An expert winetaster travels a war-torn countryside to collect the best wines for their emperor. Along the way, the wine-taster finds many great wines. On the journey, many people die as well, caught in the lingering violence of a war. The winetaster is only particularly vexed when these deaths affect the wine production (e.g., when a corpse falls into a vat of wine). The winetaster meets a breathmage (a sort of magician) in one of the cities they stop in. The breathmage seems to be the one responsible for sending the plague throughout the countryside, killing the emperor's citizens. The breathmage and the winetaster drink some of the finest wines together. The breathmage is mostly silent; however, he does mention that his family is at least safe in the capital. The next morning, the winetaster awakes to find that the breathmage has killed himself. For a brief moment, the winemaster wonders if all the wine was worth the war that earned it.