Chapter 1: The Bee-ginning
A young man stood in a dark cellar, holding a small candle for light. This was Belissar, a man well past his second decade, dressed in the well-worn tunic and pants of any other frontier peasant. He was surrounded by barrels. He opened the top of one barrel and scooped out some of the liquid contents into a jar. Then he closed the barrel and walked towards the rickety stairs leading out of the cellar. He extinguished the candle and then climbed back up.
He made his way across his apiary, where wooden boxes stood in rows. Bees buzzed all around, climbing in and out of holes in the boxes. Belissar smiled and watched them work for a second, before making his way to his house.
Once inside, Belissar poured a bit of the golden liquid from the jar and took a drink. He held it in his mouth, tilting his head before he swallowed and smacked his lips.
“Hm, a bit too many juniper berries, I think. I’ll have to tone it down for the next batch.”
He heaved a sigh as he put away the jar. That was the last jar of the batch, so it would take some time before the next attempt. Apparently, the local Tower Lord’s son was coming to visit their little village, and every household was required to donate tribute for the welcome banquet. Losing entire barrels of mead for free would not help him survive the winter, so he’d have to stick to tried and true recipes he knew he could sell for the foreseeable future.
And, of course, the date for the visit had come and gone a week ago, and the Tower Lord’s son was nowhere to be seen. And, of course, the village chief hadn’t returned any of the tribute, just in case the noble scion decided to show up at his own convenience. Some of the villagers had raised eyebrows at that, but Belissar just kept his head down. It wouldn’t help for him to complain; it never did. So, he just sighed and shook his head.
He stretched and walked over to the window, where he had a few flowers growing in pots. A bee was hovering around the pots and flew to him when he walked over. He held out a finger, the bee obliged and landed on it. Belissar smiled as he noted the bee’s lost antenna.
“Working hard, huh? Great job today.”
The bee buzzed and spun around. Belissar had saved a bee with a lost antenna once, freeing her from a spider’s web. He knew it was silly, but he liked to imagine it was the same bee that visited him, and that they were friends, even. Well, he knew the bees landed on him because he had coaxed them by dipping his finger in honey, but it didn’t hurt anyone to pretend.