After making sure that the large wispbeads—reduced and unused—were secured back in the third alcove, and doing one last check on the water distillation bound tool—it was functioning properly, and there was already a small pile of some sort of white powder in the catch bucket—Lori was able to settle down onto Lori's Boat with Riz, Rian, and the other people who had come with her to River's Fork. Rian had come by himself, supposedly so that the boat wouldn't be as crowded with everyone it had to carry.

It was a bit of a tight fit. Made of deadspoken wood, Lori's Boat was their first, oldest and smallest boat. They'd mostly stopped using it after they had built the two ice boats, since without a Deadspeaker it couldn't be effectively repaired, even with their carpenters on hand. While they'd started tapping some trees for resin and boiling bone and hide for glue, none of their carpenters had any true experience with building boats, and specifically experience in making boats waterproof.

And so Lori's Boat was placed into storage, only taken out at times like this when the other two boats were unavailable because they were disassembled or currently sunk in the river.

"So," Rian asked cheerfully as they made their way upriver against the current, the driver pushing on despite the river being slightly swollen from the rains that the dragon had brought with it, "did you all have a good time at River's Fork?"

"No," Lori said flatly, glaring at him as she tried to adjust the bindings around her body to cool her better in the face of the summer sunlight. "It was hot, taking a bath was nerve-wracking and uncomfortable, the noise was constant, the food was bland, and there was nothing to do."

"Isn't that on you for not building a bath?"

Lori reached for one of the ladles lying in the bottom of the boat, swept it through the river water they were churning up, and with a flick of her wrist sent the water flying at Rian's face. Riz, sitting next to him, had moved to avoid the worst of the splash, though a little of it still sprayed her arm.

"Ah, thank you for the cool, refreshing water, your Bindership," Rian said after he finished sputtering the no-doubt bitter water from his mouth. "Definitely the best way to deal with the summer heat." He gave her a bright smile. "Can you do that again? There's a spot on my head that didn't get any water."

Riz turned her head away and started coughing, for some reason.

Lori stared at him, then stared at the ladle in her hand.

Then immediately started scooping up water and pouring it over her head.

Ah! So cool! So what if it was a little caustic? She just had to make sure none got in her eyes, and maybe have Shanalorre heal her when she got back.

"Uh, Lori? Please don't pour so much water on yourself, the boat is going to fill!"

––––––––––––––––––

Having to gather the water at the bottom of the boat and throw it back over the side was worth the cool, even if sitting on a puddle of water was a bit uncomfortable.

With nothing better to do, Lori watched the trees pass by. There seemed to be fewer signs of damage on the trees growing along the river, though the growths of ropeweed on the banks had a shredded, mutilated appearance. Occasionally there were small patches that looked burned, and there were occasional gaps among the growths. Here and there were branches that hung broken and limp by a small shred, or had fallen entirely, the freshness of the leaves betraying how recently it had happened.

Beyond the borders of River's Fork Demesne, the damage was far more extensive.

Lori stared at a tree that appeared to have caught on fire, and it wasn't the only one.

"Yeah, I saw a lot of those on the way here," Rian said, following her gaze. "I think that whatever caustic metal the dragon was dropping on us managed to ignite in the vicinity of Iridescence that had been covered enough to not be washed off by the rain, or maybe some landed on water that had just dissolved colors, the kind that still glittering like there's oil on top of it. Caustic metal, water, Iridescence…" Rian shrugged. "I almost wish I could have seen what happens when you combine the three together."

"A more violent eruption, clearly," Lori said. She had to admit, a part of her was curious to see the combination as well… for purely intellectual and academic reasons, of course. Everyone knew combining Iridescence and heat, much less open flame, was a supremely terrible idea. The resulting reactions, while no doubt energetic, were unpredictable, and therefore unreliable and dangerous. So of course it was a common development in novels and plays when events were portrayed beyond the edge of a demesne for any reason. "Was anything like that found near the settlement?"

"No, not that I noticed," Rian said. "The damage back home is far less dramatic."

Lori nodded. "Does it appear that reconstruction will cause a significant delay in the planned Covehold expedition?"

"No, everything seems to be manageable. Despite the damage the dragon did to our crops and some of our less robust outdoor infrastructure, the lack of any dragonborn abominations actually means we have less to worry about, so reconstruction will probably finish in the next few days. Nearly all the roofs are intact this time, and the one that was damaged was the tannery hut." Oh. That was a pleasant surprise. "Do you think you can get the Coldhold out of the river today so we can do the final test run of the new driver down to the ocean, or do you want to rest and just put it off until tomorrow? Either is good for the crew. Our salt stores are getting low, but we'll be able to hold out for a few more days."

