The Radius looked at Jeb for a few moments, then nodded. “I cannot think of any reason why that would be an issue. Do you have any plans for what you will be doing after dinner, or would you be able to tour our facilities tonight?”
Jeb beamed internally.
Doing his best to remain collected externally, he replied, “Visiting your brewery after dinner would be fantastic.”
Some instinct of his compelled him to add, “I have very little planned for my time in the Enclave, and would be happy to learn anything that you think I should.”
Seeing the look on her face, Jeb had the feeling that the addition had been well chosen.
They passed into a content silence as they finished the last dregs of soup in their bowls. Jeb half listened to the cheerful conversations at the tables around him. He was reminded of nothing so much as the whole town meals during the harvest season. If this was a standard night in the Circle of the Field, he could only imagine what it was like during the harvest.
People slowly began yawning and filing out. Some left alone, others in pairs or small groups. As the crowd made their way to sleep, others came out to begin cleaning the tables. Jeb noticed that the table cleaners all had the appearance of younger Druids, and nodded at that fact. It was good to know that teaching humility was a universal in farming communities.
The Radius watched her young charges work, ensuring that they were not slacking, before turning to Jeb.
“Are you ready to see the Brewery?” she asked.
Jeb nodded, and the two set off. The Radius did not speak as they walked through the large building, and Jeb respected the silence. Unlike the Circle of the Swarm, where each wall was ornately decorated and carved with tapestries and decorations, the walls of the Circle of the Field were generally bare wood. The carpet underneath Jeb’s feet was well made, but also fairly plain. With nothing else to do while he walked, Jeb focused more deeply on the carpet.
Despite the lack of immediately visible ornamentation, Jeb saw that there was a pattern in the weave. If he had not spent so much time working with the Weaver, he was sure that he would not have noticed. Given that he did spend the time, however, he saw that it was an incredibly difficult and durable weave. Looking at the walls once again, Jeb saw the same truth repeated there: everything in the space was completely perfectly crafted, even if generally undecorated.
The longer that he spent walking through the halls, the more Jeb appreciated the aesthetic. It was no less a display of wealth and power than what the Circle of the Swarm used, but it was far subtler. Rather than screaming to everyone around that they had resources, the Circle of the Fields showcased it only to those who were already in the know. He was broken from his thoughts when the Radius spoke.
“We’re here,” she said, opening a door.
Jeb was immediately hit with the overwhelming smell of hops, yeast, and malts. Something in the scent was ever so slightly different than barley malt, and it took Jeb a while to understand that he was smelling malted rice and other grains. In front of him was the largest brewing cask that he had ever seen.
A few people walked around it, making a few measurements before writing notes on a ledger. Blinking his Magical sight on and off, however, Jeb was unable to see any difference. Sure, there was a fair amount of disturbance in the ambient Mana simply due to the presence of so many High Tier people. The cask, however, seemed to be existing completely passively within the Magical space around it.
Before Jeb’s mind could be taken down too many wrong paths, the Radius spoke, “This is where we produce much of the non-Magical beer that the Enclave consumes.”
Seeing Jeb’s look of confusion, she continued, “Not everyone wants to drink Magical Beer every time that they want a beer. More than that, not everyone wants their beer to be packed with flavor. Some people just want to drink something cold, crisp, and identical from batch to batch.”
Jeb nodded. Some of his classmates in the Academy had liked brews from some of the larger Breweries. Jeb had never truly understood the appeal, though he did have a vague recollection that they were also slightly cheaper.
“That makes sense,” Jeb finally spoke, “but I’m personally not interested in working to make non-Magical Beer, at least at this stage in my life.”
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Realizing that he may have come across as dismissive, he continued, “If you think that I need to practice on mundane brews, though, I am happy to develop my skills.”
The Radius nodded. “Given the Brews that you brought to your Integration Party, I think that you’ll be fine. Of course, if any of our Brewers think that your skills are lacking, you may be asked to return to working on mundane beer. If that is the case, however, then they absolutely would not have you working on the beer we plan to sell. After all, even if mundane beer is easier to make than Magical, we still pride ourselves on high quality.”
“That makes sense,” Jeb agreed.
She led him through a small wooden door into a room that felt far older than the one he had just left. Scents of yeast, malts, and hops still danced in the air, but they were surrounded by the taste of Magic. Jeb felt his nose twitch as the different Magical textures started to assault him.
