Some people would have thought that the Dungeon Binder going off to clean the latrines while her lord stayed behind and awarded prizes was backward. These didn't realize that awarding prizes meant talking and, judging by the way Rian had done things, touching people.

Which was not to say the task wasn't odious. It was extremely odious. It was the baseline by which odious was measured. It was still far better than the alternative.

Especially since she had a volunteer to do the more physical, odorous stuff for her.

The wheeled barrow the carpenters had put together wasn't that hard to push. The pair of stone wheels, on stone bearings, lubricated with seel lard not used for soap and sealed as tightly as the carpenter's lathe and her own Whispering skills could manage, spun easily and their position directly under the center of gravity of the conveyance meant only a minimum of strength was need to push it. In addition, it was empty right then, containing only a shovel made from a beast skull. Lori had even blasted the shovel clean of the accumulated and crusted foulness using waterwisps, leaving it possibly the cleanest it had ever been since it was made, and she'd done the same for the barrow.

Umu still had her face scrunched up in distaste despite all that and muttering to herself. Really, if the woman didn't want to do something she shouldn't have volunteered for it.

"If you didn't want to do this, you shouldn't have volunteered for this," Lori said irritably. The blonde winced. She was walking in front of Lori to make sure she didn't try to just sneak off, since it seemed very likely that she would. "Hurry up, those latrines aren't going to clean themselves."

"Y-yes, your Bindership," Umu said, clearly pouting and sullen.

"In future, I suggest against being the first to volunteer," Lori said. "Rian doesn't realize what you're doing anyway, so you might as well spare yourself the effort."

Umu didn't trip, stumble or otherwise give any physical cue she was surprised by that statement. This wasn't a cheap play after all, and the quality of her paving was excellent. Umu did stop speaking though, even as she continued pushing the barrow downhill.

The demesne had several latrines. Once, they had been simple pits in the ground with a wooden seat and hole above it, and low walls to shield one's modesty. Now, however, they were a bit more sophisticated than that, though the original hole and seat arrangement remained. The walls were higher, it insides were more spacious, there was a roof for when it finally started raining again, a door that closed, and bound lightwisps that provided light to those who had to dispense with nature in the middle of the night.

Each row of latrines stood on a raised platform of stone—her work—that was hollow underneath. At the back of each latrine platform was a wooden door with the most airtight seal they could currently manage, through which the waste could be shoveled out for transfer to the fermenting pit for use as next year's fertilizer. A crude chimney allowed the gasses generated by the waste inside to vent upward, mildly alleviating the smell in the latrine proper—the doors were to be left wide open when not in use to both vent the contents and to tell people it was available– so that no one died of gas or fire. Some plants had been transplanted around each row in case liquid seeped into the soil, and to try and obscure the scent. Saw dust and dirt were used to soak up any loose liquids—there always was—so it wouldn't poison the ground water.

Rian had been petitioned by the farmers and the people with tanning experience for the solid and liquid to be separated, since the gold water was of more immediate use for them, but so far the best he and Lori could devise were latrines that were meant for piss only, positioned near the field and near the dining halls. That at least seemed to be sufficient for now, though the pottery vessels they had for handling it were awkward and prone to splashing. Still, it wasn't her problem.

It was a far cry from the water driven affairs Lori had grown up with, but they simply didn't have the plumbing to make those practical.

Normally, the sanitation crew assigned to this handled it unfortunately fresh. However, with only Lori and one very reluctant volunteer, many latrines to see to, and lunch coming up, she had no time for a thorough cleaning of the latrines. That wasn't what they were doing.

"Pay attention. I'm going to explain what we're going to do," Lori said as they reached the first latrine. The row of latrines were positioned to serve the sanitary needs of the homes people were currently occupying. There were eight in each row, since people would need their release at any hour of day or night, and not having enough latrines meant people would find other places to release their inner dissatisfaction, a habit they had gotten into during the overland journey from Covehold.

"I know what needs to be done. Er, your Bindership," Umu said. "We have to shovel out shit, right?"

"No," Lori said, annoyed at being interrupted, and Umu blinked. "We have to make the latrines useable until at least tomorrow. That doesn't require cleaning them out. There just has to be enough space inside for them to last that long. Hopefully, we will be done before lunch." One way or another, they would be, since Lori planned to stop when she got hungry. The sun was fairly high in the sky, and while people were likely still full from the late breakfast, they'd want to eat again eventually.

"How will we be doing that, your Bindership?" Umu said.

