The next morning, Lori realized she was down to her last set of clean clothes. That… probably explained the smell in her room. She'd have to do laundry soon, and also air things out. Hmm, the latter she could probably do while she was out today, she just had to seal off the corridor to her room before she set the airwisps…

Perhaps she should put a window in her room? It would require having to make a hole through the stone face of her Dungeon, but it would make it much easier to air out, as well as drying her laundry once they were washed. Clothes always felt too dry and scratchy when she dried them by pulling out all the water, and while doing it by evaporating the water with firewisps was better… well, it made the room too humid and impatience had led to some burnt clothes when she was younger. And she didn't have any way of replacing her clothes at the moment, so she wasn't risking that.

Though if she opened a window… well, the problem of rain getting in could be solved with judicious use of airwisps and waterwisps, and she had enough wire left to connect it to the core situated under her room. And that binding of lightningwisps would keep the bugs out. But it would also be another entrance to her room that people could reach with a ladder, not to mention it would be another thing she'd need to secure when a dragon came…

Sighing, Lori put those thoughts away and got dressed in yesterday's clothes. If she was going to be mucking around along the river and beyond the edge, best it be in clothes that were already dirty. She picked up the prototype with its variously shaped compartments so she wouldn't have to come up and get it and headed downstairs.

Then she turned around and headed upstairs again, because she remembered one of the experiments she'd be conducting was leaving some white Iridescence outside the demesne to see what happened, and she needed a container of that. Lori used some of the unused bone strips to make a container for some of the rough-ground white Iridescence, slapping them together into a simple cube and sealing it shut by fusing the edges and corners together with earthwisps so that water couldn't get in while they were on the boat. After some consideration she made another container as well, to carry a shard of white Iridescence that she'd need to break off from the large bead in the alcove. The sample size and mass might be a factor in… whatever would happen.

She was just finishing up the second container when there was a knock on her door. "Uh, your Bindership?" she heard Riz say. "It's breakfast time…"

"I'll be right down, Erzebed," she called out, finishing the last seams of the second container. She tested it by filling it with water from her private bath and checking for leaks. Once she was satisfied there were none, she washed her hands, and then picked up the three objects and headed downstairs.

Lori blinked in surprise as she saw Riz still waiting for her on the other side of the door. Well, she supposed she hadn't exactly told them woman to go downstairs without her. "Is there anything I need to know?" she said as she led the way downstairs.

"Uh… no? I don't think so. Uh, no one died, nothing was stolen, none of the children have been hurt or are crying… "

Lori nodded. "Check with the smiths whether the second prototype has been completed yet, and if it isn't, inform me how long they say it will be before it is. Then we're going to the edge."

"Uh, now or after breakfast, Great Binder?"

"After breakfast. Eat first, then make the inquiries and arrangements. I want us moving by midmorning at the latest. Earlier, if possible."

"Got it, Great Binder."

Riz had shown that she wasn't really suited to taking on Rian's full duties, as revealed by her difficulties in being a temporary Rian, but Lori had noticed that she was quite capable when given specific tasks where she didn't really have to think about what she needed to do. The woman could even meet more vague orders where she needed to use her initiative. Not that she didn't have any, but Riz seemed to have difficulty in using that initiative on things of a large scale, unlike Rian.

Lori could work with that. She just had to remember what needed to be done and explicitly order Riz to do it, one at a time.

…

If she could have Rian write down everything he did or that needed to be done, could she possibly keep her demesne running by going down that list and ordering Riz to take care of things? Something to think about. thought she suspected she'd actually need to do as Rian had been saying and promote two people to become lords or ladies.

She hated it when he was right.

Downstairs, people were already eating. When she reached her usual table, she took one of the four bowls there—it looked like Shanalorre was eating with the children this morning—and started to eat. The other three sitting across from her did the same. Mikon and Umu ate silently, while Riz was frowning thoughtfully and occasionally muttering to herself between spoonfuls. The rest of the dining hall more than made up for them, and Lori let the buzzing talk and occasional childish cry from behind her wash over her. It helped make up for the lack of her usual morning discussion—

"Mikon," Lori said, "Rian hasn't mentioned any issues, but do the weavers have enough fiber to work?"

It took a moment for the weaver to register the question, and when she did Mikon was clearly startled at the attention. Still, she was able to answer coherently. "We're starting to, your Bindership," she said . "We've been collecting ropeweed from the other side of the river, since we weren't able to collect it all last year, and we've been retting enough to start spinning thread again."

Lori nodded. "In your estimation, how long will it take to weave enough fabric to make everyone in the demesne a new set of clothes? Shirts and trousers. Or… well, I suppose skirts, in some cases."

"Ah… that will be some time, your Bindership. Two seasons, or so? Possibly faster, since we won't need to try and make everyone winter clothes"

That… sounded promising. "Will you be able to make new clothes for the babes and the children before mid-summer, at least?"

"That's what we're concentrating on now, especially the babes," Mikon sounding more relaxed and certain as they continued to talk about weaving. "We have enough looms, we just need enough thread, and for that we need more ropeweed."

