A heavy rain soaks my window and the heat from the cafe creates a foggy window. The rag in my hand is wet with diluted chemicals. It makes my hand damp and sticky, but it is a step I need to take multiple times daily. The door squeaks giving me the queue to act like I want to talk to people. It’s my café, I enjoy working here and all, but I enjoy being alone on rainy days. I would normally drink tea with my cat in the back bedroom. Said cat trots out of my room and rubs my legs with a loud purr. I looked up from the counter and around for the person that just entered, what I didn’t expect was that they were to my right instead of my left like most. She was a pale woman carrying a sun umbrella, her cloak was dry, and her eyes had a red iris. It wasn’t normal, but it wasn’t supernatural. Her long black hair was loosely tied behind her head in a messy bun.

“Hey there, what would you like?” I force some sort of emotion into my voice so it’s not off putting. My cat jumps onto the counter and into the cat bed next to the register. It purrs quietly and watches the rain on the window. I reach out my hand and scratch her small black head. The woman stares at the chalk board behind me and sits down.

“What do you think I should get?” She says.

“I would recommend the orange coffee.”

“What’s the orange coffee?” she asks.

“It’s a cinnamon coffee with frothed milk and turmeric. If you would like you can pet the cat too, she loves people.” She buries her thin pale hands in her dark black fur then she does a feeble pat. I reach over and give the cat a good slap and she looks at me purring. “Come on, don’t be afraid, she’ll let you know if it’s too hard.” She looks at me a bit nervously then picks her hand up and hits the cat a little harder. It makes a loud slap noise, but it didn’t hurt Assix, she looks at the lady and purrs before standing up and flopping so that her stomach is toward the lady.

“So cute.”

“So, do you want the Orange Coffee? Or are we just gonna play with Assix.”

“Sure,” she says, she twiddles her hesitates for a second then asks,” If you don’t mind me asking, what kinda name is Assix? It’s like ass.”

“I know, she was an asshole when she was a kitten, so I gave her a fitting name.” I pull the French Press near me and start heating the water. I grab the cinnamon and grounds layering them, so the cinnamon doesn’t burn. “Her original name was Granola, but Granny, or Assix fit better. She acts like a grandma in cat form.”

“Whell then Granny it is. Because Ass simply won’t do.” Assix starts to slap her hand the pull it in to bite it gently. The kettle beeps and I pour the water into the French Press and put on the lid pushing in the plunger a bit, so all the grounds are submerged.

“Do you want Brown, raw, or white sugar?”

“What do you recommend?” For you to make your own choices. I think to myself.

“Brown sugar is what the original iteration of the recipe calls for, but I offer people the ability to swap it should they not like the slight molasses taste. However, if you wish for a more subtle sweet, I would choose raw. You could also go with a basic mostly flavorless sweet.”

“I’ll just go with the first option then.”

“Brown sugar has a lot of flavor and sweetness, raw sugar doesn’t have as much of a sweet taste but a lot of flavor, and white sugar has only sweetness no flavor.”

“Ohh, that makes sense. I’ll choose brown sugar still; it seems like a good middle ground for everything.” I nod then give her her cup and a little jar of brown sugar. She takes the jar and a spoon.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“I recommend two spoonfuls. But be careful, you can always add more, but you can’t remove it without magic, and this place is very strictly no magic unless it’s keeping you alive.”

“What, why?”

“I can’t use it, but I can sense it and it’s annoying in a full café when everyone’s using magic for dumb things,” I say, “I can put up with the feeling of my core being yanked to a person cause they’re using magic to live. But a dumb kid using it to make his phone faster can leave.” She ignites a small fire, and my core starts to burn white hot and be yanked to below the counter. “No magic ma’am, I can tell you are using some sort of fire magic.”

“Wow, that’s super cool!” She puts out the fire and puts one spoonful of sugar in before mixing it. She sips it and cringes.

“The cinnamon doesn’t taste the best unless it’s sweeter.” She adds another and mixes it before taking another sip and doesn’t react much. “Anything else miss?”

“Do you have pastries?”

“Yes, we do.” I reach below the counter and pull out a paper menu with all the pastries on it. She looks down at it and reads the short list.

Croissant with dark magic. $2:50 for two.

Muffins:

Cinnamon Crunch. $2.75 for one.

Dark Chocolate. $2.00 for one

Blueberry. $1.50 for one

Turnovers:

Garmen And Cheese. $2.00 for one.

Applettes and cinnamon. $1.75 for one

On the bottom it reads: Please leave suggestions for flavors of anything.

I continue to clean while I have time. She puts the menu down and starts petting Assix who seems to enjoy her lap. She smiles and Assix purrs.

“Mind if I take a picture?” I ask pulling out a camera from below the counter.

“Sure,” she smiles, simultaneously Assix pokes her head up over the counter. I take the picture and she doesn’t appear in the picture; it isn’t that big of a deal. Assix drops her head back down below the counter and stops purring trying to sleep.

“Why are you out so early?”

“How did you know I was vampiric? It was raining so the sun is mostly blocked, so a parasol can block everything that is still able to hurt me.” I turn the camera to her. “Ahh, makes sense.”

She brings the cup back up to her face and drinks the cooled drink. “Why do you add turmeric to this?”

“When I was younger, I learned of its health benefits and started adding it to random things; it doesn’t taste like much, so I added it to coffee and, well, ya know, now we’re here.” She drinks the rest of the cup and pulls out her wallet. “Is that all you want for today?”

“Nah, just pulling out a tip for you.” She pulls out a small baggy of a green plant.

“Are you trying to tip me in drugs?”

“No, it’s cat nip; weed costs too much to tip with.”

“Hand it to me so I can make sure it’s not mint.” She hands the bag to me, and it smells like light mint, unlike normal mint, I put a bit in my mouth, and it tastes sweet and not like a mint leaf “Sorry, I’ve had people try to give my cat mint.” I dump the little baggy into Assix’s cat bed and throw out the bag.

“Why do you carry this with you?” I ask.

“I work the graveyard shift in an animal shelter and give it to new cats.”

“Does that help calm them down?”

“Sometimes. Not all cats like it. You know what? it’s kinda like all the other humanoid races with weed, not everyone likes its effects.” She puts her wallet back in her pocket and Assix hops onto the counter then into her cat bed before eating/ rolling in the ground up green plant. “Can I have one of the croissants? I’m curious about what dark magic means.”

I nod and walk maybe three feet to the right and open the glass case with all my pastries in it. I grab two and walk back over. “It’s a dark chocolate with a little surprise.” I place hers on a little plate and slide it to her and then tear mine in half revealing a shimmering black core. She stares in awe that this magic-less man made a magical image.

“How did you do that?”

“Well, that’s the surprise. I have tricks up my sleeve, I may be magicless, but I can still make a thing magical in way. And don’t worry, it’s hypoallergenic so no one can be allergic to it, except for lycanthropes, and nekomimi. They can’t eat milk, or chocolate.”

I bite into mine, it’s a sweet dark chocolate with a buttery croissant. The shine is no more than a simple food glitter, it’s just hard to do on dark things.