Lori almost forgot that she agreed to rest today.

Almost.

She remembered partway through imbuing the bindings on the list she maintained, and for a moment felt both relieved and guilty. Relieved, treacherously relieved, that she had agreed not to work today, and irrationally guilty that what she was doing was 'not resting'. Ridiculous. This was necessary maintenance, and besides, what could Rian do to her exactly? Make her rest for another day?

…

Anyway!

After completing the list, Lori took a quick bath to refresh herself—she needed to cut her hair, it was starting to get long again—and got dressed before heading downstairs for breakfast. Once she reached the level of the dining hall, she paused, frowning slightly.

There was something different about the room. For one thing, there was something… energetic about the buzz of conversation that she heard. The subdued and relaxed air of the past few months had been replaced by something that sounded more active, something that reminded her of the seasons when everyone was going out and actually doing a lot of work…

And then the smell hit her, and she took a deep breath, letting it out as a happy sigh.

The smell of freshly made flatbread filled the air, and it was almost like eating the bread itself, except somehow worse, because it didn't sooth the sudden pang of her stomach, didn't quench the need in her suddenly salivating mouth. What had been a subtle suggestion in the air the night before had strengthened into a rich fragrance that filled her with need…

Shuddering, Lori took another deep breath to calm herself—which was almost for nothing as another lungful of somehow warm bready aroma filled her—then headed for her table like usual.

Partway there, she paused. Then she turned around and headed back to her room to retrieve her long-neglected sunk board.

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"I can't believe I let you talk me into this," Lori muttered as she waited for Mikon to finish her turn. The weaver was happily dropping little stones into the bowls of the sunk board, all but ignoring Riz next to her, who looked amused.

"And I can't believe I have to practically beg you to rest, but that happened too," Rian said dryly. "What kind of person actually has to be made to rest?"

"You," Lori said. It was her turn, so she reached into a bowl and picked up the stones there, then began dropping them one at a time into subsequent bowls.

"Me?-!" Rian said, looking indignant.

"Oh, you don't recall trying to go hunting for beast meat while you were practically asleep on your feet? You must have been more tired than I thought," Lori said pointedly.

"That happened once!"

"And yet I've had to order you to rest… I think three more times since then?"

"While working for you, so whose fault was that?"

Lori didn't dignify that silliness with a reply as she finished her turn. After a good night's sleep, she felt perfectly fine, but she had agreed, so now she just had to endure it. One should only break one's agreements when it was of great advantage, allow one to net a greater profit, and when she could—and this was the most important—kill all witnesses who would spread word of the betrayal and render the method far more difficult to use in future. While she was losing some time, she had to reluctantly agree that the loss wasn't so great that she'd wouldn't be able to finish building a flood barrier before the thaw set in if she started building tomorrow. Or the next day. Or even the day after that…

No, no, don't fall into the trap! There was work to be done! She could rest later, if she felt like it!

Rian took her silence as an opportunity to change the subject. "So, we surveyed the area yesterday, and everyone thinks a flood barrier is doable, though the clay pit is unfortunately going to be flooded. However, Gunvi says that that shouldn't be much of a problem once we drain the water. Though next year we should probably be more prepared so our claypit doesn't flood." Rian took his plank and set it down on the table between them.

Lori turned to look. There was a not-all-that-crude drawing of the part of the riverbank in front of the dungeon. The dock and the water hub shed was easily recognizable, and using that as reference she was able to identify the claypit. The kiln and small hut where the potter worked and held the pieces as they dried before firing weren't depicted, but those didn't matter. Lori swiftly identified the other buildings on the plank. "What are these lines?" she said, pointing to some lines with numbers next to them.

"Measurements. That's not to scale, but it was what I could prepare to show you. This line here…" Rian pointed at a line that seemed to parallel the river, "is the length of where we think we should build the flood barrier. It can be part of the cliff wall that faces the river, but if we need to make it shorter because of materials, we can make it part of the outside of the Dungeon's defensive face here." He tapped what she recognized to be the thick stone protective layer to one side of the passageway into the dungeon. "Two straight walls here and here—" he moved his finger from the first line and pointed to another line that ran between the laundry area and the remaining shelter, "—should be sufficient to protect the front of the Dungeon from flooding."

On the map, two lines met at a right angle where Rian had been gesturing. The shorter line went from next to the shelter, where it was implied to fuse with the rising ground behind the structure, and straight towards the river. The other line more or less paralleled the river, starting from the hill inside which her Dungeon was located and moving to intersect with the shorter line. It was a simple shape, and one Lori had considered herself, before she had momentarily set it aside to think of raising a barrier into her Dungeon first to give her time to think, which had led to her getting frustrated…

She shook her head. "There's still the area near the tannery, where the children go seeling," Lori said mildly. Mikon had finished her turn, so Lori reached for another bowl filled with stones.

"Is there? Well, one thing at a time. This is closer and on assessment, there's actually something we can do for you that you'd otherwise have trouble with."

"Oh?" To say that one syllable was laden with skepticism was to call Rian's Rian-ness mere idiosyncrasies.

"We can dig," Rian said. "The soil's been packed by foot traffic and you occasionally roll flowing stone over it, but it's still good soil. Granted, it's cold and a little frozen right now, but nothing a little fire can't fix… hopefully." He shrugged. "We can use the soil to make more tuber planters."

"I could just warm the ground, if it's been frozen."

"After you rest, please. You said you'd rest."

