Chapters 22-28Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of graphic violence and death.
Chapter 22 Summary
Fabrizio, Mangus, and Teresina go to the chapel, where Mangus questions Fabrizio about his knowledge of the space. Fabrizio admits that he learned of the chapel’s secret side doors from Rinaldo. Mangus then moves through the space, explaining his understanding of its layout. He has figured out that there are various openings through which someone could cast light using lit taper candles to create the appearance of a ghost.
He then explains his theory that Teresina fabricated the ghost to unnerve Claudio and get out of marrying Scarazoni. He demonstrates how Teresina would have made the ghost with the help of an unknown friend whom he assumes was hiding in one of the chapel cupboards. He guesses that she was the one who wanted him to come to the castello, because she hoped he’d confirm the ghost’s existence. When she learned he doesn’t believe in ghosts, Teresina fixed her attention on Fabrizio, hoping he’d confirm the ghost was real. He suspects Teresina visits the chapel every evening to seek help from someone hiding in the chapel cupboard. They open a cabinet door to find Jovanna.
Chapter 23 Summary
Teresina informs her mother that Mangus has discovered their secret. The queen admits that she and Teresina concocted the ghost and goes on to explain why. The whole issue began because of a “great enmity” between Scarazoni and Lorenzo, who believed the count had “too much influence” over Claudio (192). When Lorenzo left for Rome, Scarazoni tried to have him killed. Because they didn’t find Lorenzo’s body, Scarazoni informed Claudio that his son was dead and insisted on marrying Teresina. Jovanna and Teresina came up with the ghost scheme to punish Scarazoni and avenge Lorenzo.
Mangus congratulates the women on their cleverness but insists he still must tell Claudio the truth. Jovanna, Teresina, and Fabrizio worry that Claudio won’t believe Scarazoni’s betrayal. Fabrizio suggests they make the ghost tell Claudio about the count’s treachery. Mangus agrees to the plan when he realizes they all want the truth exposed. The companions work together to come up with a new plan.
Back in his chamber, Fabrizio lies awake thinking about everything that’s happened. Meanwhile, Teresina and Jovanna decide they won’t tell Mangus the part of the story he has yet to figure out.
Chapter 24 Summary
Chapter 25 Summary
Meanwhile, Rinaldo brings Fabrizio some food in his dungeon cell. After he leaves, Teresina visits Fabrizio, explaining the plan. Then two guards escort him to Mangus’s chambers. Mangus informs Fabrizio that he will be sent home to collect his magical equipment for the ghost eradication that evening. Fabrizio completes the mission—gathering special candles, whistles, and streamers—and returns to the castello.
Teresina informs Fabrizio that he will have to use the secret passageways to sneak out of the dungeon and fabricate the ghost when Claudio is in the chapel with Scarazoni and Mangus. She gives him a special timed candle from Mangus so that he knows when to leave the dungeon. Lying alone afterward, Fabrizio worries that he won’t complete his part of the plan. Finally he falls asleep, unknowingly knocking the candle over.
Chapter 26 Summary
Fabrizio wakes up in darkness, realizing in horror that he doesn’t know what time it is. He races out of the dungeon and up to the chapel. At first, he fears he missed the appointed time, but he finds everything in its place and decides he is early.
When he looks around again, he notices a bloody Rinaldo carrying a sword and dripping in candle wax. Fabrizio is frustrated with Rinaldo for having ruined the ghost setup, which Rinaldo seems to understand. Confused as to how Rinaldo knew about the plan, he demands to know who he really is. Rinaldo reveals that he is, in fact, Prince Lorenzo. He has been in disguise ever since Scarazoni tried to murder him and has been working with Teresina and Jovanna. None of them was sure Claudio would believe that the count betrayed them, so they came up with the ghost plan instead.
Suddenly, the companions hear people approaching the chapel. Fabrizio decides that he will pretend to be the ghost for the sake of the scheme. He hides in the chapel cupboard just in time.
Chapter 27 Summary
From his hiding place, Fabrizio watches the fake ceremony begin. Mangus starts chanting and reciting verses to call out the ghost. When the time comes, Fabrizio jumps out of the cupboard, candlelight flooding his figure. Teresina and Jovanna shriek that he is Lorenzo’s ghost seeking vengeance for his murder at the count’s hand. Scarazoni protests, but the king commands that the guards seize him. Still in character as the ghost, Fabrizio demands that Scarazoni confess. Terrified, Scarazoni admits what he did. The guards take him to the dungeons.
