The man at the desk of the job-placement office read over my bill before nodding. "All right. Where should I send applicants?" he asked, taking out a book.

I blinked, suddenly feeling stupid. "Oh… ah, we've just arrived, we don't… uh, can I come back later?"

The man nodded, sliding the bill back towards me. It seemed this wasn't an irregular occurrence. "Come back once you find out the address of the inn you're staying at. Be sure to have someone there to receive applicants." Yes, this definitely happened a lot.

"I will," I said, taking the bill and adding it to the leather folder so I didn't lose it. I took out the bead I was going to use to pay for posting the bill. "Thank you for the help."

He seemed pleasantly surprised as he accepted the little bead. Sure, it wasn't a lot, but it was a bead and he could probably use it for something. I had to wonder what the prices were in the general stores and such like. We should probably stop at one later to check it out. It would be a good way for us to be more familiar with the local prices.

I considered what to do. It was clear that for the next five days we needed some kind of base, somewhere to work from. An inn was the simple solution, but if we were going to be spending beads anyway… well, it was only five more days. We could afford paying the docking fee for that long, and it meant we wouldn't have to go out so far at night or in the morning. And while the story of someone stealing a boat was concerning, security had… probably been improved. Maybe.

…

I could, alternately, get a room at an inn for myself and tell the others to stay on the ship, but that was unfair. I didn't want to be that kind of leader, even if most people expected lords to be like that.

Sighing, I almost decided to call it an early day, but then a thought struck me.

Well, it couldn't hurt to give it a try.

We weren't that far away from Emborin and Sons, so after a little walking and navigating and buying Cyuw some slug skewers, with some beast skewers for myself and Multaw, I found myself back at Master Yhosed's carpentry workshop. The bound tool was uncovered and wood was being cut on its saw. The person moving the wood through was clearly trying to keep from falling into the temptation of moving with unseemly haste and just barely succeeding.

I spotted Master Yhosed at the back talking to another man and waited until they were parting before I called out, "Master Yhosed!"

Fortunately he heard me, and I saw his expression change a little as he realized who it was calling him. Instead of walking towards me, however, he got the attention of the man he'd been talking to, said a few words, and the two of them both walked over to me.

"Master Rian," he said, sounding pleased. "Good to see you again. Just the man I was hoping to see."

"Master Yhosed," I said. "I see you're getting good use out of your bound tool."

"I am," he said, smiling. "I'm hoping to get more use out of it this week. Vov here was just telling me he'd like to get as much use out of his bound tool."

"It's nice to meet you, Master Vov," I said, exchanging grips with the man. The man was leaner than Yhosed, his build more wiry, but he had the same strong, working man's grip. "You have a… saw and planer, I believe?"

"Yes. Yhosed here tells me you're the one I have to talk to about that," he said.

"Well, I do have a couple on me," I said. "If you're willing, I can offer you some at the same price as what I offered Master Yhosed yesterday?"

"I was hoping I could get some more as well," Yhosed said.

"Ah." I leaned towards them a little, which they reciprocated. "Don't spread it around, but you should be able to buy them from Emborin and Sons in a few days." I winked. "However, until then… as I said, I do have a pair I could offer you. Perhaps somewhere private?"

I had Multaw and Cyuw wait downstairs, handing Cyuw the folder, then Yhosed led me upstairs while Vov went off, presumably to get his own beads. Two wispbeads came out of my pouch, and Yhosed gave me another small mid-large bead for them.

"Thank you," he said, making the wispbeads disappear into his own belt pouch. "Now, what can I do for you, Master Rian?"

"It's a bit complicated, but to put it simply I'm looking for a Deadspeaker to recruit for our demesne," I explained. "However, they need to be someone with experience in woodworking. I was wondering if you could recommend any Deadspeakers might have the skills but are looking to live in a smaller demesne? Perhaps someone you wished you could hire if you had more beads?"

Yhosed crossed his arms, tapping the fingers of one hand on the opposite forearm thoughtfully. "Hmm… well, I know a few people, but I'm not sure they'll be willing to leave…" He lapsed into silence for a moment, then nodded. "Come back in two days, and maybe I'll have something for you then."

I nodded. "I'll bring more beads."

––––––––––––––––––

Master Vov was quite glad to pay ten bead-tani for two wispbeads as well, and I was able to ask him if he knew any Deadspeakers with a familiarity with woodworking who might be willing to move to another demesne. I briefly considered going back to all the other workshops I'd visited yesterday, then dismissed that idea. It would take too long to check up on them in a timely manner.

