Demesne

"I feared this day would come," Lord Rian said, looking up at the red words on the ceiling. He was standing at the edge of the space the children were playing in, the watching children peering around him. "It was only a matter of time, I suppose, but I'd hoped we'd have longer to prepare. Now even that hope is gone, and there is no escape."

Lord Rian's face was sad like he wanted to cry, his shoulder slumped like he was carrying something heavy, his hands hanging down at his sides.

"Lord Rian, Binder Lori isn't here. You need not be so theatrical," Shana said.

"Shana…" for some reason, Lord Rian looked over his shoulder like he was doing something he wasn't supposed to and was afraid his inay would catch him, "if you think I'm doing all this just for Lori's benefit, then you are sadly mistaken. This is all for me. Can't a man just do something to feel witty?"

"You can, it doesn't mean that you are."

"I see the famous Dungeon Binder cutting wit is strong in you. Lori would be proud if she had actually intended to teach you any of it."

Karina frowned, trying to understand everything as she looked up at the words on the ceiling. "Should I be scared too, Lord Rian?" she said. If he was scared of the words…

"No, you're fine, Karina," Lord Rian said. "It's just us old people and Shana who have to be afraid. Speaking of old people, could you do me a favor and tell Kolinh, Tae and Lidz to meet me here?"

"Sure, Lord Rian!"

"While it is effective, I wonder why Binder Lori placed it there?" Shana said as she Karina turned to leave.

"Oh, that's simple. It's because it was where I'd see it from where I was lying down. You just happened to see it before I did because I had a towel over my face to block out the light." She heard Lord Rian sigh. "It's been days and she hasn't remembered to dim the lights so we can—"

The lights in the dining hall suddenly dimmed, and Karina instinctively slowed, glancing down to watch her step.

"Oh, NOW she remembers!"

"No, I think it is simply to draw attention to what she's written. Look, the words are far more visible now in the reduced light."

Karina went to get the people Lord Rian asked for. She found Wiz Tae downstairs, taking a nap in the alcove that she and her wife had claimed when the call had gone out that a dragon was coming. Tito Kolinh was near the dungeon's front door, where a bunch of people who were Ateh Riz's friends were sitting around, the rack next to them full of spears in case dragon babies tried to get inside the dungeon and eat them. Wiz Lidz was harder to find. He'd arrived with the children from River's Fork, but Karina had been busy helping Shana get all the children settled down, and she'd only seem him in passing when he and his sister had been stepping out of the boat they'd been on. She'd given him a big smile and welcomed him to Lorian Demesne, but she hadn't really spoken to him after that.

Still, Karina knew everyone in the demesne, so she just walked around until she spotted someone whose name she couldn't really bring to mind—

No, wait, she didn't need to do that. In the alcove next to where she'd found Wiz Tae was someone with pale red hair, who was sitting on the floor of the alcove with some kind of wooden thing on his lap, using a pen—she'd seen Shana use one, but Karina had never actually touched a pen herself because Shana wouldn't let her—to write on white cloths. No, that was paper, wasn't it? In one of the sleeping niches on the alcove's wall, someone was sleeping on a bedroll, their face turned towards the rock. All Karina could see was really bright red hair.

"Excuse me?" Karina said politely, trying to keep her voice down because someone was sleeping. "Hello?"

The one writing looked up, blinking in a way that looked sleepy. "Uh, yes? Do you need anything?"

"Are you Wiz Lidz?"

"Yes, that's me. Does Rian need something?"

Karina nodded. "Lord Rian told me to come and get you. He's in the dining hall and needs to talk to you and everyone."

He sighed, rubbing his eyes. "All right, give me a moment, I need to put my lapdesk away…"

"Do you need any help?" That wooden thing on his lap looked heavy.

"No, no, I've got it."

Karina stood there, feeling awkward as he put away the pen into a little tray on the wooden thing. He picked the wooden thing off his lap and gently put it down on the floor to one side. Standing up and wincing as he moved his legs, Wiz Lidz then picked up the wooden thing and put it in one of the sleeping niches. "All right, let's go…"

"Follow me," she said cheerfully, turning to lead the way up the stairs, glancing behind her to see if he was following. Karina frowned up at his face. Now that she was really looking at him, he looked tired. "Are you all right, Wiz Lidz? Do you want me to call Shana to heal you?"

"Thank you, but I can heal myself just fine, little girl," he said. "I'm just tired."

Ah, she hadn't introduced herself, had she? "My name is Karina! Nice to meet you, Wiz Lidz. If you're tired though, you should get some sleep."

"I probably should," he agreed. "After I go see what Rian needs."

Well, if he said so… he was a grown up, he should know what he was talking about.

When they got back to where Karina had left Lord Rian, the lights were bright again, though the words were still glowing like moonlight on the roof, and Lord Rian was sitting at a table a few down from where he'd been sleeping, putting distance between him and the children who were still playing. With him was everyone else that he'd had Karina call, as well as Shana, who still had Yoshka next to her. Yoshka was sitting on the end of the bench, trying to see the game, but wasn't yelling anymore.

"Ah, there you are Lidz—Lidz, did you get any sleep at all last night?" Lord Rian said. He turned towards her. "Thank you for getting everyone, Karina. You were a big help."

"You're welcome, Lord Rian!" she said, giving him a big smile that he returned. See Shana, what's how you're supposed to smile!

