Do not use magic to cheat at cards. Albrecht had drilled this lesson into Emmaline early on. Nothing was as likely to rile up the peasantry as cheating them at the gaming table. Sure you might be able to reanimate a corpse and make it do your bidding, but cheating at whist? That was just evil.


“And Capons, the lady wins,” the croupier declared as he turned over the last card and whisked away the house's stake. Emmaline gathered in her coins to the cheers and moans of her fellow players. Of course just because you didn’t cheat didn’t mean you had to lose. Emmaline took another drink of the excellent wine which the bartender assured her was from Brettonia but might just as easily have been from Foregate for all Emmaline could tell. She probably wouldn’t have been able to tell even before her second glass, and that was several glasses back by now.


“Just as well your master doesn’t let you out much, you’d bankrupt the place,” Malcador observed. He knew she wasn’t cheating but he looked a little suspicious none the less.


“It is about all he is good for,” Emmaline grumped, waving down the offer to be dealt in for another hand. This gained her several hard looks from people wishing for a chance to win their money back but she ignored them with the lofty dignity of the moderately inebriated. 


“Not a pleasant master?” Malcador asked. Apprentices, by and large, didn’t speak much of their masters so it was a point of familiarity that Malcador broached the topic. It was all too easy for an irritated master to make life impossible for his apprentice, though rarely were apprentices simply turned out. Half trained wizardlings were not something that generally ended well for anyone involved.


“He has his moments, he can do this thing with… well never mind,” Emmaline replied, then made an expansive gesture. Malcador put a hand on her shoulder and turned her away from the portrait on the wall she had been addressing.

“...said I was…” she paused and hiccuped, “...lazy and undisciplined..me!” She flopped down onto a divan with a jingle, running her hands through the gold coins with obvious pleasure. 

“Didnt tell me anything about this project I am supposed to do… not even when it is supposed to be done by…” In her pleasant state Emmaline didn’t immediately notice Malcador start.

“What…” she asked after few long seconds of silence.

“You… havent done your apprentice task for the year… like… not even started?” he asked, sounding aghast.