."

"If we need to educate a new workforce every week repeatedly, the mine will never be efficient," Shanalorre said.

"Perhaps you would rather our people supplement your workforce in other areas while you train a dedicated mining group of your own people?" Lori said blandly.

For a moment, Shanalorre frowned, her eyes growing unfocused. Then she shook her head. "I will need to ask for greater continuity in the work force in future and shifts to be at least a minimum of two weeks."

"They are a volunteer force," Lori said. "Unless you can incentivize them by offering them payment, they are unlikely to change their mind and agree to those conditions."

Shanalorre blinked. "Wait, you're not paying them?"

Lori tilted her head. "Say, rather, that I'm not taxing them or instituting new fees that will require them to part with any payment they receive." She tilted her head the other way. "If you cannot incentivize them with payment, then I suggest you make the food you feed them something besides stewed meat with assorted other things. I believe you have sufficient variety in food resources to allow you to accomplish this without significantly altering the amount of food you would have fed them anyway?"

Shanalorre seemed to consider that. "I… see. I will confer with our quartermasters and assess your suggestion. Now, where is our ice?"

"I will bring it with the second batch," Lori said. She glanced toward Rian, who was speaking to Shanalorre's lord. "If you will have my people directed to their quarters and towards whatever safety training they will receive before mining, my lord and I will retrieve the rest."

"One pace cube of the ice now, the other two when you get back," Shanalorre said insistently.

Lori considered that. Then she sighed. "Fine," she said, getting up and slinging her pack over her shoulder. Its contents were a reassuring weight as she started to breathe in magic, holding her staff with the wire pressing against her palms as she dipped one end into the waters of the river.

She had to do the block by stages, dragging pieces of ice onto the shore and stacking them up to about the right dimensions, then using water to progressively fill in the cracks until the whole thing was solid. Lori made sure there weren't any bubbles inside as she filled in and froze, lightly imbued bindings of waterwisps keeping it solid and cold.

She used a marked notch on her staff to ensure the dimensions were all one pace—she even generously added two fingers width on top to make up for any unevenness from the ground—before she nodded and turned to Shanalorre. "One pace cube of ice, as agreed," Lori said.

Shanalorre nodded, took out a knotted cord from her pocket, and began measuring.

––––––––––––––––––

"Is it just me," Rian said loudly from the tiller, "or are we going faster than normal?"

"I have other things I need to do," she told him, "so we need to hurry. Now, on the subject of latrines."

"Yes…?"

"They need to be prepared for winter," she said. "For one thing, we need to keep the contents away from snowmelt, or it will contaminate the snow and ground around it. While it's unlike to spread into the river, if the ground freezes, it will certainly affect the immediate area."

Rian blinked, then groaned. "I miss city plumbing," he sighed.

Lori nodded sympathetically.

"So, what are you thinking?" he said. "Build a secondary roof over all the latrines to keep snow off them?"

"That or pave the ground around them with stone, and institute mandatory snow removal around them," Lori said.

"We'd have to anyway, so that people can get to them," Rian said. "Actually, all of that will need a whole new bunch of shovels specifically for shoveling snow." He titled his head. "Covered walkways between the houses and the latrines? And the Dungeon, dining hall and baths too, I suppose."

"That will need more roofs," Lori pointed out.

"Maybe you can sink all the houses underground and open tunnels between them…?" Rian said.

"Now you're just being silly," she said. "Focus on the latrines."

He sighed. "Yeah… right, winter latrines… you might have to use magic to keep them warm, otherwise the waste is going to freeze over and we won't be able to clean the things… actually, where would we even put the waste? And pushing the dung barrows through the snow is going to be a nightmare for whoever ends up doing it… "

"We can assign larger groups of people to it," Lori said. "After all, by that time we'll have a lot of tree cutters, sawyers and other people not doing much work since it's too cold, right?"

"Throw people at the problem and just brute force it?" Rian said. "People to keep shoveling the snow, people to clean the latrines… the waste will still be a problem. You might need to dig new pits just before winter for us to dump the waste into during, since it doesn't become fertilizer in the cold."

Lori blinked. "It doesn't?"

"It doesn't," Rian confirmed. "Same reason why meat doesn't go bad when on ice. Too cold for rot to set in. Actually, it probably won't even smell. During winter, anyway, We'll know spring is here by all the stink it makes. Hopefully we survive that long."

For a moment, the two sat in silence.

"Wait…" Rian suddenly said. "Why are we worrying about this?"

Lori gave him a look. "Because it deals with the survival of the demesne?"

Rian waved a hand in negation. "No, I mean, why are we bothering to think up solutions to this? We have people from the north, who've probably lived with snow their whole lives. Let's just ask them how to handle this situation! No, better! We ask them to deal with it! No need for the two of us to get creative!"

Lori blinked, then brightened as she realized what her lord meant. "That could work…!"

"And if it doesn't, because we don't like their solution," Rian said, "then we actually bother with thinking of something."

Lori tilted her head, but had to accept that addendum. "Find someone to ask," she said. "I'd rather not have to build anything when winter actually starts."

"Yes, your Bindership," Rian said. "Maybe I can ask Riz…?"

"No," Lori said flatly. "First, because you might do it during meals, and we'll be eating. Secondly, find someone who actually knows how to construct the measures, not just someone who might only have used them."

"Good point," Rian agreed. "Someone else then…"

Lori rolled her eyes as Lori's Boat continued to speed back to the demesne for the second batch of workers.