The final test assembly came the next day. They were almost out of time, after all. While Lori hoped that they'd be able to bring the components to River's Fork and assemble it that day… she wasn't holding out much hope. In fact, she'd already resigned herself to having to go back to River's Fork to imbue the temporary measure she'd put there.

"I'm going to have some people cut some fresh ropeweed," Rian said as they ate breakfast. "When we put the part on the boat, we'll need cushioning so they don't damage the boat."

"Will that really help? Either the boat can take the weight of the parts or it won't," Lori said.

"It's less about the weight and more about the possibility of it shifting and unbalancing the boat," Rian said. "Also, it might poke holes in the hull when it shifts. If we get a hole in that thing, I don't think we'd be able to patch it up."

"Right. Get the ropeweed," Lori agreed. "I'm sure the weavers will be able to use it later."

On either side of Rian, Umu and Mikon nodded. "As long as it's not cut up too short, it should be fine," Mikon said. "Er, Lord Rian."

"I'm sure Lori appreciated you not talking to her directly," Rian said, giving Lori a bland look.

Lori nodded.

"That's probably the most affirmation you're going to get from her," he told the weaver.

"I got more," Umu said smugly.

The other three on her bench looked at her. "You're making that up," Riz accused.

"Why would I lie in front of her Bindership?" Umu smirked.

They all looked at Lori.

Lori ignored them and continued eating.

"Lord Rian, is that a 'no' silence or a 'yes' silence?" Mikon asked.

"Could be either one, or it could be an 'ignoring you' silence," Rian said. "I'll be honest, I don't think I know her well enough to interpret just silence without more clues."

Lori finished her bowl, pushed it towards Rian to deal with, grabbed her hat from next to her on the bench and went out towards where she'd left the water wheel yesterday, grabbing some more rock from the pile near the dungeon entrance as she passed it.

The waterwheel on its stone mounting was still where they had left it the day before. The wheel jutted out from one end, the rest of the axle stuck out the other, at the end of which was some stone Lori had used earthwisps to wrap around the end as a counterweight. She examined it as people started working on the houses nearby, touching the wheel and getting it spinning, listening to the sounds of the stone ball bearings rolling inside. She'd needed to raise the dividing grooves the bearings ran on blind, but it seemed to have worked. The wheel rolled smoothly, and kept turning for a bit after she'd let it go.

She frowned, concentrated on looking at a single point, and turned the wheel again. Squares pegs flashed by, all blurring together into a seemingly solid line. It looked like the gears teeth were all in line. That was a good sign, right? Hopefully that meant it would intermesh with the gears for the fan…

"Your Bindership?" someone said hesitantly.

Lori looked towards the voice. Thankfully, it was someone whose name and face she knew. "Yes, Tackir?" she said. "Have you seen the fan?"

"We put it in the shed with the lathe, your Bindership," he said. "So it wouldn't get stepped on."

Lori nodded. Ah, yes there it was, being carried by some men. Hopefully the fact it was being carried by two people was because it was long and unwieldy rather than because it was heavy. Rian would have to carry it in River's Fork, after all.

The fan needed two stone mounts, though fortunately neither needed to be very high. One just behind the fan, and another at the other end to hold it steady so that the gear teeth could properly transfer energy. Lori had to adjust all the mounts slightly so everything aligned. By mid-morning, however, everything was aligned properly, and when they turned the water wheel around the whole way for two revolutions, all the teeth continued to mesh together, turning the fan all the way through.

There was no cheering. Carpenters, in her experience, tended to be serious, no-nonsense men when it came to their work, so all the waterwheel and the fan garnered were approving nods as good work done well. Off to the side, someone was already putting together a box of gears to add to the wheel and fan in case the fan didn't revolve at a sufficient rate.

With that done, Lori filled up the trough under the water wheel with water, and bound the water to flow, pushing the water wheel with it.

…

Yes, just connecting the fan straight to the waterwheel wasn't nearly enough.

––––––––––––––––––

It took most of the day, but by mid-afternoon, it was finished. The waterwheel turned, the spokes on its side turning a gear in the gearbox, which turned another gear, which turned the fan quickly enough that Lori concluded it was an actual physical hazard and someone might lose a hand. A finger, at least. There was nothing they could do about that, since a protective grille was beyond their time and resources, but then, anyone stupid enough to stick their extremity into something turning that fast was just asking to lose it.

Then came the hard part: dismantling it, cutting the axles of the waterwheel and propeller fan down to size, remembering how it was supposed to be put together, and then loading into Lori's Boat to bring to River's Fork the following day. Lori's part in that was quick, and merely needed her to dismantle the stone structures on which the parts were mounted, as well as collect the stone ball bearings so they wouldn't get lost, taking them to her room for safekeeping that night. The carpenters took care of the rest, showing Rian—who had been called to remember how to put it together so he could assist Lori the following day—how the parts fitted and how they would need to be mounted. They nodded in approval at the fresh ropeweed that had been brought in to act as cushioning for the parts that would go on the boat. The parts—water wheel, propeller fan, and gear box—were all moved to the dungeon to be loaded on Lori's Boat the next day.

As the carpenters were beginning to put away their tools for the day, Lori came back from her room, a sack slung over her shoulder and held with both hands. While she didn't know everyone's names, faces were still on the forefront of her memory and a glance showed all the carpenters were still there.

She opened her mouth… and paused. Argh! How did talkative people do this? Rian just basically said 'Everyone, look at me!' and they did! If she was that sort of person, however, she wouldn't need Rian in the first place. Said lord, unfortunately, appeared to be gone.

Sighing, she glanced about, found a person whose name she did know, and went over to them. Tackir was carefully handling a set of very sharp and well-maintained chisels, one of them large enough to be mistaken for a spatula if it weren't for the thick metal and keen edge, putting them away into a wooden toolbox.

