Lori woke up, as she usually did, to someone knocking—very loudly—on the door of her house.

"Lori! Wake up!" an irate, female voice called from outside. The words were barely audible though the single piece of Deadspoken wood artistically fused from several branches. The loud yelling was also usual.

Groaning, Lori pushed herself up from her bed. Not for the first time, she was thankful for the ingenious net of woven cords in place of slats. It was far more comfortable than lying on top of planks, and made her cushioned bedroll go from being adequate padding to absolutely luxurious… well, by the standards of luxury out here in the frontier.

Someone knocked irately on the door again. "Lori, get up! It's morning already! Get your glittering feet on the ground!"

"I'm awake, I'm awake," Lori said, or tried to. She was in the middle of a yawn as she did it, so it came out… well, a yawn.

"There, see? She's awake already. Stop yelling…" another voice outside her door said as Lori got to her feet, eyes still closed as she tried to use her awareness of the demesne's wisps and get a few more moments of sleep at the same time. It… wasn't very effective, since it made her more awake, but one of these days she was sure to figure out how to get used to this so she wouldn't have to wake up completely to answer her door!

Navigating through the airwisps surrounding her and avoiding any concentrations of water wisps, voids or earthwisps—not that there were any in her path—Lori made it to the door and fumbled for the wooden latch. She managed to get her hands on it on the fourth try and slide it back on the second. "Good morning, Elcee," Lori said, even as she winced and hissed at the morning sunlight on her eyelids. "Ahnree."

"Elceena," came the correction. There was the sound of an impatient sniff, followed by an annoyed huff. "Open your eyes already, idiot," the other Whisperer said, sounding her usual self. "There's work to be done."

"Good morning, Lori," a soft-spoken male voice said. "Do you want me to wake you up?"

"Please, no," she mumbled, stepping back to get the sun out of her eyes. The glare through her eyelids lessened as she stepped back into the shadow of her house, turning away from the sun to crawl back onto her bedroll. "Going back to sleep now… "

She felt a hand grab the back of her shirt. "Oh, wake up already," Elceena said impatiently.

"Shouldn't you be more respectful? I am the Dungeon Binder, after all."

"And every day I wish I hadn't agreed to Rian's suggestion to have everyone vote on which of the three of us would make the core," Elceena muttered. "Come on, you can wake up in the baths before we head to breakfast."

"No… sleep…" Lori moaned. "More sleep…"

"Good morning!" The aggressively, almost falsely cheerful greeting from the familiar voice of her next-door neighbor was also expected. "Whisperer Elceena. Deadspeaker Ahnree. Your Bindership."

At the words, Lori could almost see Elceena's face composing itself to a picture of poise and dignity. "Good morning, Rian. Off to the baths?"

"The best way to start the morning, especially with this cold weather," Rian's voice said, the big, bright smile that accompanied them clear in the words. "Do you need help pointing her Bindership the right direction?"

"No, we can manage," Elceena said, and Lori felt the hand on the back of her shirt sliding up to become an arm around her shoulders. "We appreciate the offer, however."

Rian probably shrugged. It was always what he did when he faced Elceena's thinly veiled mild antagonism, if he wasn't just blatantly amused. Lori really didn't understand why, and she considered herself quite good at getting along with and understanding people, her little, ah, difficulties with remembering people's names aside. "Well, if you need anything else, then just tell me. See you all at breakfast."

There were footsteps walking away, and Lori could hear Rian greeting other people he passed by. Reluctantly, Lori forced her eyes open as she watched her loneliest lord heading for the men's bath. For all his talk about coming to the frontier in search of adventure, he was a surprisingly stabilizing influence, and always full of ideas to add just that little bit more touch of civilization.

Lori glanced towards Elceena, finally really looking at the pale-haired Whisperer. As expected, even this early in the morning the other woman's hair was already pulled into a tight, neat braid over one shoulder. She was glaring after Rian as he walked away. "You know, if you're interested in him, just say so," Lori ventured. "This playing at being belligerent is just counter-productive."

