With her third—or was it fourth?—so-called community meeting, Lori was resigned to the fact that she would have to attend. Unfortunately, she just couldn't see how she could reasonably get out of it. If she just left and told Rian to handle any decision-making that came up in the course of the meeting, he would no doubt indulge his strange fetish and put it to a vote. So, despite the fact that Rian already knew what he was supposed to inform people of, she still had to be there.

Her presence felt like a waste of the time she'd spent talking to Rian, listening to him telling her of what people apparently considered vital issues and making her decisions about them. They'd spent some time looking over her map, made by ex-militia scouts so many months ago, still marked by the locations of dragon scales even though they'd collected most of them already. Well, the ones on this side of the river, anyway. They'd only gotten the ones closest to the demesne on the other side of the river, since there were more vital things to collect. Besides, it wasn't like the dragon scales were going anywhere.

With everyone informed that the community meeting would be happening far in advance, people had taken the opportunity to prepare. To that end, people had apparently been randomly accosting Umu, Mikon and Riz and trying to get them to convince Rian of one thing or another, or even Lori directly. While it was relatively normal for people to just walk up to Rian with issues or just childish complaints that they expected him to do something about, and it seemed like Riz had experienced something similar during her time as Lori's temporary-Rian, the two weavers were not prepared for it. Umu, especially, had become irritable as a result, and Lori had actually heard her yelling for someone to stop bothering her, though she hadn't seen the incident itself. The three had started walking together, and spending their time in Rian's house between meals to avoid people, or so he said.

Shanalorre's presence had not been intended. She had been just about to return to her demesne when two more women had gone into labor, causing her to extend her stay. That stay had happened to coincide with the planned community meeting. Lori had been considering postponing the meeting until after the other Dungeon Binder had gone, but none of the topics to be discussed were anything that actually had to be kept secret. What did it matter if Shanalorre knew how they planned to expand their agricultural fields?

Then Shanalorrre had approached her and asked if she could stay to observe the community meeting…

"I wish to see how such a meeting is conducted," the other Dungeon Binder had said. "I have been considering conducting something like it, and this is an opportunity for me to observe the format in action."

…

Well, nothing they would discuss really needed to be kept secret anyway.

After breakfast, the dining hall was reorganized for the meeting, with a table and bench being moved to one end of the dining hall opposite her Dungeon's entrance and everyone sitting on their benches to face that way. To her surprise, Shanalorre had moved to a different seat. However, instead of sitting at a table close to Lori, as she had expected, the younger Dungeon Binder had moved to a table to the side near one wall, where she seemed to be observing both Lori and the crowd.

"All right, is everyone ready?" Rian said, his voice pitched to carry, tone insufferably cheerful. "Has everyone gone to the latrines? If you decide to leave in the middle of the meeting to take care of that, we're not repeating everything for you."

There was a brief laugh. Several people did, in fact, stand and headed for the latrines.

"Well, while we wait for people to get back, I'd like to welcome Binder Shanalorre and her people, who have joined us in today's meeting. She has asked to observe how we do this, so everyone please help us show her. Also, on behalf of everyone in the demesne, but especially our newest members and their parents, I'd like to thank Binder Shanalorre for her assisting our doctors and medics, and all her help in keeping people healthy this year." Rian stood and bowed to Shanalorre. Surprisingly, other people did so as well, standing up and turning to bow in acknowledgement towards Shanalorre.

Why was she getting bows? Lori didn't get bows like that. Actually, when was the last time she'd actually gotten people bow down to her…?

The younger Dungeon Binder actually looked bewildered by the sudden shows of respect, but nodded to people in acknowledgement.

"Ah, but don't worry Binder Lori, we all still like you more. You're the best Dungeon Binder we've ever had, right everyone?" Still standing, Rian bowed again, this time towards Lori. His bow was clearly much deeper than the one he offered Shanalorre.

As Lori stared at him, seemingly everyone else in the dining hall rose as well, all bowing to varying degrees.

Finally, Lori managed to roll her eyes. "Rian, s-stop wasting time and conduct this meeting already."

"As you command, your Bindership," Rian said, straightening up with a smile and turning to face everyone else before sitting down. Everyone followed his example, sitting back down on their benches as well. "All right, looks like everyone is back from the latrines, let's start with something minor. I'm sure you've all seen our nice new flood barrier outside? Well, right now, we're looking for a volunteer or volunteers to stand on a flood watch. It's technically an easy job, just standing on the wall and keeping an eye on the river so we'll have some warning when it starts melting…"

Lori wished she had a chair. A proper chair, with a back. You just couldn't fall asleep properly while sitting upright on a bench…

"Now, over the past week or so, I've received a lot of petitions. However, I would like to open this discussion with one of my own. Yes, I'm shameless setting everyone's concerns aside to push forward something that I want done. I'm a lord, you all know we do things like that." For some reason, that garnered a laugh. "Ahem. Now, as to my petition… could everyone please stop bothering Umu, Mikon and Erzebed with petitions and issues? Especially in the baths? None of them work for Binder Lori or myself in any sort of capacity, and anyone harassing them are simply wasting their time. I officially did not hear a single word about any issue that was pressed on them and wasn't brought to my attention, so if your matter doesn't come up in this meeting, that's why. Umu and Mikon aren't even the main representative for the weavers, so please stop bothering them."