"Tackir," she said, and the man looked up at her call, hastily putting down his toolbox.

"Yes, your Bindership?" he said. He seemed less nervous now, and indeed was almost relaxed. Perhaps it was the proximity to where carpentry had so recently happened.

As people glanced at them curiously, Lori said, "Everyone did very well working on the parts that I needed, today and the days before," she said. "You were all able to build a viable design under a strict time limit and get it done. You are all very good craftsman in your respective fields and should be proud of that."

It was, Lori had to admit, a very clunky compliment. Certainly nothing like the elegant praise she'd heard of in plays where characters were complimenting someone's skill. It was certainly nothing like the easy but sincere flattery that always seemed to roll so easily out of Rian's mouth. She didn't even have the advantage of seeing Tackir straighten proudly or any sort of easy cues like that.

All he did was smile and say, "Thank you, your Bindership." No straightening whatsoever.

"If we were in a more civilized place and I had money, you and everyone else who helped build the fan and waterwheel would all be receiving a bonus for completing such an emergency order," Lori said. "However, as I don't have that…" Carefully, she heaved the sack down from her shoulder, and the ground rose up in front of her "Here. It's the only thing I have to offer that you all can't make or get yourselves. Open it."

Tackir took the half-filled sack—with only one hand, Lori was annoyed to see—as the other carpenters abandoned the pretense of not listening, getting up and moving closer to see. He opened it and reached inside. Out came a pink lady, beaded with condensation from being removed from her cold room.

"I'll trust you divide the contents fairly among all who helped contribute," Lori said as people leaned forward, one even peeking into the bag. "Yourself included."

Tackir finally straightened, and then unexpectedly bowed, a full tilt from the waist and dip of the head. "Yes, your Bindership. You can count on me. And thank you, your Bindership. These look delicious."

Lori nodded. "Please return the sack to me at dinner when you're done."

"Yes, your Bindership!"

She nodded again, turned, and headed towards her room to finally take a bath and get dressed for dinner.

––––––––––––––––––

Lori found a sack on the table when she came down after her bath. She placed it next to her on the bench as she sat down, putting her sunk board on the table as she waited for Rian to arrive. Finally, it was done. Not that it was the end of her commitments to River's Fork. There was still the monthly ice, and the next set of volunteers next week. Still, many of the new houses looked done, and she suspected people would start moving in from the shelter soon, possibly as soon as later this week, so there would be a surplus of manpower to send.

She glanced up as she heard someone sit, but it was only Mikon. Lori sank back into her thoughts. On further thought, perhaps she shouldn't make a new building for the carpenters and just house them in their own alcoves in the second level? Each carpenter could take one alcove, or two could share one, and in the event of the dragon, their family could be assigned that alcove. And tools like the lathe would probably need their own dedicated alcove, where the tools could be moved to make room in the other alcoves. The smiths would definitely need their own area though, since they'd be working with combustibles and heat, and therefore would need to be able to vent their smoke to the outside so that it wouldn't fill the Dungeon…

Restlessly, she reached for one of the stone-filled bowls on the board, picked up all the stones, and started dropping the stones into subsequent bowls as if she were making a move. She'd finally be able to challenge Rian to a game tonight, instead of being so tired and frustrated she just went straight to bed—

Lori blinked as a hand reached into one of the bowls opposite her own, grabbed all the stones, and started dropping them into bowls as well. She looked up, eyes narrowing slightly as Mikon gave her a wide-eyed, innocent look before casually averting their gaze to the side. Eyes narrowing, Lori took the contents of the next bowl…

By the time Rian finally got to the table, Lori was claiming her first victory.

"Am… I interrupting anything?" Rian asked, glancing back and forth between them. Behind him, Riz and Umu were doing the same, the latter giving the other weaver a suspicious look.

"What took you so long?" Lori asked.

"I was making sure we had enough lard for lubricant," Rian said. "The jars are with the other parts. Don't get them confused with the jars with our lunch and just-in-case dinner and breakfast."

Lori looked up sharply as Mikon quietly reset the board after her loss. "Why is there dinner and breakfast?"

"Just in case, as I said," Rian said. "So I checked the dimensions, and even with the parts I think we can bring one, maybe two people with us. How do you feel about one of the carpenters coming along in case something breaks or something?"

Lori considered that as Mikon finished and sat back and gave Rian a smile of greeting. "I have no objections," she said.

Rian nodded. "Good. Good… okay, I have to ask, are you two playing together?"

"I'm playing sunk," Lori said.

"But are you playing it with Mikon?" Rian asked, eyes still going back and forth between the two of them.

"You took too long to come back and I got bored," Lori said.

Rian made a face. "Is that what it takes for you to actually talk to other people? Boredom?" He paused. "Now that I say it out loud it both sounds stupid and makes a lot of sense…"

Lori gave him a look. "Why would I need to talk to anyone?"

Rian stared at her, then sighed. "Are you seriously telling me you two played a game together without even talking about playing a game together?"

"I was just waiting for everyone else to arrive, Lord Rian," Mikon said with a smile, "and trying to remember what you told me about how to play sunk."

Rian looked up at the ceiling for some reason. "Ugh, whatever. Lori's interacting with another human being. I'll count that as a net positive in the grand scheme of things. Keep at it for as long as she lets you, I suppose."

"That's up to her, isn't it?" Mikon said.

Lori responded by reaching forward and making her opening move. Mikon moved in kind.

"I'll… go get dinner," Rian said, still looking confused as he headed towards the line for the food.

That night, Lori won four games in five. Her one loss was a test to see if Mikon was actually trying to win.

It was a good night.