List of Characters in Magic Mirabelle and the Riddle of Night Opium

[Manfred]

List of the Main Characters in our book,
Magic Mirabelle and the Riddle of Night Opium - (long version).

MIRABELLE - The central character in our novel is the apprentice Witch, Mirabelle Sommerfield. Her story begins as a twelve year old girl in East Finchley with her Mama, Grandma and new born Baby brother. And it ends with her as a grown up woman of around 25 years working as an actress at Soho Theatre, and living with her dear friends Lucy and Freddy in their flat in Soho Central London. During that period she gradually completes an amazing Rite of Passage both in this world, as well as through her magical experiences in the Otherworld through the Dungeons of Lethe Game. During her adventures in the otherworld, she meets three Fairy Queens, Apricot Lantern, The Nightshade Fairy and the Fairy of Providence, as well as Grand Master of the Fraternity of Hermetic Goldmakers, the Father of Wishes. Along with her family and friends, each of these enchanted otherworldly beings plays a central role in her psychological development as well as her eventual Initation into the mysteries of Hermetic Magic and the Wisdom of the Craft. Her first partner in the D.O.L. Game is her baby brother. But after that it is her arch rival Melisande.

BABY - From the very beginning of the book we can see that there is something very special and magical about Mirabelle’s baby brother (who doesn’t get a name until right at the end of the story). Indeed, although Mirabelle’s mother gives birth to him at the local hospital, at the same time, Mirabelle herself is busy bringing him to the family home from the Neverland as a seventh member of the band of Peter Pan’s Lost Boys. (In the original story, if you recall, there are only six Lost Boys!) Not long after he arrives in the house, Mirabelle begins to make up the most fanciful and enchanting stories for him as he lies in his cradle. Those stories prompt Mirabelle to wish for her angels and Baby’s angels to play together. And it is from that wish that Mirabelle’s adventures really begin - first she finds the Riddle in the Dragon Chest and then Night Opium and the one foot one Fairy Apricot Lantern appear in her room. Baby also secretly accompanies Mirabelle when she goes up the Glass Slipper Staircase to the Land of Wishes. He is also the Father of Wishes’ apprentice in Gold-making and entomology, as well as Freddy’s partner in the Peacocks team during the latter part of the Dungeons of Lethe Game.

MAMA - Mirabelle’s mother (Vivienne Sommerfield) also has an important role to play in the book. It is her who helps start the adventure by telling Mirabelle about Baby’s angels and prompting her daughter to wish for her angels and Baby’s angels to play together. She also gives Mirabelle advice on how to solve the Riddle and when Mirabelle is depressed after her 13th birthday, she contacts Grandma Selena via the Witch’s Telgraph to see if she can help solve Mirabelle’s problem with Night Opium and his Fairy. After Mirabelle’s best friend Lucy kind of adopts Mirabelle’s mother during the Halloween Party, she and Lucy team up as partners for the Amorinas team during the D.O.L. Game. Although it appears that Baby is Mama's favourite child, she does give her temperamental daughter important and perspicacious advice at various times in the novel.

PAPA - Lindsey Sommerfield. Mirabelle’s father has a very important job in the Foreign Office in Whitehall. Despite his important duties however, his role in the book is totally minimal. And although mentioned on several occassions, he never actually appears in the narrative!

GRANDMA SELENA HATFIELD - Mirabelle’s Grandmother is from the Hatfield side of the family. She is a free-spirited Witch who runs a coven in Glastonbury and travels all over the countryside giving clairvoyant advice, psychic healings and telling fortunes future with her Gypsy Witch Fortune telling cards. Instead of the usual suits of hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades, these cards are made up of amorinas, peacocks, tulips and mandrakes. These four suits are the same suits that are used in the D.O.L. Game. When Grandma returns from Glastonbury with two members of her coven, the three Witches conjure up the D.O.L. Game and divide Mirabelle and the others into the three teams - Tulips, Amorinas and Peacocks. These teams are allied together against the Mandrake team which is made up of Selena and her two friends. Grandma is a complex personality. She has a less than congenial relationship with Mirabelle’s mother. And, although she does spark Mirabelle’s initial interest in the Craft and apprentices her, during the D.O.L. Game hers and Mirabelle’s relationship dramatically alters!

LUCY - Her full name is Annabelle Lucinda Flavius and just before Samhein, she suddenly arrives as a new student at the local high school with her brother Freddy. She immediately befriends Mirabelle and together the two girls become the school’s authority on Halloween and other magical matters. During the Halloween party, she adopts Mirabelle’s mother and Baby and is very disappointed when Mirabelle and Baby both disappear into the Land of Wishes and don’t come back for almost three years. Lucy, as part of the Amorinas team, plays a very important role in the second of the Magical Battles. With her irresisitible charm and charisma, she also becomes one of the central players in the Soho Theatre experience towards the end of the novel, where her relationship with her beloved Mirabelle takes an unexpected and dramatic turn.

