Demesne

It turned out that Shanalorre could not, in fact, confirm that the abomination was dead, at least not this soon.

"While the abomination might technically be dead, most of the life in its body is still alive," she explained once she had set foot on land once more and given a moment to think after the question had been posed to her.

"But it's dead?" Lori pressed.

"Its heart isn't beating, its lungs aren't breathing, and many of the life in its head are inert," Shanalorre said. "That's reasonably dead, I believe, but most of the life in its body is still… 'alive', so to speak. Forgive me, Great Binder, but I do not know enough to say with more certainty."

They reverted to the second option by having… eh, Rit-something…? Lori checked one of her rocks to remind herself of his name, then they had Lidzuga check that the abomination was in fact dead. This involved the Deadspeaker poking it with a wooden pike and using that as a channel for Deadspeaking to ascertain that the abomination was, in fact, actually dead. Once it was confirmed, Lori—and everyone else, it seemed—let out a sigh of relief at not having to worry about the abomination recovering.

. Around them, the militia volunteers were hard at work filling in the pits and trenches. Lori had thought it would simply be simpler to just leave them be, but Riz had pointed out that they could become hazards or dens for beasts or abominations. Well, if they insisted on the work, then she'd let them, and they seemed to be doing it fairly fast in any case. Near the typhon beast, the hunters were discussing what parts could be harvested from the carcass. While the abomination looked mostly normal, some parts of it had been fused to wood, and there might be internal alterations that weren't immediately obvious from the outside. Lori had already let it be known she claimed the bones, claws, teeth and spines.

"It feels a bit anti-climactic," Rian commented. "I mean, nothing went horribly wrong, no one was injured… I half-expected us to have to throw around the smokes pots to try and push it to move, use the ropes to try and hold it in place or make it fall down, run around trying to get away from it as it chased us… instead it just walked right on top of your trap, and we killed it."

"Yes, Rian, that's why we set the trap on a game trail the way the hunter recommended," Lori said. "To make it more likely it would do exactly that."

"I know, I know… I'm just surprised nothing unexpected happened, that's all. It didn't even get distracted and go after anyone…"

She rolled her eyes. "Perhaps we were simply too small to rouse its appetites. Rian, the plan was well-prepared, and well-enacted," Lori said. "Why did you think anything would go wrong?"

He shrugged. "I'd rather consider how things could go wrong and not have them happen than not think about how they could go wrong and end up surprised and unprepared." He let out a sigh, then visibly straightened up with a smile. "Well, a least we know what we need to do next time this happens."

Lori started to nod before she realized what Rian had just said. "Next time?" she repeated sharply.

"Well, yeah," Rian said. "I mean, we managed to go a year before a typhon beast showed up, but it's probably only a matter of time before another one makes its presence known." He tilted his head. "Actually, given how we didn't encounter one on our way here and no one warned us about them before we set out, they're probably relatively rare in this area, but probably not so rare that there's not enough to reproduce. Still, another one will probably appear in the vicinity of our demesnes eventually, though we probably won't know until the other beasts start vacating the area again."

"Another one."

Rian paused. "Are you all right? You're repeating parts of what I'm saying."

Lori just closed her eyes as she imagined dealing with another typhon beast sometime in the future.

…

Actually, now that they'd done it, it didn't feel as intimidating anymore.

"I'm well. Simply considering the logistics of how we would go about killing another typhon beast."

Her lord nodded. "Yes, it's probably going to be harder next time, since we'd need to do it outside of the demesne and won't have you or Shanalorre to use your Dungeon Binder abilities to help keep track of it, but I'm sure we'll be able to think of something."

…

Lori decided she didn't want to think of this at the moment. Her preparations had worked perfectly and the abomination was dead. Goals had been accomplished. "Well, we're done here. Does the demesne need anything else? Otherwise I am returning home."

"Could you make some bug-repellant bindings? Ralii—one of the hunters, for your information— thinks the meat and blood can be salvaged, but because it's abomination blood… well, it's already attracting bugs. And maybe some blocks of ice to keep the meat fresh?"

