Telref, I soon found, was a man barely holding himself together and constantly on the edge of despair. It was in the tired way he sat, the tone of his voice as he spoke, and the air of needing sleep. He seemed a worrier, probably worrying about his work, his wife, his son, whether they could afford the rent on where they lived, whether they could afford food, whether they'd be able to afford heat in the coming winter…

In other words, he was a perfectly normal, responsible adult with a family.

I liked to think that he'd be happier living in Lorian or River's Fork as our resident non-Shana Deadspeaker. It would remove a lot of his worries… at least until Lori had to implement putting us on a bead-based economy again, but as a resident Deadspeaker, I was fairly certain Lori would continue to support him, since he'd still be a very valuable worker. I would just need to keep Lori from overworking him.

…

Maybe if I had Lori let me take care of assigning what work he had to do…

As to skills, Telref had needed to develop his abilities in Deadspeaking along pragmatic lines to make a living that would support his family, meaning he'd had to learn to do a little of everything over the years. Woodworking, boneworking, leatherworking…

"…though I'm not very good at deadcraft," he admitted, letting out a tired breath. Over the course of our conversation, I'd realized he wasn't actually sighing at the end of every sentence, it just came out that way.

"Oh? Why not?" I asked, genuinely curious. Deadcraft and healing were what Deadspeakers were best known for, even if it wasn't the only thing they could do, the way Horotracts where known for making rooms bigger on the inside and Mentalists were known for having perfect memories. "We don't really have much need for undead, so there's no call for it—" Lori probably wasn't going to let anyone else handle the corpses of Elceena and Ahnree, if only because she'd want to do it herself, "—but is there any particular reason why?"

"I've just never been very good at getting them to do anything complicated. I can make a leg move, and I can even move two, but I can't get them to walk without the whole corpse falling over…"

"Huh…" I tapped my lips thoughtfully. "Could you, say, use a beast leg to—"

"Make a dead leg driver? Yes, I can do that," Telreth said, "though I wouldn't recommend it. It needs a lot of imbuement for it to work for a reasonable length of time, or else I'll need to sit by it and maintain it all day."

I nodded. "Well, something to keep in mind, but deadcrafting isn't something we need back home." We ate most parts of beasts and seels, so except for the bones, there wasn't exactly a lot of material for deadcrafting. "The woodpressing, woodworking and your familiarity with farming meanings are what we're looking for. What about healing meanings?"

"I can do the expected things," Telref said. "Knit flesh, mend bone, repair muscle and blood vessels… I can also mitigate symptoms, but I'm not very good at cleansing illness."

"You can't do it?" I said. It was hardly necessary, since we had Shana, but…

"No, I can, but… I can't do it very quickly," he said. "I have to take it slow so that I don't make any mistakes…"

Ah. "I see…" A thought occurred to me. "How much of what you have problems with could be solved if you had beads or someone else to provide more imbuement?"

He blinked. "Well… it would certainly help…"

That meant Shanalorre would be able to help… maybe? At the very least Telref, or anyone else we recruited, wouldn't need to do all the imbuing by themselves.

"Now, do you have any questions of your own?" I asked. I didn't let my nervousness show, hoping he didn't ask anything awkward, like 'what is our Dungeon Binder like?'.

"Actually, yes," he said. "Previously, you said that there would be a house provided that we wouldn't have to pay rent on…"

"Yes," I said. "Now, you wouldn't be the first owners, and at one point it was used for storage, but if you choose to accept our offer and move to our demesne, you're free to stay there for as long as you want."

"And… that's it?" he said, looking dubious.

"Well, it hasn't been lived in for a while—as I said it was used for storage—so there might be mold," I admitted. "We've done what we could, but you might need to remove that, or fuse new wood into some spots. But don't worry. We have several houses for you to pick from, so you can choose where you want to live."

He frowned. "Hasn't the house been maintained?"

