"Huh," Rian said. "Look at that." He sounded merely like he'd seen something he'd been expecting rather than impressed or excited. Which, given he'd done the initial white Iridescence experiments with her, was fair.

"You're not surprised," Lori said as she finished noting the results of the test.

"Honestly, my most immediate thought is 'ah, of course bound tools that create heat are safe, white Iridescence doesn't react to heat'," he said, pulling back the tongs. The binding of lightwisps stopped glowing. He moved the tongs again. The air directly above the white Iridescence glowed.

"Stop that," Lori said, and Rian pulled back the tongs. He paused, then looked down at them with a frown.

"We forgot to record the size of the bead at the start of the experiment," he said, sounding annoyed. "We should have done a before and after measurement."

Ah. "We'll do that next time," Lori agreed. She had some calipers in her box that could measure the beads.

Rian nodded. "So, does this mean you'll be making bound tools now?"

Lori waved a hand, not so much dismissive as negligent. "We still need glass. Without glass, we can make nothing but laboratory demonstration projects."

"I don't see how. Beads, metal, white Iridescence, bindings you make…" He pointed at the container with the white Iridescence in it. "Make a few of these and we'll have lamps for people to carry around."

"And how will we keep the white Iridescence dry without glass?" Lori said. "And for that matter…"

She reached down to pick up the container, and shook it back and forth like she was trying to sift the samples before putting it down again. "Touch the tongs to the tweezers again."

Rian glanced at her and shrugged, then did as ordered.

There was… some glow, but it was a small, weak glow compared to what had come before, and wavered slightly like a candle flame in high wind about to go out.

"Ah," Rian said. "Yes, that looks problematic and inconvenient. What happened?"

"Bindings need to be anchored for a reason. Wisps interact with each other, and similar to how water can dislodge water, waterwisps can dislodge waterwisps."

Rian tilted his head. "All right, that makes sense. If waterwisps can push on water, then of course the other way is possible too, otherwise the waterjet wouldn't work because there'd be no transfer of force between the water and the tubes with the bindings on them. And… huh. Darkwisps. All right, I think I understand…"

It was always convenient how intelligent Rian was. She seldom had to explain things more than once, and never had to try to explain using awkward metaphors involving throwing rocks or sticks or strings. "The lightwisps were anchored to the white Iridescence. When I shook the container, the wisps all moved with the sample they were anchored to, which did not stay in the same positions relative to each other. This resulted in the binding dissolving." She paused, then added. "The latter is not usual. Normally, a binding will retain its arrangement no matter what other wisps encounter it, especially when anchored so that it maintains its relative position."

Rian titled his head. "Perhaps it's because the binding wasn't imbued when you shook the white? After all, being imbued is what normally keeps a binding from falling apart. Here, give me that tablet and we can try again."

It turned out to not be as simple as that. Making a binding of lightwisps, anchoring it to the white Iridescence, imbuing it to theoretically have the binding maintain its shape, and then shaking the container led to a strange result. They actually did the experiment twice, first with the binding imbued and active so that it shone with light, then another experiment when the binding was imbued and anchored, but deactivated so that it didn't glow.

To Lori's senses, the imbuement was clearly acting to hold the binding together even as the white Iridescence that the wisps were anchored to was randomly displaced. Even so, there was a limit, and just as if she'd anchored a binding to something solid and then broke that solid in half right were the binding was, a sufficient extreme change from the initial starting position broke the binding. The latter, at least, was within what she knew, even if the nature of the position change was unusual.

It proved to Rian, however, that the lamps he'd envisioned wasn't as simple as he thought.

"I guess the glass is necessary after all," he sighed as he finished writing down the day's notes. "It probably holds the white Iridescence and wisps in place so that… well, that doesn't happen. Are you sure there's nothing we can use as a substitute? Something that can hold the white Iridescence in place so that the binding doesn't get moved around?"

"Rian, this is a rudimentary bound tool," Lori said flatly. "Barely better than a classroom demonstration of metal causing seepage in beads. In fact, save for the white Iridescence, it's exactly that. It will require experimentation and iteration on my part to create even a simple bound tool to make light that won't be ruined by being left out in the rain or shaken. Experimentation I've only barely begun."

"What sort of experimentation will you need to do? Besides figuring out how to make glass, that is."

It was a question Lori had been considering, but hadn't really made solid plans about. Faced with Rian's direct question, however, she drew together her half-formed notions to come up with an answer. "Besides the glass," Lori said slowly, "I will need to find the ideal sort of binding for the bound tools and the ideal configuration of the bound tools."

"Ideal configuration? Shouldn't it just be kept simple? Beads go on end, light or whatever comes out the other end. Using only a bound tool that makes light as an example, keeping it as simple as this—" Rian gestured to the container with the tweezers, "—at least, in essence, makes it idiot-proof for the users and simple to build for… well, you."

