She'd just pulled the partially-filled syringe—it contained only a small amount of blood, only a cubedrop—from her arm when she heard Rian let out a high-pitched scream of alarm.

Startled, Lori whirled, only to find her lord staring at her in horror, a finger pointing at her. No, not at her. At the syringe in her hands.

"Did you just inject yourself?-!" he cried shrilly.

Lori would have described Rian in many ways. Until now, 'shrill' had never been one of them.

"I did not inject myself," she corrected. "I drew blood." She watched, bemused, as Rian had a full-body shiver. "How did you think I was going to get the blood for this experiment?"

"I don't know!" Rian exclaimed, still sounding a little shrill. "I thought you were going to… prick your finger or cut this bit!" He tapped the fleshy juncture between his thumb and forefinger. "Not stab yourself with a needle! Doesn't that hurt?"

"As you said, I stabbed myself with a needle," Lori said. "Of course it hurts." She took the small bottle of disinfectant from her personal supply, and used the brush that came with it to lightly daub it over her wound to prevent infection. Once was too much already. "Now, stop being squeamish. It wasn't like I took the blood from you." Lori was treated to another full-body shiver.

She sighed. "Oh, just grab that plank and start writing."

Rian shook his head, but picked up the plank and the burned sick. "Right. What's this experiment going to be about?" he said, hand and branch poised to take notes. "What is our premise, what is the intended result?"

Lori nodded. "This is not a true experiment, as we will not be comparing two groups against each other. Properly, this a proof of concept test. My education says it is possible, but given how many things people have said about being a Dungeon Binder has been… incomplete, best I make sure before we build any long-term plans around the idea." She held up the syringe. "This is my blood. It naturally contains a mix of waterwisps, airwisps, darkwisps and negligible amounts of earthwisps and firewisps." That last was purely academic, as they were so miniscule as to be of no use.

"To clarify," Rian asked. "Is that because it's your blood, or would blood from anyone also contain the same amount of… wisps?"

"Anyone's blood would contain the same," Lori confirmed. "However, as a Whisperer and now Dungeon Binder, I am able to utilize my blood in ways others cannot."

Rian tilted his head, and his eyes widened. "It's a part of your body," he said.

Huh. Lori was surprised he came to that conclusion so quickly. "It is," she said. "Today's test will be to verify whether I can bind, and more importantly imbue using only my blood at a distance. And due to my connection to the demesne as a Dungeon Binder, it would not be a valid test unless the blood was outside the area of influence of my demesne."

Rian was nodding over and over as he carefully wrote on the plank, using gentle movements so as not to break the burned writing tip. "Yes, yes, I think I see… If this works… yes I can see how this fixes some of our problems… I have some ideas, but I'll wait until after you finish to bring them up, in case this doesn't work."

Lori raised an eyebrow. Well, given his recent performance, she supposed they might be worth hearing out. It wouldn't be the first time. "All right, grab the spear. We need to step out of the demesne for a moment, and I need you to watch my back."

Rian nodded, carefully putting down the plank and grabbing his spear. After carefully scanning the area for beasts—the lack of colors on the undergrowth and ground made this easy, as their iridiated bodies stood out from all the muteness—the two of them carefully stepped out of the demesne's borders. Lori was careful not to shiver as she passed through, lest she drop the glass bowl and the syringe she was holding.

"No beasts and nothing in the water," Rian noted. "Since this experiment is using blood, I assume you're going to use water for this?"

"Correct," Lori confirmed. Both their heads were looking around for beasts, or at least movement that could be beasts, so she couldn't expect him to see her nod. "I need to get it some distance from the edge of my demesne, to make sure there's no residual connection to the core." Checking the water and concentrating on her sense of wisps, she bent down and carefully scooped up some water in the glass bowl with one hand, being very careful not to have it slip from her fingers. "I have the water. Note, for reference, that I was careful not to touch the water in the bowl with my bare skin. This was to prevent the possibility of binding the water by accident. The container is glass, a substance that does not act as a conduit of magic."

"I think I remember something about that," Rian said. "Is that why we use it for beads? Since it can't be altered by a Whisperer, so it can't be counterfeited that way?"

Lori gave him a puzzled look. "Beads aren't made of glass," she said. "They're made of solidified magic."

Rian blinked. "Really?"

"Yes," Lori said. "Otherwise they'd be completely useless for providing fuel to bound tools."

