While Janick is given a temporary privilege of setting up shop for the day, the initial barrel of ale is quickly gone, forcing her to conjure mead instead, with the spell to refill it being cast right in front of parched onlookers.
"What? That witch can refill an entire barrel of mead with a spell?" a surprised market-goer questions what he just saw Janick do with the barrel. "Alcohol magic is a thing?"
"I must get my hands of as much of this magical mead as I can get!" another consumer, clearly affected by FOMO, rushes to Janick's stall, with an empty bucket ready to be filled with the precious magical mead.
"That would be..." Janick starts speaking, but she eyeballs the amount of mead this bucket would contain. "Fifty gold"
A bit more than a gallon goes into this bucket and she already earned nearly half of the money earned by selling an entire barrel of ale the shoppers previously assumed was just run-of-the-mill ale, selling for three gold per gallon on average, and her barrel contained 36.
Then people who want in on the magical mead start lining up for it, willing to pay increasingly high prices for a gallon of it, or perhaps less, if they feel like the price asked is too high. Janick sees the pile of gold getting bigger by the sale being made, just as the barrel of mead is emptying with every sale.
"Sorry to disturb you, Janick, but I realize I have nothing to sell here today. If you want, our own market day is on Tuesday, and you can go sell alcohol to my village then. Also, don't forget to keep your money safely and, if necessary, ask for help for the quest" Seloniel informs Janick as to the details of the quest.
"I'm also aware that, if the help I can get isn't already equipped, we will need to pay for their gear" Janick slips a mention of aid in front of the customers lusting for alcohol, before Seloniel takes off on her besom.
"What do you need help for?" a customer asks right behind the one being served.
"Killing an electricity-stealing dragon" Janick reveals the truth openly, uninhibited by the effects of her blood content increasing.
"Why would a dragon steal electricity? Is electricity some sort of dragon money?" another customer in the line asks Janick, thinking that maybe she's deluded.
A few customers wonder what an alcohol witch could do against an electricity-stealing dragon. Nevertheless, they are still interested in buying magical mead, probably because they never drank any kind of magical drink in their lives. Some customers sample it after having paid for it, others would hoard it.
Also, since she knows that not everyone would fancy drinking mead, as soon as the mead barrel is emptied and the proceeds collected, she casts another spell, this time to conjure wine, to fill it back up.
This time around, Janick's vision is blurring shortly after the spell is finished and seems to lose balance somewhat when she takes in the customers' coins. And this is further compounded by the weight of said coins getting heavier with each sale made. Headaches also seem to mount, especially since noise is everywhere in the marketplace.
"I will need" hic! "a bigger barrel!" Janick starts to hiccup, but she decides to wait until her initial barrel is empty to buy another barrel for future trips to the marketplace.
"What do you mean, you need a bigger barrel? Does your magic make you crazy?"
By the time her initial barrel is empty, her vision is still a little blurred, but she immediately pays what she deems is the excise on the magical beverages she just sold. What her alcohol-addled mind deemed was one-tenth. With the remainder of the money, which she securely puts in her satchel, now mostly full of gold, she decides to wander across the castle courtyard hoping that someone would have a barrel of the size she deems appropriate for sale. Aimlessly to the eyes of the other customers who couldn't believe the side effects of casting alcohol magic would cause her to act as if she drank her own drinks.
She then buys a barrel large enough to fit her previous barrel in it, for the cost of about five gallons of ale, give or take, and eats cheese before putting her old barrel into her new one. Once that is done, she fastens the new barrel underneath her besom before taking off, but she needs to be helped on it because she can't seem to be able to get on the besom in her drunken state.
When she manages to take off, she finds herself slowed down by having two barrels underslung her besom, as opposed to one on the way in. And anyone noticing her in flight away from the castle realizes that, because of her blood content (or BC), her flight trajectory is a little erratic, but becomes less and less so as she returns to Caladon and her vision becomes less blurred.
Upon returning to Caladon, Janick wastes no time putting the old, smaller barrel into the kitchen. However, her father discovers the new barrel and asks her some questions about the new barrel.
"Why did you return from Sir Chumzurk's funeral with an extra barrel?" Janick's father asks her, while her mother is toiling in the kitchen in her place.
"I paid for it by selling magical alcohol there?" Janick answers, with her tone of voice still affected by her lowered BC.
