Half the morning was spent packing the Coldhold with meat from the cold rooms, frozen solid and hard as rock. People had to handle the food carefully so the cold meat wouldn't stick to anyone's skin. Lori filled one of the cargo boxes in the Coldhold with blocks of solidified water, carefully giving the blocks just enough imbuement to last until lunch, at which point they'd start being extremely cold. She had filled the small cold storage in River's Fork with ice before she'd left, but here was no harm in having more, and by this point it would no doubt have room for it.

And then the boat was moving away from the dock and sailing downriver, to be gone for another three days. Some people lingered at the docks, and a few of the children ran along the river bank to parallel the boat for as long as they could. Lori didn't bother watching it go as she headed to her room to sketch with her stylus and bone tablet. Before he'd left, Rian had relayed to her that the second prototype would be ready to fill with white Iridescence after lunch and would likely be finished by the end of the day, so Lori had time on her hands. Rather than going straight to the edge of the demesne and making beads, she decided to take the time to properly design the mass production aid she'd been conceiving. She'd already learned that she could continue to imbue the binding that was amalgamating into a bead as long as the flow of magic wasn't interrupted. With that in mind, the sort of tool she needed for mass production was obvious.

She needed a tray and a grid.

No, wait. First, she needed a test prototype as a proof of concept before she had a larger tool made, so that she could fine-tune the concept on the small scale.

Her stylus traced along the softened surface of the bone tablet, trying to draw and solidify the concept in her mind. A tray covered by a grid, and within each grid, a layer of metal at the bottom to channel magic. Inside each grid, a concave slope that would allow a growing bead to remain centered and resting on the metal contact point as it grew, until it reached a certain size and the bead's own growth would cause it to rest on the raised walls of the grid and lift it up off the metal contact, causing it to stop growing.

It was a simple, elegant concept. That meant that there was no doubt implementation would a glittering rainbow. Hence why she needed to start with a prototype, to test out several different iterations of the concave slope and see which ones worked and, if there were any, which ones would be easiest to make. She could just simply take a bead of the size she wanted to replicate, and press it into softened stone or bone to make concave the wanted, and if needed she was resigned to having to do that for the mass production tray, but she'd rather not if the craftsmen of her demesne could make something that sufficed.

Lori went out to the bone pit to get bone for raw material, checking on the progress of the second prototype on the way. The cup that would be filled with the finely ground white Iridescence was still being worked on. From the looks of it, they were shaping the top of the cup so that a copper cover—which also seemed to be in the middle of being made—could be slid over the cup containing the white iridescence before it's presumably hammered tight. She'd have to come back to it later.

The bone pit was bigger these days, and actually consisted of two pits now. One was a bug-ridden pit where fresh bones were picked at for the minute bits of meat that the cooks hadn't been able to extract. Another pit was full of bones that had been picked clean and drying in the sun when they weren't being washed by the rain. When she got there, one of the men she vaguely recognized as one of the demesne's carpenters was collecting bones, no doubt to boil into glue.

He looked at her warily as she approached the pit, bowing cautiously. She nodded in acknowledgement, but crouched down and began picking out bones for herself. Lori picked out the ones that had been opened for marrow, checking that there weren't any concentrations of waterwisps that might signify remaining meat or marrow still attached to the bone. She didn't want any unfortunate surprises after all. Claiming the earthwisps in the bones she'd chosen, she fused them together into a mass to make them easier to carry back.

Once she had a large enough mass, she took the bone over to docks and claimed waterwisps from the river. She doused the bones with water, altering the viscosity of the waterwisps so that instead of washing away, the bones were slowly encased in a thick blob of water. When she had enough water, she made a little ice inside the blob to squeeze out some firewisps, and claimed those firewisps, adding them to the binding.

Then she made the water boil.

It was a quick boil to get rid of any dustlife or anything else disgusting on the bones, lest she get anything on her hands. She was bringing this to her room, after all. Once it was sufficiently boiled, she drew away the waterwisps and water to dry the bones, which she carried back to her room, making a detour to get an ingot of copper from the treasure room.

Lori spent the rest of the morning making a series of mold prototypes, with the bone as building material. First she flattened out the bone as if she was making tablets, and then used her belt knife to cut the flattened bone into strips. The strips she then layered together to make thicker panels that she then used to make a little tray with… well, it was only a single row of little square compartments, so it wasn't exactly a grid. She used what tools she had—her belt knife, the various teeth and claws she'd collected, beads of the sizes she wanted to replicate—to make the various indentations, and put the ingot on the bottom to act as a contact point for magic to flow.

She was in the middle of making the last of the prototype mold shapes—a shallow ring that the growing bead could rise up on—when there was a gentle knock on her door. Lori blinked, wondering if it had been her imagination or some sound that had come up from downstairs that had nothing to do with her, when the knock came again. Sighing, she put down the little strip of bone she'd been shaping, got up and opened the door, wondering why Rian was being so quiet.

The fact that Rian was in River's Fork returned to her at about the same time she opened the door and saw a nervous Riz. The non-officer bowed. "I apologize for disturbing you, Great Binder , but Rian asked me to remind you when it was time to eat."

Ah. It did feel like midday, she supposed. "I'll be right down," Lori said.

