Issue 33: Ghosts

Ghosts is the thirty-third issue of the Winx Club Comic Series.

Synopsis
Musa and the Winx help an old composer named Sifelius move past the death of his late wife.

Plot
At a rather strange bazaar, Musa is looking for an instrument to buy for her father and she is using all of the savings she has gathered up from working for Barbatea in order to afford one. The old shopkeeper is surprised this and commends Musa for saving up her money for someone else rather than spending it all on something like designer clothes. Musa, however, does not find her actions to be all that honorable as not all young people are ridiculously fickle and that even though they may be clumsy and inexperienced, grown adults with more experience and knowledge are out causing wars or devastating their planets. The old shopkeeper actually finds comfort in her words and apologizes if he had offended her unintentionally, to which Musa accepts until she realizes that she has not been able to find the perfect present for her father yet. The old shopkeeper tells Musa that he knows a man by the name of Sifelius who happens to be a collector of rare magical instruments. As Musa gets ready to leave, the old shopkeeper tells her that this Sifelius man lives in an old villa at the end of the road and to tell him that he sent her.

Meanwhile, at Alfea, Bloom tells her diary that life at school has become a lot more difficult now that she and the Winx have achieved their Enchantix powers. Her diary urges her to keep going, since achieving the next Fairy level means that she and her friends are now more powerful, but Bloom just harps on her diary for being too nosy until she gets a call from Musa. She leaves her diary as she takes the call, despite her diary's best efforts to recapture her attention, so he reluctantly says goodbye.

Bloom takes a bus to Magix, where Musa is waiting at the stop. The two of them head for a villa that is at the end of the road and come across these giant gates. Musa concludes that it must be Sifelius' villa and Bloom comments on how he must be a very wealthy man. Musa notices how run down the villa now is and begins to think otherwise, realizing that Sifelius must be selling his collection in order to still afford to keep the villa clean. Musa tries to pull a lever next to the gates to ring the bell but the gates creak open instead. The two of them then start to explore the inside of the gates, marveling at the large park that is inside. Musa comments on how Flora might love to see it until the two of them come across the actual villa, which is old and very dirty. They are then met by a grouchy old man, possibly Sifelius, who yells at them for trespassing. Musa tries to apologize, but Sifelius demands that they leave his property. Musa apologizes again, mentioning that a man named Solimante sent her. This catches Sifelius' interest as he asks what that "old goat" would want. Musa tries to explain that Solimante does not want anything and sent her there but Sifelius cuts her off, yelling at the two girls to come inside because he hates being outside. Bloom asks Musa what they should do and, since Musa came to get a gift for her father's birthday, she says that they should take his offer to head inside.

Inside, Bloom and Musa look for Sifelius as they take a look around his villa, which looks as if it might as well have been abandoned. They find Sifelius sitting alone in a dark room with the curtains purposely closed to block out the sun. He crudely asks what Musa wants with him and Musa explains that she was sent to him by Solimante to look for a gift for her father, since Solimante did not have anything "suited to her financial capacities." As she explains that Solimante told her that Sifelius may have something to sell, Sifelius interrupts her and refuses to sell her anything. As Bloom tries to get Musa to leave, Sifelius keeps yelling at them to leave and specifically tells Musa to tell Solimante to keep his nose out of his business. Musa does not see that she did anything wrong and as the two girls are leaving, Musa says a golden harp shining from within one of the rooms. Musa rushes inside as another impressive instrument catches her attention: an archicembalo. As she tells Bloom about how she has only seen it in photos her father showed her, Sifelius walks in and seems somewhat surprised that Musa knows of it. She explains that her father has always dreamed of owning an archicembalo, even if he could not afford it, until Sifelius tells her to come back tomorrow as he may have a present suitable for her tastes.

As Musa and Bloom leave, Bloom comments on how Sifelius may not be as gruff as he would want people to believe. Musa thinks that Sifelius is a rather odd old man as his house was completely in shambles, but his instruments were practically sparkling. Bloom thinks that he could just be playing those instruments but Musa cannot think so because the archicembalo is too difficult of an instrument to play alone. Bloom then asks Musa if she is too nosy of a person to just leave this be, to which Musa admits to and claims that she knows someone who can shed some light on this little mystery.