"That might work for simple bound tools such as lamps, but a bound tool for a water jet driver or an evaporator for salt extraction will not be able to function on such simple principles." Normally, this would be the point that she'd stop explaining. Rian wasn't a wizard, after all. He wouldn't understand, and his thinking of magic would be formed from silly stories…

Except he was looking thoughtful. "Ah, I think I see. In the waterjets, the binding itself is in the water, and for the evaporator the salt water passes through the binding to change state." He was nodding. "Yes, that's a level of sophistication above 'light up on contact with beads'. Possibly two, or even three. You'd know better than I do. Off the top of my head, you'd need to at least keep the white Iridescence isolated from water while still having anchored waterwisps that can affect the water coming in…" He was nodding to himself now, his fingers tapping in a seemingly random pattern on his forearm. "Yeah, bound tools would be the best way for you to reduce the number of things you need to keep track of."

Lori was… impressed, despite herself. Had she ever related the technical details of how the water jets worked to Rian? "Essentially," she said. "I have some thoughts on how it might be possible, but I'll still need a means of isolating the white Iridescence, which will require glass."

Rian was still nodding. "Yes, yes… you know, we should probably leave some white Iridescence outside of the demesne to see what happens," he said thoughtfully. "At the very least, it might give us more information about exactly why they might use glass in making bound tools… unless bound tools meant to be used only inside a demesne differ from bound tools that can be used outside of a demesne's borders…" He straightened up suddenly. "Wait. Can you actually use a bound tool outside of a demesne?"

That… Lori had never considered that before. Could bound tools actually be used outside of a demesne, where Iridescence was a factor? All the bound tools she was familiar with were those used inside of a workshop of some kind. But… there was some inter-demesne trade, mostly along waterways, as well as travelers. She herself had ridden one as part of leaving Taniar Demesne, heading towards the ports where she'd eventually gotten on a larger boat to this new continent. The boats that travelled the waterways were probably powered by bound tools, since she didn't remember the boat she had taken passage in possessing smoke-spewing chimneys that indicated they were propelled by a steam driver.

Rian snapped his fingers. "I know. We can ask Riz, or maybe Kolinh, if the militia had bound tools that they used outside of a demesne. They'd know, wouldn't they?"

Lori supposed they would. "I suppose they would," she mused. "Very well, find out. Hopefully you will learn something definitive."

"In the meantime, why not practice making bound tools that will only be used inside the demesne?" Rian suggested. He wasn't even trying to look innocent.

"I'll still need glass," Lori said. "That's what bound tools use."

"Yes, well, we don't have glassworkers. We do, however, have smiths. Why not see if metal—like, say the copper we have a lot of—can be used to substitute?"

She gave him a flat look. "You realize that metal is opaque, and will not allow light to pass through, and therefore are useless for making any sort of lamp bound tool?"

"Yes, I recall that," he said. "No, I was thinking… off the top of my head, the reason to use glass is to either keep Iridescence out, or to keep whisperers from altering the binding anchored to the white iridescence after it had been… bound?" Lori nodded, confirming he was using the word correctly. "If it's the latter, well… you're the only Whisperer we have…you know, unless Shanalorre has somehow managed to learn Whispering simply from living in the same demesne as you, and since you haven't spontaneously learned Deadspeaking healing, that's unlikely. So you can afford to at least try it out."

Lori hummed thoughtfully. "I'll consider it," she finally said. "Though I still don't see what kind of bound tool could be made from that."

"A heater," Rian said. "Firewisps, anchored to white iridescence, held in place with metal… we can use it to heat the bath water so you don't have to imbue it anymore. It would also be helpful in keeping everyone warm. That way, we can divert people away from having to gather and prepare firewood. If we make it hot enough, we can use it for cooking too, and as a general purpose evaporator heat source."

She blinked at that, her head tilting sideways thoughtfully. Yes, a binding of purely firewisps would work for that. The intensity of heat wouldn't change—well, unless she changed it, because as Rian said, she was the only Whisperer in the demesne—but it could be deactivated, and if would run on beads without her oversight…

Wait. Firewisps.

While firewisps could create heat, they could also destroy it. And while she'd stop being able to perceive and claim firewisps when they became colder than her body temperature… they would still be there. Firewisps, bound to destroy heat, and keep destroying heat, as long as they had a bead to power them…

She could stop manually making solidified air and solidified water to cool their cold rooms.

…

She could stop manually making solidified air and solidified water to cool their cold rooms!

Not only that, the bound tool could be taken to River's Fork for their cold room as well, removing one more reason she might possibly need to leave her demesne to go there!

And… if she could create bound tools for ventilation… if she could create a bound tool that could make a shroud of darkwisps to help blunt the effects of the passage of dragons… then she might never have to set foot there ever again!

…

Well, no, she would probably still have to go there to build new things and install further bound tools, but still! Her need to go there would be GREATLY minimized!

…and… well… the shroud of darkwisps was unlikely to be effective, or else she'd have heard of them being used to protect towns and such… but maybe that was because it was just more efficient for the Dungeon Binder to cover the entire demesne with darkwisps? The experienced ones probably knew better than her how best to go about it…

…

No, no, she wasn't letting cold, terrible, sensible reality ruin this for her!

"All right, we'll try your idea," Lori said. "Find out if the smiths have the time and the right equipment to melt some copper for us."

Rian grinned widely.