"Uh, the smiths also asked me to tell you that the thing you asked them to make is almost finished, and they just needed you to give them what's supposed to go in it so they can seal it shut."

"Tell them I'll meet with them after lunch. Is that all?"

Riz nodded.

"Then I'll be down once I put away my work."

Once she'd neatly put away everything she'd been using, especially the beads so they wouldn't roll off and get lost under her bed like beads tend to do, Lori went down for lunch.

When Shanalorre approached the table, Lori pointed at the spot opposite her where Rian usually sat. There was plenty of room since Mikon and Umu were getting up to get the food. The other Dungeon Binder sat there, her cousin sitting next to her.

"What did you wish to talk about?" Lori said as the dining hall's familiar murmuring rang around them as they waited for the food to arrive.

"I was wondering if it would be possible for some of the children could go to River's Fork to visit their parents," Shanalorre said.

Lori frowned. "Are they failing to properly adjust to living in this demesne?"

"They are adjusting. However, I believe it would be beneficial for them to meet with their parents again. I am often asked when they will be 'going back home' every other day. Allowing them a visit will help curb this, and seeing that the children are safe might prompt the parents who have still not sent their children here for their safety and well-being to do so. And at the very least, the parents would appreciate being able to see for themselves that their children are doing well. It will also empirically disprove those who are claiming that the children are being held hostage or are otherwise not being cared for properly, further lowering their credibility."

That last did sound nice. "We'll see what Rian thinks. This sounds like a 'dealing with people' matter."

Shanalorre nodded. "Thank you, Great Binder."

"If this idea is implemented, you will be in charge of arranging and organizing it, as this falls under your purvey."

'"I… understand, Great Binder."

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Lunch was unremarkable. Without Rian about, Lori was able to focus on eating.

His absence was more pronounced across the table. Without Rian, there was none of the usual physical flirting of Umu and—usually—Riz pressing against his side, and Mikon doing the same with Riz. The serenity from this morning had faded from the non-officer's face, and Umu was no longer red-faced, but the two of them now kept glancing sideways at each other and Mikon when they thought the others weren't looking. Only Mikon seemed unperturbed, still smiling widely. She was often smiling, really.

For the first time, Lori wondered how much of that was fake.

Well, she didn't care, so not her problem.

After lunch, she went up to her room to get the bowl of ground white Iridescence and the wooden spoon for scooping up the samples. It was a very rough grind, not unlike the salt they'd had stored that… was probably slowly running out, they need to send the Coldhold to the ocean soon, wouldn't they?

One thing at a time.

The square copper container that was the second prototype was about four yustri long and wide, and half a yustri thick. The gold wire that would connect to the bead hadn't been attached yet, but one edge had excess metal that was no doubt meant to secure the wire. Out of a paranoid but not unreasonable fear that a sudden movement would send the little prototype flying, spilling the white iridescence everywhere, Lori made an impromptu clamp with some stone she pulled from the walls to secure the thing to the smithy's workbench. The smiths had clamps, but none were small enough for the prototype, at least not without ruining it.

The smiths actually nodded in amused approval when they saw her do that, which meant they'd no doubt been thinking of how to secure it themselves.

With the second prototype-in-progress secured, Lori carefully began spooning the white Iridescence into the little container. She used the spoon to spread it out evenly, and even pressed the samples down flat with another stone she pulled from the walls and shaped to conform to the container. She didn't press it down too hard, merely tamping down the white Iridescence as much as she could.

Once the container neared full, the smiths started sliding in the little copper cover plate to test the fit. With every fitting, Lori put in a little bit more white Iridescence and pressed it down, until finally the cover plate was scraping along the samples. Once that was done, Lori carefully shook the container, trying to feel for any shifting into the contents.

Only when Lori was satisfied that the white Iridescence was packed too tight to move did she hand the prototype back to the smiths for final sealing. They would be sealing the cover plate tight, and then tightening all the seals and work hardening them for that final bit of security, as well as fastening the gold wire.

"When will it be ready?" Lori asked before they started getting to work.

The two exchanged glances. "Probably tomorrow, your Bindership," the older-looking one said. "We'll have to work slowly so that it doesn't rupture."

Lori nodded in understanding. "Take all the time you need to get it done properly," she said. "The day after or later will fine, if that what you need." A thought occurred to her. "If it's suited for my needs, I will require to you make more like it. Please think of changes that need to be made that will make producing this easier. Change anything you need to. All it needs to do it to be able to hold the white powder packed tightly enough that they will not be able to move as long as it's intact."

The two frowned, but it was the professional frown of craftsmen considering a problem. They both nodded. "Yes, your Bindership."

"I won't keep you, then. Inform Erzebed if you need my assistance for anything." She turned away, then paused. "Where are the two who made the first prototype?"

With an amused smile, one of the smiths pointed behind her.

Lori turned, following the indicating finger, to find two men standing some distance away. One looked a bit young, so he was probably the tinsmith. She turned back and nodded gratefully. "Thank you," she said, and walked towards the two indicated. The two straightened as she approached them, looking expectant. "The prototype you two produced has functioned with no problems, and done everything I have demanded of it. I do not doubt that it will continue to function through my further tests and experiments. While it is possible that it will not meet my future needs, it will be because I did not know what I needed, not because your work was insufficient."

Giving the two one last nod, Lori turned and headed back to her room to continue her own prototyping.