Chapter 3: Señora Rosalia

Granada, Spain, 1501

Several years pass before anybody recognises the secret of Maristela’s Bracelet. In the intervening period, I sleep in a dreamless state, never growing older, unaware of the passage of time. However, the bracelet hasn’t been inactive during that time. Enabled by my hidden presence, and infused with Maristela’s magic, the bracelet stands in readiness as soon as it is placed on someone’s wrist. Wearing the bracelet enables it to draw on the wearer’s own spirit magic, and identify the beneficiary of any magic dispensed. However, without my intervention, the bracelet’s largesse is limited to literal interpretations of the wearer’s wishes.

Pedro regards the bracelet as his lucky charm, unaware that the bracelet is quietly responding to his wishes. Had Pedro known how to awaken and summon me, then I could have clarified his requests, and provided him with good fortune and adventure. Instead, Pedro unwittingly exhausts his fabled ‘three wishes’ making frivolous requests that the bracelet sets about satisfying.

Having exhausted Pedro’s well of spirit magic, the bracelet becomes quiescent and Pedro falls on hard times. An impoverished Pedro sells the bracelet to an arrogant knight named Alonso, who recognises the relevance of the green, blue and amber gems embedded in the bracelet. While Alonso knows the bracelet is of Moorish design, he mistakes it for a simple good luck talisman.

A short while after acquiring the bracelet, Caballero Alonso gifts it to twenty year old Señora Rosalia Fuentes y Alvarez de Moya. Rosalia is half Alonso’s age and recently widowed. Never one to pass on an opportunity to plough young women, Alonso wishes to add her to his long list of female conquests. Unaware that his motives are transparent to the bracelet’s magic, he is pleasantly surprised when his lustful advances are initially welcomed, not only by the beautiful Rosalia, but with the consent of her mother, Doña Esperanza Alvarez. None of those involved realise that their feelings are influenced by the bracelet’s magic responding to Caballero Alonso’s desires. It goes without saying that Alonso would never have parted with the bracelet had he known of its passive magic, and that his seduction of Rosalia would quickly end as soon as he parted with the bracelet.

Rosalia’s awakening to the truth of Alonso’s seduction occurs at an inconvenient time. Her marriage to the late Don Miguel Moya was nothing more than a business alliance favouring her father, Don Carlos Fuentes. Like many noble women in the same situation, Rosalia is no stranger to taking lovers. However, until now they have been men of her own age, and willing to keep their relationship discreet. Her awakening to the truth is as though she had been suddenly immersed in ice cold water. Rosalia wonders why she is naked in bed with an old charlatan like Caballero Alonso thrusting his cock into her arse. Extracting herself from the situation takes all of Rosalia’s tact and charm. Feigning a headache, Rosalia persuades Alonso to leave while she recovers her thoughts.