FREDDY - His full name is Frederic Mark Leopold Flavius. Along with being a Wizard Freddy is also a poet and the founder of the Blue Flower Fellowship of Poets (or the B.F.F.) During the Halloween Party he adds a bit of spice to the poetry meeting by reading his dramatic Thunder Man poem. He is also romantically involved with Mirabelle’s arch rival Melisande and is Baby’s teammate in the first of the three Magical Battles. He and Mirabelle have a love-hate relationship. But it is through his poem the Londres Witch that both she and Lucy begin their dramatic careers in the London Theatre circuit. Freddy’s poem is also central to the outcome of the third and last Magical Battle, as well as finding the eventual solution to the enigmatic riddle which Mirabelle found in the Dragon Chest not long before her 13th birthday.

MELISANDE TREACHEROUS - Melisande is one of Freddy’s classmates and one of the original members of the B.F.F. Her and Freddy appear to have some sort of steamy romance going on and as such, she and Mirabelle both become bitter rivals for the poet’s amorous affections. Melisande later replaces Baby and joins Mirabelle on the Tulips team as she happily follows her into Lady Nightshadow’s dreadful Nightshade Parlour. There she lives up to her Treacherous nature as she plays out several comical and grisly scenes with Mirabelle and their Mistress, during the latters bizarre Goldmaking experiments. And even though it appears that she has been permanently removed from the D.O.L. Game, during the third and last Magical Battle she makes a surprising and very sinister appearance.

GUY HARRINGTON - Artistic Director of the Soho Theatre Company. During the second Blue Flower Fellowship of poets meeting, Freddy recites his Londres Witch poem and Guy recognises his creative Genius along with the dramatic skills of Lucy and Mirabelle. How their mutual venture into the world of Sorcery and experimental theatre ends up is very bizarre and amusing.

THE MAGICAL BEINGS IN THE STORY

APRICOT LANTERN - The first of three Fairy Queens. She first appears with the Wizard Night Opium and both he and his fairy capture Mirabelle's heart and play a central part in Mirabelle's early magical adventures.

NIGHT OPIUM - Elf Sorceror and apprentice of the Father of Wishes. After placing the Riddle in the dragon chest for Mirabelle to find, he visits her with the desire to make her his apprentice. And to impress the young witch, he enlists his Fairy to perform a magic trick for her. He doesn't realize that the Fairy is a Young Queen and has a thousand times more Magic at her disposal than he does.

THE FATHER OF WISHES - The Head of the Fraternity of Hermetic Goldmakers and the Unofficial King of Fairyland. He works in close cooperation with the Mother of Fairytales and teaches Mirabelle some lessons in Hermetic Wisdom. He also apprentices Baby with the intention of making him a great Wizard and entomologist like himself.

LADY NIGHTSHADOW - Or the Nightshade Fairy. She is the second of the Fairy Queens Mirabelle is destined to meet. And with her irresistible beauty she lures Mirabelle into her ghastly Nightshade Parlour. Eventually, after several gruelling ordeals with her and her Djinn, Mirabelle finds her way out of her clutches and prepares herself for the three Magical Battles which must take place before the conclusion of the D.O.L. Game.

THE FAIRY OF PROVIDENCE - She is also known as the Matron and the Mother of Fairytales. She is the third and last Fairy Queen which Mirabelle is destined to meet, before completing her Initiation into the Wisdom of the Craft. Without her Wisdom and Magic it will not be possible for her and her allies to defeat the forces of darkness in the Dungeons of Lethe Game.

SUMUKHI -The Chief of the Star Babies. In the start of the book, Sumukhi and the Star Babies help bring BABY from the Star Nursery and they introduce Mirabelle to the Dungeons of Lethe Game in her dreams.

SHIMBA -The fluffy white Bichon Havanesse who is Baby’s pet in the Land of Wishes and travels back home to London with him to celebrate Mirabelle’s 16th birthday.

THE BLACK FAIRY - Maleficando. She is the General of Lady Nightshadow’s troops during the first of the Magical Battles in the D.O.L. Game.

THE WISHING CATS - A particularly malicious type of creature that appears to challenge Mirabelle and Lucy during the second Magical Battle.

LADY NIGHTSHADOW’S DJINN - In the Goldmaking Parlour of the Nightshade Fairy are several Goldmaking engines. Inside these engines reside several wicked and very powerful Djinn. These assist their Mistress in making her Tincture of Morphic Snuff,

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