SCM2814

Demesne 152 - I Missed You Too

Rian was the first out of the bathhouse, wearing a new set of clothes and holding a bundle of cloth that looked distinctly like a used set under one arm, the pack that he'd given Lori before he'd left over his shoulder. He headed to his house, putting the clothes and the pack on the table, sighing in relief. He looked around, seeming to note how clean everything was, sighed in what seemed to be relief, turned and then recoiled.

Lori blinked at him. "What?" she said.

"You were ther...

Demesne 151 - Everything Back To Normal

"Erzebed!"

The name echoed in the air, and Lori winced. She'd forgotten to bind airwisps over her ears this time, and as a result they rang from the volume of binding of airwisps she had just used to call for her temporary assistant. Lori go up from where she'd been sitting while curing wood and methodically deactivated and unbound the wisps shed been maintaining. Best not to risk a fire by leaving it unattended. Lori grabbed her staff and started walking downhill to the river.

He...

Demesne 150 - Threshing and Storage

The next day after breakfast, Lori watched as people began laying out the bundles of stalks out into the sun. There was probably a farming technical name for them, but she didn’t care. The bundles were laid out on the fields they'd been harvested from, stacked together in long lines out in the sun. People formed a long line passing the bundles from person to person, which Lori had to admit was very efficient. No getting bottlenecked by the door to the storage shed, no having to walk back an...

Demesne Anniversary Special 1: Riz And Mikon In Bed

It was well after dinner and even the line of hopefuls at the Um had long dispersed, deciding they'd rather have sleep than sex. Riz had checked every room, have grown inured to the musky smells the people who used it left behind, to make sure no one was sleeping there overnight, leaving the doors open to air out. Tomorrow was cleaning day at least, and already she had a list of people to go press into carrying the beds out into the sun and scrubbing the floors so that it didn't stink. Everyo...

Ainōryoku Sentai Nightmærangers #37

Waterborne, Part 4

Willy didn't leave immediately. Instead, she waited an hour, then watched another weather report and, after determining that the illustrated shape of the area of the rain had changed, compared it to the previous picture she'd taken, then began to measure the area's dimensions to figure out the average center of the area. It was difficult doing it on the small screen of her phone, but she persevered.

Then Willy waited a...

Weekly Digest 46 - (#147 - #149)

Drying To Thresh

In the storage shed she had made to store the harvest, Lori examined the tops of the thick bundles of stalks from which hung the heads of vigas grain. The individual stalks were thick, just a little thinner than her little finger, and covered with long leaves that Riz had warned her not to touch, since the edges of the leaves were sharp, and the undersides were full of minute, needle-like fuzz that could easily pierce skin without being noticed...

Demesne 149 - Final Desiccation Test

Normally, Lori ate outside when they were having roasted beast. It made it easier to get second, third or fourth servings. However, today, instead of finding a nice, shady spot to set up a rock to sit on, she ate in her dungeon, in her usual table. Outside, the rhythmic, odious sounds of, ugh, music trickled through her Dungeon's entrance. It made her wish she could just put a binding to block out—

Oh.

Lori made a binding of airwisps at her Dungeon's entrance, blocking ...

Demesne 148 - Experimenting With Riz

The stalk was gone by the time they got down to the second level, leaving Riz holding a handful of seeds that were put in her belt pouch as she grabbed four bundles and moved them to the empty space between the pillars Lori had indicated. To one side, the weavers sat, spinning ropeweed fibers into thread at a leisurely, almost lazy pace, something to do as they played board games, gossiped, or just sat back with half-lidded eyes. The carpenters were similarly relaxed, and looked to be simply ...

8/2/22 Status Update

So next week is the anniversary of this story, and I'll try to have a special chapter out to celebrate it. Any suggestions? 

EDIT:Current top contender among the ideas I can write over the weekend is Lori's first day in wizard school. Or at least A day in wizard school.