"You must be hungry by now, but just don't drink more alcohol" Janick's mother then hands her a loaf of bread.
"You're the only one in the family who can use magic, make the most out of it!" one of Janick's brothers tells her, before continuing to sweep the floors of the inn. "If it means selling magical alcohol, so be it"
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Meanwhile, back at her home, Seloniel wastes no time making arrowheads using fire magic so she can then store them for sale on Tuesday, hoping that some fletcher would buy these arrowheads then. And also taking into account what she feels will sell most, such as the hunting arrow heads.
Oof... it seems like, to make it in metal-based trades, women need to be proficient in fire magic, she sighs after seeing a keg full of arrow heads, made using fire magic. And early signs of burns on her hands. I think I should stop for now and keep a bucket of water close by when I will make more arrowheads tomorrow. What I find bizarre, though, is that our lord makes us bear the costs of past failures we try to make up for!
A little tired by making that number of arrowheads, as well as the focus required to use fire magic at the required level of precision to make arrowheads using fire magic, she feels the time has come to stop.
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"Why did you suddenly start turning your attention to arrowheads? You used to be repairing agricultural tools!" Seloniel's younger brother asks her.
"It seems like arrowheads are needed everywhere these days, especially for hunting!" Seloniel answers him, a little tired, but also wondering where the proceeds would go. "Let's not forget that most people's dealings with wizards in our region would be fire wizards, under the form of blacksmiths or bakers"
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The following morning, Janick awakens to headaches, which intensify at dawn. And she feels a little weak, too, since she feels pain in her legs. However, some of the pain might be due to having to ride a besom differently with two barrels underslung beneath it to return home. Is that the consequences of casting too much alcohol magic? Last I felt anything like today, I was engaged in an aerial battle where I used my alcohol magic as some kind of smoke screen, Janick reflects on her experience of casting alcohol magic in such large quantities on the marketplace. Hopefully I get better in two days' time: while I might have earned about a thousand gold yesterday by selling magical alcohol, it will take several weeks at this rate to retake the toll station. So I need to sell more alcohol, and more often, but that's assuming Seloniel wouldn't be able to sell anything. However, selling more alcohol and more often would mean me getting hung over more.
So while she struggles to get out of bed, her father comes to her room:
"Dad, I will no longer work here; I will become a traveling alcohol merchant" Janick announces, while still hung over.
"I wonder where we can find some cook then; just take good care of your besom! And, once you can afford a flying carpet, don't hesitate to commission one!"
So while using alcohol magic means that my profits will be far higher than those of non-magical alcohol merchants, the cheapest flying carpet is about the price of a palfrey, and that's several times more expensive than even a besom or a cart and a pack horse to draw it. My own besom cost me about 1500 gold, and the cheapest palfrey costs about ten thousand. Bottom line: I am still a long way from being able to buy a flying carpet, Janick has a lot on her mind after the remarks of her father about what comes next. And her thoughts turn to the debt burden she's slapped with. Right now, I was only able to repay a quarter of the debt incurred by the previous attempt. Which means that I don't want too large a party to retake the toll station, probably six at most.
Which means that she will use the tavern's alcohol reserves to sell not simply for on-site consumption, but also for takeout. And, of course, given that she's well-known as an alcohol witch in Caladon, she sells much more alcohol than at the tavern alone. Even when hung over.
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Two days later, Janick arrives in Seloniel's village at dawn, with the empty puncheon (whose capacity is twice that of the first barrel she used for selling magical alcohol) underneath her besom. Seloniel's stall is right next to hers, and with lots of arrowheads made in only three days using fire magic.
When the marketplace opens, all the fletchers present marvel at Seloniel's mass-manufactured arrowheads (or at least as close to mass-manufactured as she could get with her own fire magic).
"Look at these arrowheads! These are much better than the arrowheads I usually got!" a fletcher immediately stands ready to fill an entire basket with these arrowheads he feels are almost like magic. But not before asking Seloniel about the price. "How much for the arrowheads?"
"Thirty gold for a bundle of twenty-four arrowheads" Seloniel answers the onlooker, who forks over several hundred gold for arrowheads.
Janick might be able to get the alcohol flowing, but I don't have nearly as many customers as she does, Seloniel is amazed by the length of the line in front of Janick' stall, all wanting to get their magical alcohol until supplies last.