Lori rolled her eyes as Mikon began her turn. Where were Riz and Umu? Wasn't the food ready yet?

"Even if we don't manage to dig out the soil, we can mark out where the flood barrier will be for you so you can put them up later. Though I have reason to think that the regular flooding isn't as high as all that."

Lori straightened. "Oh? How do you know this?"

"The cliff face," Rian said. "Especially the part closest to the river. The discoloration as well as the shape of the stone because of erosion gives us some indicator of what the highest point the river can reach is. The highest point that regularly gets flooded isn't that high. It's below the snow line right now."

"Given how high the snow is, that is not as encouraging as you might think," Lori said flatly.

"I know. But after we found it and took some measurements, we're fairly certain that even if it floods, it should only come up to about the door of the shelter and the Um… Which I realize isn't exactly good, but at least means it won't hit the lowest of the houses, so that's fewer people who have to take shelter in your Dungeon when it happens. Isn't that good news?"

All right, it was a little…

"Even if you identified the correct discoloration, it's best not to rely on that," Lori said dismissively as she began her turn. There were fewer bowls full of stones now…

"Oh, agreed. Still, it's a good, hopeful sign. With any luck, all either building will need is a knee-high wall to keep water out. "

"You realize a knee-high wall for those buildings is a chest-high wall for the Dungeon's own entrance, right?"

Rian sighed. "I'm aware, but as your lord in charge of dealing with people, I have to see the bright side so I can tell people about it and keep their morale up. Have you considered just closing that door and making a new entrance that's higher up that flooding can't reach? Even if it's just temporarily for the thaw?"

"I'd have to make a new defensive passageway to protect against dragonborn abominations all over again."

"I… was going to argue that you don't need to build one, but we can't really tell when a dragon will pass over us, can we?" Rian sighed. "And given the time frames we've had between you warning of dragons and dragons arriving…" He didn't complete the thought as he started muttering to himself, then shook her head. "Well, not something I can do anything about except suggest it to you, so I'll stick with getting some work done on the flood barrier."

It sounded needless to Lori. What did it matter if they dug up the soil? "It sounds needless to me. Why does it matter if you dig up the soil?" She finished her turn and leaned back.

"If we leave the soil in place and just pile rocks on top of it—or in your case move and solidify stone on top—then it becomes a weak point that can be eroded by moving floodwater," Rian said. "That will leave a void under the flood barrier, making it vulnerable to collapsing and breaking."

"Colors," Lori muttered with snarl, closing her eyes. Argh, how had she forgotten about that? Now that Rian said it, how had she not remembered that flowing water would have a destructive effect? It was basically the same principle as her water cutter binding at a lower hydraulic pressure.

"Technically we can mitigate it by just packing down the soil very tightly, but it's not guaranteed to stay in place, and with it frozen the way it is now, it's as hard to pack down as it is to dig up because there's ice mixed in among the dirt. If both are going to be equally hard to do, best to dig it up and use the soil somewhere else."

"I'll warm the soil," Lori said.

"You're supposed to be resting. No working!"

"It's magic, not working. I don't even have to actually move."

"Thinking really hard and bending reality to change to your will isn't resting, it's work! It's like trying to do accounting. Just because you don't move doesn't mean you're not making yourself tired. Just rest. I told you, we can just light some fires or something."

Lori winced at the comparison, remembering her tired her mother always looked after she came home from a day working at the Banking Authority. "Then I'll rest tomorrow to make up for it."

"Lori, I know this kind of bargaining when I see it." What bargaining? "First you'll ask to warm the ground, then it'll be setting up bindings to keep everyone warm because why not you're already there, and before mid-morning you've managed to get yourself in the middle of doing some kind of work that no one else can do and your day of rest has been stabbed in the chest, bled to death, skinned, gutted, butchered for parts and its tail meat is being roasted to be eaten by some hard-working Dungeon Binder who likes tail meat."

Lori stared at him. Even Mikon turned to look at him, a strange expression on her face.

"All right, I admit that last sentence got away from me, but you know what I mean!"

Disturbingly, she did. "Disturbingly, I do."

"So, you can understand why I can't let you do that," Rian said. "Look, back in the old days when you were employed at workshops and such, was there anyone who ever demanded you work longer than what you were scheduled for because 'the work isn't finished', but they didn't pay you anything more for going over time? Threatened not to pay you at all if you left when it was agreed you could leave?"

Lori's teeth clench at remembered anger and rage and barely restrained urges for violence. "Yes," she said.

"If you had your own business, would you be that kind of employer?"

The young student who had been pushed beyond what she had agreed to and not compensated felt offended at the suggestion. The part of her who wanted to be the exploiter nodded enthusiastically. "Of course not,” Lori lied.

"Then why are you insisting on having a worker who is obviously overworked, insufficiently compensated, and in need of time off to rest keep on working?" Rian said, pointing at her.

Lori stared at her lord.

…

Ugh, she hated it when he had a point.

Before she could respond however, someone placed a plate of bread on the table, filling Lori's nose with the wonderful scent and drawing her attention entirely. Bowls of soup followed. Wasn't the amount of meat in them supposed to be reduced? They looked like they still had the same amount… or did it just seem that way because of the sliced tubers?

Wordlessly, Lori took a bowl of soup and one of the flat circles of bread and began to eat as Rian thanked Riz and Umu for bringing the food.

There was no honey, but the bread was warm and soft and delicious…