Elceena groaned as Ahnree chuckled, the dark-haired Deadspeaker's slightly oily falling back over his eyes at the movement. "I'm not interested in Rian," the Whisperer said, giving Lori an intent look. "I have better taste than that."

"What's wrong with Rian?" Lori asked, blinking. "He's nice. Kind of a loner, but he's hard working, really helpful, and fun to talk to."

"She's still convinced he's some kind of spy for some lord or other," Ahnree said.

"He's too smart and knows too much about things a lumberyard worker shouldn't have any reason to know about," Elceena insisted.

"Personally, I just think his family was deep in the Mysteries of Alknowledge, and he came out here to find more things to a learn."

"Nothing wrong with that," Lori nodded in agreement. Those deep in the Mysteries, the ones who devoted their lives to it as its administrators, librarians, reviewers and curators could be a little strange. While everyone knew its followers were trying to learn and bring together all that could be known about all existence, those deep in it acted like it was actually possible instead of simply an ideal to strive towards. "Maybe he'll build a school. Or better yet, a library."

"Can we stop talking about Rian?" Elceena grumbled. "It's too early in the morning to put up with him."

Lori sighed. She really didn't understand why her friend was like this with Rian. Sure, she hadn't known the woman long, having only met when Lori had joined the group of settlers when she'd heard they were planning to found a new demesne far from Covehold last spring, but the two seemed to have gotten along well enough on the journey here. It would have been nice to know about this enmity back when she'd just formed their demesne's core, and had asked Rian to help the three of them run the new settlement as its first lord. "Fine, fine," she said, waving her hand to dismiss the subject. "Come on then, let's have that bath you were going to drag me to."

The seemed to improve Elceena's mood immediately. "W-well, good! Finally we can get started on the day!"

"You never tell me I need to take a bath," Ahnree said, amused for some reason.

"You're a Deadspeaker. If you can't get rid of the dustlife on your person, nothing I say could possibly help."

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The three of them took turns getting food from the kitchen at meal times, and breakfast was Lori's turn, on the grounds that if she was allowed to sit down so soon after her morning bath, she'd just fall asleep at the table, which… all right, she was willing to admit that was a possibility. And so she spent her early mornings in the line waiting for the food to be served. At first, people had hastily made way for her to get to the had of the time, but after all these months, people seemed to have finally understood she didn't want that sort of special treatment.

While she waited, Lori talked to the people waiting with her.

"Ahnree's about to finish putting meanings on all the crops so he can work on getting some ropeweed to grow soon, mistress weaver," Lori said, smiling reassuringly even as she panicked inside, trying to remember this woman's name. The bright pink hair and large breasts helped narrow it down, but not by much. Wait, she had a beauty mark on her left cheekbone, so she was either Mikon's mother or her aunt. So that made her… uh… okay, flattery, flattery, flattery! "So you and your sisters will have more skeins to spin by next week, at the soonest."

The weaver laughed at her. "Oh, your Bindership, we've been over this," she said, smiling pleasantly despite Lori's semi-deliberate mistake. "But I'm flattered you think I look young enough to be one of my nieces."

Lori could barely tell her apart from the eight younger women in question, but if she was Mikon's aunt, then she was… "Oh, I'm sorry Miss Taji," she said, giving the same embarrassed, apologetic smile that she had unfortunately become all too familiar with in her life. Most people tended to forgive her when she made mistakes like this, which just somehow made it feel worse… "I guess I must still be sleepy…"

People were simply too polite to call her out on always confusing their name for other people's, especially since she was their Dungeon Binder. Young, naïve Lori had once thought that becoming a Dungeon Binder would be the end of her embarrassing little inability, that having the memory of a Mentalist would finally let her remember the names of all the people around her without getting them mixed up with the names of other, similar-looking people. It was silly, wanting to become a Dungeon Binder for such a childish reason, but it had been a dream she'd had for years…

Thankfully, Lori's embarrassment was short-lived, as the kitchen started serving food afterwards. Like many, Taji was carrying something flat and convenient to carry multiple bowls of food on, in this case a washboard to put as many bowls of food on as possible. A little further down the line, one of her nieces—definitely one of her nieces… most likely one of her nieces… probably one of her nieces, pink was a common hair color…—stood waiting with another plank to help bring food for the large family

