Janick then spends a few days with one of the Order’s copyists to get the Alcoholic Codex written down. On six bifolia whose individual pages are 8.5x11 inches, which is a standard size for spellbooks.
On top of the spells, uses and how to monetize it, the Alcoholic Codex also contains a description of successive stages of what alcohol magic-users would experience as their blood content goes up, and how alcohol wizards’ blood content decay over time. As well as possible long-term issues of using it, much like one getting ravages from drinking.
After paying the copyist 500 gold for two 24-page turnkey copies of what Janick calls the Alcoholic Codex, of which she only sees the first one, Janick returns home to the frontier.
Of course, the village has gotten much larger over the years, with a few farms and apple orchards where there used to be forests of mostly spruces and pines, but for some reason Janick’s alcohol-ravaged mind only noticed it upon return to Laverton.
Speaking of which, Janick dashes to the manor home, where the bank is. And wishes to meet with Seloniel about the future as well as the findings of the healer at the headquarters of the Order of Magic. With Janick feeling a little tired…
“What took you so long?” Seloniel asks her when Janick returns from this long trip.
“It seems like casting alcohol over and over for years ravaged me” Janick breaks the dark news to the fire witch. “I only have a few months left to live before I die childless, so I really want to settle the issue of succession here, and now. I want you to inherit the bank when I die, and for the rest of my life, I can’t cast alcohol magic as I used to!” Janick then starts sobbing, especially since her entire life revolved around alcohol magic.
The alcohol witch keeps crying and sobbing when she is left wondering whether the revenues of the bank are enough to keep the village’s public services going, namely, roads, justice and security, without the inflow of alcohol magic revenues. Seloniel keeps quiet while Janick regains her composure:
“OK, but what did the Order of Magic do to you while I was away?” a shaken Seloniel asks Janick, wondering about the travel. “Oh, by the way, a baker arrived, and I had to vacate my previous home to live here”
“First, I had to get my checkup for the first time. Then I hired a copyist to get the Alcoholic Codex written down…” Janick tells Seloniel, the latter wondering how much getting the book written cost her.
“For five hundred gold, the Supreme Council and the Order of Magic get one copy each. I guess it’s well worth the price so that alcohol magic can survive. Speaking of survival, I want the bank to survive after I die a few years from now, as well as the village”
“You want to talk succession, ideally you want the Bank of the Frontier to be secure for the next generation after your immediate successor if possible. However, unlike you, the clock is ticking for me to get children since I can still get a child” Seloniel responds.
I wonder if non-magical nobles prefer magical ones or not. Sometimes, overworked commoners might have wished to raise a wizard child, but it’s not a given unless both parents are wizards, Seloniel is reminded of the implications of magic-using ability for marriage prospects. But then nobility might seek stuff such as tax breaks, and Janick might have to pay relief on the fief directly to the Supreme Council when she dies… speaking of which, I wonder how much relief is for her.
“But before then I want you to learn more about banking, to ensure that this place will remain a tax haven; for as long as I knew you, you were mostly devoted to artisanship. Cart-making, blacksmithing, cooperage being the main arts you worked in” Janick realizes that Seloniel is clueless when it comes to banking. “So when you don’t have orders for weapons or for plows, I would like you to work at the bank, in preparation for this will!”
“What about Samka then?” Seloniel asks her. “She can take care of the more menial tasks of the bank, such as keeping the records in order! Also, I lived as a commoner for my entire life, even on the frontier; I have no real idea of how the nobility should behave!”
“When you live on the frontier, life can get hard, even with magic. However, your main opportunity to meet with potential suitors is during social functions such as tournaments or balls” Janick shares what she knows about the lifestyle of the nobility based on her interactions with the bank’s noble customers. “Also, don’t forget the Supreme Council gave the fief to us…”
“I know nothing of etiquette. And neither do you. I guess this kind of functions is where I could wear the mantle of the Order of Magic, which is the fanciest cloth I have”
My first choice would be some wizard noble. However, even Order of Magic membership didn’t guarantee anything in the romantic arena; Janick had no interest and/or luck in there, but I would be willing to settle for a non-wizard husband. And there were often younger noble sons who might have been willing to travel far and wide to get married, so the next best thing for me is a knightly son who’s prone to running away, Seloniel reflects on what she wants out of a potential suitor.