Where the other Brewery had twenty or so people moving briskly about, this room was filled with hundreds of Brewers. Also unlike the other Brewery, where each person was working together for some greater project, it seemed as though almost everyone in this space was working on their own project. A lot of them had the same absent look on their faces that Jeb recognized from graduate students too engrossed in their project to notice the world around them. Jeb found himself dodging as they walked right past him carrying bubbling cauldrons.
“As you can tell,” the Radius said after Jeb had time to acclimate to the new space, “creating Magical Brews is significantly more hands-on than the bulk Brewing we do in the larger room.”
Jeb once again blinked on his Magical sight. Something felt off about the two spaces, and he asked for permission to look back at the other room. When it was granted, he opened the door and looked at the overlarge fermenter again.
Now that he was searching for it, he saw that even though the beer itself was not interacting with Magic, the fermenter certainly was. Lines of runes and script curled around it, pulling in both ambient Mana and the Mana that workers fed it. Where the workers fed it Mana, Jeb saw the fermenter return a pulse of Magic. It took him a little while to understand, as the actual Magic was so foreign to him. When he did, however, he had to cock his head in confusion.
Druidic Magic finally let him understand the overall goal of the engravings on the fermenter. It seemed like it worked to regulate the temperature of the wort inside, along with a number of other quality of life pieces. However, it was horribly inefficient.
Jeb watched the Magic flow around the fermenter, shocked at the waste. Even as a student, he knew that he could have designed a more efficient Enchantment. Now that he was a Graduate, he was positive he could make an Enchantment that took orders of magnitude less Mana to operate. The sheer crudeness of the design clashed with the polish that he had seen in every other part of the space.
The carvings themselves were done expertly, at least as far as Jeb could tell, but that was the opposite of the ethos that seemed to dominate the Circle of the Fields. Rather than something plain which observation showed was perfectly crafted, it was something that appeared perfect, belying the problems underneath. He ran back to the Radius, hoping that she might have an explanation for the fermenter’s amateurish Enchanting.
“I don’t know what you mean,” she replied. “That fermenter was the work of many years of Druidic Artisans’ work to make the most efficient monitoring system that we could.”
Jeb frowned. “With all due respect, I am certain that I could develop a better Enchantment in a manner of minutes.”
Understanding dawned in the Radius’s eyes. “Could you make something more efficient using Druidic Magic, though?”
Jeb slowly shook his head. “I don’t know why that matters, though. Just like I wouldn’t try to use Enchanting to make an Alchemical product, why would you use Druidic Magic to copy an Enchantment?”
“Have you not noticed that-” she cut herself off suddenly, muttering, “no, I suppose that he wouldn’t, given that this is the only place he had ever had access to Druidic Magic.”
Once again addressing Jeb, she continued, “Have you not noticed that the Mana in the Enclave is almost entirely Attuned to Druidic Magic?”
Jeb grimaced, “I don’t think so?”
“Once you leave the Enclave, I am certain that you will notice that your Druidic Magic is far weaker than it is here. Just as you can Attune Mana to an Element, each School of Magic adds its own flavor to ambient Mana.”
“How have I never noticed that before?” Jeb asked.
“I can think of a few reasons,” she replied cryptically “but weren’t you interested in learning how we Brew?”
Jeb hesitated. As much as learning about Mana Attunement remained an interest of his, she was right. He had come to the Circle to learn about Brewing.
“Can we come back to this topic in the future?” he finally asked.
She chuckled. “Absolutely. Mana Attunement is one of my focuses, and I always find it a shame that others do not find it as fascinating as I do.”
“Can I ask one last question before we start with the Druidic Brewing information?” Jeb hesitantly asked. When she nodded, he continued, “if the Enchantment analogues are so useful for that Brewery, why don’t any of the fermenters here have them?”
She gave Jeb an earnest nod. “That is a fantastic question. There are a number of reasons, which mostly boil down to three major ones. First, the cost. It is expensive to carve the Druidic Magic into an object. Second, Magics can interact with each other, and limiting variables is essential to proper recipe optimization. And finally, there’s no need. Each Brewer here is actively monitoring their Brew from start to finish.”
“I suppose that makes sense.”
“I’ll leave you to your learning,” she said, moving to leave.
Jeb almost tried to stop her before remembering that, as the Radius for the Circle, she likely had better things to do than babysit him through his many questions. Looking around the room, he tried to find someone who did not seem actively working on a project.