After helping thwart the fledgling racketeering ring, Briar took it upon herself to see to it that the vulnerable kids within the school had what they needed in order to protect themselves. As such, she started a bit of an unofficial after-school program, where she began teaching self-defense techniques. As word of it spread, more and more kids wanted to come and join. Soon enough, she needed to bring in other, professional instructors.

Still, it was remarkable, and the results were dramatic. One day, when a year seven turned a year eleven bully into a pretzel, people started getting the idea that it wasn't a good idea to mess with the kids who learned from Briar. Worse for the bullies, attendance at the after-school program nearly doubled immediately following that event.

But, as happens, Briar wasn't able to just stay there, continuing to be the protector of the vulnerable. When the time came, she moved on to uni, where she started studying botany and chemistry. While she studied, though, she got herself a part-time job working at a pub next to the school and found that she very much enjoyed working there.

It wasn't difficult for her to turn her attention to incorporating her new passion into her education. She began researching how to brew and even distill liquors, and even managed to talk her boss into letting her play around with some microbrewing that she could serve at the pub. It was a somewhat begrudging acceptance, but when her first attempts were ready to try, that quickly changed.

You see, Briar had brought a lot of what she'd learned of botany into the brewing process, and she hadn't felt constrained by convention to try new and interesting ingredients in her brew. The resulting beer was intriguingly herbal, with flavors that played about in unexpected ways as people drank it. It was an immediate hit with the patrons and afforded Briar some fairly unique opportunities to play around with concepts.

She began producing her own botanical extracts, growing the herbs from scratch, and using some of the laboratory equipment at the uni to experiment with distilling on a very small scale. Sadly, when she'd tried talking to her boss to let her play around with distilling as well as the brewing, his answer was a resounding no. The licensing and certifications were just far too much trouble for him to go through.

Still, she wasn't deterred and began experimenting with molecular gastronomy concepts, incorporating them into drinks using her personal herbal extracts. The drinks she produced were initially met with skepticism, but as they brought more and more students from the university to the pub, the owner was more than happy to let her play around with her ideas.

Briar was even pleased that a number of the kids she'd helped back in secondary school had kept in touch with her. She was delighted to hear the news that her little self-defense club had continued even after she had graduated. Alisa, the girl that she had helped that day, even introduced Briar to her little sister, Maisie, who had even joined in once she'd started at the school. Briar was delighted to get to meet the younger girl, and even mixed up a non-alcoholic drink for her, which properly thrilled her.

As her University days came to an end, Briar needed to take a hard look at where to go in order to take her career in the direction she wanted. Ultimately, she decided that, while she loved Scotland, it just didn't have... quite the right mixological culture for her to really stretch her wings.

So, with many heartfelt goodbyes, she set off to America, settling on the Chicago area to hone her cocktail-making skills. She didn't have any trouble landing a job with one of the more popular local bars, where the owner was quite tickled by her molecular-gastronomy creations. She had less carte-blanche to play with them than she'd had in Scotland, but she was now working to a quality standard that she wasn't able to influence as much.

Her boss insisted that she run any new drinks she came up with by him first and foremost, and he had to personally approve each one. She understood the necessity of it, and he was able to bring a more refined eye to the process than her former boss. There were several drinks that he rejected several times before she came up with a formulation that met his approval. Still, as strict as he was, he was never rude to her, and always gave her good advice about what did and didn't work in one of her drinks.

She wasn't able to do as much microbrewing at the bar as she had hoped, but she still got to do some limited-run productions to serve at the bar, and over time, she actually got a rather devoted following, who would actively seek out the days that she was behind the bar in order to come around. Most of the patrons of the bar, though, weren't quite as interested in Briar's concoctions.

Her boss could see that being... somewhat forced to stick to the more banal classics by most of the patrons wasn't doing the best for Briar. As much as he enjoyed working with her, and saw that she had a dedicated clientele, so it wasn't as though there weren't people interested in what she had to offer. He mulled it over and talked it over with upper management and the finance team, and one day, he called Briar into his office.

She came in, feeling a little worried, but doing her best to remain calm. “You called me in?" She asked tentatively.

He laughed and smiled, nodding his head as he gestured to the chair on the other side of his desk. “Please, sit down... and don't worry, this isn't you getting called into the principal's office."

She visibly relaxed and took the offered seat. “Alright, alright. So, what is this, then?"

He chuckled and rested his elbows on his desk. “An offer that I'm pretty sure you're not even going to think of refusing." That got a good laugh out of her, “I've talked it over with the higher-ups... and the finance team... and we want to offer you your own bar."

She went from laughing to freezing in place in a heartbeat, just staring at him in shock. “It would still be under our ownership, and you would still be subject to oversight, but," he said, taking a deep breath, “You're amazing at what you do, but you aren't everyone's cup of tea. I see it every time you have to make a bug-basic martini or negroni or old-fashioned. You are there just itching to do something more to it."

