Chapter Breakdown for Magic Mirabelle and the Riddle of Night Opium

[Manfred]

Chapter Breakdown for Magic Mirabelle and the Riddle of Night Opium (short version)

Prologue - Mirabelle is a 12 1/2 year old girl from East Finchley London, who lives in a fantasy world of fairytales and adventure stories like Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan. Her Grandma is also a Witch and she tells Mirabelle that she has the "gift," and promises to one day make her an apprentice Witch. Her life undergoes a dramatic change, however, with the birth of her baby brother.

Chapters One and Two - The birth of the new Baby turns the household upside down and at first Mirabelle is annoyed by this, but she grows very fond of him, after she begins telling him fairy-stories. After that, she makes a wish for his angels and hers to play together. The wish appears to come true because very soon afterwards, she finds an old wooden box in the attic with dragon carvings on it. Inside the dragon box is a very mysterious and enigmatic riddle. Mirabelle shows the riddle to her mother but neither her nor Mirabelle can solve it..

Chapter Three - While thinking of the Riddle, Mirabelle falls to sleep and wakes up to discover that a one foot one fairy in a golden cage has materialised in her bedroom. Her name is Apricot Lantern and she is the property of a Wizard called Night Opium, who now tells Mirabelle that he will make her his apprentice, along with showing her a wonderful trick of making gold with his pet fairy. As the Magician cranks up her cage he belts the cage over and over with his wand. This makes the Fairy totally terrified and she crumples up whimpering on the floor of the cage. But when she recovers her strength, she becomes very sassy and angry, promising both Mirabelle and her new friend that she will get her revenge on them for their gross violation of the unalienable rights of fairies!

Chapters Four to Six - The Magician’s trick now totally backfires as the cunning fairy enchants them both with a powerful dose of her fairy glamour. Under her spell, Mirabelle splits in half like an apple. One half of her accompanies the Magician to his enchanted garden in the Land of Wishes. And the other half remains with the fairy in her bedroom. The fairy begs, threatens, promises and cajoles Mirabelle into freeing her from her cage. The moment she leaves the cage she transforms into a full-blown Fairy Queen, taking over the Wizard's enchanted garden, along with all of the Gold and Wishes meant for Mirabelle. Finally, Mirabelle’s little brother dampens the Fairy’s enthusiasm by bringing the dragons on his sister’s magic box to life. When the dragons jump all over the fairy’s frock, she leaps out of it in terror, and all the flowers from her dress fall into Mirabelle's magic box. When Mirabelle wakes up the next morning the flowers are still there with a note from the fairy apologising and congratulating Mirabelle on her 13th birthday.

Chapter Seven to Nine - Pressed by her mother, Mirabelle eventually tells her everything that went on with the Fairy and Night Opium. Mama immediately sends an SOS to Grandma. In the meantime, Mirabelle meets two new friends at school, Freddy and Lucy. With Lucy’s help she becomes the school’s authority on Witchcraft and Magic. And, inspired by her new found popularity, Mirabelle throws a Halloween party. Along with Halloween decorations, costumes and music, special games are arranged like “Faery and Vampyre.” and a Halloween Poetry Meeting. When Freddy reads his poem about the Initation of a young girl into the mysteries of Witchcraft, called “Thunder Man comes soon,” the weather suddenly becomes very violent, with rain and lightning and thunder crashing all around the house. Most of the guests want him to stop reading, but Mirabelle and Mama insist that he finsihes the poem.

Chapter Ten - After nearly all of the guests have left, Grandma Selena arrives from Glastonbury with two friends, and the three Witches conjure up the Dungeons of Lethe Game for those still present to play. After explaining the rules to everyone, Grandma places everyone in their respective teams - Freddy and his friend Melisande are in the Peacocks team, Lucy and Mama are put in the Amorinas team and Baby and Mirabelle are placed in the Tulips team. Grandma Selena and her two friends play as the Lethe Master in the Mandrakes team. The three teams, Tulips, Peacocks and Amorinas represent the Powers of White Magic in the Universe, and the Mandrakes represent the powers of Darkness. Mirabelle begins the game very favourably for her team by picking the Father of Wishes card. She now takes the journey up the Glass Slipper Staircase to meet the Grand Master of the Fraternity of Hermetic Goldmakers in the Land of Wishes.

Chapters Eleven and Twelve - While she is going up the stairs, the Father of Wishes teaches Mirabelle all about the art of Hermetic Alchemy - including its history from classical times and its entrance to Europe through the Abbashid Calliphate in Baghdad. She is also told that as part of her Initation as a Witch, she is destined to meet three Fariy Queens - the first of these she has already met Apricot Lantern. The next two she will meet later on in her adventures. By the time she has finished talking with him on the stairs, almost three years have passed! She now celebrates her 16th birthday in the Land of Wishes and as part of her birthday celebrations, the Mother of Fairytales reads out a story called "Princess Starlight and the Unicorn." After the story has been read, Mirabelle returns home to East Finchley to celebrate her 16th birthday with her family and friends Lucy and Freddy. The night ends with everyone playing the Dungeons of Lethe Game again. This time however, Grandma pulls the Lady Nightshadow card and things turn out very badly for Mirabelle as with Freddy’s friend Melisande’s help, she ends up as a prisoner in the Nightshade Parlour.

Chapters Thirteen to Sixteen - In these chapters Mirabelle goes through a very terrifying ordeal with Melisande and Lady Nightshadow in the Nightshade Parlour. Despite her gruelling and harrowing experiences there, she learns a lot about the Hermetic Sciences as well as the darker side of Magic. She also learns that this dark side exists in herself and that it can also be used to the advantage of her allies in the Game. At last, when she finally emerges from the Nightshade Parlour in one piece, she meets Freddy and Baby in the Hollowed out Centre of the Great Wishing Oak, and she knows she is now ready to begin the first of the three Magical Battles against the Forces of Darkness in the Dungeons of Lethe Game.

Chapters Seventeen to Twenty Two - Supported by her staunch allies - Freddy, Lucy, Mama and Baby - Mirabelle now fights all three Magical Battles of the Dungeons of Lethe Game in turn. Each of the three Games is more psychologically demanding and challenging than the next. But as she pits her wits and her courage against the dark forces of her rivals, she receives help from the third and last Fairy Queen, the Fairy of Providence. Through her Wisdom Mirabelle finally understands how important these Magical Battles are for her Initiation and development as a Young Witch. She also realizes that if she and her allies are triumphant in the Dungeons of Lethe Game, she will not only save herself but also all those she loves from the dark powers which oppose them. If she fails, then everyone and everything she loves will perish and the forces of darkness led by the Nightshade Fairy will triumph in a way that noone can possibly imagine!

Read the book Magic Mirabelle and the Riddle of Night Opium to find out all the details of the nail-biting conclusion and climax to our story, and whether or not Mirabelle and her allies have what it takes to stand together and emerge victorious in this titanicstruggle!

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