"It's one of several houses that were originally made by a Deadspeaker who is no longer with the demesne," I said. Technically true. "They made them by hollowing out and reshaping each house from a tree. To be fair, the resulting houses are sizeable and could fit a family, and they're still in good repair. We've done what maintenance we could with our carpenters, but…"

"But they'd need to cut the wood," Telref said, nodding. "And that kind of Deadspoken wood have little in the way of flat surfaces or straight lines, making it hard for them to work without it irrevocably damaging the structure or taking an unbinderly amount of time."

"It doesn't help that glue isn't as plentiful as we'd like," I added. Extracting hide glue unfortunately ruined the skins such that they didn't make for very good material afterwards, and while we had plenty more bone, Lori always had uses for it, not to mention everyone else. "I'll be honest, you'll probably going to become a local repairman when you're not being asked to help increase and accelerate crop yields."

He made a face at that last, clearly recalling an unpleasant experience. "That's not an easy meaning to apply," he said.

"I see," I said. The late Binder Koshay had done it, but in hindsight, he'd been working with the advantages of a Dungeon Binder, which if Lori was any example were considerable. "Which aspects in particular make it difficult?"

"Imbuement," he said immediately. "Unless you're willing to spend talkbeads like water, any meanings I place to accelerate a crop's growth or ripening wouldn't last very long. There are ways, I've heard… but I don't know them."

I nodded. "Well, it was a hope, but not something we placed all our hopes on. Your woodworking experience is more important." At least, it was for me. I wanted an actual wooden-hulled boat! And with his assistance, we could finally do maintenance on Lori's Boat, and maybe build some new ones! "If the house isn't to your liking, you're free to select any of the other unoccupied houses in the demesne, or try and improve it. As I said, we'll assist you in any repairs and additions you want to make, provided they're reasonable. No two-floor mansions with multiple rooms and private dragon shelter."

"Does it have a kitchen?"

I paused to consider that. "There's the firepit I mentioned…" I said slowly, "but if you mean a kitchen with a sink and stove… no. However, there's a communal kitchen and dining hall so everyone can eat and socialize together, which also helps prevent fire hazards. But if having a kitchen is really important to you, I'm sure something can be arranged." Lori could probably put up a low-effort stone addition to the side of one River's Fork's houses, and Telref could poke a hole in the wall… Or maybe Lori could use a water cutter. "However, if you're concerned about food, then our demesne is willing to shoulder the expense of providing food for your and your family, within reason. You're not going to get grossly fat, but you certainly won't be living on almost-water soup. It's closer to meat and mushroom broth stew. Actually, it's mostly meat and mushroom broth stew."

Telref looked suspicious, but behind that suspicion was hope. I actually felt almost bad about that. It was the kind of hope that the unscrupulous took advantage of, building it up so that people would stop listening to their good sense before those terrible people struck. I had to remind myself that I was only creatively omitting things because believing how Lori ran her demesnes was hard until you actually saw it for yourself. "Free food as well?" he said.

"I know it sounds suspicious, but we're willing to provide free room and board to have a skilled Deadspeaker come to make their home in our demesne," I said. "In addition to that, you and your family will also have free use of the local bath house, as well as receive a soap allowance."

He blinked at that. "Soap allowance?" he repeated.

"You don't want soap for bathing and doing the laundry?"

"No, no… I mean, yes, we'd want soap…" he said.

"Well, you'll have it," I said brightly. "It certainly helps keep the number of people who get sick down, so that will be less work for you and the local doctors. Do you have any more questions?"

"You… mentioned free use of the bath house?"

I nodded. "Yes. Ah, I'm afraid I might have been accidentally misleading. The bath house is free for anyone to use, at all times of the year. Usually, the bath water is heated, especially during the winter, but because of the summer heat the water isn't being heated at the moment as the cooler water is more comfortable. However, come the next season the water will no doubt be heated again."

"Your bath house is free to use for everyone?" Telref said, that mix of hope and suspicion in his eyes again.

