Today's #flashfiction The Coffee Wizard

“Google it.”

Encyclopedia Brown* #quote

If you sit on a top hat, does it become a bottom hat? And if so, what does it mean from an artist standpoint for all renditions of top hats in every medium? Anyway onto the flash fiction!

The Coffee Wizard

        The King of Harlix, the mighty sorcery state of the Northern lands was recognized most easily among rulers not by his crown or royal colors, but by the coffee cup he always held. He called coffee “A blessing from the gods, given to us to pull us through even the harshest of days with its magic”.

        Technically he was right, it could be called a blessing from the gods with magic. But also someone could say the same thing of manure. Everything bestowed upon the wizarding world had magic imbued in its all its forms. Recent magic academy graduate Jalin majored in the culinary magics with his specialization in beverages. He wrote his thesis on the magical energy in coffee that boosted the human spirit along with its natural chemical effects. (Most of the paper was filler but he'd never admit it). Most people mocked anyone having to do with food magic by saying, “they're just flavoring food with magic where pepper would do just fine”.

Jalin watched the speech of the King on his current justification of the new tax laws. He admired the King for his love of coffee and made sure to shave his college gained neck beard to look good in case the royal caught a glimpse of him. If anyone ruined the refined atmosphere of the speech it certainly wouldn't be him.

        The people complained but the King, while sipping coffee, managed to come up with some excuse or reason for every objection brought up. His father raised him to be an excellent smooth talker to keep the people's anger at bay. He didn't need to oppress with weapons, if he could use words.

        However that didn't stop the most startling moment during the speech. His words didn't calm every kind of person. A man leaped from the crowd, pointed at the ruler and laughed as the King fell to ground.

        He then said, “Look how the mighty king has fallen! Do not try to find the poison! We had our best wizards blind it from the eyes of all poison detecting magic. You will never find the cure.”

An old wizarding proverb said that “Every good wizard knows their magic's moment.” The proverb must have run true with Jalin. He knew to run through the crowd, towards the large platform that the king lay. The guards, in full disarray had mostly run to the man and broken formation, allowing Jalin to run through.

       “You may have protected it from those wizards versed in the poison magics, but not those versed in the beverage magics!” Jalin couldn't take the coffee from The King's body but he could use his mighty powers to remove all cup, leaving only the poison that wasn't consumed. With only the poison remaining in the cup it was easily identified and an antitote procured.

        Jalin soon netted himself a job of checking The King's coffee along with the drinks of all the royal family and other nobels for poison. And the words he famously yelled when he used his coffee magic to reveal the poison were forever written in the history books:

        “I told my parents it wasn't a useless degree!”