“This is a beautiful room,” Mia said, spellbound. “I could spend all day just looking at all these books.”
“It’s refreshing to meet a young person who would prefer a library to a mall,” Quazar said. “Don’t you agree, Gerald?”
“Yes, sir. Mia, Mr. Wayne, can I make you a coffee?”
“I think that gargoyle coffee may be too much for my charge,” Wyatt said.
Mia was disappointed. She’d heard that gargoyle coffee was the best in the world. She didn’t say anything. She’d promised Wyatt that he’d be in charge.
“How about a café latte? The frothy milk helps balance the bitterness?” Gerald asked.
“No thank you, I’m fine,” Mia said.
They waited until coffee was made and drunk before Quazar turned his full attention to Mia. “Now tell us how we can be of help?”
Mia looked over at Wyatt first and he nodded.
Mia opened her purse and pulled out the copied picture and handed it to Gerald. “I believe that the evening before last, a wish candle was used. I’m not sure if it was accidental or not. All I know is that I went to bed thirty-two years old and woke up a twelve-year-old.”
“Did you wish to be twenty years younger?” Quazar asked.
“No. I’m married and have a family. Why would I wish that away?”
“I don’t know you, Mia. I know a few people for whom this would not be a problem.”
“There are possibly other reasons why Mia being twenty years younger may be desirable to others,” Wyatt said.
“Wait, do you still have the memories of the thirty-two-year-old?” Gerald asked.
“Yes.”
“She could be used to manipulate stocks,” Gerald offered.
“But that would mean someone placed the candle on the cake for that reason,” Wyatt said. “Mia, tell them what you remember of the evening.”
“It started with an associate and dear friend of mine wanting to mark all our missed birthdays with a birthday cake. She and her husband purchased a basket of interesting little candles from a vendor at a farmers’ market. We each chose a candle and put it on the cake. I lit all the candles, and we blew them out. Nothing unusual happened after that. We drank a lot, sang bawdy songs, and the Stavroses stayed over because their son was asleep upstairs with my son Varden. The other guests stayed in the aerie. Ted and I went to bed. I woke in the middle of the night into what I thought was a dream. In my dream, I was in my childhood room being tended to by a benevolent ghost I chose to call Misty Mom. I went back to sleep and awoke into this same nightmare.”
“Why have you come to me, child?” Quazar asked.
“I need confirmation of our theory. Information about the candle: who may have made it, what caveats I must watch out for, etcetera. In the book, it says I have until the next full moon to fix this. Is this true?”
“I’d say, offhandedly, that it could have been a volo candle. What did the candle you chose from the basket look like?”
“Mine looked like a taper from a minora. Everyone’s candle looked different. All shapes and sizes.”
“You don’t remember who had what?”
“No. There was one candle that kept relighting. I was accused of the prank, but it was my grand… Orion who was the prankster. This candle was on the other side of the cake, so I couldn’t tell you if it was the volo candle or not. If so, Mike blew it out five times.”
“Volo candles can be made with white and black magic. The practitioner pours the wax into a mold and extracts it when it is still malleable. He or she then sculpts ancient symbols into the candle. This is where the magic comes from. Although, birthday cakes have been around since the ancient Romans, the volo candles haven’t. They started showing up here in North America in the nineteenth century. Gerald, bring me Irving’s Guide to Candle Making.”
Gerald walked over, climbed the ladder, and moved it along until he had secured the volume. He climbed down and handed it to Quazar who thumbed through the pages until he found what he was looking for. “It says that the spell not only affects the person making the wish, but everyone in the room in which the wish was made. Because of this, Irving advises that it not be used for life-altering things. It can be reversed by simply snapping the candle in two.”
“We’re working on the assumption that someone wished to be twenty years younger,” Wyatt said.
“That would explain Mia’s situation,” Quazar confirmed.
“Why didn’t the wisher simply become twenty years younger?” Wyatt asked. “Why send them all into the past?”
“Using magic, white or black, there is always a payment, a caveat if you will. Let’s say I wished to be a rich man. I become rich, but magic chose me to become rich because of a bank heist. I would be arrested and would not be able to enjoy my newfound riches. It’s sort of the universe’s way of keeping us magicians, wizards, witches, and so forth under control. Simple wishes like, ‘I’d like a vintage Barbie,’ may be granted without censure. But in my experience, there is always a price.”
“I’m working under the assumption that the wisher didn’t know the candle was magic. Would the person wishing to be twenty years younger know what they had done?”
“Maybe yes, maybe no,” Quazar said.
“Would the others in the room know?” Mia asked.
“No. They are but casualties of the wish.”
“Why do I know this has happened?” Mia asked.
“I trust since you can see through my façade that you’re a sensitive?”
“Yes. I can see ghosts. In the future,