"Huh," Rian said. "I might need to ask you to look at my beads for me, otherwise I might have been robbed."

Lori waved a dismissive hand. "If you came to that conclusion from a cursory examination then yes, beads have a superficial resemblance to glass. No one would use glass to make counterfeit beads, however. Too expensive." Really, he should know this.

Moving carefully, Lori lay the glass bowl full of water on the pedestal-like finger of stone she'd raised outside of her demesne. It trembled slightly on the slightly uneven surface until Lori set it right.

"Take notes. I am now adding my fresh blood," she said. "The syringe used is made of brass, and was previously sterilized by boiling to exclude dustlife. The blood is unbound and unimbued, and no intention is made to bind or imbue it or through it."

So saying, she carefully pushed on the syringe's plunger, adding half of the blood contained within to the bowl of water. The water immediately darkened, the seemingly crimson bead spreading and staining the slightly murky water a dark brown.

Carefully, Lori stood just inside her demesne, staring at the little bowl of dirty water, so like the one she had used to claim her demesne those months ago. "Beginning experiment," Lori said for the benefit of Rian's notes. "Attempting to claim, bind and imbue without contact, outside my demesne."

Lori took a deep breath to steady herself, and reached inside, to her connection to her Dungeon's core, her link to her demesne and its wisps. She pulled that seemingly-endless magic into herself as if she stood outside of her demesne, her always-hidden strength whenever she went to River's Fork, the source of endless power she used to imbue the water jets of Lori's Boat to allow them to make the journey at speed. If she'd had to breath in all that power, she'd have needed to practically pant the whole way.

She took that magic and imbued it with her will, channeled it through her blood. Then she channeled it outward.

For the second time in a year, the magic seemed to leap through the air, crossing the distance and reached out to the wisps that had been part of her, in the blood that had spread through the bowl of water. It wasn't quick. It wasn't efficient. It was nothing like reaching through her connection through the core or through a wire, but it went. She felt the wisps that had come from her body fall under her control, and it was a relief as they responded to her claim.

"Contact and claim, successful," she said absently. "Binding established. Beginning imbuement."

She channeled magic through her wisps, to the matter they had been joined to. The transfer was still a struggle, but the thread she had established in the initial claim seemed to act as a channel, letting her push the energy towards the binding. It was a narrow channel, and tight, but power flowed, reaching its destination—

Was it her imagination, or did the thread thicken ever so slightly?

Lori focused, continuing to imbue. It did seem to get progressively easier as she continued to push, and soon it was almost as easy as doing it through a wire, in the same way as walking up a slight incline is almost as easy as walking on level ground.

"Lori?" Rian said.

Lori blinked, shook her head. "Imbuement successful," she said. "I have successfully managed to claim, bind and imbue at a distance through my blood. The first test is finished and successful."

"Congratulations!" Rian said. He had a bright smile on his face. "First test implies a second test, though."

Lori nodded. "The second test is an extension of the first. Having managed to claim, bind and imbue the waterwisps in my blood, can I now use them to claim the waterwisps and water in which they are dissolved?"

"Let's find out!" Rian said, looking genuinely excited. "If you can, this means you can at least imbue the water jet no matter how far away it is, right?"

Lori shook her head. "Right now, it means that I can claim and imbue from a distance of three paces away," she said, which was the approximate distance to the bowl of water outside her demesne. "There is marked difficulty in imbuing at a distance compared to imbuing by touch, imbuing by wire, and imbuing as a Dungeon Binder. We shall have to test if distance is a factor in the difficulty. "

Rian was nodding as she spoke, only to stop. "Wait… imbuing as a Dungeon Binder? What does that mean?"

"It means I can imbue any binding within my demesne," Lori said. Really, wasn't that clear?

"No matter where you are? No matter how far?" Rian asked.

"Yes, of course," Lori said. "The core is connected to me, and functions as my connection to the demesne. I am always connected. In practice, the entire demesne is my body, and as such, I am connected to every wisp in it."

Rian was giving her a narrow-eyed look. "So… when all the hot water, running water and lights failed when we were in River's Fork the first time… "

"Moving on!" Lori said loudly. "Second test! To ascertain the efficacy of claiming other waterwisps through the connection to the waterwisps in my blood!"