Lori considered that. The idea of spending a day just resting after the whole ordeal was tempting. She could have a proper bath, change into clean clothes, use a latrine that had actually been emptied out and wasn't reeking, lie down on an actual bedroll instead of bare stone…

Well, she could do all that after she brought the Coldhold up. "I can rest after I bring the Coldhold up," she said. "Do we still have water in the reservoir?"

"I… think so? You blocked off the reservoir, remember?"

Oh, yes, she had. "Ah. Thank you for reminding me."

She'd need to reconnect it to the water hub shed so they could refill the reservoir from the river… wait, she'd need put in a new distillation stage first. While the reservoir had a binding for distillation, she had placed it after the reservoir. She needed to put one between the water hub shed and the reservoir, or maybe even before the river and the water hub shed. Lori didn't want whatever caustic substance was dissolved into the river getting into her reservoir. The white powder of the caustic substance would need to be isolated. It might be useful, and at the very least, best to keep it from just falling back into the river and need to be distilled out of the water again.

And once that was done, she'd have to reconnect the reservoir to the baths… and then make sure the baths are operational, so that she wouldn't have people taking baths in her Dungeon anymore… and had she put the lights in second level back to normal…?

A thought occurred to her, and she turned to Rian. "Did you find any dragon scales?"

For some reason, Rian shuddered. "No, and I think we should be glad for that. Imagine if the dragon had dropped a caustic metal scale of the sizes we've found before? Or worse, it had changed something on the ground into caustic metal."

Ah. There was the reason. Yes, Lori wanted to shudder as well as she imagined that. If such a thing were left in the middle of her infrastructure… caustic metal reacted with water, and with the way everyone was sweating… "Still… nothing at all?"

"Not even a little," Rian reiterated. "Though to be fair, we haven't really looked that far. I can definitely say that we found nothing in or around the village, or near any of the outbuildings. We might find something if we go further out, but that's something we can do after all the repairs."

Lori nodded thoughtfully. She'd probably need to repair her bead-making shed upriver. Given it was made of ice, the explosions of caustic metal had no doubt damaged it extensively, not to mention it probably collapsed since she hadn't maintained it all week.

On either side, trees and hills passed, and every so often, a burned tree stood in the middle of charred ground.

––––––––––––––––––

The moment she crossed the border of her demesne, Lori immediately felt better. The pounding, unrelenting heat of the sun above her softened, becoming a pleasant warmth. Her skin stopped feeling overheated, and for the first time in days she actually felt something close to comfortable. She became aware of the wisps around her, connected to her through her core, as if they were a part of her body.

Through her core, she claimed the waterwisps still on the bottom of the boat, carefully drawing them together into a viscous ball that she threw over the side into the river.

Now that she knew they had crossed into her demesne, she was glad to see no more burned trees. There were fallen and broken branches, but those didn't matter. It was merely damage to undeveloped and irrelevant areas, after all.

Soon they were coming to the docks, and as she looked over her demesne, she saw the roofs were intact. That was a first for them. Many of the wooden roofs had been blackened however, and people were inspecting them, no doubt to assess if they needed to be replaced. More were carrying things out of the dungeon, and…

"Rian, why are people carrying beds and tables from my dungeon?" Lori asked flatly.

"We had a lot of time after we finished carrying in the essentials, so I had people move in what they could," Rian said. "Didn't take that long, really. We were even able to get the shelves from the bath houses. Probably didn't need to, but at the time it was a reasonable precaution."

"Is that why it took you so long to signal me to seal my Dungeon?"

"No, that was because I was waiting for the boat to come back. We actually got everything in well before that."

They approached the dock, where people had begun to gather. Lori recognized Umu and Mikon, and Shanalorre was there for some reason, as well as some other people. As Rian awkwardly maneuvered the boat next to the dock, Riz threw the boat's rope to one of those on the dock, who tied it to the post there.

As people nearer to the dock began to climb out, assisted by the people waiting there, Lori exchanged nods with Shanalorre. "Binder Shanalorre."

"Binder Lolilyuri."

"Did anyone die?"

"No. Nothing arose that endangered anyone or required my intervention. Was anyone hurt?"

"If they were, it was self-inflicted, but no one died. Tend to it later when you escort the children to see their parents."

Shanalorre nodded. "Understood, Great Binder. When will that be?"

"Rian will be bringing more wispbeads to Yllian tomorrow. See who wants to go and arrange the matter with Rian."

"We might have to make more than one trip, I'm not sure all the children can fit in the boat," Rian said. "Uh, can we talk about this later at lunch? It's hot out here."

The two Dungeon Binders looked at each other and both nodded. "We'll speak of this later during lunch," Lori agreed.

"Understood. Welcome home, Great Binder."

Lori nodded, finally getting up and stepping off the boat onto the dock.

Yes. She was home.