“I guess, I can always ask about these sorts of events whenever appropriate” Janick then takes her leave of Seloniel.
Janick then turns to Samka. Because she can no longer use alcohol magic to earn money, and the fief is still tax-exempt, the bank is the main source of income remaining for the fief, unless Seloniel plans to keep making magical plows.
“Samka, I believe it’s time to determine how much money we made for the past three months” Janick asks her to take out the bank’s ledger and determine the income and expenses.
“Why do this? As you said, it has been only three months!” Samka complains.
“Because I can no longer use alcohol magic, I want to ensure this village can still function tax-exempt” Janick explains the rationale behind getting a quarterly picture of the bank’s profitability.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
It turns out the bank’s main expenses are interest paid to depositors, salaries, travel expenses, and courier services. As for the income sources, there’s the interest on the loans, origination fees, fees for the issuance of bills of exchange and late payment fees. Thank God there hasn’t been any real write-offs of bad loans yet. But this income statement should really be considered a best-case scenario, Janick realizes the Bank of the Frontier, while lucrative to the fief because it backs customers buying merchandise on financing, is a risky source of money to run it.
And then Janick starts worrying about some details about things such as funerals, burials and monuments. Speaking of which, there is none available in town. So with the financial aspect of that done, she then goes outside, and look around the church for burial space.
The graveyard is full of graves belonging to residents who died during the uprising, but given that, over the years, the woods around the village have cleared, there should be more space available for more burials.
And then comes the crypt, where there’s only one monument, one person buried underneath it: the previous lord of the mine. I guess, at least the uprising’s survivors were willing to honor the death of the previous lord of the mine as if he died under less dishonorable circumstances, Janick ruminates while she feels the burden of funerary prearrangements.
When Seloniel has finished making a magical plow, she finds a deeply troubled Janick:
“Before I teach you the most important things about banking, and put aside the relief money to pay relief to the Supreme Council when I die, I need to shop around for two items!” a distraught Janick tells Seloniel.
“Yes, I know, the casket and the monument” Seloniel hazards a guess. “Lately, all you seemed to talk about is about getting ready for your death, as if you seemed to accept an early death as the price to pay for a few years of having abused alcohol magic!”
“I took care of adding a section about my own life as an alcohol witch in the Alcoholic Codex for a reason! It’s a cautionary tale of what happens when you abuse alcohol magic! A few years of greatness, and killing the electricity-stealing dragon was the peak of my life! However, I want the monument to be transportable by carpet!” Janick voices a demand to Seloniel.
“You start to sound like some of my customers, who come to me to make plows for them because they’re transportable by carpet! As much as your name will echo through the ages for your contributions to alcohol magic, my name will be synonymous with tax havens!” Seloniel starts feeling her blood boil.
“And the electricity-stealing dragon, too!” Janick adds.
“Because I don’t want to suffer the same fate as you did, although I can use alcohol magic, I won’t use it commercially. But since it’s your tombstone, that’s ok if you want your tombstone to be transportable by carpet”
“And I’ll probably be buried at the Order of Magic’s cemetery, just like everyone else in the Order provided their bodies can be recovered. Honestly, I am fine with only a basic, homemade casket” Janick comments on the casket part of the funerary prearrangement.
She also realizes that Laverton ultimately lives off forestry and mining, and has no stone cutter. So while Seloniel could build Janick a casket in a day or two, the tombstone, on the other hand, might need resources not available in town.
“One last thing: since I dedicated my whole life to alcohol magic, and that I will soon be dying because of it, I want the Order of Magic to examine my body. It should shed some light on the ravages of alcohol”
“I can’t fault you for wanting the world to know more about the ravages of alcohol. You contributed so much to alcohol magic in life that you’re loyal to it even in death!”
“And it seems like casting alcohol magic leaves traces of alcohol in your blood. Also I didn’t tell you this before, but…” Janick starts crying. “I refused to have life magic cast on me to cure my afflictions!”
“Why? WHHHHYYYYYYY!” Seloniel screams, not believing that Janick would have refused such treatment.