"We will be opening the lower latrine and desiccating—drying—the contents," Lori said, then frowned. "Correction. We will be desiccating the contents, and then opening the lower latrine. While there will be a burst of stench, it should not last."

"Hold my breath," Umu said, nodding in acknowledgement despite her lips twisting in distaste.

"Yes," Lori confirmed. She wouldn't need to, since she'd be binding airwisps around her head, but it was good advice for the other young woman. "Once everything is completely dried, we will check the lower latrine. If it is more than half full, you will use the shovel to pull some out until it is less than half. Then we will seal it and move on until the barrow is full, at which point you will drop the contents into the composting pit." That was filled with sawdust from the sawpits and carpenters in addition to the waste, as well as the smaller odds and ends of wood that couldn't be used, what little bits of tuber and vegetable couldn't be eaten, seel and beast innards that were same, and anything else. "We repeat until lunch, at which point we stop."

Umu looked relieved, but she glanced at the single shovel.

"If you prefer," Lori said dryly, "you can dry the waste and I can use the shovel instead?"

The blonde looked sickly but resigned. "I'll shovel, your Bindership," she said.

––––––––––––––––––

There was, as hoped but not actually expected, very little in need of shoveling. After getting people to finish their business and telling those approaching to take their business somewhere else, since cleaning was in progress, Lori went to work. While it would have been convenient to begin desiccation at a distance, in every lavatory simultaneously, she didn't think this was safe to do when people were actively sitting on the latrine in question. So, one row at a time.

As Umu kept people back and diverted them from the latrine, Lori bound the waterwisps in the waste. She couldn't just pull them out to dry everything, as she would pull water from mud. The waste was too organic, and while there were little bits of earthwisps there, the matter it corresponded to was minimal. Physically moving the water would pull a large amount of dissolved matter with it, creating a slurry, and the particles in the slurry would pull on larger particles, and… well. Physically pulling out water wasn't very helpful, but neither was it completely useless.

Binding airwisps to pull in air through the hole in the seat so that the smell could be contained, and setting another binding at the outlet chimney to start actively pulling the air out, Lori pulled together the disgusting slurry she couldn't actually see, increased its viscosity, and began making it spin. Her control of the waterwisps kept the liquid together while any particulates were pulled outwards. It wasn't enough to physically hurl anything but the largest particles out of the water, but it did ensure most of the more solid filth was on the edges of the water.

That done, she stared vaporizing the water in the center of the binding.

Pale white vapor began to jet upwards with great force from the chimney, blasting high into the air as she turned it into steam once it was in the open air to help create a pressure differential that would help draw out more of the vapor. Inside, she could feel the amount of water lessening. Impatience made her want to turn everything into vapor in a moment, but there was a technical term of that, and it was 'explosion'. So she made haste slowly as she rendered the water into vapor. Eventually, no more vapor vented from the chimney and there was little enough water left that she was able to boil it away into steam

"Done," she said, pointing at one of the access doors in the lower latrine where some steam had been escaping earlier. "Check if anything needs to be shoveled out."

Fortunately for a reluctant Umu, the simple bar latch that doubled as a handle for pulled the access door open was clean, but the blonde had to pull surprisingly hard to get the door open. At first Lori was confused, since she had been careful to direct any heat, steam or vapor away from the doors so it wouldn't warp, until she realized it was the pressure difference from sucking the vapor up the chimney. Something to remember for the next row.

A quick inspection of the insides of the latrines showed there wasn't as much as she feared, and after inspecting them all, Lori told a relieved Umu that she could seal it up and they would move on to the next.

At the next site, the procedure was repeated, then again, and again. Unfortunately for Umu, two of the sites needed shoveling, even after being desiccated, but the waste had been desiccated to the point that it almost looked like sun-dried, parched earth, and so was relatively easy to move. It didn't even smell that much, which Umu was probably grateful for.

Lori spent the time Umu was shoveling to check around for leaks and possible seepage. Fortunately, she didn't find any, but she took a moment to use firewisps to heat the ground around the latrine to hotter than boiling to a depth of ten feet, just in case, especially if the ground looked a little muddy.

She'd have to look into building some sort of underground barrier to prevent potentially tainted water from the latrines getting into the river. Another thing to add to the list of things she needed to do.

But tomorrow. She was on holiday right then.