Lori nodded. "Would it help if we suspended logging for a time and have anyone who can be spared focusde on finding and gathering ropeweed?"

Mikon hesitated, eating for a few moments as she considered. "It might… but… most of the ropeweed we're getting right now is coming from across the river. Even if we had a lot of people to cut and gather the ropeweed, unless the… the Coldhold is here, we'd only have Clowee and her boat to get it all on this side."

Ah. That would be a bottleneck, yes. And that would be the same boat being used to get people across the river.

"But, that shouldn't be needed, your Bindership," Mikon said. "The ropeweed grows fast, and the ones growing on this side should be ready to cut down soon." She hesitated again. "If… if we wanted to increase the amount of fabric we can weave, more retting tanks would be helpful. We can only put so much in the one we have now…"

"Hmm…" Lori 'hmm…'-ed thoughtfully. "Would a deeper tank help?"

"I'm… not sure. We've always done it in shallow waters."

Lori nodded. "If you can think of—" A thought occurred to her. "Actually, never mind. I might have somewhere that can work. If we can increase the number of retting tanks, do you think we can get everyone a new set of clothes within the year?"

"Oh, easily, your Bindership, even without more retting tanks, though it would certainly help. We did it last year, after all, and winter clothes take up more fabric than a normal set of clothes. Rian is hoping we'll have enough fabric to make each family a new mattress too, so that they can sleep easier."

"Oh? Why didn't he tell me about that?"

"Ah… I suppose… perhaps he felt it wasn't something you needed to be bothered with, your Bindership?"

No… it probably wasn't. She'd didn't know enough about the textiles industry to really give an informed opinion, and from what Mikon had said, Rian had merely discussed scheduling and priority issues. And she already had a nice new mattress, so it wasn't like she needed a new one.

Lori finished the last of her food and pushed away her plate with her utensils before draining the last of the water in her cup. "I have something to retrieve, Erzebed. Inform me as soon as we're ready to leave, I'll be in my room."

"Yes, Great Binder," Riz, said, looking lightly confused for some reason. She actually glanced at Mikon, and the weaver shrugged, conveying her ignorance of something, before smiling suddenly and waggling her fingers at the non-officer. Riz hastily looked away.

Lori ignored the usual flirting—still not as bad as her mothers—and got up to retrieve one of the sample containers she'd made to put one of the larger sample chunks from the broken bead into it. And… well, she still had some bone. Best to make a container for Iridescence to grow in again between trips so they wouldn't have to keep looking for usable samples from the environment…

––––––––––––––––––

There was a knock on her door. "Great Binder? We're ready to go."

"Coming," Lori called, gathering her materials. There was her prototype, the two sample containers, a large cube made from bone panels for growing iridescence in, as well as her pocket knife and staff. She'd ended up throwing everything in one of the tubular bone containers she had made for transporting finished beads for lack of anything to conveniently carry it all in. There was no way she was carrying her entire equipment box just to bring along a few things. All her glassware was in that!

That done, she checked herself. Hat, raincoat… Lori nodded to herself in satisfaction and opened the door. For the second time that day, Riz was there, and Lori gave her a nod of acknowledgement. "The smiths?" she prompted as she opened her door wide and wedged it in place by making the floor rise up slightly to bracket the door.

"They said it would be ready soon, Great Binder. It will probably be done when we get back." The woman glanced at the open door in confusion, but fell into step with Lori as the started climbing down. Behind them, Lori made spikes start growing sideways from the wall, physically barring people but leaving most of the corridor clear.

When they got to the ground floor, Lori took a moment to bar the stairway as well, and even physically tried to squeeze through. She didn't fit.

She was just about to nod to herself in satisfaction when Riz coughed. "Um, your Bindership, will any of the children fit through there?"

Lori blinked and looked at the stone growths barring the way to her room again, then sighed as she saw what Riz had. Rainbows.

After modifying the placement to keep the children from being able to pass through, Lori put bindings of airwisps all along the corridor, anchored to the stone floor and ceiling, and imbued them heavily. When she activated the bindings, she felt a breeze around her head as air was drawn to the top of the corridor, even as air began to blow out from along the floor, making the leather of her raincoat sway slightly. "All right, let's go."

"Ah, airing day," Riz said as she nodded in comprehension.

Lori's Ice Boat was ready, the woman who Lori vaguely recognized as the one who operated it nowadays already at the controls. Riz had apparently decided to bring along some people to take advantage of the trip, because two people with sickles were already sitting on the boat, along with someone Lori recognized as one of Riz's friends and who commonly accompanied them on trips like this.

Lori settled down on one of the shallow benches, laying her staff on the floor so she had one hand free to grab hold of her hat and another to keep her bone container from falling over and spilling everything as Riz followed in after her and took her own seat. "All right. Take us out, Clowee," the non-officer said.

With a familiar lurch, the boat slid out of the dock as the steam in the steam jet driver pushed against the water, the front turning to point upstream and towards the edge.

The sky already threatened rain.