The Brotherhood Candle

Written and Illustrated 

by Marcus Azzopardi

To my family and teachers Ms. Tara Cefai, Dr. Dorianne Buttigieg and Mr. Christopher Cardona for their constant support.

The Brotherhood Candle

Once upon a time in Wildinburg, a mediaeval town in Germany, there lived a family of candlemakers. The job of candle making was passed down from generation to generation until it was my brother’s and my turn to inherit the family business.

My name is Eldnac and Wick is my little brother. Ever since we were young we never got along. Our dad used to tell us this saying whenever we used to quarrel which was along the lines of “brotherhood is like a candle even in the darkest moment you light up the way.” That saying never clicked in. My brother and I were total opposites. I was intrigued to form part of the family business but on the other hand my brother joined the fighting guild. My parents were enraged the moment they heard what Wick was  doing and so was I.

One day my parents gave me the task to go to the lumber mill down Market Street, to see if they had any planks up for sale. My parents handed me a bundle of silver denars to spend and I made my way down Market Street. Market Street was bustling as usual with crowds of people bartering for goods, carts and horses slowly but surely making their way outside the town’s gates. I was a step away from the lumber mill when I heard peculiar chimes, and the smell of incense was filling the streets.

I turned my focus to the prominent wagon that had just made its way into Wildinburg. It had an eggplant-purple roof with a spruce trim. The abnormal waggon stopped right in front of me and a hand poked out and opened the shutters. Out came an old man covered with trinkets and bracelets. He introduced himself to me. He was a travelling merchant who had been travelling for a decade or two, collecting and hoarding everything he found along the way. He was very energetic for an old man, just like a salesman in his early 20's. 

The merchant told me he had collected stuff like trinkets, bracelets, spells, maps…. Then I stopped him and I asked  what type of spells he sold. He replied quickly saying that he had all sorts of spells, spells of transformation, losing the ability to move, poison that flows through your veins and so much more. I tried to bargain but he would only accept bartering. Since he was banned in most shops, he found no point in denars. Then he requested if I could buy him the following list and in return he would give me any spell I wanted. 

The list consisted of three things:

I accepted his request and went on to buy these ingredients. I started by getting the three purple creeping bellflowers from the botanist. Then I made my way to the vegetable market to buy the ginger and the cabbage. I asked the owner of the market if he knew anything about the travelling merchant. 

The market owner looked at the travelling merchant trying to lure in some customers. He looked back at me while he cut my cabbage and said that some people say he stole some scrolls from a mage. I thanked him and left with my ingredients in hand and a lot of questions in mind.

I handed the merchant his ingredients and asked him how exactly these spells worked. He told me that I had to write the name of the person I was going to cast a spell on and then say the spell. I chose the spell of transformation and he handed me a quill and some ink. I wrote my brother’s name and I realised he was going to become a candle. It was strange because I did not write that but it was too ironic so I kept it. I started chanting the spell when I realised it was getting late and I had not even bought what my parents had given me the denars for. I left in a hurry, bought the wooden planks and made my way back home.