Chapter Seventeen – The Magician of Iglis

I banged loudly on the door, knowing that the magician slept quite a bit. A few moments later, the door was opened by the Magician, looking as if he had just awoken, yet smiling when he saw us.
“Well, come in my dear girls! Tell me of all your adventures. And who do you have here with you?”
I spoke,
“We shall tell you of all, though I must admit, it is not very much to tell you. And she that is with us is Azarae, the Fairy of Iglis.”
The Magician stroked his beard,
“I have heard of her, but I have never seen her before. Well, welcome to my house, Azarae!” He said, smiling.
And then we went inside and warmed ourselves by the fire. The magician made a meal with his magic, then pulled out a pipe and smoked it as we told him our story. Though we had not yet told him of the fairy. We handed him the fruit, and he smiled.
“Thank you very much for going through all this trouble for an old magician.” he said, and patted me on the shoulder. “Thank you, you shall surely be greatly rewarded. Now, what business does the Fairy of Iglis have here?” He questioned.
The fairy told her story to the magician, and he stroked his beard the whole time, making little grunting sounds like,
“hm.” and
“ah.” and
“oh.” but he never interrupted her until she had finished.
“I am very, very sorry. But it is not within my power to just let you go back, it is fully up to the Fairy's. I must call a meeting with the elder fairy's.” he said, and then sat back in his chair, smoking his pipe; he was soon asleep. So we called it a night, and we all slept soundly.
We were awoken in the morning by Azarae (the fairy), telling us that we could come down and eat if we would like to. I got up to go eat, but Kya stayed in bed for another hour.
It was apparent to me that the Magician was beginning to like Azarae, for he was not a talkative man, until she came. They talked all day long, we could have gone home, but we wanted to stay a while longer; to see if Azarae got her wishes granted. Then, in the evening, the Magician sighed and said,
“I suppose I shall call a meeting with the elder fairy's from the valley of lillise.” he said, and was about to set about it had not Azarae stopped him.
“No. Wait, Renidren. Please, I would like to speak to you alone.” And she led him to another room where I could not tell what was being said. About five minutes later, Azarae came out beaming, and her happiness made her appear younger. Renidren's countenance was also a happy one.
Then Azarae came up to me,
“Renidren and I have decided that I will stay here, I will marry him! And I would like you to be there at our wedding.” She smiled.
I thought it was a little funny that such old people were getting married, but I agreed to come to the wedding. And it was held three days later with much splendour.
On the day that we were going to return to our own world, the Magician said to Kya and I,
“You shall each be granted one wish, and take three things to remind you of your journey. And your reward shall be these four bags of gold.” He said, holding out the bags of gold for us to see. I put a hand over my mouth.
“Oh! Thank you so, so much grandfather!” I said, for he had become much like a grandfather to me.
“I shall never, ever forget you. I'll never forget either of you.” I said, speaking of Renidren and Azarae. And now I did feel like crying because they both were so dear to me. As for my memoirs, I chose an Iglis fruit from the orchard of Iglis trees that he had. Then I chose a pipe that Renidren no longer used and an apron that Azarae had knitted.
Kya took a fruit, too. Then she took a book of the magician's from his library and finally got Azarae to consent to her taking a lock of her hair. The Magician wrote a note to Kya in the front of the book, and then, it was time for our wishes.
I was told to close my eyes and wish for it out loud.
“I wish that I shall never forget my adventures here, even in my old age!” and I knew that it had been granted.
Then it was Kya's turn,
“I wish that I had a camera right now with me.” I thought at first that it was the strangest wish until she took the camera and began taking pictures. Pictures that we would always have and treasure forever. We got pictures of Renidren and Azarae together, and all of us together. Then, we hugged goodbye, and with a wave of his hand a few magic words, there we were in our own house. And we would stay in our world for the rest of our lives.