The opening chapters of Midnight Magic introduce the third-person narrator who most closely follows the protagonist Fabrizio’s point of view. The way the narrator depicts the story on the page aligns with how 12-year-old Fabrizio experiences the narrative world. In Chapter 1, for example, the narrator depicts Fabrizio sitting awake with “a tattered pack of tarot cards” (1), hopeful that he will be able to predict a happy future for himself and his master, Mangus the Magician. When he draws the cards, Fabrizio is overcome by terror, and the narrative mood shifts from hopeful to ominous. Because the Death card forebodes Mangus’s death, Fabrizio feels helpless and fearful, emotions that alter the narrative atmosphere. The tarot cards foreshadow the soldier’s appearance at Mangus’s house and his and Fabrizio’s unsettling trip to the castello to eradicate the ghost. With the omniscience to see into Fabrizio’s mind but the narrative distance to portray him from the outside as well, the narrator walks a line that gives the reader a more objective viewpoint while still developing Fabrizio’s interiority.

King Claudio tasks Fabrizio and Mangus with ridding Teresina of the ghost, a mission which jeopardizes their safety and introduces the novel’s theme of the Vulnerability of Those Serving Powerful Institutions. When the soldier first appears at Mangus’s house, Fabrizio, Mangus, and Mangus’s wife immediately demur, insisting that Mangus hasn’t been practicing magic and “has renounced his past” (6). Fabrizio, Mangus, and Sophia also entertain the idea of sneaking out of the house instead of following the king’s orders, which conveys their fear of being at the king’s mercy and their knowledge of their vulnerability. They also communicate the importance of “act[ing] with utter respect” when they’re at the castello to avoid incurring the king and the count’s wrath (13), another pointed reference to the class dynamic at play. At the castello, Mangus humbles himself before the king, swearing his allegiance and indebtedness to the crown. Fabrizio and Mangus’s behaviors illustrate how powerless they feel in the face of those who hold more authority than they do. Mangus swears, “I am not now—nor have I ever been—a dabbler in ways of evil. I seek to be a good Christian” (28-29). Because the Christian church was dominant in Italy during the 15th century, any form of perceived trickery or inexplicable artistry was regarded as Satanic. Mangus is eager to dispel the king’s potential fears that he is evil because he is trying to save his own life. He and Fabrizio are vulnerable to Claudio’s and Scarazoni’s whims because they are commoners, and these initial chapters establish the unbalanced power dynamic that Mangus and Fabrizio experience while at the castello.

The castello imagery throughout these chapters conveys how helpless Fabrizio feels once he leaves Mangus’s home and enters the home of the royals. The description of this setting when Fabrizio and Mangus first arrive illustrates Fabrizio’s vulnerability in an unfamiliar new world:

The structure was bigger than any building in the city, larger even than the cathedral. Fabrizio had little doubt it was the grandest building in the world. In shape, the castello was roughly rectangular. […] At each corner stood a turret of some additional one hundred and fifty feet. Along the front and back walls were two other turrets, evenly spaced. At the base of these towers were dungeons, where—as every citizen of Pergamontio knew—lay prisoner’s bones (18).

The castello structure is so imposing that it towers over Fabrizio and his traveling companions when they first arrive. The images of the towers, walls, cathedrals, turrets, and dungeons affect an ominous, imposing mood. The reference to bones reinforces Fabrizio’s vulnerability and again forebodes death. Fabrizio is a young servant boy who has “never been to the castello” and is entering “not just the place where the king, his family, and court lived,” but the place which contains “the power of life and death over every citizen in the kingdom” (18). The castello is the seat of Pergamontio’s power, and although in the outside world, he is the apprentice of a respected man, he is insignificant and disposable in this sprawling realm. Once he enters the walls of the castello, he effectively gives up his autonomy. Back at home in Mangus’s house, Fabrizio knows he can trust his master. Here at the castello, Fabrizio is unsure who to trust and who to believe.

Teresina takes advantage of his uncertainty, and Fabrizio’s seeming alliance with the princess offers him the illusion of safety amidst his dangerous new circumstances. Fabrizio initially believes he can only rely on Mangus’s advice and point of view but becomes quickly immersed in Teresina’s account. Teresina uses her emotional distress to control Fabrizio. She also promises Fabrizio she will “do well by Mangus” should he help her with the ghost (57). Fabrizio is easily taken in by Teresina’s promises of mercy and money. She wields her power to win Fabrizio’s loyalty and support, presenting him with a dilemma, as her motives counteract Mangus’s, introducing the theme of Loyalty Tested by Competing Obligations.