When Rian got back from the edge of the demesne at about mid-morning, he informed her that her demesne had grown by 44 yustri.

"That's barely anything!" he said, glaring at his plank as if it had insulted him as he walked next to her. They were on the third level while she checked the bindings of lightwisps, waterwisps and firewisps that controlled her Dungeon farm's light, temperature and humidity. It was something she had to do once in a while, to make sure it wasn't too hot, too cold, too moist or too dry. Theoretically the farm should settle into some ideal equilibrium, but they clearly hadn't reached that stage yet. "It's not even statistically significant!"

It was only the fact that Rian's ire seemed to be directed at the number itself that kept Lori from being annoyed at his attitude. As it was, she was mostly exasperated. "Rian, it's a first attempt. At the very least, this is a new sample for a whole new average," Lori pointed out as she deactivated the firewisps around her and let her feel the actual temperature of the level. "Should it continue, it will mean changing this variable has resulted in an improved average by one yustri and twenty-five chiyustri."

Rian brightened immediately at the implication that his precious number had gone up. "Ah, you're right! And this also means an improved expansion-to-time ratio!"

"Yes, yes, the numbers are rising," Lori said, rolling her eyes as she decided the temperature at that spot didn't need to be adjusted yet. She kept walking between the plots of little seedlings, of vigas and the seeds that had been brought back from Covehold, making sure there weren't any significantly warm or cold spots she had to adjust. While the farmers were theoretically supposed to report this to Rian so she could deal with it, some mornings she didn't really have a lot to do, so why not check it herself?

"I saw that."

"I did it in front of you, of course you did."

"Hmph. You realize if I weren't doing this, you would have to keep track of all the numbers and do the calculations."

"No, I wouldn't. I just wouldn't do them. All I need to know is by how much my demesne is expanding to confirm my efforts are working."

"You're making me cry, you really are, you know that?"

"I'm sure Mikon would be more than happy to give you a lap to cry on."

That was sufficient to embarrass him enough to make Rian change the subject. "So, there's a matter I need to bring to your attention that I've been putting off."

Lori turned and gave him a sharp look. "What is it?" she demanded. Was this something that had become an emergency because of his procrastination? "Was this something that became an emergency because of your procrastination?"

Rian actually looked vaguely offended. "Do you think I'd be spending time on math if we had something that urgent? No, this is just something I've set up so that it wouldn't waste your time. Remember a few months ago when you laid down the procedure for getting married?"

Ah. She understood. "Ah. I understand. So I suppose Mikon finally asked you to marry her? Or was it Umu?"

"Neither," Rian said. "And no, before you mention Riz, no one asked me to marry them! No, when I spread the word, I told the people who came to me that I'd like to wait until there were ten marriage requests before bringing it to your attention to keep you from being bothered over the next few days." He shrugged. "To be honest, I thought we'd get ten requests a lot sooner, but some seemed to have rethought the matter during the wait and eventually retracted the request. Or at least succumbed to pressure from their parents. However, before breakfast someone spoke to me in the baths about it, and on the way here I got two requests, so I thought it was about time the matter was brought to you attention."

Ah. No wonder she hadn't received any requests. She'd honestly been expecting them to come to her for a long time, had even prepared some wood-backed, stone tablets for them so that there would be a functionally long-lasting record she could issue. She'd water cut them herself to get them just the right thickness. "Tell them I'll see to them tomorrow after breakfast," Lori said.

"Is that all I can tell them?" Rian said. "I mean, what should they expect? Will you be interviewing them on their assets for tax purposes? Making up a whole new section of marriage law, like who has custody of the children in the event of a divorce? Telling them the requirements for a divorce in this demesne? Will the people who object to them getting married have the opportunity to air their objections?"

"Why would people who want to get married want people who object to their getting married have the opportunity to say so?" Lori knew she didn't want to bother dealing with people, but she understood enough to think that idea was very strange.

Rian shrugged. "In case they do actually have a point? Like what if one was only marrying the other for their money? I know we're not exactly in a position for that to be the case—"

"Yes, as the man who owns a boat you have other people operate for you, you're technically the richest person in the demesne who's not me."

Rian stopped talking for a moment, a strange look coming over his face. Had he never thought of it that way before? "Uh, anyway, at the very least, they should still be heard. If they're stupid objections, you'll be able to call them out as such, but if it's something with actual merit, then you'll know so you can consider whether or not it's grounds to deny the request to be married. I know there's at least one request that was made because the boy got the girl pregnant and are being pressured by the parents. Such an opportunity might be the only chance they have to keep themselves from getting pressured into marriage against their will."

Lori stopped walking, staring at him.

"What?"

"I thought I made it clear that you are my lord in charge of dealing with people!" Lori said. "Those sound like 'dealing with people' matters!"