Janick, in hopes of replicating the success of three days ago, uses the same pricing strategy as with the previous attempt. But with twice as much alcohol to sell, the supplies also last significantly longer than last time.
And, of course, some customers can't help themselves but to sample the drinks they just bought, right after they bought several gallons of these for those who are most interested in buying as much of the magical alcohol as she could. However, much to Seloniel's chagrin, there just aren't nearly as many people who would buy arrowheads as people who would buy ale, mead or wine.
When the time comes for the puncheon to be filled with magical wine with a spell, Janick, with her vision blurred and her body trembling as a result of casting it, can somewhat recognize a familiar silhouette and voice:
"Magical wine? Please, let me have some!" that familiar voice calls out to her.
"Wine?" Janick then proceeds to hiccup right in front of him. "How... much?"
"Just enough to fill this gourd" Nyagullah could tell that Janick struggles to eyeball the amount of wine that can fit in it.
"Do it yourself... then!" Janick yells at Nyagullah, but, while conveying some sort of anger, her voice lacks coherence.
"You really seem to love casting alcohol magic, do you?" Nyagullah asks her.
Nyagullah fills up a half-gallon gourd full of magical wine, knowing that it will last him several days on the road. And promptly pays the going rate for that half-gallon, before going back to the main square where the market is held.
Yet, with each drop of the magical wine being sold, especially since wine doesn't come very often to this region, Janick sees the pile of gold getting bigger behind her puncheon. Here she feels like wine is the drink that sells like hot cakes. Once her puncheon is empty...
"What brought you... here?" a dizzy Janick, still reeling in, and lacking coordination in her movements, asks Nyagullah, as he comes to her.
"I just feel this time of the year to be better suited to performing in this specific region" he answers her, having already sung the praises of the magical booze, and, indirectly, hers, while there was still any available.
"I have one question: since I have surplus arrowheads, I may be wondering when the other market days are around these parts, and where, please" Seloniel asks him, because she was unable to sell out all her arrowheads today.
After Nyagullah answers Seloniel, she feels like another market could provide her the opportunity to sell off the arrowheads she still has on hand. And she also helps a Janick on the verge of blacking out back on her feet so she can return to Seloniel's home to recover. And puts Janick's besom inside the puncheon, which is rolled. The pair moves at a turtle's pace because of Janick's lack of coordination.
Upon arriving at Seloniel's house, Janick falls asleep, her BC being far too high for her to safely fly. Which prompts her family to ask questions about Janick's presence.
"Who is she?" Seloniel's younger brother looks at Janick sleeping on the floor.
"She's Janick, a comrade-in-arms as an air superiority witch. She cast a lot of alcohol spells lately" Seloniel answers her younger brother, pre-empting his questions. "Speaking of which, did you buy any of the magical alcohol she was selling?"
"Wine. It's not often we can get a wine merchant to our community" Seloniel's younger brother takes a while to realize that Janick is vomiting in her sleep. "Looks like casting too much alcohol magic is the same as drinking too much"
Seloniel then reaches for a rag to clean up the barf laying on the floor, and her brother A few hours later, when Janick awakens from her alcohol magic-induced sleep:
"Janick, you can't keep charging such high prices for magical alcohol forever!" Seloniel scolds her about the prices charged for magical wine earlier today. "You charged as much as the best Kaeshana ice wine! Which, by now, you know is a luxury item!"
"Oh?" an astonished Janick yelps. "However, if I lower my prices, I will need to cast more spells to make up for the extra sales volume! And you can always make horseshoes, barrel and wheel hoops, as well as rivets for all three"
"I was making arrowheads out of old horseshoes, and now you're telling me to make new ones as well?" Seloniel is then reminded of the sheer number of draft or pack horses used in this region and that, on average, each horse needed to have its shoes replaced every six weeks. "Oh and here are the most important market days for us" She then lists what Nyagullah told her when Janick was drunk.
I know what this means: go further and further afield for selling magical alcohol. And, in turn, Seloniel should also go further afield to sell arrowheads, horseshoes and hoops, Janick reflects on raising money for their upcoming attempt at retaking the toll station. The good news is that we are now in position to repay the debts incurred by Sir Chumzurk in full. However lucrative the sale of magical alcohol might be, I am not sure if it's worth being drunk all the time, if that's the price to pay for monetizing alcohol magic.