Finishing the second flood barrier meant to protect their developed areas from being flooded from the back—or upriver, as it were—took another four days of work. Snow had to be removed, dirt dug up, a stone foundation fused to the bedrock laid, the actual flood barrier built by piling up stone, and then finally finishing the wall to make it stop being unsightly so that Lori wouldn't feel disgusted with the quality of its construction every time she had to look at it.

For all of that time, Shanalorre was once more in her demesne assisting with a birth, and then staying over to continue to monitor the health of her patients, as well as following up on her previous patients. Lori fretted, but decided to take the calculated risk to continuing work on the rear flood barrier while the other Dungeon Binder was present. The same volunteers—and Rian—were also working on building this wall, and while she could remember the volunteers only vaguely—the masons and plasterers currently stood out in her recollection, even if she didn't know their names—even she should be able to identify if someone isn't supposed to be there, and with Rian present, he should be able to identify someone who didn't belong even if she was too busy to do so.

Of course, the other Dungeon Binder noticed the flood barrier. It would have been difficult for her not to, given she had to climb over it at the laundry area stairs to get inside. She was full of amazement, curiosity and praise for the quality and speed of the construction, and Lori found herself being drawn into describing the process by which the wall was made. There was no harm in it, and it made Binder Shanalorre give more and more compliments.

Outside of meal times, the two of them didn't interact much. Lori had work to do, and technically, so did Shanalorre. When the younger Dungeon Binder wasn't spending an absurd amount of time in the baths, accompanied by her guide the brat, she was speaking to the demesne's doctors and medics. Given the conversation that Lori managed to overhear at a distance with airwisps, Shanalorre seemed to be trying to learn what she could about caring for patients and how to identify symptoms of illness at a distance.

"Why would she need to know that?" she demanded of Rian later that night after dinner, pacing back and forth. She had relayed the context of the conversation to him, which had been difficult because it meant she'd had to remember it for most of the day. Lori was very aware of how much of the specifics of the conversation she had forgotten and had needed to convey in vague generalities in summary.

"Isn't it obvious?" Rian said as he sat at the foot of his bed while Mikon hummed as she prepared the rest of it. Umu and Riz sat away from her at the bed's head and tried to pretend they weren't there.

"No," Lori said bluntly. "Which is what I have you for. To explain when people do things that are not obvious to me."

"Sometimes I wonder how much you really don't understand and how much you're just too lazy to think about," Rian sighed.

Lori glared at him. "You're calling me lazy?"

Rian shrugged. "You have to be lazy about something," he said. Over his shoulder, Lori saw Riz and Umu cast horrified looks at the back of his head, while Mikon just looked concerned. "Given how hard you work most of the time, it only makes sense that you're pulling resources away from something else so that you can sustain your work ethic. Actively not actually thinking at all about people's motivations fits the requirements." He waved his hand in a gesture she knew well. "Fine, fine. Obviously, Shanalorre is trying to educate herself in diagnosis. Basic and rudimentary diagnosis, at that, something even she can do without specialized and technical training."

Lori rolled her eyes. "Yes, but why?"

"To make the most of her limited ability to heal, most probably," Rian said. "That's my guess, anyway."

Lori raised an eyebrow. "To my knowledge, she can heal broken bones, infection, cuts upon flesh, and those are merely the injuries that I had that she managed to heal me of. From context, she can also heal disease and illness, regardless of symptoms or cause, and the only reason we do not know if she has an effect on poisons and venoms is that no one yet has been poisoned or envenomed. That is hardly limited." Rainbowed savants, making everyone else who actually had to learn how to do things look bad…

"Yes, by itself, her ability to heal is comprehensive. However, it's reliant on knowing people need to be healed," Rian said. "Things like broken bones, bleeding, and coughing up blood are pretty obvious signs that there's something wrong with your body, but what about symptoms that aren't obvious or ones that people actively try to hide?"

Lori frowned. "Try to hide…? Why would anyone try to hide symptoms of illness?"

"Well, it could be that they don't want to worry their family," Rian said. "Or that they genuinely think it's not a big deal and it will go away on its own. Or because they don't want to seem weak in front of other people. Or maybe it's cultural. Hey, Riz, how likely are militia to hide the fact that they're sick?"

"Rian, we're militia," Riz said, sounding indignant. "We are the first line of defense of the demesne's people. We stand out in the Iridescence and protect the farms and people forced to live beyond the edge from beasts and bandits. When disaster strikes, we are the first ones sent to relieve the people's suffering and begin rebuilding. When war calls, we answer. We are sinews of the Dungeon Binder, the strength of their arms that lift up their burdens. The militia never fail, never falter, through deadly colors and the might of the enemy."

"So, all the time?"

"Unless we're actually healthy and think we can get away with it because nothing important is happening," Riz said shamelessly. "Outside of that, militia don't stop."

