Lori eventually remembered she had to make a storage room for the grain that would be harvested. It didn't need to be a cold room, but it had to be some distance from the mushroom farm to prevent growths, and relatively dry. The latter, she could do with a binding, and with properly made containers, they'd be able to keep out bugs and the small beasts that Riz said were showing up more and more. Some of the children had taken to hunting the things with clubs and sticks, though they had to be careful since even small beasts could be ferocious when cornered. Thankfully, none of these small beasts seemed to be the sort that spat venom, and they made for surprisingly good eating, even if there was only enough meat on their bones to feed one person, maybe two if they ate lightly.

Lori had also started finding a small, plucked and gutted beast at her door in the morning in place of a small seel, presumably because it was getting harder to find small seels. They were presumably fresh, since they only showed up after she went into her room to wash up before dinner. She quickly froze them in ice that she started keeping nearby for just that purpose.

The smaller beasts were roasted separately, cut up, and added on top of a bowl of stew as a sort of accompaniment, since simply stewing them made them too dry and tough. Cooked right, however, they tasted delicious, and the stew was a good sauce to dip them in. If nothing else, it was a good supplement to their food supplies, thought Lori hoped they didn't get much bigger. She didn't feel comfortable walking around outside her Dungeon if there were large beasts walking around inside her demesne.

"The hunters have caught a few and are trying to raise them for eggs," Riz reported. "Should I tell them to stop?"

Lori hummed thoughtfully. "How are they keeping the beasts confined?"

"They have a rope tied around the beasts' neck," Riz said. "Well, not really a rope, it's braided leather. They also clipped the beasts' claws so they couldn't use them to cut their way out, and they were planning to build a pen when I talked to them. They've only got three for now, but that might change soon."

"Tell them those beasts are their responsibility," Lori said. "If the things become more trouble than they're worth or grow taller than waist high, kill them for meat." At the moment, the small beasts barely reached up to an adult's knees. Bigger than that was bigger than anything Lori wanted to be alive in her general vicinity.

Riz nodded. "I'll tell them. If it helps, they're not sure they can do it on a first attempt, but figure getting eggs will be worth it."

Lori nodded. "Good. How are the jars for the harvest?"

"They've been made, and are waiting," Riz said. "We have fourteen jars with lids ready, but I'm having more made. Better too many than not enough, and we can always find a use for jars." She frowned. "Actually, my worry right now is keeping people from taking them to use for something else."

"If that's the case, increase the production of jars," Lori said. "Have the potter inform you of when the kiln will need to be fired and I'll find time for it."

"Yes, Great Binder," Riz said. "I think that's everything for now."

Wordlessly, Mikon pushed three bowls of food in front of them. Lori reached over and picked the one with a piece of roasted beast thigh on top. Riz glanced at Mikon, and looked like she was about to say something when she shook her head and got a bowl for herself, leaving the last for the weaver. Lori almost rolled her eyes. Despite her claims of not encouraging the other woman, Riz seemed to have no trouble with taking advantage of Mikon's willingness to do things without being asked. At least Lori had thanked her for sewing Lori's sock. Mikon had done good work on the sock, and had even reinforced a patch on the other sock that had, in hindsight, seemed a bit thin.

They ate as Lori moved the sunk board into place between her and the weaver, who made the first move. There was a tranquil silence as they enjoyed the meal and the game. Riz had visibly relaxed after she finished reporting to Lori, and was focusing completely on her food. Though Lori noticed she hadn't put any more distance between her and Mikon than had been there before, unlike when Mikon had actually kissed her.

When they finished the game—Mikon lost, but only by one stone this time, very close—the weaver looked at Lori intently, then nudged Riz with her elbow.

Riz glanced sideways and sighed. "Mikon has something she'd like to ask you, Great Binder."

Next to her, the pink-haired weaver smiled.

Lori hummed in consideration, then turned to face Mikon directly. "Yes?"

"Could we play chatrang later tonight, your Bindership?" she said. "I've been learning how to play from Riz, and I think I'm ready now."

Lori hummed again, then turned to face her temporary Rian. "You've been teaching her?"

Riz shrugged. "I know how to play, I just don't have a taste for it. Needs too much thinking and planning. I prefer pincer."

Lori kept her opinion about adults who preferred to play pincer to herself. "Has she been losing?"

"Nothing but. But she knows the rules and she no longer mixes up the Deadspeaker and the Whisperer."

That got Mikon an incredulous look. "How do you confuse the Deadspeaker and the Whisperer?"

"Well, they do things within three squares," Mikon said. "But I know them now. I don't make mistakes about the moves anymore. "

Lori considered. "All right, we'll play later." Well, she supposed if she was going to play chatrang, it might as well be with a complete beginner.