"At the same time, you have people who are just crazy about what you do, so you've got a customer base. So, we want to give you the chance to build your customer base beyond what you can at our bar, having to sling negronis to the regulars. You can have your own regulars who like drinks the way you make them."

She thought for a moment, mulling it over. “Would I be able to... have creative authority over the way it is decorated?" She was thinking of the chintzy “well, you tried" attempts at English pubs that she'd had the misfortune of crossing paths with here in America.

He nodded his head. “Absolutely. Though, I did have a bit of an idea that I wanted to run by you, to see what you thought of it. When I really watch you when you are in your flow, making your special drinks for a customer right there at the bar, you've got some serious theatricality to you. I love it. The image that comes to my mind is a witch brewing potions in her cauldron. So, what if we did it up like... a country witch owns this pub that's been transplanted into the city, and you're the head witch of it all?"

That got a good laugh out of her, and a big grin right across her face. “You know... that's not a bad idea. But, you know that I'm going to have a lot to say about how that look gets pulled off. Kills me every time I see an American attempt a cozy little English pub."

He grimaced at that, “Trust me, I know. But you've worked at a pub. You know how the mood of the place should be. I want you to own that. If the designers try to fuss about what you have to say, they can answer to me."

She felt a bit of relief. “The food, too, I hope."

“The food, too," he said, nodding his head firmly. “I think people will love having a real taste of Scotland right in front of their doors."

She considered for another long moment. “What about my brewing? Would I be able to have space enough in back to brew in volume?"

He considered for a moment, “You know, I think we could manage that without too much problem. People like your beer. Heck, I like your beer. It would be one hell of a selling point. Probably couldn't brew everything that you need, but I definitely think that you could make a pretty good chunk of it."

She nodded her head, visibly lost in thought before she took a deep breath and looked back into his eyes. “What about a distilling license?"

He grimaced at that. “I knew you'd ask about that," he said with a small laugh. “The finance guys and I have talked about it. We can't get you one right away. But. If you can show steady profit for a full year, they're willing to put in the leg work to get you that license."

She nodded her head, not appearing upset by that condition. “I can understand that. And I know it'll take time to get everything ready to go to where I can actually do anything with it."

He smiled and nodded, “So, what do you say, Briar? Are you game to have a go at this?" He held his hand out to her across the desk.

She beamed at him and eagerly took his hand, giving it a solid shake. “You've got a deal, boss."

Briar's Cauldron quickly got underway. She continued to work at the regular bar in the evenings, she still had to earn a living, after all, but she spent a lot of time during the day at the place as it was being built. She was directly involved with the architect as they carved out the plans, sectioning the bar off into about five main spaces: a main thoroughfare that ended at the bar, itself, while there were four cozier side rooms to it, which would break the space up pretty nicely.

She worked with the designer, even before the construction was complete, going over everything in intense detail. They managed to work little planter boxes into the various rooms of the pub, where she'd be able to grow her own herbs to use in her extracts, while also giving a lovely decorative quality to the place.

She vetoed things like national flags and whatnot. “If you have to use a flag to tell someone this is meant to be Scottish, you're doing it wrong." In the end, she had to enlist her friends back in Scotland to go and take pictures of actual Scottish pubs to send back to her. The decorator resisted a little, but even she began to really get the vision of it.

And those friends... well, she made quiet arrangements to help several of them come over to America, working with management to get them work visas. She got Alisa and Maisie, along with a lot of the other people she'd helped in school. By the time she was done, she had a few fellow bartenders, wait staff, and even a kitchen staff who she could trust to make proper Scottish food.

Thankfully, the brewery in back was ready far enough ahead of the opening night for her to have some good stock ready to go from the start. The uniforms were... maybe a little much, but the staff had fun with them, and they could customize them as it suited them. They were, after all, supposed to be a group of witches who ran this pub, and Briar was the head witch, so she rather went all out.

On the opening night, she had Maisie and Alisa stand on either side of the main doors and open them up, staying out of sight as Briar was walking along in front of them, a cask of beer up on top of her shoulder. She looked up at the people waiting outside as though she was surprised to see them. “Oh! Well, hello there. Didn't expect anyone to come around tonight. Well, come on in, it's cold out. It's warm inside, and we'll get'cha somet to eat and drink," she said, gesturing them inside as she made her way back to the main bar, setting the cask on a wooden stand atop the bar before she got to work, weaving her theater of concocting potions for the guests.

It just made her heart leap with joy to be able to really pull people into the experience with this kind of theater, and she decided that she might want to take a couple of acting lessons, just to make sure she was fully up to snuff. But, at least for this first night, she was doing a truly bang-up job of it. The room was full of laughter and joy, and she couldn't be happier at this moment. This was the career that she'd wanted for years.