For Lori, carrying three plates of meaty soup so thick it was practically a stew, three cups of water, and a plate stacked with disks of flatbread was nothing for someone who'd worked as a waitress in one of Taniar demesne's many worker eateries. It had been a stressful experience that she'd quit after four days, but she'd learned some skills from it, and the fine art of balancing bowls of hot food while forming a binding of firewisps to keep from burning herself had proven surprisingly valuable many times. Most mornings when it was her turn to get their food, for instance.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Still, she was thankful when Elceena took hold of some of the more awkwardly positioned bowls, setting them down on their table. The table that was… a little embarrassing, really. While all the other tables in the dining hall had simple benches, and perhaps a shorter bench so people could sit on the ends, this table had benches with backrests made from scrap wood that Ahnree had Deadspoken together with some beast leather. Embarrassing not because of the craftsmanship—it was actually wonderfully made, and the differently-colored scraps looked like a mosaic—but because none of the other tables hand anything similar.

Though, Lori had to admit it was nice to be able to lean back and rest her weight as she ate.

"Excuse me, your Bindership, Deadspeaker Ahnree, Whisperer Elceena." The three of them looked up to find Rian standing next to the table holding his breakfast. "Do you mind if I sit with you?"

Lori smiled welcoming, gesturing at her bench. "Of course, Rian. We have a lot of space."

They really did. Most of the demesne's other lords and ladies usually ate with their families, unless there was a project they needed to cooperate on, like building their trading ship or planning where the agricultural fields and infrastructure buildings would be. Then they ate together so no one would be absent for the arguing. Rian, however, was one of the few people in the demesne who didn't have any blood kin, and so usually ate with a fellow lord or lady he needed to talk to, or here in with them, the others without blood kin.

There used to be more people at the table with the three of them, those without families to support them banding together as companions, and then as friends. There was Cas-something the astrologer, Mik-something the sculptor (definitely a sculptor and not a stonemason, and Lori still hadn't gotten the story of how he'd ended up here from him), and Aly-something who Lori suspected had used to be a bell-girl but for some reason had decided to join the settlers, and others who had come with them to seek, if not their fortune, then a different life, but over the past few months many of them had found other people they preferred to spend their mealtimes with. Lori had even signed off on the marriages of some of them, and now they ate with their new in-laws, leaving the table fairly empty.

Ahnree stood up for a moment so Rian could slide the bench slightly and step in, putting his food on the table so the two of them could pull the bench forward again to sit down. The lord muttered an apology that the easygoing Deadspeaker dismissed with a wave, before the two of them started talking about… experiments on the ropeweed? Something about breeding them to be thicker and softer?

She wished she knew enough about Deadspeaking to be able to follow the conversation, but beyond some utterly basic principles she'd picked up from novels about Deadspeakers, she was still fairly ignorant on the subject. They had been all so busy trying to build infrastructure for the demesne Ahnree really hadn't had time to try to tutor her on the basics of Deadspeaking. Colors, she'd barely had time to learn the advanced lightningwisp manipulation that Elceena knew, and that would have been a straightforward discussion between two Whisperers. Or at least, a Whisperer and a Dungeon Binder who was very familiar with Whispering.

"G-good morning, y-your Bindership."

Lori looked up from her nearly empty soup bowl, her fingers breaking apart her last half-disk of bread to wipe up all what was left. "Oh, hello Umu," Lori said, glad it was one of the people whose name she knew. Well, was reasonably confident in. "What can I do for you?"

"Ah, I've finished sewing your shirts, y-your Bindership," the blonde weaver said, her face as usual lightly tinged with red at her nervousness with speaking to Lori. She couldn't even meet Lori's eyes, instead keeping her gaze down below Lori's face. "And your t-trousers as well."

"Oh, thank you, Umu," Lori said with a bright smile. When she'd found such a long tear in one of her shirts, and a few smaller holes in other places, she'd been resigned to trying to sew the things up herself—or possibly have Ahnree simply fuse the fibers of dead plants together—until the weaver had volunteered to do it for her. Given how shy the weaver seemed to be—she never looked Lori in the eye, always keeping her head bowed—and how much it must have cost to volunteer her help, Lori hadn't been able to protest that she could do it—badly—herself.

