With the funerary prearrangements done, Janick could slowly live out what little of her life she has left, and some would-be alcohol wizards come to the village to learn alcohol magic from her. For the two months to follow, she houses would-be alcohol wizards for a day or two.

To the surprise of so many, alcohol magic is relatively easy to learn to a level appropriate for conjuring their own drinks, or conjuring drinks for one’s family, provided one could actually use magic at all. And yet, wizards didn’t seem that startled by seeing a witch have yellow skin and eyes, unlike a lot of non-wizards. Which take darker shades of yellow with every passing day, and she gets tired more easily, too.

In the meantime, Seloniel seems to spend less time using fire or alcohol magic and more time running the Bank of the Frontier. And catering to customers who increasingly turn to the Bank of the Frontier to get a source of passive income that’s tax-free.

But with her failing health, Janick couldn’t devote much time to any of her activities: training would-be alcohol wizards, most of whom just spend two or three days in the village. She has a conversation with one such wizard before he leaves the village.

“Before you went out and sold magical wine around the world, I was wondering why is it that no one actually devoted themselves to it” one of the students asks a dizzying Janick.

“Really, it seems like a lot of wizards tended to have limited intellectual curiosity. So many of them feel they must stick to learning one school of magic to make it as a wizard!” Janick laments. “Naturally, fire and life magic will see uses people will understand, holy magic if you’re more of a faith person. It’s just that past alcohol wizards seemed to use their magic only when thirst is involved, and hence never used it as systematically as I did”

The image non-wizards hold of the wizard as an erudite person just doesn’t seem to hold up for most. I might have fit it somewhat better, but even then, I was drunk so often in the past few years, Janick seems to let her affliction-addled mind wander.

“Also, a lot of wizards tend to just learn their area of magical expertise without thinking critically about their own use of magic, and such wizards can be dangerous” Janick then yawns, ready to go to bed at any time.

That said, Janick has her coffin and monument at the ready before she goes to sleep, with the carpet nearby so that, if she dies, Seloniel can always but the body into it. And, in accordance with Janick’s last wishes, have the body transported to the Order of Magic’s headquarters, where her body will be tested on, and studied, prior to any funeral taking place.

And then, during her sleep, her bodily functions start failing, causing veins to burst inside her body. Her affliction causes her innards to start bleeding, especially around her liver, but with leaving no outward signs. When that is happening, without her noticing, the cold embrace of death slowly comes to her.

By dawn, when Seloniel wakes up, she finds the lifeless body of Janick on her bed, and checks the alcohol witch’s pulse. She hauls the body into the coffin and then closes its lid. But not shut because Janick’s last wishes include her body being studied by the Order of Magic.

Once the corpse is inside the coffin, ready to be flown, Seloniel breaks the news to the villagers. Some of them are shaken, but others are not so moved.

“Lady Janick is dead! May her death not be in vain since her last wishes might shed some light on the long-term effects of drinking alcohol!” Seloniel screams before announcing the succession of the village. “Until further notice, I will be the acting steward of the village!”

“She might have been a drunken witch, but Janick was far wiser than her predecessor!” a survivor of the uprising comments on what she felt like as a ruler in life.

Virtually nothing is known about the long-term effects of alcohol, but it’s not unreasonable for the long-term effects of casting alcohol magic to mirror those of drinking non-magical alcohol since the same apparently holds true for short-term effects, Seloniel seems to have a flashback to the time where Janick made her last wishes known. As much as it pains me to admit it, often the wealthiest die of other causes, such as poisoning or battle. Janick was right to ask for this.

After flying the carpet to the Order of Magic’s headquarters, Seloniel feels a little off. By landing the carpet on the headquarters’ chemin de ronde, the sentry asks her about what’s in the coffin.

“Milady, who’s in the coffin?” the sentry asks Seloniel.

“Janick. She died last night in her sleep. She refused treatment, believing that, in death, she would be able to contribute to alcohol magic in ways she can’t otherwise” Seloniel explains to a confused sentry.

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“What do you mean?”

“She earned a few million gold by selling magical wine over her lifetime. However, she suffered from overuse of alcohol magic later in life and she wants to show how drinking too much affects people in the long run”

The sentry takes Janick’s corpse, alongside Seloniel, to a lab in the basement. Which, given the spiral staircases of the HQ, makes both spin. Once they arrive in the basement lab:

“What do we have here?” a forensic wizard asks the pair holding Janick’s corpse.

“Janick believed that, by examining her body, we will find out how alcoholism affects people’s bodies in the long term” Seloniel explains the goal of this study. “So any funeral should be postponed until the study ends”

When Janick’s corpse is set up on the coroner’s table, the wizard wastes no time using a preservative potion on her. That, knowing that a funeral will be held after the autopsy. The sentry then escorts Seloniel away from the basement, not wanting to risk either one contaminating the body.

