Suffering Marriage Problems
After installing the mounts for Shanalorre's shelves for when the carpenters finished building them, it was back to River's Fork after breakfast. Handing Yllian his rock—she'd carved his name on it so he'd know it was his, although it probably wasn't visible to him because of the glow—Lori then went back to the mine to continue excavating the dragon shelter. The stone masons were absent at the moment, since right now they would o...
2023-02-04 16:00:04 +0000 UTC
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"If she's volunteering, it would be a good idea to take her up on the offer," Rian said after Lori had finished choosing bowls and Shanalorre had related the matter to him. "I didn't want to bring it up, but people didn't really enjoy trying to go seeling late in the year. From what I gathered—mostly from Karina, admittedly—it took too many people too long to catch a single seel, though those were adult seels they caught. While she probably won't be singlehandedly feeding the who...
2023-02-02 16:00:02 +0000 UTC
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So, on the subject of the 'What If’, it looks like it might be a four- or five-parter. When it's done, I'll compile it together into a single post to make it easier to read for everyone.
Most of the length is a result of the show-don't-tell nature of the writing, as well as the fact we're seeing events in GLORIOUS LORI-VISION, so any hints need to be something she would legitimately notice in her Lori-ness.
Many of the characters in question are from planned works or unpublished...
2023-02-01 09:50:25 +0000 UTC
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Lori had a specific image of what life on the edges of a demesne was like. It involved flimsy buildings in some degree of disrepair, uneducated masses, poverty, and lords or ladies who were either lazy, corrupt, or incompetent. There'd be a militia camp nearby, to give the edgeward settlement a reason to exist, as they'd provide the militia with goods or the services of bell-ringers. Beyond the edge, among the colors itself, would grow fields of crops that were technically illegal as they'd b...
2023-01-31 16:00:04 +0000 UTC
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There were, as expected, people waiting for them at the docks.
Lori didn't know why people did it. It had only been four days! Surely not seeing someone for that was no cause for this kind of commotion. And all the hugging! Yes, she understood that it was nice to be held, she'd enjoyed receiving hugs from her mothers provided they were brief, but they did it for far too long with a lot of pointless swaying back and forth, and people held on far too tight, such that it looked uncomfortab...
2023-01-29 16:00:03 +0000 UTC
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The continuing work excavating the dragon shelter was repetitive, the sort of repetition where time lost meaning as a result of the monotony. Lori had finally managed to dig the ramp upwards to the dragon shelter, as well as start clearing a space. steps on the ramp to make them proper stairs would, unfortunately, need to be the last thing to be made, as the ramp made it easier to roll down her excavated stone.
While she had a general goal of 'excavating enough space', this time she als...
2023-01-26 16:00:02 +0000 UTC
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"You need my help?" Karina said.
Shana nodded, even as she glanced sideways to make sure her cousin was nearby. The younger girl was still sitting on the bench Shana had put her, swaying impatiently. "Binder Lori asked me to plant some tubers so we can transfer them over to River's Fork. However, I do not know how to raise tubers, or where I may find some to plant and grow." Karina had gotten used to the strange way Shana talked, so she just nodded. Some of the other children still look...
2023-01-25 16:04:37 +0000 UTC
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"You… want me to be your lord?" Rian asked.
"Yes, that's what I just said."
"Uh… why me? I mean, there are other people…"
"I need a leader. Someone people listen to and can convince them to work."
"Again, there are other people," Rian argued. He seemed well aware that many of those people were likely listening in as they spoke. "There's Mary Sue over there—"
"It's Marissa!"
Rian ignored the interruption, though it made Lori twitch. "—Sera...
2023-01-24 16:00:02 +0000 UTC
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After installing the mounts for Shanalorre's shelves for when the carpenters finished building them, it was back to River's Fork after breakfast. Handing Yllian his rock—she'd carved his name on it so he'd know it was his, although it probably wasn't visible to him because of the glow—Lori then went back to the mine to continue excavating the dragon shelter. The stone masons were absent at the moment, since right now they would only get in the way as she excavated, and they had already fi...