Demesne 147 - Drying To Thresh

In the storage shed she had made to store the harvest, Lori examined the tops of the thick bundles of stalks from which hung the heads of vigas grain. The individual stalks were thick, just a little thinner than her little finger, and covered with long leaves that Riz had warned her not to touch, since the edges of the leaves were sharp, and the undersides were full of minute, needle-like fuzz that could easily pierce skin without being noticed. The bundles had been stacked high on top of eac...

Ainōryoku Sentai Nightmærangers #36

Willy stood still, not moving as the tentacle continued to rest on her arm. Something very strange was going on. While the turbulence of the water was familiar… it was missing something. The fog and mists were gone, as were the narrow, focused currents and rare blood-warm bursts of heat.

The massive predator, Nightmare Yellow, leaned down towards her, and she could feel the hot breath pushing rainwater over her skin, felt her very ice vibrating at the rumbling throat. Slowly,...

Weekly Digest 45 - (#144 - #146)

To Keep Busy

"—and the smithy will be enclosed in the event of a dragon. Those are the improvements I'm making to the front of the Dungeon," Lori finished explaining. "Did you understand all that or do I have to repeat myself?" Riz had better be listening. Lori did not want to repeat herself, especially since she had explained so thoroughly.

Riz—and Mikon beside her, since Lori had been too busy explaining for them to have their usual game of...

Demesne 146 - The Best Kind Of Advice

The harvest took two days. Despite the rapid, almost unreasonable pace, they didn't finish on the first day. Lori had almost thought that Riz would ask her to bind lightwisps in the air so they could continue working in the dark, but that hadn't happened. Instead, people started carrying the bundles off towards the storage shed she'd built, a stone structure in the same vein as the curing sheds that she had built against the side of the cliff face since she couldn't safely build inside it. Lo...

Demesne 145 - The Harvest

The next day, the opposite wall went up. It was slightly faster since it was just slightly shorter than the opposite wall, since she'd need to make the side passage towards the smithy and stairs to the… all right, it was basically a balcony. Since the opening of it didn't lead directly to her Dungeon, it was currently a bit useless, but once a dragon arrived and she made some reconfigurations…

Well, hopefully it would work.

Admittedly, having two freestanding walls on either s...

Demesne 144 - To Keep Busy

"—and the smithy will be enclosed in the event of a dragon. Those are the improvements I'm making to the front of the Dungeon," Lori finished explaining. "Did you understand all that or do I have to repeat myself?" Riz had better be listening. Lori did not want to repeat herself, especially since she had explained so thoroughly.

Riz—and Mikon beside her, since Lori had been too busy explaining for them to have their usual game of sunk over lunch—both stared at the little ...

Ainōryoku Sentai Nightmærangers #35

Waterborne, Part 2

No…

No…

Please, no…

Willy shook her cousin awake. She felt cold from the water, but didn't care. She could fix it later. "Tammy," she said, speaking in her normal speaking register, "wake up. You're sleeping on the sidewalk. Please wake up." She glanced about, saw Tammy's fallen bag on the ground and reached for it, opening the side pocket with Tammy's phone. It asked for the security code, but had Ta...

Weekly Digest 44 - (#141 - #143)

More Chimneys

As Lori dug for stone in what would become the third level, she wondered if there would be time to convert it into a farm like she wanted before winter. Farming, from what she could tell, was mainly throwing seeds at the dirt, making sure they were watered, and keeping verminous little beasts from eating them. The farm being in the Dungeon protected the crops from the latter, and people would have plenty of time to tend to them over the winter. No...

Demesne 143 - Beginning Improved Defensive Measures

"Erzebed," Lori said at dinner, "I will be making improvements to my Dungeon's front entrance tomorrow. Inform everyone that after breakfast, no one is to pass through my Dungeon's entrance, as I will be building and do not intend to be inconvenienced."

Riz had the look of someone who wanted to groan and was trying very hard to hold it inside. "Tomorrow, Great Binder?"

"I just said that, didn't I?"

Riz looked around and sighed, but didn't argue. "Yes, Great Binder. I'll let ...