I decided we'd stop early, and the three of us headed for the docks. My feet were aching again, and I wanted to get back to the ship. Along the way, we picked up a paper bag of dumplings, and a leaf-lined paper bag of more meat skewers for the others. I insisted on being the one to carry the food, otherwise if there was trouble the two wouldn't be able to react as needed. The regret came quickly, as not only did I have to carry so much hot food in my arms, I had to smell it the whole way and it was delicious.

The things I do to be a good leader.

Fortunately, we didn't run into trouble on the way to the docks, which was always nice.

"Hello Yhoe," I greeted when we got to the dockmaster's office. "Multaw, could you take the food off my hands for a bit? I need to talk to the dockmaster for a moment. Yhoe, how much for us to dock here for the next five days?"

It turned out that after the ship that was stolen was… well, stolen, they'd been able to hire more guards to patrol the docks and warehouses at night. I got the sense it was mostly the latter that was being protected, since it contained large amounts of goods to be brought back to the old continent that had not yet been paid for. I wasn't able to get the dockmaster to lower the price for docking that many days, but an offer of a bag of dumplings for him and all the guards who would be there that night secured us some consideration so that they'd keep an eye on us. Free food was free food, after all.

I sent Cyuw off to buy another bag of dumplings for the dockworkers as I signaled the Coldhold and had them dock. Once the ship was secured again, I could finally sit down, which I did with a happy groan. Everyone had already opened up the bags and were happily eating. I accepted a dumpling and two skewers and joined them with tired enthusiasm.

It occurred to me that I might have been a little bit too free with Lori's beads. Uh… I can probably justify it as necessary expenses for expediting things?

…

Ugh, I'm going to have to spend the rest of the afternoon writing down expenses so far. That's the responsible thing to do.

After everyone had eaten and were pleasantly full, I sighed and summoned the energy to try to be responsible again. "All right everyone, we need to talk," I said. Everyone was already sitting, so I just had to wait a little bit until everyone was paying attention to me. " First, Multaw, Cyuw, I still need to go out tonight… as soon as my feet don't ache anymore. So don't get too comfortable, all right?"

The two men sighed a little, but nodded.

"Secondly, we're sleeping docked here for the rest of our stay, now that we can afford to," I told them all. "So we don't have to worry about navigating in the dark." Liggs let out a sigh of relief. "That doesn't mean we shouldn't keep watch. Ravia told me that someone set fire to one of the warehouses—" I waved at the large buildings on the shore,"—and used that as a distraction to steal a ship. I don't want that to happen to us. Do you?"

There were mutters that averaged out to a consensus in the negative.

"Right! Now, tomorrow morning, I want you all to take the boat out of here and gather more salt, because it never hurts to have more things to sell. It will help pay for our food that's not the supplies we brought along—" there were fervent nods at this, "—and give you all something to do while keeping the ship safe. And we'll need drinking water for the trip back anyway."

"Multaw, Cyuw, we're going out tonight to the bars and taverns and see if we can recruit there or find people we can recruit. So nap for the rest of the afternoon, as short as that is, then we're going out again. Have you all decided on who's going to take Multaw and Cyuw's place accompanying me tomorrow?"

"I'm going with you, L—Rian, and so is Liggs," Hans said.

"Then the two of you get as much sleep as you can," I said. "We're going back to the merchant's tomorrow, and we still have to visit the lawyer who's working for the Golden Sweetwood Company to find out if there's been a reply already." We really should have gotten to that today, but… the lawyer was deeper into the demesne, closer to the Dungeon, and that was a long walk.

Ugh, I'd need to find that authorization letter from Yllian. The lawyer and I had already met, but it would still require the authorization letter to have him talk to me.

Sometimes I wished I'd refused to become Lori's lord. So much work to do, so many matters to attend to… but then, it wasn't like I would have been good for anything else but carrying things and doing what someone else told me to do. If I was going to just be doing what someone else told me to do, with no expectation of skill on my part, then it might as well be where I could do the most good.

I glanced out over the water. It was late afternoon, but there was still maybe an hour or so left before nightfall. "I'm going down to get some sleep," I announced. "Could one of you wake me up when the boats all start coming in? I need to take a quick rest. You should too Multaw, Cyuw."

"Go ahead, Rian," Yhorj said. "We'll take care of things up here."

"Thanks," I said. "When they start coming in, all right?"

I headed downstairs, carefully climbing down—my feet protesting being used again after their short rest but resigned to their fate—to the hold, heading to the common area. Flipping down one of the beds along the wall, I took off my boots and socks—groaning in relief as I did so—and laid down, my feat doing over the edge of the bed to keep pressure off them. Adjusting my belt pouch so I didn't have to remove it, I lay back on the hard wooden surface and closed my eyes.

Just a short rest. I was just going to have a short rest, and then it was back to work…

The darkness of my soul behind my eyes claimed me, and I…