2023-01-22 16:00:02 +0000 UTC
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A Little Girl And A House
As Rian made the arrangements, Lori put lightwisps on the outside of the Coldhold. She had to use lightwisps from her eyes so she could keep it imbued even when it was outside of the demesne, but when she was done, she was reasonably sure that the Coldhold would have enough light to navigate by. She also anchored some on the waterwisps making up some of the external structure of the boat, so that it would have some ex...
2023-01-21 16:00:03 +0000 UTC
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So... the What If chapter has... undergone development.
For one, it's now probably going to be at least a three-parter, because right now it's about 5k words and still counting. So... I guess there's no need for a poll in February? Normally I'd have stopped a lot sooner, but the chapter needed more and more story so it wouldn't just be a chapter with vaguely isekai character names in it, as I tried to go over the ramifications of what have everyone but Rian and Lori be isekai.....
2023-01-19 16:16:03 +0000 UTC
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The rest of the day was unremarkable as Lori cured the wood in the shed. Nearby, people were moving in and out of the firewood dehydrator shed—though in practice it was a wood drying shed—putting in cut but wet branches and deadfall, and taking out dry pieces to bring back to their homes. When it was time for dinner, Lori took a moment to take a detour, walking briefly along the riverbank on the other side of the blood barrier. The water level had gone back to the way it had been when the...
2023-01-19 16:00:05 +0000 UTC
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"This is your house now," Lori told Shanalorre the next morning after breakfast. The bed Shanalorre had been using in the shelter up to now was being carried inside by four burly men and Rian. He… honestly didn't seem to be of any help whatsoever. "Once the bed is inside, I'll build you a table. Do you know where you can get wood for your fireplace?"
"Yes, Binder Lolilyuri," Shanalorre said, standing next to Lori.
"Once they finish moving in your bed, and I've finished with your...
2023-01-17 16:00:03 +0000 UTC
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As Rian made the arrangements, Lori put lightwisps on the outside of the Coldhold. She had to use lightwisps from her eyes so she could keep it imbued even when it was outside of the demesne, but when she was done, she was reasonably sure that the Coldhold would have enough light to navigate by. She also anchored some on the waterwisps making up some of the external structure of the boat, so that it would have some external lighting at night so they could see around the boat...
2023-01-15 16:00:02 +0000 UTC
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They Know Where You Sleep
2023-01-14 16:00:05 +0000 UTC
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The next day started as a perfectly ordinary morning for Lori. Specifically, it started with her in her demesne. When she finally came down, it was to a full dining hall, as she had come to expect on mornings, and which she found she had actually missed in the last week and half. Everything was as it should be, everything was as she expected it to be…
She was home.
The only thing to mar the occasion was the fact that when Rian came carrying breakfast to her, Umu, Mikon and Shana...
2023-01-12 16:00:01 +0000 UTC
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After dinner, Lori should have been sleeping. Her bedroll was on her bed, and her pillow and blanket atop it, ready to give her a good night's rest. The only one she'd have for some time, given where she'd be going the next day.
Instead, she was restless.
Try as she might, Lori couldn't sleep. Despite not being hungry, all she could do was lie in bed, staring up at the names on the ceiling that she never seemed to get around to removing, even though she couldn't remember why it wa...
2023-01-10 16:00:02 +0000 UTC
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Leaving should have been simple. Rian should have only needed to tell some people they were going, everyone would have gotten on the boat in an orderly fashion, and she'd have been on her way back to her demesne. Even if she'd be leaving again the following day to get back to work on her new other demesne's dragon shelter, the rest would do her good.
It should have been, but it wasn't.
"There's no reason for you to leave with them," the woman Lori vaguely recalled was Sha...
2023-01-08 16:00:01 +0000 UTC
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It took Lori several more days to sufficiently excavate the mine and shape the excavated area such that it was fit for storing food. While she couldn't control earthwisps at a distance anymore as she could in her demesne, she had been a skilled Whisperer even before becoming a Dungeon Binder. It was all about knowing how the work would flow, and with her nigh-limitless magic due to her connection from her core, the pace of her work was no longer constrained by the rate in which she could brea...
2023-01-05 16:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Lori was able to finish the stove and the roof over it by late afternoon. The lip of the roof was just under the roof of the dining hall, and with a raised lip on the outside curve of the roof, any rainwater shouldn't fall on the food as it was taken out. That night, the demesne was called out to the dining hall and told to bring bowls and utensils. The meal was stew, because that was simple and easy to make enough for over fifty people. There was some meat that had been packed in snow to pre...
