Greetings, Everyone
This is my first collaboration for #wewrite organized by @zeldacroft and #freewritehouse and sponsored by @ntowl and @owasco. Details here.

I partnered with @felixgarciap, who kindly invited me to co-write a story. I wrote the first part and he finished it. In fact, I ended up writing two different stories, so we split the publications. I am posting our first collaboration, and @felixgarciap posted the second one. Hope you enjoyed them.

The Wizard

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The wizard entered the room imperiously and yet full of apprehensions. His reputation preceded him. He was both feared and respected. He had been summoned to solve a problem that was affecting millions. Curious eyes were shooting their hopes, disbeliefs, and interests at him. They wanted him to succeed deep down, but the idea of having one being solve the problem that many could not figure out was hard to swallow.

He refused the invitation many times. He asked for impossible things hoping that that would deter their interest. However, the King was determined to have the problem solved. It was ruining his chances of remaining in power and he was having enough trouble with the corruption of his own officials veering treasures that could had been added to his fortune towards less deserving coffers, which have turned every attempt at appeasing his people into constant turmoil. Acknowledging fault on his appointees would have been devastating for a proud ruler whose very position had been a historical accident. Taking measures, even if secretly, against his own men and women would have only increased his enemies and reduced his peace of mind.

The King could not sleep any more, anyways. Thus, he used that extra awake time to find ways to meet the wizard’s demands until he had no excuse to appear before him. The wizard examined the room and gently declined a debriefing with one finger gesture. The High Council has delivered the key information through years of misdeeds and the wizard realized he could solve the problem with one single move, but that would have insulted everyone in the room even further and seriously reduced his chances of leaving that room alive. So, he decided to work real magic.

[@felixgarciap’s ending]

And the real magic required that everyone in the room from that moment on should be busy attending to the needs of the people. Until now, what they had done behind their backs was to have a great life with trips to distant places, squandering the gold and silver earned by the sweat of the faces of workers, who at this time were unemployed and without food for themselves and their families.

Thus the wizard, after whispering the right words in the in the right ears, suggested that the King ordered that from that moment on the members of the High Council should go out to attend the provinces’ urgent matters that until now had been ignored. The king reluctantly agreed.

Everyone was stunned by this strange approach, however they had to accept it since otherwise their uselessness in the assigned functions would be demonstrated. The next day after each of the officers prepared the necessary logistics, they went out to give effect to the King’s orders, as indicated by the wizard.

The news of the agreements decided by the High Council with the King’s signature arrived promptly to the provinces. The people of the towns that until now had remained numb, organized themselves to receive each of the officials with a list of their petitions. Soon the incapacity of the civil servants in solving the problems was demonstrated, reason why the inflamed people asked that the people in charge of their misfortune were prosecuted, even with capital punishment.

The wizard remained expectant of what was happening and, with his network of informants, decided to take the final blow. He was happy as he had exposed each of the corrupt officials. So he suggested to the King the appointment of a new executive council with people of the absolute confidence of the wizard. The King, realizing the new play proposed by the wizard, proceeded to ignore it, deciding to lock him up instead. When the people heard the news of the arrest, they stormed the Palace and dethroned he who had been their ruler until that moment. They took the Wizard from the dungeon and made him their new Leader.

Source

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