Chapter 28 Summary
In a full courtroom the next day, King Claudio announces that Mangus is his friend, and the queen rewards him with a generous pension. Teresina tries to honor Fabrizio with a gold reward, but he doesn’t want to accept it.
Fabrizio and Mangus are escorted home in royal carriages. On the way, the companions discuss their trickery in the chapel. Mangus is impressed by the beam of lightning Fabrizio manufactured over his head during the performance. Fabrizio acts as if it was magic.
Back at home, Fabrizio settles in with his tarot cards. He pulls the Servant and moves to draw the next card.
Chapters 22-28 Analysis
In the final chapters of Midnight Magic, the mystery is resolved. Once Mangus informs Fabrizio and Teresina that he knows the truth about the ghost, narrative tension begins to defuse. The narrative follows a traditional murder mystery plot line, in which the investigation is concluded and resolved by Mangus, the detective, who leads the characters to the setting where the mysterious events have taken place (the chapel) and explains to them how the ghost came to be. He also offers his theory for why Teresina concocted the specter, and his version of events compels Teresina and Jovanna to come out with the truth and to admit their involvement in the mystery. These narrative revelations offer answers to the story’s overarching questions while resolving the novel’s primary thematic explorations, adopting the conventions of the mystery genre to do so.
Mangus’s character arc is also concluded in these final chapters, and his new maturity and confidence are illustrated by how he uses Critical Thinking as a Counter to Superstition, proving the power of logic and common sense. Throughout the novel, Fabrizio fears for both his own and his master’s lives, and he is torn between his loyalties to Mangus, the princess, the queen, the kitchen boy, and the count and king, and unsure whose version of events to trust. Because he knows that the king “is not strong willed and is very superstitious” (192), Fabrizio fears that whether or not he and Mangus prove the ghost’s existence, they are risking their own lives. Despite Fabrizio’s fears of thinking for himself, Mangus stays true to his original claim that all he wants is the truth. He fights for truth by using his mind and wit to uncover what really happened. By digging deeper, asking questions, and testing various theories, Mangus is able to resolve the castello mystery and save himself, instead of relying on someone else’s perspective for the answers.
Mangus’s fearlessness and commitment to the truth inspire Fabrizio to claim autonomy and exercise his own agency. His newfound confidence in himself furthers the novel’s theme of Loyalty Tested by Competing Obligations. Throughout the novel, Fabrizio has been caught between his competing loyalties to his master, the members of the court, and his new friends. When he, Mangus, Teresina, and Jovanna are concocting a plan for how to inform the king of Scarazoni’s betrayal, however, Fabrizio finds a solution that balances his various obligations:
With permission, why not use the ghost to tell the truth? Master, you wish to speak the truth and are a great illusionist. My lady, you wish to speak the truth and expose Count Scarazoni for the murderer that he is. Princess, you wish to speak the truth and you love excitement. Bring the ghost before the king and get it to speak the truth. Perhaps the king will believe (198).
Fabrizio’s proposed solution creates an opportunity for each character’s particular desires to be met. Using the alleged ghost to reveal the truth satisfies Mangus’s desire for justice, the queen’s desire to expose Scarazoni, the princess’s desire for excitement, and the king’s desire to understand why the ghost has appeared at all. Fabrizio is learning that he does not have to sacrifice his own moral code to please others. He finds a way to maintain his loyalties, satisfy his obligations, and be true to his personal desires, too.
The final chapter of the novel both offers Midnight Magic a resolution and creates room for the next installment in the series. In the courtroom scene, the king “declared Count Scarazoni a traitor and that when the week was out, he would have his fair trial and then be executed” (239), an announcement that brings the count to justice and assuages Teresina, Jovanna, Fabrizio, and Mangus’s fears. He, Jovanna, Teresina, and Lorenzo then honor Mangus and Fabrizio; their shows of grace liberate the main characters from their fears of death and punishment and allow them to return to their lives. These redemptive aspects of the novel close out the story’s conflicts. However, the final scene reignites the narrative mystery in anticipation of the subsequent title, Murder at Midnight. Fabrizio is again drawing tarot cards, but the novel ends before he finishes: “Smiling broadly,” the narrator says in the novel’s final sentence, “Fabrizio turned the next card…” (241). The ellipses create a lingering, mysterious tone. Whatever card Fabrizio pulls next will foreshadow the next conflict he faces.
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