The smell of our Brewing class was already making me worried. Not because I thought Professor Carmine would do us harm, on purpose, but because I wasn't sure I was in the mood for whatever he was going to pull this time.

Nothing on the desks. A good sign or just making room for mischief?

He wasn't in the room either. Which meant nothing because he was never on time. Dramatic entrances stopped being cool weeks ago.

I was proud of myself for holding in my sigh.

Celica looked bored, her hand resting on one hand. Russel was working on something, I couldn't make any sense of it but I knew it wasn't anything Brewing related.

I still had no idea what that smell was, or if I wanted the answer to it. Neither of them commented on it, but it was still there. Like someone had turned lemon soda syrup into a gas. It was something I was starting to get used to.

The red fog came in just as the wait was beginning to irritate me. It revealed him sitting on his desk, legs crossed at the ankles. On his face I couldn't find a care in the world for the room full of students anywhere.

Carmine had a different cup in his hand this time. I was fairly sure it was porcelain, but shaped and colored like a paper coffee cup. White with a thick brown band in the middle and a green fish symbol on the front.

Uh.

He was stirring the contents, something red and thick like a milkshake. He sighed and raised the cup up into the air. It floated, faintly glowing that bright Carmine red.

The smell was stronger, now.

"It's a terrible morning, but I suppose you all don't want to be here either. Alright let's have a bit of fun."

This was the last class of the day. It wasn't morning anymore. I also didn't trust his idea of fun.

"I won't tell you what you're making. Just follow the instructions I'm about to give you and you'll be required to drink it. So pay close attention."

Wonderful. I wasn't sure what I was expecting from him, but this sounded about right. Was today going to be the day someone poisoned themselves in this class?

Red fog filled the room, rushing in and around us all like someone blew up a dam.

I swear I could smell it. That's how thick it was. It reminded me of a doctor's office. Sterile and sanitized. I hated it.

When it cleared itself away, a page of instructions and set of equipment was on our desk. A runic plate, just like the ones from alchemy. This one was made of iron. A beaker, clear glass and measurements on the side. Measuring spoons. A set of metallic tongs. Mortar and pestle. A small copper kettle. Three handless mugs. Jars of dried plants I mostly hadn't heard of. The last thing was a jug of water.

Five little jars of clear glass, each with corks of different colors. The one with dark blue was labeled cliff currants. I was used to the very dark purple of currant jams, these were like basalt grey.

Pale purple had something called vining sundew. It didn't look much like any sundew I'd seen before. But maybe seeing the full plant would change my mind.

The third cork was grass green and had daffodil petals in its jar.

Another had an orange cork and inside was gilded oak bark. I'd heard of golden oaks, how different were gilded ones? Then again, when I looked a bit closer I realized part of the bark was a golden yellow color.

The last one had a plain brown cork, inside was rainbow agave. I could see different color leaves inside the jar so I guess that's where the name came from. What any species of agave was doing here was beyond me.

"Do you two have any idea what we're making?" I asked.

"Could be a few different things. Nothing harmful, I think." Celica was holding up the page of instructions.

I glanced around, every group had a different set of stuff. So no help from any of them. But that was okay.

Russel activated the fire plate. The flames were a bright golden color, gold-like metal shimmered into existence. It looked delicate, lots of little bits of thin metal. But it was sturdy enough to hold the kettle not directly on the flame but close enough to heat whatever we're putting in.

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"Serafina, you're on measuring," Celica announced.

"Sure. What are we starting with?"

"Five hundred milliliters of water."

That wasn't hard. I handed Russel the beaker, he dumped the water in. The kettle wasn't hot enough for it to start steaming.

"Nine grams of ground agave," Celica read next.

"Does it specify color?" I asked as I opened the jar. The smallest leaves were yellow with the biggest was red. The sizes ranged from less than an inch long to four inches long.

"Nope."

I grabbed the tongs and lifted a leaf out of the jar. It was a turquoise color and medium sized compared to the others. It was strangely delicate, parts flaking off as I lifted it. The spots left behind were green, matching the most pictures of agave I'd seen. I set it in the mortar and with not much effort turned it into dust.

The dust was that same green. I guess that meant the color was more to do with the structure of the leaves themselves. Probably why it didn't matter which color we used.

I measured out nine grams and handed it to Russel.