"Yes, but since you'll be the one registering them as married, you might need to know pertinent information that qualifies or disqualifies applicants. Also, establishing the laws involved with marriage is solely up to you," Rian said. "Does this automatically mean all future property is jointly owned or not? Does it have any consequences to how much tax they'll pay eventually? If they get married, what do they need to do to file for divorce? Can they file for divorce? Who gets what if they get divorced? What happens to any children they have?"

"Rian, why are you already thinking of divorce for people who haven't even gotten married yet?"

Rian shrugged. "All you said that to get married in your demesne, there had to be two consenting people who apply to you, and you record it."

"Yes, exactly. Marriage is merely an agreement made official by the public record."

"Yes, but what are people agreeing to?"

"All the romantic nonsense they're expecting, obviously?"

"Yes, but what are the legal ramifications of such an agreement? Marriage carries with it the implication of certain legal obligations, which is established by the laws of the demesne where the marriage is recorded, though there's usually the implicit and unofficial agreement that each demesne will respect marriages performed in other demesnes, even if they'll impose their own legal standards of marriage on the people in question should the need arise."

Lori gave her lord a look. "I would have thought you'd say that marriage is about people loving each other."

"Yes, well, life has compelled me to put more thought into the matter," Rian said, looking aside. "I still think that love, liking each other, the desire to be together, and actively wanting to work out the difficulties living together will entail are the most important parts of marriage, but that's in ideal situations. Life tends not to be ideal, and while you might not want to have to bother with preemptively mediating in any disagreements by legislating it, what about how this will affect any children that results from this? What if there's been infidelity, and the parentage of the child is in question? What if the father decides the child isn't his because of that and neglects them?"

For a moment, Lori said nothing as, from one of the adjacent tunnels full of tuber planters, the sounds of children playing could be heard while they were supposedly tending to the plants in question. Rian opened his mouth to keep talking but she raised up a hand, and his teeth clicked together as he shut his mouth. Eventually, she nodded her head.

"All right," she said after some thought. "Tomorrow morning, I will draft some guidelines regarding marriage. It will retroactively apply to all married people in my demesne. The day after that, I will meet with the people requesting to be married, you will explain these laws to them, and they will be registered as married. See that everyone relevant is informed, Rian."

"Yes, your Bindership."

"Rian, why are you smiling?"

"Well, it occurs to me that the first group of people getting married in the demesne is something worth some celebration," Rian said brightly. "So… maybe I should have some of the grain milled into flour so we can have an special celebratory meal for lunch at least? After all, despite the objections, people are generally going to be in a celebratory mood, so perhaps a little something special is in order? It's also a good time to release some of the honey, so we'd have sweet cakes instead of just bread—"

"Rian," Lori said, voice completely flat and unamused, "has all this been a setup for a holiday?"

"Look me in the eye and tell me that you won't enjoy some bread sweetened with honey to eat after all the work you've been putting into expanding the demesne, all the tiredness, all the cold you've had to put up with while smelting metal in River's Fork, and I'll drop the subject," Rian said.

"Whether or not I'll enjoy it is not the point!"

"What is the point, then?"

Lori glared at him but found she couldn't find an answer to that. And… honey. Nice, tasty, sweet green honey…

Why was she arguing against this again?

"You will use only a small amount of honey," Lori said sternly. "We might still need it for—" No, wait, they'd come back with alchemical antiseptics when they'd come back from Covehold, hadn't they? "—for emergency antiseptic. And other emergency things!"

"We'll be frugal, your Bindership," Rian said cheerfully. If he dared be smug about the fact he had essentially won… "Well, I better get to work. Tell people they'll be getting married in two days, then see if we can risk organizing a hunting party for fresh meat… see if anyone knows a good recipe for honeyed pan bread, since we don't have an oven yet—"

"I'll make an oven," Lori ground out. "Happy?"

"Binder Lori, you're the best Dungeon Binder ever, everyone who left for River's Fork left too soon," Rian said.

Lori rolled her eyes. It was very hard to tell when he was being sincere or just flattering. "Well? What are you waiting for? Get moving! You still need to watch the waterclocks this afternoon and you have averages to calculate and things! And you still have to get the expansion data in two days."

"Yes, your Bindership! Going, your Bindership!"

Rian actually seemed to be skipping as he hurried back to the stairs. Ugh, her lord could be such a child sometimes.

Shaking her head, Lori turned and hurried to make her rounds so she could get to work on the oven in the kitchen. It would need a new and more direct exhaust vent, since it would need to function with burning wood, as the cooks would need to adjust the heat and they couldn't do that if she heated it with a binding… and she couldn't do that because she'd be far too busy…

And then there were the laws she had to make. Rian was right, annoyingly, though she thought he was a overthinking things a bit given the current state of things. Still, it would probably be best if she officially established what she expected of married people in her demesne…

Try as she might though, she kept getting distracted by thoughts of sweet, honeyed bread.