"I slept last night," Wiz Lidz protested.

"Lidz, I know what 'stayed up all night reading' looks like, and you're close enough. Don't try to lie about sleep deprivation to someone with no self-control when it comes to reading. When we're done here, you go straight on to sleep, all right? If there's an emergency, we'll need you at your best."

Wiz Lidz winced, but sighed and nodded as he sat down next to Wiz Tae, and the two wizards exchanged nods.

"All right, I'll make this quick, as this really isn't something that needs to be dragged out for too long," Lord Rian said. He pointed towards the moonlight-red words. "Lori's finally realized that she has other ways to talk to us when she's away. Fortunately, she still seems to be working on it, because she's only sent us a few words. To spare you from having to try to work out what she wrote, I took the liberty of writing it down for you." He tapped a dark writing slate next to him, which had white words on it written in chalk. "'Dragon makes solid air. Prepare for cold'. As expected of her, she's left no instructions as to how to respond back."

Karina frowned in confusion as she sat nearby, kicking her legs back and forth on the bench. How did you make air solid? Air was air, right? It was… airy. Everyone else seemed to know what Lord Rian was talking about, though.

"Rainb—" Wiz Lidz began, then stopped himself for some reason. "That's going to be dangerous. If the dragon is solidifying the air outside…"

"I doubt it's all the air, or else what's coming in through the vents would noticeably far colder," Lord Rian said. "At the moment, it doesn't feel any colder than when I had everyone start staying inside the dungeon, but that might change over the next few days. I put a cup of water out on the balcony above the door, and from what I can see through the vent it hasn't turned to ice yet. That's a good sign that solidifying air or not, the air outside is still above freezing."

"That and you can still see fog past the entryway," Tito Kolinh said. "It's not coating the stone in ice."

"That, too," Lord Rian nodded. He looked at Wiz Tae, Wiz Lidz, and Shana. "I don't suppose the three of you feel any change in how fast the dragon is moving?"

They all shook their heads. "Still right on top of us, and that doesn't seem to be changing any time soon," Wiz Tae said.

"It is also still very low along the ground," Shana added, looking up for some reason. "There has been no change in that area."

Lord Rian nodded. "If it's still low enough to be in your demesne, maybe that's how Lori knows about it making solidified air," he said thoughtfully, although it didn't sound like he was talking to anyone.

"It is possible," Shana said. "I can certainly perceive the meanings it is taming its life into, although I cannot understand what the meaning results in." She titled her head. "While we are on the subject, everyone who remained in River's Fork is still healthy and well, as far as I can discern from the state of their life."

"That's good to know," Rian said. "Still, she wrote 'prepare for cold', so it's probably not cold yet, but if the dragon is playing with solidified air, that means that at the very least we'll need to find a way to keep the air coming into the dungeon warm. It's the easiest way to keep everyone comfortable."

Wiz Tae frowned. "How are we going to do that, though? Even with all the wood we have stacked in the second level, we can't really light too many fires. That will use up our air."

"I've thought of that, actually," Lord Rian said. "We collected the bound tools Lori made for heating the bathwater while we were getting everything ready for the dragon. They haven't been used all summer, but there's no reason to think they don't still work. If we could take one of the barrels or jars and fill it with water, move it in front of the vents and stick the bound tool into it to warm it up, it should be able to act as a decent heat source for the air coming in."

"Wait, we have bound tools for heating water?"

"Yes, Lori made them so she could stop maintaining the bindings in the bath houses."

"A barrel or jar might not be enough to conduct the heat," Wiz Lidz said, rubbing his eyes and making a face like he was trying not to yawn. "Wood doesn't really transfer heat well, and while pottery isn't as bad, it's still pretty poor. One of the big copper pots in the kitchen would work better."

"That's a thought," Lord Rian said, tilting his head. "The problem is we need all the pots for cooking our meals. And we don't really have any spares."

"Doesn't need to be a big pot," Wiz Tae said thoughtfully. "It just needs to be hot enough. And maybe have a lid so we don't have the water in it going into the air and making things humid."

"Do you have one of those?" Lord Rian asked.

Wiz Tae nodded. "I packed our pot when we left Covehold. I'll get it from our alcove and get it to you."

Rian nodded. "We have a plan, then. Lidz, go and get some sleep. That's an official lordly order. Without Lori here, you and the carpenters are the only ones who can build things, and if gets too cold, at the very least we're going to need you to build a shelf for us to put Tae's pot on in front of the air intake vent."

Wiz Lidz nodded. "Sleep. Got it."

"Once you find your pot, go back to sleep too, all right? I want one of you awake when Shana…" he paused, and sighed, "when Binder Shanalorre goes to sleep so we have a healer ready at all times."

"Binder Lolilyuri isn't here, Lord Rian. You don't need to use my full name if you don't want to," Shana said.

"I dare you to say that to her face."

"That sounds like a 'dealing with Binder Lolilyuri' matter. Not under my purview. I take care of children."

"That cutting wit is getting sharper every day…"

…

Maybe they'd all like some water. Lord Rian and Wiz Tae had been napping, so they were probably thirsty. Karina turned and headed towards the cold pantry to get a jar of the cold water there… and she supposed some cups too, since these were grownups.

Karina really didn't understand why most grownups didn't like sharing cups. She and Shana shared the same cup all the time.