2023-01-03 16:00:02 +0000 UTC
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Happy New Year from +8 GMT!
2022-12-31 16:01:00 +0000 UTC
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So! To get ready for January, I'm going to put up the poll for the Patron Exclusive chapter now. Here are the choices for this month.
And wow. Despite my best efforts, we now have a whole bunch of named characters, don't we?
EDIT: Sorry, I had to delete the previous poll, as I forgot to enable multiple choice!
2022-12-31 11:11:06 +0000 UTC
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Another year is coming to an end and in two month we'll be coming on Demesne's 2nd Anniversary. I wasn't able to really do anything special earlier this year, but I'll see what I can do next year. Thank you all for thinking my work was worth shelling out for, and I'll try to continue providing a good story for you all to read.
Hopefully, I'll manage to get back on schedule (yes, I'm still not on schedule, and finally getting Elden Ring hasn't helped), and bring back Nightmaeranger...
2022-12-31 10:49:23 +0000 UTC
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So, here's the poll for the 'What if' options for January. By demand, some of the otions are to continue previous ones.
Feel free to give suggestions for other what ifs, and I might include them in future polls.
EDIT: so , the poll has ended, and combined with the results of the poll in Royal Road, the winner is 'What if everyone in Lorian but Lori and Rian was an isekai'. So I suppose I'll get on that next.'
2022-12-29 08:28:33 +0000 UTC
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Cassan sometimes wished he'd stayed in Covehold Demesne.
For all that it was barely even with a fairly prosperous rural backwater, Covehold Demesne had been a large town trying to grow into a small city, full of modern conveniences even if they were in diminished form. It had libraries, markets, banks, bellparlours, even schools. If the buildings and roads were a bit crude and dirty, if more vehicles were pulled by still-living beasts instead of undead or some kind of bead-powered drive...
2022-12-21 16:41:49 +0000 UTC
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The Core Of River's Fork
The core was where Shanalorre said it was.
Or rather, the pile of rocks and dirt that supposedly blocked the way to the core was where Shanalorre said it was, under the first steps of the spiraling stairs shaped into the trunk of the dome's central tree.
"I have to ask," Rian said as Lori slowly claimed the earthwisps of the obstructing rubble with her staff, breathing in evenly out of habit as she began to fuse all the rock...
2022-12-17 16:00:04 +0000 UTC
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It rained just long enough to be wet and annoying, but not long enough to justify not working.
Lori was reminded of the year before, when they'd just arrived at the location they had to settled, and it had rained as they had worked. At the time, they had been glad for the rain, which had washed the Iridescence off them and kept beasts in whatever dens they hid in, letting the settlers work on the Dungeon and the water break around them to keep beasts away at night or when it wasn't<...
2022-12-15 16:01:00 +0000 UTC
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"What have you done?-!"
Shanalorre turned towards him as Lori gave him a disapproving glare. "I have surrendered and submitted to the authority of Dungeon Binder Lolilyuri," the other Dungeon Binder said, her voice still pitched to carry her words to the crowd. "It is she who now rules River's Fork Demesne. She has generously allowed me to continue to live rather than simply killing me so that she could claim my core."
"You…! You had no right to do that!" her uncle insi...
2022-12-13 16:00:07 +0000 UTC
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"I would like to begin," Shanalorre began, "with an apology for my absence. I was not here to act as your Dungeon Binder and lead you over the past several weeks as winter ended. For that, I apologize." She stood on one of the higher steps on the spiraling stairs built into the central tree of River's Fork's dome to allow herself to be seen. Despite her size and the open space, she was able to make her voice carry.
The group that had gathered once Shanalorre had given the word looked sm...
2022-12-11 16:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Lori sometimes wished that Rian had agreed to be her lord when she had first asked him. It would have made things so much easier in the long run, but he had been firm in his refusal… and then had started running away from her whenever he'd seen her coming in his direction when she'd kept trying to get him to agree. While it had been tempting to sink him into the ground to get him to stop, that would likely have broken his ankles if he'd been moving with sufficient acceleration, and he'd hav...
2022-12-08 16:00:08 +0000 UTC
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