"By the gods, that is most foul," Fren spurted as he tried to breathe. The wine that Kagen had made was not much better than the previous batch, but it smelled better. He had brought three different types of wine with him this time and was getting us to taste-test them. Each was more foul than the last. Kagen was a journeyman but was closer to the apprentices than the other journeymen. He was raised to Journeymen when the others were given their second Vocation. It was all very sudden, and Kagen preferred staying with the people he knew than hanging with the other Journeymen.

"Would it not be healthier to just grab a bottle of real wine from the Kitchen?" Roland asked as he looked at the bottle being passed around as if it were a venomous snake.

"Where would the fun be in that?" Bren asked, taking a sip like a real trooper. She was almost able to keep a straight face until she opened her mouth to breathe. "It burns," she gasped.

Sarah grabbed the wine bottle from Bren and sniffed, "Are you sure this won't make us go blind? I heard of people who tried to make this stuff, and they ended up going blind."

Kagen smiled, "They were making moonshine. I am making wine. A very different animal."

"Still tastes more like horse piss than wine," Fren added.

"Better than the goblin piss he made last time," Brian muttered.

"You never told us what Word of Power you use to make this with. Transmutation?" Brian had asked Kagen several times what the Word was, and he steadfastly refused.

"I bet the word is Poison," Fren quipped with a chuckle. When he noticed Kagen's frown and a slight blush, he shrieked, "You son of a bitch, it is Poison, isn't it!"

Kagen held up his hands in defence, and Fren reached out a meaty hand to grab him, "Of course it is Poison. What do you think wine is made from? So are ale, mead, and other alcoholic drinks. They're all poison."

"Are you serious?" Roland said as he shifted away from Kagen, "You know it is a crime to try and poison a member of the Royal family," he continued. Roland was the nephew of the King and made sure that everyone was reminded about it at least once a day.

Bren turned to Roland, "Are you still a member of the Royal family? I thought you had to give that all up when you became a mage?"

Roland looked like he had swallowed a bug, "Yes. I am still a member of the Royal family. I just had to give up all my titles, lands and any chance at the throne."

"You were in line for the throne?" Brian asked. He was not sure how the lines of succession worked, but the idea that one day, Roland could be King was mind-boggling.

"I was tenth in line," Roland responded, looking down at his hands. The others could see that he was not happy about losing his position.

"Well, I don't think it is fair," Bren pipped up, "Just because a bunch of mages tried to usurp the throne a hundred years ago is no reason to ban all mages from holding titles and stuff. It is not our fault."

"You know as well as we do that the mages back then almost succeeded," Fren countered. "If it were not for a group of other mages defending the throne, we would be living in a very different world right now."

"Where we would either be dead or enslaved," Sarah added. The organization that tried to take over the throne was led by a man of incredible power. He wanted to enslave all mages and use their power to increase his. The fact that he almost succeeded was a very scary idea for a lot of people, and it was for that reason that changes were made that prevented mages from getting into a position of power like that again. It was too bad that Roland could never become King, but it was better than what might have happened.

"You would think that poison would taste better than this shit," Bren said as she picked up one of the other bottles. "Don't you want to encourage people to drink it?"

Before Kagen could answer, Alek showed up. He was the apprentice to Mistress Cordelia. "Knew I would find you guys here. Is that the new batch of wine?"

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"Yes," Kagen said with a smile and pointing out the three bottles, "Three different flavours, so pick your poison."

Alek looked around at his friends, "Why is everyone laughing?"

**********************************

The next couple of weeks fell into a strange routine. In the early morning, all the mages, except for the Masters, fell out into the courtyard, and Rogdar began training them in physical exercise. For the first couple of days, most of the mages made a joke of it, but when it came to time to run around the Fortress, many of them started to seriously complain. Some cheated by using spells to augment their speed, and others just disappeared. By the fourth day, hardly anyone showed up other than the apprentices and a few of the journeymen. Rogdar was not pleased by this turn of events, but this did give Brian a chance to finally meet Hanzel, the mage who had an abrasive personality and wanted to kill everyone. She was as pleasant as she sounded. Brian thought the only reason she was even there was that she respected Rogdar because she kept her eyes on him the entire time she was in the courtyard. She was one of the few that worked hard at getting in shape, not that she really needed to. She was very attractive and appeared very fit. Brian wasn't sure what her story was, but he noticed that many of the other mages kept a distance from her.