She gave Rian a flat look, not having expected him to actually say anything, and looked longingly towards her boat, with its comfortable seat. Then she sighed. "Fine, fine. Go and get the stones I set down, I'll reuse the bindings on those…"

By the time Lori had finished reforming the bindings on her river stones into bug repellant spheres and using them to lay out a corridor free of bugs from the abomination corpse to the river bank where the boats were, the additional stones for the boats that would be ferrying the meat over the river to the dome, the blocks and chunks of ice that that meat would be laid on to keep them fresh, as well as additional ice for the food storage in the mine, it was almost noon.

There was something mildly frustrating to realize that the preparations for killing the abomination, and the work she had done at the aftermath of doing so had both taken significantly more time than the time spent actually dealing with the abomination. Rian's comment about the incident feeling anti-climactic began to make more sense to her now. For all that slaying the abomination had progressed without incident, taken all together, it had been brief and barely notable. Which was good, because if events had been notable, that meant that things had not gone according to plan… probably in the ways that Rian had spoken off earlier.

Still, anti-climactic or not, it was over now. Lori sat back on her chair on Lori's Shed Boat, mindful to not close her eyes lest she fall asleep again. If she indulged, she might not be able to sleep properly that night, doing horrible things to her sleep cycle. Rian and Shanalorre were with her as Riz operated the driver and the non-officer's friend's accompanied them. The other two boats and their passengers had remained behind to finish undoing earthworks that had been made, as well as assist in the butchering and transport of the abomination.

The demesne would have no problem feeding them. They'd be getting new meat, after all.

Out of habit, Lori watched the shore, but she saw no typhon beasts.

When they arrived back home, it was at the tail end of lunch. Fortunately, there were still some stew left, although the bread had grown cold in the meantime.

"I don't suppose you'd be willing to heat everyone's stew?" Rian asked as he laid down four bowls of stew on the table. "Please?"

"I am not an oven," Lori told him flatly.

"Technically, you'd be acting as a stove," he said brightly. "Perhaps a cookfire at the very least. An oven isn't really the best for heating stews. The heat needs to come from below, or else you'll end up with a thin layer of warn stew on the top while the rest stays stone cold." He put his hands together pleadingly. "Please?"

Lori rolled her eyes. "Fine—"

"Great, let me go get Brabli, Sintelerra, Navia and Raradina," he said quickly, turning and running off.

Lori stared after him, then turned to Riz. "What?"

"My friends who escorted you, Great Binder," Riz said. "They're eating cold stew as well, and I suppose that Rian thought if you were already willing to heat our food for us, then perhaps you would be willing to do the same for them."

"I am a Dungeon Binder, not a stove or a cookfire!"

Riz nodded. "Yes, Great Binder. Can we beg you to do so anyway? Please?"

Lori gave her a level look as Riz bowed her head in supplication. While she was annoyed at the… request… well, she supposed it was needlessly cruel to have those four have to eat their stew cold…

So when Rian arrived with four women holding bowls of cold stew, Lori simply rubbed her hands together to generate firewisps from the friction, anchored the firewisps to the waterwisps at the bottom of their bowls, and warmed the stew.

"Do not become used to this," Lori told Rian sternly. "This is an exceptional occasion. Is that understood?"

"Understood, Great Binder," Rian said as the four women walked away with their bowls of now-warm food. "You made an exception because we killed the typhon abomination today."

"Y-yes, that's exactly it," Lori said. "That's the reason."

"It's not that you felt sorry for the four of them being the only ones who'd have to eat cold food, it was merely an exception."

"Correct." Good, Rian understood.

With that, Lori focused on eating, and those with full bowls of stew followed her example.

For a moment, there was relative silence as she, Rian and Riz ate. Shanalorre had joined her cousin at the table behind Lori and thus was not part of the relative silence, and the children were always lively, though thankfully not loud.

"So…" the crazy woman—Taeclas, was thankfully wearing a head cloth, though she'd pulled it out of her belt pouch when Lori had sat down at the table—turned towards Rian, "how did it go?"

"No one was hurt," Rian said. "The abomination's relatively whole, so the hunters are butchering it for meat. River's Fork has a whole lot of feathers and a large skin for leather, though her Bindership has claimed all the bones and things."

"What, really?" She looked at Lori, who ignored her query, too busy eating. "Why?"

