A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping

The inn serves as a motif that demonstrates The Value of Found Family and The Healing Power of Love. After some particularly difficult guests reduced Jasmine to tears, Sera’s spell “transformed [the] inn into a flame in the dark, an outstretched hand to the ones falling over the edge and a warning to the ones pushing them” (77). These metaphors compare the inn to a welcoming candle or an offer of assistance to anyone who finds themselves overlooked by society. Because the inn is a “beacon in the dark for the lost and adrift” (27), people who long for love and acceptance make the place their permanent residence. Nicholas, a 23-year-old would-be knight, is free to wear his armor, bow to the other inhabitants, and speak of chivalry without judgment or ridicule. Matilda, an older Black lady, can fall in love with Jasmine and tend her odd garden in peace. As she says to Luke, “You and I are more alike than you think, you know. Nobody ever looked out for me either. This is the first place I’ve ever felt sheltered. This is the first place I’ve ever had space to be exactly what I am” (180).