She ignored the blank-faced stare Rian was directing as her as she began the second test. Lori was glad to find it wasn't any different from claiming water normally. Her claim spread from her initial point of contact, spreading from waterwisps she'd claimed, expanding outward in all directions until it stopped at the limits of the glass. She could even claim upwards slightly, binding the vapors of water that made the air so humid and thick around the river. The difficulty in imbuing remained, though. She could only directly imbue some of the wisps in the water, and she suspected those were the ones that had come from her blood. So, in a way, the propagation of imbuement remained the same, originating at her point of contact. A pity. If she could simultaneously imbue ALL the waterwisps she had claimed…

Still, her overall bottleneck seemed to be the overall volume of waterwisps from her body compared to the waterwisps from the river. So it was likely that she would be able to increase her ability to imbue if she used more blood.

"Second test, successful," Lori proclaimed. "All the water has been claimed, bound and imbued. Make a note for future experiment: see if overall imbuement capability could be increased by using more blood."

"Noted," Rian said. "Question: is there any reason why this couldn't be done using spit, sweat, or latrine water?"

Lori stopped and paused to think about it. "I would say that such fluids might not have as much affinity with my body as blood…" Lori said slowly, thoughtfully, "but… it's all fluids that contain water, is it not? I chose to use blood because it's the example and material we learn of when using this at school, and even then, we are cautioned to only use this with blood and waterwisps. The other wisps are too intrinsically connected to essential bodily functions to be spared, normally."

"Normally?" Rian prompted.

"The firewisps in your body are bound to its warmth," Lori said. "Reducing or increasing that warmth is extremely dangerous. On the other hand, the body can spare blood, taken sparingly and given time to recover. Of course, a dying man with nothing to lose might not care."

Unless, of course, they were a Dungeon Binder. But she wasn't saying that. She's said too much already today.

"Ah, one of those 'taking you with me' things," Rian said, nodding. "Hmm. If something didn't have enough affinity, what would that look like?"

Lori shrugged. "It would be like binding wisps normally, requiring contact to claim and imbue."

"So… something to test, then?" Rian asked.

Lori nodded. "Something to test," she agreed. "Though in practice, if the volume test proves fruitful, then any future uses will be conducted with blood. Spit and sweat will be unlikely to be available in sufficient volume immediately, and as to the last… " She gave him a flat looks. "You might have to touch it."

Rian twitched. "Piss or blood…" he muttered. "How can I ever choose…?"

"I've chosen, and I choose blood," Lori said. "Much more dignified."

"When you put it that way…" Rian muttered. "So, what else? Distance test, to see if it affects your ability to do wizardly things to it?"

"Longevity test as well," Lori said.

"You'll have to explain that one," Rian said.

"Affinity begins to be lost once removed from the body," Lori explained. "That is part of the difficulty in using spittle. To amass sufficient amounts, it will have to be stored and added to. While that is happening, it could be losing affinity."

"Could?" Rian said, latching on to the word. "You're not sure?"

"I was able to attain affinity using my childhood teeth, which had fallen from my mouth years ago," Lori explained. "However, this was after a long period of channeling magic through it, essentially renewing my affinity. Affinity can be lost, and I'm not sure how long it takes for it to reach the level of being able to imbue at a distance."

Rian tilted his head. "So, wait… you say the demesne is, magically speaking, equivalent to your body when it comes to 'contact' for doing magic, right?"

"Yes…?" Lori said, wondering where he was going with this.

"Does that mean that, if we take a rock that had been in the demesne after years and years of it being your demesne, and took it outside, it can act as a conduit for you? After all, wouldn't it be 'part of your body'?"

Lori blinked, her eyes going wide as she realized what Rian as saying. At the same time, she remembered some mentions of certain feats in the bibliographies she'd read…

"If… if that were possible…" she said, thinking of the possibilities… "No, no, even if it were possible, it would need extensive time to reach the sort of affinity your describe. Though… "

Dark rooms. Why did demesnes have rooms where no light was to ever enter, sealed and untouched for years…?

"I think that might be beyond the scope of these tests for now," she said faintly.

"I suppose you're right," Rian conceded. "Though if we kept a sample of water in your demesne and just let it sit there for years and years, seal it so it doesn't evaporate… "

They both turned to look at the bowl filled with blood.

"Something we could come back to…" Lori said, still sounding faint. "In time. We have more pressing, immediate needs."

"Agreed," Rian said. "So, next test?"

Lori shook her head, trying to bring herself to the here and now. "Right. Right. Next test. Now, we test what effect an active binding will have on both the rate of imbuement and the affinity…"