"You best hope she doesn't notice you are staring at her," Alek whispered to Brian.

"What?"

"You're staring, and she is not known for being friendly. If she noticed, she would probably come over here and beat you death with your own eyeballs". Alek laughed at his own joke.

"That doesn't even make sense," Bren commented.

"Exactly," Alek said a little too loud and got the attention of most of the people in the courtyard. "That is exactly the muscle I need to work on," he covered with a grin.

"Smooth," Brian whispered.

"I am not the one trying to ogle death."

Later that night, Hanzel ran into Brian in the Dinning hall. Brian lost his balance as she slammed him into a wall and held him there with her forearm across his throat. "If you want to keep your eyes in your head, I suggest you keep them to yourself!"

Brian smiled at her, "And miss out on seeing such a beautiful young lady as yourself? Never."

Hanzel stepped back a bit and slammed back into Brian, "Don't push your luck, Apprentice, I have no use for people like you."

"Of course you do," Brian whispered to her, "You can't go around picking on people who are stronger than you, so you have to target people who are weaker. This makes you look stronger than you really are. You need me to be scared so that other people will be scared of you. But I am not."

"What is going on there," Rogdar shouted from across the room.

Hanzel stepped back from Brian and released him from being pinned to the wall,

"Nothing."

Brian just laughed.

"Something funny, Apprentice?", Rogdar asked with a glare.

"Yes, Adept," Brian replied.

Rogdar narrowed his eyes, "Care to explain?"

"Just that Journeyman Hanzel thought that threatening me with bodily harm was an appropriate social response because I dared to look at her in the exercise yard," Brian said. The crowd of mages in the room froze in place. It was one thing to see it happening and another to have it spoken out loud.

Rogdar turned to Hazel, "Is this true Journeyman Hanzel."

"He looked at me with male desire!" Hanzel hissed.

Rogdar sighed, "What have I told you about this. If someone says something or does something to offend you, you need to speak with me first". Rogdar turned to Brian and noticed the spilled food on the floor, "Please clean this mess up, and we will discuss this matter later, Apprentice."

Brian looked at the mess on the floor and shook his head, "I am sorry, Adept, I am happy to clean up after my Master when he makes a mess, or even myself, but she can clean up her own." And with that, he moved to the serving table to get another plate of food.

"What in the Seven Hells is wrong with you!" Bren hissed at him when he sat down at their table.

"She is all bark and no bite, or so I was told. Also, she is a bully that gets her way through fear. If you don't fear them, they can't control you," Brian explained.

"She may not be able to control you, but she could probably break your neck," Fren commented from across the table.

"You can't let bullies control you. They may hurt you, but they are like cockroaches. Shine a light on their activities, and they scurry away.

"And what was that with talking back to Rogdar. That was dumb."

"Asking me to clean up the mess that she made was not fair. I merely pointed it out.

"Ya, in front of everyone. You need to learn when to pick your battles.

"I did. Standing up to Rogdar like that, I make it clear to everyone else in the room that if I was not going to back down Rogdar, I would not back down from them. That probably saved me a bunch of unnecessary confrontation in the future", Brian added as she shoved food into his mouth.

Fren looked around the room, "I always knew you were a cocky son of a bitch, but this was a whole new level of cocky. Rogdar is going to kick your ass?"

Brian thought about that for a moment. Fren was right. He never spoke to the Masters like that and never would. But the Journeymen had been giving the Apprentices grief for the past two weeks. Although they never came to a confrontation like today, it was brewing. Usually, it was snide comments or some posturing in some way, but this interaction with Hanzel was different. She was a bully, and Brian grew up with two older brothers who were bullies. He learned early on that the best way to deal with them was to fight back. Bullies were interested in easy prey, not someone who fought them, even if they were stronger. It didn't always work for the victims, but in this case, he would take the sore throat as a victory.

"I don't like bullies," he said, taking a bite out of an apple.