I wonder what’s the price to pay, People usually understand more readily short-term prices to pay for magic than long-term ones; what would be the price to pay for making preservative potions like the one he put on Janick, to ensure her corpse won’t rot while it’s being studied? A bewildered Seloniel muses, while realizing that both Janick and herself were more “caster” kinds of witches, and effectively knows next to nothing about potion-making. Spellcasting usually tended to attract wizards who wanted to fight.

When the autopsy begins, the coroner finds ruptured veins in several areas, especially the portal vein and the inferior vena cava. And, of course, blood around the ruptures, of which the wizard takes a sample.

The most startling discovery is the extensive liver damage she incurred by using alcohol magic so much. Scars, scars everywhere. Oh my god: alcohol magic really did her in! Her digestive tract had been damaged, too, but her liver was done for, the coroner writes down the various signs he found in Janick’s body regarding the long-term effects of alcoholism and, with it, casting alcohol magic.

But as the news of Janick’s death reach the Order of Magic’s grandmaster, the grandmaster asks for Seloniel, whom he knew was the Order member who knew Janick best in life.

“Seloniel, I will organize her funeral myself in recognition of her contributions to alcohol magic. I want to invite the following people” the Order’s grandmaster lists people who were significant to Janick in life. “I want you to make a eulogy for her”

These include Nyagullah, Sulivac and Ucry, people with whom Janick killed the electricity-stealing dragon, Janick’s family still in Caladon, and the rental healer who nursed all five of them to health. Phew: Janick’s funeral and later, burial, being weeks away buys the Order’s scholars time to properly examine Janick’s body, Seloniel muses while she feels like the delay is due precisely to the need to examine Janick’s body. Especially since she knows that, as people live longer, more people will keep drinking booze and incur health problems.

When the fateful day arrives, at the headquarters of the Order of Magic, not every guest invited attend. Of the people who show up, Nyagullah and Janick’s family are seen crying.

“Why? What happened to our daughter to die so young? Did she die in battle?” Janick’s father has some questions left unanswered.

“I wish we could have met each other in better circumstances, but you will see the whole truth soon enough” Seloniel decides not to tell them everything just yet.

But then several of the magic-using world’s elites arrive, using broomsticks or carpets for the most part. However, the most extravagant entrance belongs to a Supreme Councillor who happens to be a magic user.

When the ceremony begins, the Order’s grandmaster stands at attention behind the coffin, revealing some spider angiomas on Janick’s yellow skin. This display of her affliction causes a few attendees to squirm.

“We’re here today to mourn the passing of Lady Janick, whose loss is a major loss for the magic-using world. In life, she was such a brilliant witch, who contributed virtually everything we know about alcohol magic today. She was a devout practitioner of that school of magic, for whom alcohol magic was her entire life, her life’s work even. I will hand off to…” the grandmaster then names the coroner.

“Lady Janick was loyal to alcohol magic to the bitter end, and chose to use her death to the ravages of alcohol magic to make one last advance to the field. Speaking of advances, her body revealed that regular drinking for prolonged periods can cause damage to one’s liver and veins, as well as to the digestive system and kidneys. Her liver was scarred with no hope of recovery outside of life magic, and her blood contained anomalous concentrations of a certain type of yellow miasma at death” the Order’s coroner announces to the funeral’s attendees. “However, given that short-term consequences of casting alcohol magic tended to mirror those of heavy drinking of non-magical alcohol, these symptoms suggest that heavy drinking can lead to similar consequences in the long run, even without alcohol magic”

I guess, that yellow miasma would have something to do with liver malfunction, either as a cause or a consequence of it, the coroner muses while the crowd gasps in horror about the discoveries surrounding Janick’s affliction.

“I am Seloniel, the new steward of Laverton. While Janick is known across the realm for her contributions to alcohol magic, and killing the electricity-stealing dragon with it, let’s not forget that she did rebuild Laverton from a disastrous uprising, and transforming it into a banking and industrial center of the frontier, using money borne from the sale of magical wine to keep the village tax-exempt and get the village’s bank in operation. The residents have never been happier, and the village is known for producing items requiring wood and/or iron: furniture, plows, casks and carts; in addition, residents of this village now enjoy financial peace of mind, especially when their accounts bear interest, thanks to merchants from the outside world paying for their local merchandise in installments with bank financing”

Said bank financing ultimately makes the merchants pay more for their merchandise than they would have if they paid for it in full at delivery; however, these items are not always the most predictable to sell, or to reap benefits from their use, Seloniel muses, while she keeps quiet about the shadier aspects of the bank being in a tax haven.