The shirts and trouser in question were in the weaver's hands, hesitantly held out towards Lori. Hastily, Lori washed her hands with the water left in her cup and evaporating away the water before she reached for the clothing. Her hands brushed against Umu's forearms, and she could feel the woman shiver slightly at being touched, but clearly pushing through her shy nature to not cringe back. Lori pretended not to notice, not wanting to embarrass the woman as she put the clothes down on the bench next to her, and flipped through them to find the shirt with the long tear.

"Oh, this is very good work!" While the weaver would hardly have been able to make the tear disappear, the stitching over the damage was small, even and strong, and didn't pull much on the rest of the shirt. If Lori had tried to do this repair, she knew the garment would have ended up noticeably tighter, perhaps uncomfortably so. As it was, she was sure she wouldn't even notice any change. "This is great, Umu. I don't think anyone could have done it any better."

"I-it was my pleasure, y-your Bi—Lori," the weaver said, pushing the last out with an effort.

Lori brightened, turning to grin at her. "There, see. You can say my name after all." Ha ha, one more person who was no longer calling her 'your Bindership'. She reached out and patted Umu on the shoulder, giving her an encouraging smile. "Feel free to say my name any time, Umu." Soon, she'd properly be friends with everyone in the demesne!

"Oh, hello Umu."

The weaver stiffened, and Lori turned her gaze a little to the left towards the sound of the voice. She found the familiar smiling face of Mikon, who she saw more often than her sisters, so she was able to almost tell her apart from them. The other weaver was holding a larger stack of clothes in her arms as she turned her attention to Lori. "Lori, I have your clothes here. They might still be a little damp, but you said that was fine, right?"

"Yes, I can deal with making them properly dry, Mikon," Lori said, giving the woman a grateful smile. With so much to do around the demesne, she had naturally fallen behind on some of her chores, such as doing her laundry. It had been a guilty relief when the pink-haired woman had generously volunteered to do Lori's laundry for her. Lori had almost wanted to refuse, not wanting to take advantage, but she had insisted, and Lori had given in.

Lori accepted the folded laundry, still damp as she had been told. There were her trousers, shirts, socks, but…

Mikon leaned in, discreetly speaking directly into Lori's ear. "Your chest wraps and loin cloths are tucked in between your shirts and trousers," she said in a breathy voice that could almost be called sultry if Lori hadn't known that was just how she sounded like when whispering. The warm breath almost tickled as she felt the weaver's hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, I made sure to handle those very, very gently…"

Oh, good. Lori was still a bit uncertain as to how comfortable fabric made from ropeweed would be as undergarments, and the longer hers lasted, the better. "I see," Lori nodded as the weaver drew back. "Thank you, Mikon."

"You're welcome, Lori," Mikon said, winking as she drew back the hand she'd used to steady herself. Lori supposed the backrest of the bench was just a bit too high to be comfortable. "If you'd like me to do anything else for you, just ask." She turned to Rian across the table. "Rian, your laundry isn't done yet. I thought you'd rather they were completely dry before I handed them to you."

"Thank you Mikon, but you really don't have to do this," Rian said, smiling ignorantly.

"Nonsense," Mikon said, leaning forward a little. Next to Rian, Ahnree politely averted his eyes as Mikon's breasts probably came into view. "It's no bother Rian. If you want me to do anything, all you have to do is ask. Don't worry, all your clothes will be properly folded up before I get them to you."

It was all Lori could do to keep from sighing. Really, how oblivious could the man be to such blatant flirting? Did he think women just willingly handled someone else's undergarments because they were casually acquainted? But no, he just sat there smiling politely, not understanding. It made her want to cry, it really did. Mikon was practically throwing herself at him, all but wearing a bell on a ribbon and ringing it next to his ear to signal her willingness to be ravished, and he just didn't… argh!

