Rian continued working on getting the boat built properly, adding in new beams and now carefully examining where else might need reinforcement. Lori felt he should have done that before, but what did she know? She wasn't a boat builder. Perhaps making blatant errors in common sense and thorough thinking were proper and traditional parts of the boat-building process.

Well, not her problem.

Still, the boat was taking up a lot of wood. Above the ice hull reinforced by wooden beams, plank walls were going up. The boat was meant to have a 'below' deck in the ice hull itself, a smaller enclosed 'above' deck that was pretty much a little house with a very low ceiling, and a roof deck above that, which was basically just standing on the roof. There was also a simple latrine, which was basically just a seat with a hole in it positioned over the side of the boat so everything fell into the river, with some low plank walls for a semblance of privacy, or at least telling people it was occupied. Considering how many people were expected to be on the boat, there were two on each side.

As the boat was being built, Rian poured over everything, trying to decide the optimum placement of storage, sleeping areas, open space—"We need somewhere to move around, or else we'll get cramped,"—and where exactly it would be best to put the kitchen so there was the least risk of fire. Something about avoiding the embarrassing ironic death of dying by heat while on an ice boat. Lori would have thought that avoiding any sort of death at all would have been the point.

Well, not her problem. It was Rian's.

In between maintaining her demesne and curing wood—they'd cleared a decently large swath around the dungeon already, which would probably provide a lot of farming land next year—she was excavating. They had sufficient room in the Dungeon right now, but she was thinking of the future. After all, there was a reason Dungeons were underground.

…well, mostly underground. Skykeep Demesne was an annoying exception to most general statements about demesne that a certain sort of person liked to bring up during discussion to disrupt the flow of the conversation.

But annoying exceptions to general statements aside, Dungeons were underground to be able to best take advantage of the fact that the area of a Demesne was spherical. And unless the core of the demesne had been placed at the top of a mountain or along the coast, that meant most of the area of the demesne was underground. The old continent was full of tunnels from generations and generations of demesnes, mining, the occasional war, and the rare act of cooperation, such as the Dragon Road.

There was none of that here. The earth and stone beneath her feet seemed solid all the way until the edge of the sphere she controlled, and she could dig through all of it.

Not that she was going to. She just needed to excavate a new level.

The second level was to the side and beneath the depth of the first level. The beginnings of the third level would be even lower down and at a right angle to the line of the other two levels, digging in the direction away from the river and making the beginnings of a downward spiral. Since it was away from the river, she could expand the level as large as she wanted. That was a good freedom to have when you were planning to make an underground farm.

That would take time though since she'd need soil, so for now she simply excavated. They'd have time to cart in dirt, soil and compost later.

Moving large lumps of fluidly flowing rock out of the dungeon was familiar, although passing through a surprisingly loud and lively second level, full of spinners making threads, yarns and cords, ropers making rope, weavers making fabric, and carpenters cutting, planning, chiseling, and doing all sorts of things to wood was slightly disorienting. Still, she had years of experience ignoring annoying people, and it stood her in good stead as she took the stone outside to the new stone pile, though she had to move several tables out of her path.

Lori began by excavating the slope down deeper, giving it a gentle slope and long, shallow steps. Given the purpose she intended to use this for, she'd probably have to make the tunnel wide and make a ramp as well as stairs, but for now this was enough. She'd have to come back to make the stairs level, but that was for later. Perhaps she'd make this stair the ramp and the expansion the stairs… Yes, that sounded appealing…

"Lori? You down there?"

The words echoed in the enclosed space, and Lori looked back. "What?" she demanded.

Rian carefully came down the stairs. There were no lights along the walls, the only glow coming from the lightwisps on the end of her staff. "It's dinner time," he said.

Already? She could have sworn she'd just had lunch. But no, she was sweaty, her feet ached from walking back and forth from her excavation to the stone pile, and if she strained her ears, she could make out that the sounds coming from the level above her had changed. Lori sighed, then nodded. "All right, I'll come up." A thought came to her. "Will you be getting the food yourself tonight, or leaving it to the women?"

"That's rich coming from the woman who never gets her own food."