At last, as the sun neared its apex, Lori accompanied Umu as she pushed the barrow towards the pit near the fields, full of only mildly unpleasant-smelling waste, holding the shovel for the blonde since the barrow was too full to let it rest at anything but an awkward angle. Despite this, Lori was considering taking a bath to at least refresh herself, perhaps even get a change of clothes. There was just something about being near human waste, no matter greatly reduced in foulness, that made her feel unclean even if she hadn't touched any of it herself.

"Your Bindership?"

Lori blinked, wondering if they were at the pit already, but no, they were still walking up the slope. She looked curiously at Umu, who looked strained. She had twisted to barrow so that the wheels were at right angles to the slope.

"Can we stop for a moment?" she said. "I just need a rest…"

The barrow started to roll. Umu's face went from tired to panicked instantly as she felt the barrow moving out from under her grip. She bent and frantically grabbed the barrow's handles, trying to brace her feet to hold it in place.

With a thought, Lori bound the earthwisps underneath the barrow and made the ground under the wheels sink slightly, trapping it in a rut so it wouldn't move. It wobbled slightly from inertia, but otherwise remained in place.

"Be more careful," Lori chided.

Umu winced. "Yes, your Bindership," she said weakly.

Lori nodded. Then, because the sun was high in the sky and she'd left her hat in her rooms, she bound the darkwisps in the shadow under the barrow and imbued them. The binding of darkwisps became completely opaque, and she raised it over herself and, after a moment, Umu to shield them from the sunlight.

Lori waited patiently as Umu caught her breath. Around them, the sounds of people enjoying themselves could be heard, of people talking loudly and laughing, of the occasional indecent-sounding moan coming from the houses, many of which seemed to have an item of clothing stuck between the door and the doorframe. Wouldn't that ruin the clothes?

"Your Bindership?"

Lori blinked, and turned towards the person she was sharing a shadow with, who had slipped out of her mind. "Ready to push again?"

Umu frowned, flexing her hands. "N-not yet, your Bindership," she said. Then, taking a deep breath, she continued quickly, as if realizing she was about to lose Lori's attention, "Does Lord Rian really not notice?"

"Notice what?" Lori said blandly.

"Notice…" Umu faltered. Then she took another deep breath. "Notice that we're interested in him."

"Why would he?" Lori said, tilting her head. "You've never informed him you were, to my knowledge."

Umu made a strange face. "Th-that's too forward!" she said. "You're only supposed to be that blunt when you're acknowledging another girl's interest!"

And suddenly the time-consuming, rambling, pointless subplots of so many plays and novels began to make a twisted sort of sense.

"He noticed you take his laundry, if that helps," Lori said distractedly as she recalled one strange plot twist after another involving characters suddenly expressing their love for each other out of nowhere, even though they never spoke about arranging to have a relationship at all…

Umu paled and suddenly covered her face with her hands. A whimpering sound came from the general area of her mouth. It was mildly unpleasant.

"Why are you surprised?" Lori said. "Of course he was going to notice, since he never does his own laundry but his clothes kept getting clean." If anything the whimpering intensified. "If you really want him to notice you, just stop hiding the fact you do his laundry."

The whimpering suddenly cut off. Slowly Umu's face rose, her face set in an expression of dawning revelation. "Really?"

"Of course," Lori said. "Rian is very susceptible to peer pressure. Publicly do it even once and he'll be compelled to compensate you somehow."

Umu's eyes widened, even as she seemed to stare through Lori.

Lori frowned and waved her hand in front of the blonde's face, getting her attention. "Can you continue pushing now?" she said.

Umu seemed to remember the barrow in front of her at last. With surprising new enthusiasm, she gripped the handles and got read to twist so the barrow pointed up the slope. "I'm ready, your Bindership!"

Lori released the barrow from its ruts.

It turned out that a heavily laden barrow that has lost momentum is not an easy thing to push up a slope from a standing stop. Lori had to raise an upright projection of stone and earth from the road to push the barrow up the rest of the way, while an abashed Umu held the shovel. Once on level ground, Umu took control of the barrow again, dumping it into the composting pit before bringing it and the shovel back to the storage shed.

By the time they finished, a hunting party had come back with five dead beasts on poles, to muted enthusiasm. Still, there were plenty of volunteers to strip the beasts of feathers and begin butchering it for a late lunch, or possibly a mid-noon snack.

Lori and Umu weren't among them, Lori because she never volunteered, and Umu because she had excused herself to take a quick bath, apparently feeling as tainted by the proximity to waste as Lori was. Hopefully it was also because the other woman had learned the dangers of reckless volunteerism. Better late than never.

Humming to herself, Lori headed for her room to have her own quick bath.