Rian nodded, turning back to face Lori. "The people left in Shanalorre's demesne are her direct relatives, militia and their families who decided to stay in the face of what seemed like utter disaster at the time and thus probably people she feels grateful to for helping keep her alive, people who had been too injured to be moved whom she healed and thus feel grateful to her, and people from our demesne who left to be away from… well, you."

"Idiots," Lori rolled her eyes.

"To put it another way," Rian said. "They're the only family she has left whom she is probably desperate to not lose after already losing her parents, militia who have both experience hiding their ills and are predisposed to hide them because 'militia never falter', people who have faith in her whom she probably doesn't want to fail, and…" Rian shrugged. "Well, the cynic in me wonders how many people try to get out of work by pretending to be sick but claiming they don't feel sick enough to need healing, they just need a few days of rest doing nothing."

Lori raised an eyebrow. "There's cynicism in you? I find that hard to believe. You're… you."

"I'll have you know I have a deeply cynical side. How else do you think I understand you so well?"

"I am not a cynic, I am a realist. Cynics are delusional people who always think only the worst will happen when there is no reason to suppose it will."

"Ah, my mistake. Nothing like you at all, then."

Lori nodded. Good, he understood.

For some reason, Mikon started coughing, and she hurried over to the jar of melting snow next to the fire to pour herself a drink.

"But to get to back your question," Rian said, "that mix of people are all very good reasons for her to try to learn how to better diagnose people at a distance, or at while she's talking to them. For one reason or another, some people might not come to her to be healed if they're sick, so she has to be able to identify them if need be. Without any way to learn Deadspeaking, short of requiring everyone in her demesne to come to her every morning to be pre-emptively checked if they need to be healed, this is the best and quickest way for her to make what skill she has more useful. I wouldn't be surprised if she's learned to identify and prioritize the severity of injuries."

Lori frowned. "Severity of injuries?"

"You know, identifying which kinds of injuries are more immediately life-threatening and which ones can be made to wait because they won't kill immediately. Head injuries are prioritized over broken bones, and injuries that bleed a lot are prioritized over those that don't because of the risk of blood loss."

Ah. Yes, head injuries did need to be prioritized. Damage to one's brain would impact one's ability to use magic after all. For all that wizards were taught that magic was how the soul interacted with the world directly without having to utilize the intermediary that was the body, that intermediary was still very important.

Still, Lori frowned. "I recall her saying that she can identify people who are ill by a general increase in the concentration of life within their bodies through her awareness of them. Wouldn't it be simpler if she used that as a basis for diagnosis?"

Rian blinked, staring at her. "People around you every day in your own demesne and who've helped you in your building projects multiple times, you can't even recall the name of, but that you remember?"

Lori frowned at him. "Why wouldn't I remember it?"

For some reason, Rian made a sound like he was trying to clear his throat, cough and scream at the same time.

"Are you sick?" she asked, leaning back slightly

"I'm fine, I'm fine," Rian eventually sighed, getting up and pouring himself from the jar of melting snow, before tilting his head back to drink. "Just… I'm fine."

"Why would she need to learn from our doctors and medics though?" Lori asked. "I'm almost certain they have their own." Fairly certain. Reasonably certain.

Rian shrugged. "Well, they do, but one of them is the uncle that tricked her into becoming a Dungeon Binder and seemed to be trying to use her as a figurehead to place himself in power for her own good, and one other whose name you probably don't remember. Given the fact that they might be too busy to teacher her or she might normally be too busy to ask them to, she's probably using this opportunity to have some many doctors and medics to learn from to… well, learn."

Ah. Well, she supposed that would make finding an opportunity to learn difficult. "Ah. Well, I suppose that would make finding an opportunity to learn difficult."

"Speaking of opportunities to learn… are you sure you want to continue with holding the community meeting tomorrow? It won't be difficult to cancel it for until after Shana leaves, even if I just told everyone tomorrow morning."

Lori waved a hand dismissively. "The sooner it's done, the sooner I can go do something actually useful than hearing people complaining about wanting to own land."

"Are you sure?" Rian, why are you repeating yourself? "You have absolutely no problem with Shana and her lord seeing being present, hearing and seeing what happens, maybe see you sink someone into the ground to drown again…"

"Wait, she what?" Riz said just barely loud enough for Lori to hear. In response, Umu started saying something quietly to her, speaking directly into her ear.

"You were the one who wanted this, remember," Lori pointed out, responding to Rian. "We were going to hold it tomorrow, we're holding it tomorrow."

"All right then…" Rian said. "Though you realize that if the issue of land comes up again, Shana could get a lot of people to move to her demesne just by telling people she'll give them land like they want, right?"

Lori could help it, letting out a brief laugh. "Extremely unlikely," Lori said. "Binder Shanalorre has made it quite clear she has no intention to simply give people land."

Rian's eyebrows rose. "And… you believed her?"

Lori's laughter cut off like a piece of wood sliced on a water cutter.