"Yes, but I have no issues with that, unlike you."

Rian's face twisted, but he couldn't find a reply to that. "Well, I've done my duty in telling you it's time to eat. See you at dinner."

Lori nodded with a grunt and started making the last batch of stone flow to bring to the pile. Fortunately people stepped out of her way when they saw her walking with a big ball of undulating rock in tow. A few children tried to reach out and touch it, but fortunately they were stopped before they managed to do so. While it didn't look heavy, since it was flowing with the seeming consistency of a very thick dough, it was still solid rock, and weighed as much. Anyone who was accidentally run over by it would probably be crushed.

Lori managed to get the stone to the pile without incident, then turned to look around. The smithy area was nearby, the coals banked and furnace door closed, tools put away. The houses which had once backed into the trees now had cleared land behind them, tree stumps studding the ground. There had used to be small plants growing there, taking advantage of the larger trees being gone, but a lot of them had been savaged by the dragonborn abominations. Still, a few were stubborn clinging on, and new shoots were already growing. It was a bit too uneven to turn into field, but it would be ideal to put in new houses should they need it, maybe be the start of a new street leading to where the seels were being caught and where the hunters and tanners worked.

She'd have to move her corpses before that day came. It was a good thing she'd buried them deep. The dragon hadn't reached them at all.

Lori glanced at the pile of stone from her day's excavating. It was sizeable, and months of building had given her a good eye for estimating how much she could build with it. She nodded in satisfaction.

Then she turned and headed back to her rooms to take a quick bath before heading for dinner.

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The next day, Lori was busy getting tree stumps out of the ground.

"All right, drag that out of there," Riz directed. "This will make for good firewood if the sawyers can cut it up."

"If there's anything too hard they don't want to risk their saws on, tell them to set it aside and I'll cut it myself later," Lori said, not looking at her as she concentrated on binding earthwisps to soften the ground around the next tree stump so it could be pulled out. This was good soil, and thus had too much mulch and things for her to be able to bind the whole of it completely, so softening it was the best she could do.

Her temporary Rian was learning her duties well, at least. "You heard the Great Binder," Riz said. "Tell the sawyers to set aside the roots that are too hard, she'll deal with it. Are you ready on those ropes?"

"Riz, we know what to do, you don't need to direct us for every little thing." One of the men at the ropes said.

"Well, I don't know any other way to do this!"

"They can pull now," Lori said.

"You can pull now!"

"Yes, we heard her!"

One by one, the tree stumps were pulled out, and there was only one accident with someone walking on where she'd softened the earth, sinking down to their knees when the ground suddenly displaced under them. Fortunately, they had ropes to pull her out.

They finished that day, since they only had to clear a small area. Riz wasn't Rian, but as a temporary Rian she was… just barely serviceable. Hopefully she'd learn to get better at it. At least she didn't have Rian's insistence on being funny.

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The next day, she began construction.

The structure she built using part of the excavated stone was essentially a small segment of the shelter and the Um. The soil and dirt she had Riz find people to shovel to the side. Perhaps it could go into the third level. There was no packed dirt here, just stone to the bedrock. Because of the small size, she finished it fairly quickly. Lori attributed that to her accumulated building experience. The little house had an arching stone roof that came down to the ground and stone wall at the end at either end to cap it off, making it a complete building. One side had an opening for a door and windows to either side, while the other end had a fireplace and a chimney.

The curving walls and ceiling also had some windows made in them, composed of curving arcs to continue supporting the roof. The floor inside was below the ground level outside, the earth excavated and replaced with a layer of stone, to provide sufficient headroom given the ceiling in question, so the entrance had to be slightly elevated from ground level to prevent water from getting in when it rained, as it had when they had first arrived in the area.

The step down was slightly awkward when the bed was being brought in.

"All right, put it there in the corner and you can go," Riz directed the people she'd found. Lori didn't know who they were, she left that sort of thing to Rian, and now her temporary Rian. All that mattered was that they were able to carry the bed. Theoretically she could have knocked the wall with the door down and they could have brought the bed in that way, but… well, the bed got in, and that was what mattered. "Thanks, everyone."