"If they're being bothered, they should just punch the annoyances in the face," Lori pointed out.

Rian turned and gave her a flat look. "You want two skilled craftswomen whose trade relies on the dexterity of their hand movements to punch people in the face?"

Ah, good point. "Ah, good point," Lori conceded. "Just kick them, then."

"I don't know how long it's been since you've last worn as skirt, but kicking with them on is far more difficult than if you're wearing trousers."

"And just what do you know about kicking someone while wearing a skirt, Rian?"

"Moving on!" Rian said loudly, to more laughter. "Speaking of the weavers, there was a petition from them to plant ropeweed in the Dungeon's farm on the third level to be harvested for fibers and to act as a seed crop for planting more ropeweed. They have also requested that ropeweed become one of our main crops to provide material for thread and fabric. They actually had the ropers' support on this, and everyone knows how rare that is." People laughed while Rian made a show of looking down at his sleeve. "Well, I'm sure no one will object to that last. It's very nice and warm. However, her Bindership has decided it will not be planted in the Dungeon farm for the time being."

There were murmurs at this, though they sounded more confused than angry.

"Her Bindership had concerns that we currently don't know how the plant will react to being planted in the sort of controlled conditions of the Dungeon," Rian said. "So far, it's most grown along the river bank, or close to it. The growing conditions for it are different enough from the growing conditions of vigas and most of the farm crops we have down there that growing it might be too difficult. So, for the moment, ropeweed will not be grown as a crop in the Dungeon."

"However, her Bindership will allow potted samples and one of the growing planters near the tubers for trying to grow the plant in the Dungeon, and she has also authorized cultivating the plant above ground. Once we have a better idea of what kind of conditions the plant needs to grow to best affect, then she has agreed including it in the dungeon as a permanent crop there."

A few hands rose, and Rian pointed. "Weaver Amokat."

Lori followed his gaze and blinked. A woman who looked like Mikon—light pink hair, same features—had stood up. Unless that was Mikon? Lori looked around, and found another woman who looked like Mikon sitting somewhere else with Umu and Erzebed while she sewed the hem of a pair of trousers.

The woman, who from context was a weaver named Amokat, said, "Where will it be planted then, Lord Rian?" She even sounded almost, but not quite, like Mikon!

"We'll get to that," Rian said. "Planting the ropeweed will be part of the overall expansion we will be conducting of the demesne's above-ground agricultural land in the coming year. We didn't have a lot of opportunity to really plan it earlier this year, since we were busy with trying to gather enough food to not starve, get roofs on houses, clearing enough trees for us to actually start building… all that stuff. However, this year we have all that sorted now, so we can plan how we're going to expand now."

The Mikon-faced woman looked unsure, but nodded and sat down.

"Now, before we get to that, we'd like to discuss a matter that will probably impact a lot of people first," Rian said. "As this winter has shown, despite our best efforts everyone's houses were not entirely prepared for winter, and specifically winter storms." There were mutters and nods about this. "Now, I'd just like to be clear, I'm not blaming anyone. We were all caught by surprise by the storm, and if it hadn't been for Binder Lori, we'd probably have had a much harder time digging ourselves out of our homes.

"However, over the coming year I'd like everyone to keep the aftermath of the storm in mind and share ideas for improvements that can be made to everyone's homes. We've already raised the chimneys, but if you have better ideas—I personally would be very grateful for any further ways I can keep my house warm—please tell me and everyone else you know. All I ask is that you keep in mind that our houses might have something unnatural happen to them next time a dragon passes by, so as much as possible it should be something that's easy to rebuild."

There was what seemed like a collective resigned sigh at the reminder, but people still nodded.

"But, uh, don't make those changes any time soon," Rian said, suddenly looking awkward. Theatrically awkward. He was making a big production of rubbing the back of his head and deliberately looking awkward. "There is a possibility that we might have to abandon some of the houses closer to the river, as well as the shelter, Um and the old bath houses."

This caused an outcry, which were probably from people who think they lived in the affected houses.

"I know, I know!" Rian said. "But depending on how high the flooding gets, it might be too dangerous for people to continue living there! We'll have to see what the case is when the river floods after winter. The flood barrier should protect us, but when the rain starts, that wall is going to keep water in and might start its own flood. And if that happens you know Binder Lori isn't going to lift a finger to help us until she's made sure the Dungeon isn't going to flood."

"I wouldn't," Lori nodded. "My Dungeon is more important."

"To be fair, getting water out of the Dungeon would be a lot harder than getting water out of any of our houses. Anyway, it's not certain, and I'm sure if it became necessary her Bindership will take action. I wouldn't presume to guess what that action is, but I'm sure she'll do something. She always has before, and she hasn't let us down yet. Well, except for that time she sat on a moving rock…"

"You tried to go hunting beasts while you were dead on your feet from lack of sleep," she retorted.

"I hadn't gotten enough sleep, so of course I had a bad idea. What's your excuse?"

"Moving on! What is the next topic, Rian? Come on, we don't have all day!" Really, why was he being distracted by pointless tangents? "Really, why are you being distracted by pointless tangents?"

"You started it," he muttered. "All right then. Next, I'm told that the vigas in the Dungeon farm is ready to be harvested…"