THE ISLAND OF CHARON
a novel in the series
"PLAYING ANOTHER REALITY"
CHAPTER 7. THE MOON BOOK
7.5. WISH No. 2
At night, I went to the Cave of Magicians to find out if the Wish Tree worked without ritual services, on lanterns alone, or in complex, and to understand how many lanterns to put on the Tree to fulfill a particular wish.
That time I reached my destination quickly enough, but I stopped at a distance, watching the Voodoo dances on the platform at the entrance to the Cave.
Having noticed me, the Chief Wizard gestured, inviting me to take part in the ritual of a local witchcraft, but I shook my head negatively in response, remembering Yanis’ words about the possible settlement into someone else’s bodies. Although, was it worth taking his word for it? However, the Wizard seemed to get surprised at my refusal of magic.
At the end of the dances around the fire, the same girl, who had spoken to me in English the previous time, gave to each of the ceremony participants a cup (of blood? with milk, or without?), and all of them, barely sipping it, disappeared one by one right in front of my eyes!
As no one was left on the platform except the Chief Wizard and his assistant, I dared to approach them. The Wizard invited me to proceed into the Cave. And again, we were sitting at the table across from each other.
“I want to know the truth,” I turned to the Wizard, and he silently handed me the Moon Book.
I opened it and saw… myself inside.
“I didn’t drink your potion, and my wish came true. Does the Wish Tree work without witchcraft?”
The Wizard chuckled and handed me the Sun Book in response. I opened it, but I saw nothing and no one inside. The pages were completely blank. I closed the Book and looked at the Wizard questioningly. The girl began to talk to me, as the previous time.
“Where did the dancers go tonight? What do you think?”
“They went through the Portal to the Other Reality, didn’t they?”
“It’s more correct to say, they disappeared from the Moon Book to appear in the Sun Book. It can’t be done without a ritual ceremony.”
“Disappeared for a while, or forever?”
“Nothing lasts forever, Alice. But every soul dreams of Eternity, eventually falling into the trap of own wishes.”
“Why did they go to the Sun Book?”
“Your grandmother was a witch, wasn’t she?” the girl smiled.
“However, I’ve never practiced magic, so…”
“When people want something, but they can’t get it, they have a choice: to turn to magicians to get it at any cost, or, accepting the absence of the desired, to give up wishing it and go on, right?”
I nodded, even not understanding yet, what the girl was getting at.
“So, people go to magicians, and magicians call us,” she continued with a smile.
“Aren’t you magicians?” I got surprised.
“We work with them under contract, making deals. On the other hand, those who are already here, but who still have unfulfilled desires and dreams there… they come to us, too. We charge a fee for our services. Magicians are usually paid with money there, and our price-list is in lanterns on the Tree. However, if the wish has nothing to do with the Sun Book, one can manage it without us. One lantern is usually enough for one wish.”
“If you had drunk this potion, you would have woken up in someone else’s body,” Yanis’ words echoed in me, and I went cold.
“I didn’t drink your potion after all. What about those two lanterns of mine?”
“Consider one of them to be redundant. You can switch it off at any time for no use or make another wish for it. What do you want now, Alice?”
After thinking for a while, I was about to say, “Thank God, nothing”, but the girl covered my mouth with her hand, “Shh!”, silently led me out of the Cave and escorted to the road.
***
It was a calm, windless night, and before returning to my hut, I took a walk to the Wish Tree.
It seemed to shine brighter than all the lighthouses on Earth put together!
I had no trouble to find my “lanterns”, two light bulbs, and even the third one, which I had given to the Boy so that his princess could find her mother.
Two of the bulbs — one mine and the Boy’s one — had already burned out. I took them off the Tree and instantly dematerialized them. Still, either visualization or materialization of something were much more difficult than dematerialization!
However, my second light bulb was shining at full brightness.
I sat down by the magic Tree, wondering what kind of wish to make. Sorting through the possible options in my mind, I finally came to the conclusion that I wanted to get the truth: what was happening — at least with me personally! — there, on that black-book Island.
As I left, I looked back.
“Does Yanis really have only one lantern on the Tree? What does he wish? And why does it take so long for his wish to come true?”
Thinking about it, I noticed a light bulb flashing brighter than the others, and it began to flicker intermittently as if answering my question, but I didn’t understand, what it was trying to tell me, and after a moment it shone as before, merging with the other lights of the mysterious Tree…
***
I returned to my hut without “incidents”, took out the notebook and wrote down the events of the day.
“The pier, located in the bay between the Abandoned Lighthouse and the Wish Tree, was… flooded with people…”