Little whisps of steam came out of the kettle as he added the agave. No cloud of poison or strange smoke came out of it, so we probably didn't do anything wrong yet.

"Four currant berries, whole." Celica read.

They were a little tricky to separate from the cluster but getting four wasn't that hard.

I watched Russel add them to the kettle, more steam was coming out of it now, but no bad smells. I could only really smell the underlying scent of the classroom.

Acidic and far too sweet.

"One sundew vine, cut into large pieces," Celica told me.

I pulled out the singular vine. Deep green with none of the little hair-like things on the sundew species I was used to. Yet, it seemed to stick to the tongs as I lifted it out of the jar. I paused for a second, we didn't have a knife. I don't know what he was expecting us to do here.

"Um…" I commented as I tried to figure out how exactly to ask.

Russel looked at me, "Oh right. Yeah. You probably don't know that spell."

"And if I did, using it might not be the best idea?" I wasn't going to explode, and didn't need to prick myself on anything anymore. But testing the curse was always risky. And best done outside.

"I got it," Russel volunteered. A thin bit of orange light appeared at the end of his finger, he then made a few swift motions with it before The vine fell to pieces, but getting caught but an orange skeleton hand that dropped them into the kettle for us.

Still no explosion. A small win.

"Okay. Now those things need to boil for a bit. Then we can take it off the heat entirely," Celica continued. I guess she was more used to me not using magic in class at this point.

"Was she like this in Alchemy with you?" Russel asked.

"I'm right here," Celica said.

"Maybe I was asking both of you."

I rolled my eyes at him. "Celica was fine to work with there. Certainly more helpful than Gorgon was."

"Gorgon hated you," Celica said with a chuckle.

I shrugged, "At first, I think he got over it though."

"Fethris was good lab partner, but he's stuck in regular Brewing by himself," Russel commented.

Poor thing. He'd missed the required score by like three points.

"Speaking of, we should talk about classes for next year soon. I'd rather we have all summer to prepare for those tests," Celica began.

Russel groaned, "Can it wait?"

"If we're adding to the 'things to do soon' list, talk about what we're doing for Tower Representative next year," I commented.

"Aw...she thinks she can get out of this," Celica turned to Russel to say it.

"I should at least be allowed to make a case on why it shouldn't be me."

"Do you really think it'll work?" Russel asked.

"No. But I want to try anyway," I grumbled. I was allowed to have low expectations and be upset about it. I had the opposite of faith in them on this subject. I was still going to do my best to persuade them to pick literally anyone else.

Russel laughed while Celica shook her head with amusement written all over her face.

I had the worst friends. I had every intention of keeping them.

The steam coming from the kettle turned purple.

"Oh, it's done. Take it off the heat," Celica said.

I don't know if I would have been bold enough to grab something that had been that close to the fire with my bare hands. Especially metal. I'd seen Mom grab stuff out of the oven like that sometimes. But perhaps when one has far more faith in their magic than I do, it wasn't about bravery.

Russel placed the kettle on the table. Which maybe should have damaged it but I guess magic was good at heat proofing things.

"What's next?" he asked.

"Seven daffodil petals," Celica answered.

Barely even an effort, really. The purple steam changed to blue when the last petal hit the solution. I could only hope that was a good sign.

"Okay, now we need to take a piece of the bark and stir the pot five times," Celica explained.

I handed her the tongs with the piece held tightly.

She took and stirred the contents of the kettle. I didn't notice any difference in the bark when she lifted it out, but something must have happened. The steam had turned yellow.

"And we're done," Celica announced. "Are you two ready for this?"

"No, but let's get it over with," I told them.

Celica poured the three mugs, each with about the same amount of green liquid. Something in it seemed to sparkle. Perhaps an effect of the oak?

"On the count of three?" Russel offered.

Well if this kills us, we die together.

It didn't taste like much. After all that work. It wasn't sweet, it was a very light delicate flavor. Nothing that told me I was about to drop dead. The curse didn't even care. Just gently throbbing as it always did these days.

"Well, we're not dead. That's something," I mumbled.

"I mean, if any professor is going to poison us for a laugh it would be Carmine," Russel commented.

"I know he's annoying but it's not that bad," Celica told us.

Wait. Something was wrong.

"Ah Dragon Tower's done. Let me see," Carmine was suddenly behind me. "Ah yes, the compulsive honesty brew. Have fun with that you three."

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