19 Chapter 19 - Poison (1/2)

There was so much food, the table was bending in the middle. Joseph didn't think he had seen so much food in his entire life. In fact, thinking about it, he didn't think he had seen this much food in any of his lives. Even Stella looked surprised, and she helped prepare it.

His father stood up, to make the opening remarks, but b.u.t.terflies were dancing in his stomach. Why were so many people here? He didn't know half of them, and he knew he would remember them if he had been met them before. Wasn't this supposed to be a private affair? Hadn't his father not wanted anyone else to know that he could do magic? Or was this one of those bragging things, don't mess with me, my son can do magic now?

He had to clear everything from his mind, and focus on the rune again, to keep from being too nervous when it was time to do the spell. There was only enough magic in the paper for him to cast the spell once, and that was stretching it, so he wanted to make sure he didn't mess this up.

Stella had to touch him when his father was done, and it was time for him to step forward. He smiled at her, and glanced around the room. That was a bad idea, everyone was looking at him, and his b.u.t.terflies returned.

'Alright, time for that single minded to kick in,' he thought to the system.

Suddenly, there was only the rune on the paper. TEST FOOD was in his mind. The rune on the paper began to glow, and he fed his mana into it slowly and stable. It lifted off of the paper, to the murmurs of astonishment from everyone in the room. He continued to feed mana into it until it grew to twice its size.

Joseph only had one chance to get this right, and it had to be perfect. The paper disintegrated from his hand, and he lifted them to just under the rune as it s.h.i.+mmered and glowed in the air before him. It pulsed slowly, as if alive, then expanded to cover the whole table. Then was gone.

He lurched as the energy for the spell was sucked out of him. Information flooded his mind from each dish.

(YOU HAVE FLAWLESSLY CAST YOUR FIRST SPELL)

Joseph was staring at the food, in horror. The system message was ignored.

”It's poisoned,” he whispered. The mana still s.h.i.+mmered over the food, slowly dissipating. His head was pounding.

”Dad,” he said louder, turning to him, ”It's poisoned!”

”What?” he asked, almost thinking it was a joke. But after looking at his face, his tightened in anger.

”The fruits and vegetables are fine, but all of the bread is fatal. The potato soup is fine, but all the other soups are poison. The egg dish is fine…” He worked his way from dish to dish, repeating the information that had been given by the spell.

Time slowed as connections were made. It was the flour!

”It's the flour! Everything that had flour in it is what you said was poisonous,” Stella said.

”But not potato soup?” asked his father.

”You use buckwheat flour in potato soup,” they both said at the same time. They looked at each other, then away.

His father jumped into action, shouting orders to the slaves that were present.