She was also mildly surprised that Riz was still teaching Mikon how to play, given how she'd had to admit that the weaver was, in fact, flirting with her. Or perhaps she just didn't realize it was part of the flirting? Or was she just trying to deliberately ignore it—as opposed to Rian only accidentally ignoring it out of obliviousness—in an attempt to make Mikon lose interest, and perhaps take advantage of her attention with free favors? Rian at least made a point of asking them all not to do things for him that he could do himself. She was fairly sure the way Riz had begun taking the fact Mikon was bringing her food for granted counted as encouragement.

Well, not that Lori cared, as long as it didn't interfere with her temporary Rian's duties.

And she supposed this was a good opportunity to use the game board Rian had asked to be made for her. It was a very nice board, in terms of craftsmanship. She knew enough about the difficulties of using heat in carpentry to appreciate the skill and technique that had gone into the seemingly simple board and the storage box for the pieces. Her demesne's carpenters were very skilled.

But then, she supposed they'd have to be to make Rian's ice boat idea a reality.

––––––––––––––––––

After lunch, Lori went to the hunter's shed to see the captured beasts for herself. They were tied by their necks to a wooden pole that had been buried in the ground and seemed secure enough, but it still made her uneasy. Especially since she knew the children came by here to have the seels they caught gutted and skinned, when they still managed to catch one.

The little beasts were a dark blue, or possibly green, with streaks of bright orange plumage around their neck and shoulders. They had red faces and a crest on their heads that faded to a sort of magenta partway up. Their tails were relatively short but thick and heavy, and covered with a thick brush of dark feathers. As she'd been told, the long curving blades on their feet and foreclaws had been clipped, and it looked like the remaining edges had been dulled in some way. That seemed both needful and terrifyingly dangerous to actually do.

Lori had to resist the urge to kill them on sight. Months of having to be watchful for their large, predatory ilk had given her a healthy ingrained reaction to things of their general shape. The abrupt movements, the way they'd suddenly just stand still for seemingly no reason, the way they looked at you like they wanted to strip the flesh off your legs by jumping on you…

…and the things were staring at her. Lori backed away, keeping them in her sight, not trusting the braided leather cords around their necks to keep them bound. They still had their teeth, didn't they? What was keeping them from chewing through the leather? It was just made of dried skin after all, it was practically made of food…

She lost sight of them, and Lori let out a sigh of relief. Yes, those things seemed… not nearly secure enough. If people insisted on keeping those things alive and not killing them for roasted tail meat, she'd have to talk to her temporary Rian about making sure they were put somewhere really secure, like a pit in the ground. She was even willing to dig the pit herself.

Lori went back to the demesne to continue excavating the third level. She almost had enough to make the alterations to the front entryway of the Dungeon, but she wanted some more, just in case there was an emergency or if she needed more stone than she had estimated. The latter was very likely, projects always needed more resources than they initially seemed to.

She had added a good amount to the stockpile by later afternoon, at which point she decided to stop early. For a moment, she just stood there, looking around her demesne. The houses, the buildings, the fields, the aqueducts bringing water down to the laundry area—she had altered them so that they drew their water from the water hub, with its distilled water, though the old arches remained since people had set up several benches in their shadow, and there was no harm leaving them up—the smoke coming up from the building that had been the old dining hall, the line into the Um…

It was all very dark, she realized. All the houses were dark, and the lights came from the doors of the old shelter, the Um, the bath houses, the dining hall and the entrance to the Dungeon. Already, bonfires were being prepared in front of the baths, amidst the benches, sitting rocks and… huh, there was a table there now, of a different style from the one in the dining hall. Where would they put that if it rained? Really, had they thought that one through?

Still, Lori had to admit it was a bit too dark, especially between the houses. It was probably hard to navigate between, when people had to go back to their homes at night after dinner. Candles were limited, since they were a far lower priority than soap, and people couldn't just leave fires burning in their house despite them being made of stone…

Actually, she hadn't really put any chimneys in the houses when she'd built them, had she? She'd put one in the shelter and one in the hospital, but not in the houses. She should… probably fix that before winter. At least she had a lot of stone to do it with now.

Well, she had time to fix one of those, at least. Sighing, Lori reached out, binding what few lightwisps were still in the sky and gathered them into her hands, imbuing them to glow. Their glow created more lightwisps, which she bound and gathered too, adding to the binding in her hands.

Lori walked towards the houses, and began binding lightwisps to the corners of the stone structures. It was another thing she'd have to remember to maintain, at least until she got more wire made, but lit streets was a mark of civilization. And her demesne was going to be civilized, no matter how long it took.