"Yes," I said. "I admit, it's one of the best parts of living in our demesne. When I left to come here, people were bathing three times a day because it was so hot." I was suddenly very conscious of how sweaty I was, how much my clothes smelled and how itchy I was under it, and had to resist the urge to start scratching. "Do you have any more questions?"

For a moment, he sat there, his breathing even as he considered thoughfully. "What exactly do you expect me to do, should I join your demesne?" he said slowly.

I sighed. "Unfortunately, a little of everything," I said. "While we have carpenters, we no longer have a Deadspeaker who can help them, so you'll be asked to help with woodworking. The farmers will want your help to try and accelerate the growth of the crops so we have mave more harvests per year. The hunters and tanners will want your help fusing skins, furs and leather together so we can have larger sheets… I'm not going to lie, you'll probably be busy for the first few weeks after you arrive, but you'll be able to work at your own pace as long as you contribute to the demesne, like assisting at harvest time and things like that. You'll also be asked to assist our Dungeon Binder if they need anything built with Deadspoken wood, but beyond that, you're free to do as you please, within reason. Is there anything you particulalrly want to do?"

The question made him hesitate, before he eventually shook his head. "No…" he said, "…nothing in particular…"

I nodded. "Do you have any intention of trying to establish your own demesne?"

That actually made Telref blink before he let out an abrupt snort and shook his head. "No," he said. "I have no intention of establishing my own demesne. Would I have stayed here in Covehold if I did?"

"Well, I didn't want to assume," I said. "Though, if I may ask… why did you come all the way out here, then?"

Talref fell silent for a moment, suddenly looking more tired than before. "I was young and foolish," he said eventually. "I outgrew it."

Ah. One of those kinds of regrets. "I won't pry, then," I said. I should probably ask if he'd ever been accused of a crime… but there was really no way for me to confirm or deny his answer. I'd just have to keep an eye on him when we got back, if he decided to join us. "Though in that case, what are you looking for now, that you're considering joining our demesne?

This time he actually did sigh. "I'm hoping for a place we don't have to pay rent," Telref said. "All the rest… as long as we don't have to pay rent."

"You won't have to pay rent," I promised. "Is there anything else you'd like to know?"

For a moment, Telref almost shook his head, paused, then shook his head harder, as if clearing his head. "I should have asked at the start… which demesne are you with?"

"Lorian Demesne," I said brightly.

Telref frowned. "I've never heard of it."

"We're a year-old demesne a long way upriver, so we're pretty far from Covehold," I said. "I'm pretty sure we're the demesne farthest from Covehold right now. That's probably why you've never heard of us. Not surprising, since this is only the second time we've come down to this demesne. We haven't had a chance to make a proper name for ourselves yet. Hopefully that changes soon."

"Ah… I see…"

"Do you have any further questions?" I asked.

He paused, then shook his head.

I nodded. "Now, I realized this is a big decision, so you don't need to answer me now. Take some time to consider the matter. Go and speak to your wife about it, decide together. When you've decided, you can find me having dinner at the Shady Stand. You know where that is?"

"I've heard of it…"

"Great!" I said cheerfully. "Now, I'd just like to say our demesne would be very happy to have a man of your talents joining us, but if you choose another course, then I'll understand. Good luck to you, Wizard Telref. I hope you find what you need."

It was an awkward parting as I stood up, prompting him to do the same, and I extended my hand so we could exchange grips. I watched as he walked out to the stockyard, presumably to meet with the manager there to see about the woodpresser job.

I closed my eyes, bowed my head for a moment and sighed.

Well… I probably wasn't seeing that man again. After all, why take a suspicious offer to relocate when one could have a nice, secure job that they knew how to do?

Still, it was probably good practice, and now Ravia had fulfilled his part of our wager.

Shaking my head, I stood up to wake Hans and Liggs. Time to go back to looking for Deadspeakers…