“By accepting the treatment, I would have denied the world an opportunity to understand the long-term implications of alcoholism! I would have kept casting alcohol magic and I would have died of something else that might not have had anything to do with the ravages of alcohol! Alcoholism affects people well beyond alcohol wizards alone!” Janick keeps crying. “Yet I don’t even know where I want to be buried anymore…”
“What do you mean, you don’t know where you want to be buried anymore?”
“Three of these locations I might want to be buried at were significant to me in life. My birthplace, Caladon, the toll station where the electricity-stealing dragon died, or here in this village. The Order of Magic’s cemetery, on the other hand…”
“Go get the monument done first, since it will take weeks to do. Maybe even months. You will have time to decide until then”
“I feel… condemned! I knew that death was coming for me, sooner or later, but I wonder if, with my affliction, I will even have a few months left to live! Be lucky I have no more unfinished business that you can’t handle, and that we accomplished what the Supreme Council sent us here for!”
“Milady, do you have any regrets?” Seloniel asks the alcohol witch.
Seloniel’s question sends Janick deep in thought. What I could possibly regret is borne out of hindsight, of things I discovered. Of things I couldn’t have known beforehand. No use dwelling on the past.
“To ensure that I will die without regrets, I ask if you would be willing to learn the other two spells of alcohol magic on top of the core principles of banking” Janick suggests to the other witch. “But not today since I have an errand to run in Ertzheir”
“Why?”
“It’s so that alcohol magic knowledge can survive me”
Janick then flies to Ertzheir on her besom to look for a stonecutter willing to carve a monument that’s just the right size for it to be transportable by carpet freight. Upon arriving in town, she wonders how long it will take for her own monument to be ready. When she starts shopping for said monument:
“Greetings, I am Janick, I would like to get an estimate for a monument that’s carpet-haulable please” Janick asks the stonecutter.
“First, how much can your carpet carry?”
“About five hundred pounds when I ride it” Janick answers the stonecutter.
“Do you have any preferences for stone variety?” the stonecutter asks her.
“I want one that will remind loved ones of the magical wine I used to conjure” Janick slips a mention of her alcohol magic she can’t cast anymore.
“Please forgive the stupidity of this question, but what color is your magical wine?”
The stonecutter, surprised to have an alcohol witch for a prospective customer, gives her two options in red, marble and granite, as well as the expected price range and size of a monument that can fit on a carpet.
“Five thousand gold for a red granite monument?” an astonished Janick asks the stonecutter after hearing about the expected cost of the design features she might want.
“People are willing to spend a lot of money on coffins and monuments”
Janick is then remembered of the debt burden she shouldered because of Chumzurk’s failure to kill the electricity-stealing dragon. Which included funeral provisions his family couldn’t afford. That, even though most of it was taken out to equip and train his squad. Chumzurk barely had even a basic birch coffin and wooden grave marker, and I had to repay his debts to even get a chance to kill the electricity-stealing dragon!
“I think I have at most three months left to live because of my affliction, so that’s the maximum I can wait. If I don’t live that long, you can always try to get in touch with Seloniel. She’s the one whose carpet will be used” Janick gives her instructions for the stonecutter.
What do we have here? A dying alcohol witch living on the frontier who’s willing to spend like a lord for a carpet-haulable monument? The stonecutter ruminates, hearing about what feels like a myriad of demands from Janick for her monument. Actual lords usually had larger monuments built, and maybe even mausoleums for the wealthiest of them!
“Very well, I’ll take you up on your offer for five thousand gold, everyone else who could do it for that price will take longer than three months” Janick then pays the full amount immediately before returning home.
Upon returning home, that night, she goes straight to the only shop in the village making caskets. After knocking on the door of the casket-maker:
“If it isn’t our yellow-skinned alcohol witch! What can I do for you today?” the village’s casket-maker asks her.
“I would like to have a casket built from spruce and ensure that it fits me. I’m ready to pay in full immediately if it provides some peace of mind to me” Janick asks the casket-maker while he takes measurements of her such as her height and shoulder width.
With the materials done, all I need to do is pick the location for my grave, Janick sighs after paying for the casket.