"Raw material would be my guess. It's certainly not so she'll have a corpse to turn into an undead, since she's letting us cut it up for food. Bone is a pretty useful resource for her Bindership, and the abomination has some nice, thick ones."

Lori paused as she realized what Rian had just said, but eventually sighed and went back to eating. Well, even if she'd thought of it, she was still a long way from learning how to deadcraft undead. She already had one large creature she intended to make into an undead buried in ice, she didn't need another one.

"Speaking of which, though… your Bindership?"

She looked up at Rian's voice. "What?" she demanded at his wheedling tone.

"May I make a suggestion for transporting the bones from River's Fork to here?" he said.

"I'm not bringing the bones here," Lori said. "They'll be staying where they are. I'm tired of having to keep bringing bones when I want to use them for something. Those bones are going to be my stockpile there."

"Oh…"

Lori gave him a flat look. She shouldn't. She really shouldn't…"What strange idea did you have in mind?"

"Ah, was just thinking that instead of trying to transport the bones here on the boats that it would be faster to just fuse all the bones together into a boat and tow that upriver… but if the bones are going to stay in River's Fork I suppose that's not really necessary…" he sighed.

"Why would I want to make a boat out of bone? We have perfectly serviceable boats made out of wood."

"Oh, I was just thinking that a boat made of bone is one you'd be able to repair by yourself if it became damaged, so you might prefer your boat be made from it rather than wood?" He shrugged. "It was just a thought. Obviously something like it would have been more useful before we had Lidz and Tae to do Deadspeaking for the demesnes, but now…" He shrugged again.

Well… she couldn't deny that. Before the two Deadspeakers had joined them, a boat made out of bone would have been something she could build and maintain herself. The problem had been that they had never had that much bone on hand—the dead islandshell aside, which she was still keeping in reserve for when she could deadcraft undead—and what they did have always had more urgent uses. The stockpile in the bone pit had grown plentiful enough for her to feel she could build a boat out of it.

Hmm… maybe she should try it? There was no reason that the abomination bones had to remain in their raw state, after all.

Something to think about.

"Ah, by the way your Bindership, what are your plans after lunch?" Rian asked.

Lori considered the question. Besides killing the abomination, she actually hadn't had anything actually planned for today. However, an answer readily came to mind. "Laundry," she said.

"Ah. Do you want me to get you some more soap?"

"That would be useful."

Rian nodded. "I'll get you some from the inventory, then."

Once Lori had finished her lunch—thankfully, Rian hadn't engaged her in further talk, letting her eat her food quickly—Lori went upstairs and began the malodorous task of washing the clothes she had worn for more than a week, as well as the rest of her garments. She had just finished drawing out basins and tubs from the walls of her private bath to let her clothes soak when there was a knock on her door. She hastily pulled on her discarded a shirt before heading to answer it, her wet, bare feet flapping on the hard stone floor of her room

As promised, Rian was there holding a block of the soap that the demesne's chandler made. "Here you go," he said, and she took a moment to claim the waterwisps on the surface of her hand so she could pull them off before accepting the soap. No need to get it wet just yet. "And this as well."

Lori almost reached for the second thing he was giving her with her free hand before she saw what it was and recoiled.

Her notes, still pressed between two tablets, wiggled in Rian's hands.

She glanced down at it, than back up to him, bewildered.

He shrugged. "I figure we're close enough to normal that you should have this back," he said. "I would have given it to you sooner, but Shanalorre found the abomination."

Lori stared down at it. Hesitantly, she reached for the sheaf with her now dry hands. "Thank you," she found herself saying.

"You're welcome," he said. "If you don't show up for meals, I'll assume you got lost in your notes again and start hammering on your door until you answer."

She glanced at the notes again. "That… would probably be advisable."

Rian nodded. "Well, see you at dinner, Lori."

Nodding absently as he turned away, she shut her door behind him

For a moment, she just stood there, staring at the sheaf of notes.

Taking a deep breath, Lori turned around carefully placed the notes atop her table, then took her equipment box—full of glassware and small tools—and deliberately set it atop the sheaf. Then she turned around and went to her bathroom, pulling off her shirt as she went.

She had laundry to do.