Demesne Patron EX SS 11 - House Cleaning With Umu and Mikon

It was slightly annoying how quickly a house no one was living in needed to be cleaned.

"It's the windows," Mikon said as she wiped dust off the stone table that looked like the kind of altar heretical Dungeon worshippers used to sacrifice people to the core. "They're open all the time, so the dust just keeps coming in." Outside, wind gusted, and the pink-haired weaver sighed. "And Binder Lori put the house in a windy place where they ground is very dusty, so of course a lot of dust get...

Demesne 142 - The Dock On The Other Side

It took several days to put fireplaces and chimneys on every house in her demesne. At some point, Riz started carrying around a little wooden stool instead of a stone one, probably freshly made by the carpenters. Lori had to admit, it was more comfortable to sit on since the seat was wider. Eventually though, all the chimneys were complete, even with Lori needing to go back and make some of the early chimneys taller.

When Lori finished the last chimney, she just stood back and looked ov...

Demesne 141 - More Chimneys

As Lori dug for stone in what would become the third level, she wondered if there would be time to convert it into a farm like she wanted before winter. Farming, from what she could tell, was mainly throwing seeds at the dirt, making sure they were watered, and keeping verminous little beasts from eating them. The farm being in the Dungeon protected the crops from the latter, and people would have plenty of time to tend to them over the winter. Not that tending to them ever seemed to take a l...

Ainōryoku Sentai Nightmærangers #34

Waterborne, Part 1

Wilhelmina Azul's eyes snapped open as the alarm on her phone rang. With practiced movements, she reached out to touch the screen and turn off the alarm so that Tammy wouldn't wake up. Then she lay back and folded her hands over her stomach, staring at the ceiling. It was Saturday, and around her everything was quiet, people still asleep. The waters were still, the distant turbulence at the edges easily ignored. Even the dro...

Weekly Digest 43 - (#138 - #140)

Needing More Light And Heat

Lori eventually remembered she had to make a storage room for the grain that would be harvested. It didn't need to be a cold room, but it had to be some distance from the mushroom farm to prevent growths, and relatively dry. The latter, she could do with a binding, and with properly made containers, they'd be able to keep out bugs and the small beasts that Riz said were showing up more and more. Some of the children had taken to hunt...

Demesne 140 - Chimneys

After breakfast and another quick game of sunk with Mikon, Lori set off towards the housing at the top of the rise where the people who were previously from River's Fork lived, Riz in tow. In front of them, a mass of stone from the pile of excavated rock flowed, the binding of earthwisps Lori was actively controlling making it all move like a viscous, fluid mass. At this point, she didn't even have to think of it beyond whether she would hit anything in front of her as they headed for her tem...

Demesne 139 - Chatrang And A Petition

"Erzebed, announce to everyone that I will be adding chimneys and fireplaces to everyone's houses in preparation for winter," Lori said as she set up the chatrang board for her game with Mikon.

"You will?" Riz exclaimed, clearly surprised.

"Of course I will. Why wouldn't I?"

"You didn't before?"

Lori raised an eyebrow at her. "Was it needed before?"

"It would have been nice," Mikon muttered into her bowl.

"It would be nice to have Rian back, but we have to ...

Demesne 138 - Needing More Light And Heat

Lori eventually remembered she had to make a storage room for the grain that would be harvested. It didn't need to be a cold room, but it had to be some distance from the mushroom farm to prevent growths, and relatively dry. The latter, she could do with a binding, and with properly made containers, they'd be able to keep out bugs and the small beasts that Riz said were showing up more and more. Some of the children had taken to hunting the things with clubs and sticks, though they had to be ...

Ainōryoku Sentai Nightmærangers - Interlude: Red

The Singer In Darkness

Tonight, she did not dream of hell.

She did not dream of a dark emptiness, cold and void, filled with inhuman sounds of countless agonies in voices no human could hear. She didn't dream of a burning fire without beginning or end, without surcease or respite. Didn't dream of burning alone, without another human soul for succor or comfort. In those dreams, that, more than the fire, was what hurt. The lon...