Next to Lori and Mikon, Umu was shaking slightly, no doubt mortified at such brazen forwardness. The shy woman, as usual, was seemingly aghast that someone would be so forward. Lori knew the blonde also had an interest in Rian, one that she naturally had difficulty expressing, save through small, helpful gestures like offering to sweep his house for him or mending his clothes. The Dungeon Binder wish her the best of luck, but unless she was a bit more obvious—perhaps by actually using spoken words—she was unlikely to have any more success than Mikon in flirting with Rian.

She could probably clear it up with a few blunt, direct words, but that would no doubt have been absolutely mortifying for the three—well, perhaps. It was hard to tell with Mikon—so she refrained from interfering. Besides, she was a Dungeon Binder, not some neighborhood busybody sticking her staff into everyone's bindings. No, Lori would just keep her hands off this mess and simply watch in mortified fascination at the empirical demonstration of the limits of human obliviousness.

That wasn't even getting into how Mikon sometimes seemed to flirt with Umu, although the woman was so shy she probably didn't notice. No, she wasn't touching any of that…

"Ah, well, if you would please excuse me, I need to get these back home and dry them," Lori said, picking up her laundry and putting her mended clothes on top of them.

"Here, go out this side," Elceena said, starting to slide away, sounding disgruntled for some reason. Really, for someone who insisted on waking up early, the Whisperer could be so cranky in the morning. "I was done anyway."

"Oh, thank you," Lori said, picking up her laundry and following after the Whisperer as Mikon and Umu continued to try to flirt with Rian.

Lori headed to her house, and Elceena fell into stop beside her. "Honestly, those two," she muttered, flicking her braid over her shoulder in irritation. "Shameless, simply shameless."

Ah. That must be it. Elceena could be a bit unrelenting about propriety. "Oh, give over," Lori chided her friend. "So they flirted with Rian in front of us. Given how busy he likes to make himself during the day, it's not like they'd have any other chance outside of meal times."

Elceena gave her a look that conveyed negative opinions about Lori's worldliness. "Isn't Rian seeing that militiawoman down in River's Fork?"

"No, she's trying to see him, and he doesn't understand what she's implying, so he thinks they're just sparring with spears," Lori said, shaking her head. Three women. She was completely bereft of any romantic prospects of any sort, men or women, and he had three women interested in him… and he couldn't even perceive it! Made her want to cry in exasperation sometimes, it really did.

They reached her house, and before Lori could ask for help, Elceena had already opened the door to let her in. The interior was lit by the morning sunlight coming in diagonally through the door, enough that Lori didn't have to activate the lightwisps to make her way inside. She put her laundry on the wooden table she'd resignedly asked Ahnree and the carpenters to make for her after everyone had kept teasing that her previous, perfectly serviceable stone table looked like some sort of sacrificial altar, separating the dry mended clothes from the damp laundry.

"Here, let me help you with that," Elceena said after Lori bound the waterwisps in the clothes and made a binding to slowly sublimate them into vapor. "We'll get done faster if two of us are folding them."

Lori smiled. "Are you sure? You don't have to."

"Well, I'm already doing it. Come on, I'm not going to fold all your clothes for you."

Such a proud, prickly woman. Lori shook her head, pulling the top half of the pile towards her, only to notice too late that meant Elceena was left with the undergarments. "Ah, wait, let's switch, I'll take care of that."

A dismissive wave. "I'll do it. You'll probably just wad these up into balls."

Lori mockingly pouted at her, even as she shrugged internally and began properly folding and rolling one of the shirts to put away. "How dare you accuse me of such accurate things!"

A derisive sniff. "Not even going to pretend you don't do it," the Whisperer said as she folded up one of the loincloths.

The two worked with measured haste. They had a full day ahead of them, after all. Bindings to imbue, kilns and furnaces to heat up, the dungeon farm to maintain, then a planned visit to River's Fork in the afternoon to assist Binder Shanalorre with repairs to her demesne…

Lori found herself humming as she looked forward to another day with her friends. All was right with the world.

…

Ah, she should probably make sure it was clean under the bed. Umu was coming to sweep later while she was gone, and she didn't want the house to be messy…