The Apprentice

She came to Brewfall in her late teens. Hazies had produced a Sister worth studying under the Brewmage himself, and he brought her in without hesitation. She stayed for most of her twenties.

She was, in the Order's records and in the Brewmage's own words, his best. She read the entire Brewfall Archive twice through by the end of her second year, and asked questions the Order had assumed no one would think to ask. When she finished her formal training, the Brewmage tried, quietly, to keep her on. She thanked him and went home to Hazies to rejoin her Sisters. He never held it against her, and they wrote often.

When the Western Warlock returned with stories of the Maltiverse and the Brewmage began looking fofr explorers of his own, the Fifth Sister was the name that came first to his mind. He wrote to Hazies. She said yes.

The Crossing

She was the first Sister to make the crossing. There was no formal mission title yet (the Galaxy Forager designation would come later). She rode south from Hazies to the Gate on her own and crossed alone. She sent back a single set of field notes in the first month. The Brewmage archived them separately from the general record and never shared what they said. Then she sent nothing.

Both the Order and the Sisters waited. The Brewmage himself rode north twice in the year that followed to sit at the Gate and wait longer. Nothing came back through it. After two years, the Order formally listed her as lost. By the third, most of the Sisters had stopped asking. The Brewmage did not.

What Came Back

She came back on a spring afternoon, seven years after her crossing. She walked out of the Gate the way she had walked in… on her own, on foot. She carried a small satchel and no field notes. In her hand was a staff of twisted wood, crowned with sharp crystals and fruit. The Nectyrthorn. A gift from the thing that had taught her beyond the Gate.

The Brewmage was not present. He was informed within hours. He rode north.

What waited at the Gate looked like his apprentice but wasn't.

No one knows for certain what passed between them. The Briteguard saw the Brewmage approach her before a surge of golden light drove them from the crossing. From the northern road, they heard stone breaking and saw his wards rise above the Gate. One by one, those wards shattered.

The battle lasted until dusk.

When the Briteguard returned, the clearing had been torn apart. Amber coated the broken stones. Thick roots wound through the ruined forest floor. None of the Briteguard had seen magic like it. They found the Brewmage at the foot of the Gate, alive but unable to stand. He had gone north to meet his apprentice. Whatever she had become, he had been unable to stop her.

She was gone.

Nectarmancy

Nectarmancy is the Order’s name for the magic she brought back through the Gate. It draws life from nectar, fruit, and haze, creating creatures and plants that act on her command.

Her workshop is believed to be somewhere in southern Fermenta. The Order’s observers have reported creatures made of nectar and fruit moving through the surrounding countryside. Some are small. Others have driven patrols off the roads. Practitioners seeking to learn her methods have begun traveling south, and few have returned.

This beer is her contribution. The Brewmage has refused to taste it.