"Riz, if you're going to do Lord Rian's job, can you find other people to ask help from?" One of the people said. "Being your friend is turning into a lot of hard work."

Riz chuckled nervously. "Sorry guys. Once we have a bar and drinks, drinks are on me."

"We'll hold you to that!" another one said.

As Lori used some stone to begin work on a table, Riz went on the next errand Lori had told her to do. Soon, Tackir and Deil came carrying a door, one of the doors that had been made for the Um and repairs on the houses that hadn't been used. Or it could have even been a door that had been made for the ice boat that Rian had declared to be too big or something. With efficient, practiced movements, Lori and the two carpenters attached the wooden hinges into the stone wall mounted the door and latch to it, Lori adjusting the stone around the door to best fit it so there was a minimum of drafts while she sent Riz out to get some firewood for the fireplace. Then the two carpenters measured the floor, taking notes on a plank with a burnt stick and made their way out.

It was nearing late afternoon when they finished and Umu and Mikon finally arrived, one of them holding a sturdy canvas pack, the other carrying blanket being used as a makeshift sack. Good, it looked like they hadn't had any problems. Anyone there was probably used to Umu going in and taking things, and Mikon had used to do the same thing before the blonde had cornered the market.

"Just put it on the bed," Lori directed, pointing.

They did as ordered, laying the things out with care and a strange and very particular way as Lori looked around, trying to think of what else was needed. Shutters for the windows would have to come later and wooden planking for the floor to keep back chill, but it had a roof, sturdy walls and a place for heat, and while the step up then steps down at the entrance was surprising it wasn't all the inconvenient…

Out the corner of her eye, she saw Umu nervously open her mouth, pause, look momentarily frustrated, then sighed and turned to Riz reluctantly. The blonde weaver said a few quiet words to her temporary Rian as Mikon walked around, giving the table Lori had a strange look. Well, Lori supposed a wooden one would have been more efficient and easier to move—she'd have to tell her temporary Rian to have one made—but stone was what she had to work with at the moment.

…Maybe she should make a chair? Or some kind of bench along the wall that could be used as a shelf? The walls were fairly thick, she should be able to hollow out a little shelf without affecting the structural integrity too much… No, wait, planks stuck to the wall would be easier…

"Riz, would you please remember to tell the carpenters to bring in some planks here, planed smooth?" she said absently. "One a pace long and two hands wide would suffice."

Her temporary Rian hesitated, glanced at Umu—who was giving her a pointed look—and pursed her lips. "Um, Great Binder, why are you doing this?"

Well, the question wasn't unreasonable, it was a bit sudden. "I'll need it for a shelf," she said. "This place needs somewhere to stack things on out of the ground. Hmm, perhaps make it three planks, and three hands wide, two might be a bit narrow…"

The woman hesitated. "I meant, why are you doing all this, Great Binder," she said, waving a hand to gesture at the walls, the ceiling, the fireplace, the table, and everything in around them general.

"Because I needed a house built quickly and didn't want to wait the week it would take to build a wooden roof," Lori said.

Mikon coughed. "Er, if I may?" she said, not speaking to anyone in particular.

Lori gave her a sideways looks. "What is it?" she asked.

"Your Bindership, why did you have all this built so quickly?" the pink-haired weaver said. "Why did you ask us to bring Lord Rian's bed and possessions here while he was occupied? Are you… interested in him?" Around her, Riz and Umu both looked shocked, terrified, scandalized and in disbelief, all at once.

Lori snorted at the absurdity, though she approved at the directness of the question. And a direct question deserved a direct answer. "No, I'm not interested in Rian the way the three of you seem to be," she declared. If anything, the expression on Riz and Umu's faces all escalated, now mixed with embarrassment and mortification, as well as taking on a deep tinge while making small noises. Even Mikon was blushing slightly. "Questions of your lack of taste aside, I don't care if you all decide to become his lovers and get married as a group, so long as it doesn't interfere with his ability to do what I need him to do."

Mikon coughed slightly, but didn't avert her gaze. "And… you built all this so that…?"

"So that Rian has something to come back to instead of leaving when he reaches Covehold," Lori said.

The three fell silent at that.

"He has no family here, nothing to tie him down. After all, it's not like he has a wife or lover waiting for him."

There was some shuffling, Riz and Umu looking away, while Mikon… was nodding thoughtfully.

A knock came on the door.

"Come in," Lori called out. She supposed the shelves would have to be put in later.

The door opened, and the brat came in leading a frowning Rian. "Wiz Lori," the brat said. "Lord Rian's here! I brought him, just like you asked."

Lori nodded. "Thank you, Karina. Go and wash up for dinner."

The brat nodded, nodded at Rian and stepped out.

"So, that's where my bed went. And everything else, for that matter," Rian said, sighing in relief as he saw the bed and the things on it. Then he looked around. "This house is new. Or has it always been here and I just didn't notice?"

"No, it's new," Lori said. "And it's yours."

Rian blinked. "Mine?" he said, looking surprised.

"You asked for someplace to store your things while you were gone, didn't you?"

"I… thought you were just going to toss it into the vault until I got back…"

"Well, you can do it yourself," Lori gestured vaguely. "You might have to get something made to put it in…"

Rian looked around, noting the fireplace, which had wood in it with some more to the side, the three tall and narrow windows on either side on the arcing walls, the table… "You… made me a house?"

Lori shrugged. "Not just me. Other people helped too. Riz was very helpful in finding people to do the work."

Rian glanced towards Riz, who was still blushing a little. He turned around to glance at the door. "This is house is… mine?"

"I said that already," Lori said. "I have decided that as a lord you needed your own residence, for privacy, and so you have a space to work and keep more organized notes."

"And the sacrificial altar?"

Lori gave him an annoyed look. "It's a table. And a temporary one. You can arrange to have a wooden one built, and I'll remove this one when you're done."

"I'll… do that."

Lori nodded. "Well, go take a bath, I'll meet you for dinner," she said. She made a gesture.

Rian blinked then realized he was standing in her path to the door and stepped aside. She nodded and left.

Then she stood outside and leaned with her back against the wall, listening.

"Well, we'll leave you to get ready for your bath, Rian," Mikon said. "Come on girls, I'm sure Rian won't appreciate us gawking at him while he gets undressed."

There were shuffling sounds, and Umu stepped out moving quickly, head bowed, face still red. She didn't even notice Lori as she ran past. Riz followed after, moving at a more dignified pace but clearly just as distracted.

Mikon stepped out last, pulling the door shut behind her and calling out, "See you at dinner, Rian," over her shoulder, catching sight of Lori as she did so. She only paused for a moment, but finished closing the door.

Lori pushed off from the wall and began to walk back to the Dungeon and her private bath. A pity. Such a frustrating combination of obliviousness and reticence.

It wasn't her problem, but it was mildly annoying. If they had the bad taste to be interested in Rian, couldn't they at least have the courtesy to do it in a way that was convenient for her, such as giving him another reason to come back?

To her surprise, Mikon fell into step beside her, and Lori gave the woman a curious glance. The weaver was looking straight ahead. "If I may…?" she said, seemingly speaking to the air.

"You said that already," Lori said. "What?"

"What are the requirements to get married in your demesne, your Bindership?"

Lori raised an eyebrow. "At least two consenting people," she said. "They tell me, I make a record of the agreement, and then they're married."

Mikon blinked. "So simple?"'

"A marriage is merely an agreement made official by the public record," Lori said. "Don't mistake it for a wedding, which is a separate event entirely, though it is traditional to conduct them simultaneously to save time." She shrugged. "Personally, having just a marriage and skipping the wedding has always seemed cheaper to me, with fewer organizational annoyances."

Mikon made a sound of realization. "I see. At least two?" There was a tone in her voice…

Lori rolled her eyes. "Yes, at least two." Then, a slightly vindictive thought made her say, "Inform all interested parties they are to submit applications to either Rian or my temporary Rian."

Mikon merely nodded, looking thoughtful. "I see. Thank you, your Bindership."

They walked on in silence.