Musa takes Bloom to the bazaar she went to earlier and accuses Solimante of sending her to Sifelius deliberately because he wanted him to talk to someone. Solimante is offended by Musa's sudden accusation, to which Musa apologizes but claims that he has yet to answer her question. Solimante confesses to sending Musa to Sifelius on purpose because he does not like seeing his friend suffer, however, whenever Sifelius gets depressed, he refuses to listen to anyone, even close friends. Solimante hoped that seeing a new face would put Sifelius in better spirits but, seeing as how Musa is back in his shop, Sifelius must have told her to leave. Bloom asks Solimante why Sifelius is like the way he is and Solimante reveals that it is due to the death of his beloved wife, Irenja. Sifelius used to be a great composer and he became very famous as his concerts were always big successes. Irenja brought out the best in Sifelius, despite never performing in public with him, but the private performances the two shared would always give Sifelius new ideas for compositions, as well as reinforcing their love in one another. Irenja soon fell ill and passed away, leaving Sifelius alone as his world fell apart. He no longer writes any new compositions and he no longer holds any concerts; completely shutting himself out of the world. With Sifelius' house now in shambles, Solimante is worried what will happen next. Musa tells Solimante that she would be honored to help Sifelius but she does not know what she could do. Solimante then asks Musa if she is studying to become a fairy and he tells her that, as a fairy, she is training to help people through the use of magic. He believes that Musa may have learned enough to help Sifelius and Musa agrees to help, promising that she will figure something out. Solimante then wishes her good luck as she and Bloom leave the bazaar.

At Alfea, Musa tells the rest of the Winx of the situation, where Stella tells Musa that it would be impossible to help Sifelius because his wife has been dead for a long time and there is no possible cure for death. Despite this, Musa still wants to figure out how to help him. Bloom explains that helping him does not have to be through resurrecting his wife, but they just have to make him see reason; to see that life still goes on and accept that fact. Flora agrees with Bloom as she believes that even if a great love can only live on in memory, it can still give someone the strength to keep living. Tecna comments on how Sifelius and Irenja must have loved each other deeply, as she misses Timmy if she is away from him for more than ten minutes, and Bloom playfully tells her to not even go on about it. Stella agrees to also help Musa, asking her how they will go about it, but Musa does not have an idea yet. She then gets made at Stella for feeling obligated to help, telling her that she is committed to helping Sifelius and that, if Stella does not want to, she does not need to feel forced. Stella tells her not to take her words the wrong way and then reminds the girls that they have a practical technical magic test on Thursday. Even worse, she does not remember any of what could be on it and cannot seem to learn it. She then realizes that Musa is still mad and apologizes, offering to help Musa in any way she can. Musa then tells the girls that they do not need to worry about the situation now because she still needs to talk to Sifelius and possibly encourage him. Bloom asks if Musa will visit him tomorrow, to which Musa confirms and tells Bloom that she will go by herself because they really should take the upcoming test seriously. The next day, on her way to Sifelius' villa, Musa notices a snacks stand. A little while later, she pulls the lever just outside of the gates to ring the doorbell and lets herself in. Sifelius is already waiting for her just outside the front doors, where he tells her that he thought she would not be coming. He rushes her inside the villa and directs her to his room, where he claims to have something that would interest her father. He shows Musa to a desk with piles of old paper on top, claiming that if her father is a true music lover, then he would greatly love having them. Musa picks up a few of the old papers and sees that they are original manuscripts. She is unsure if she should take such valuable pieces of music but Sifelius insists that he has no use for them. As she looks through the manuscripts thoroughly, she lets it slip that Sifelius must have enjoyed playing with his wife, and this causes Sifelius to snap at Musa. He shouts at her about how anything related to Irenja is strictly his business and demands Musa to leave now that she got what she came for. She tries to apologize but Sifelius keeps demanding that she get out of his house. As she leaves, she throws a bag of treats at a nearby coffee table and heads for the front door. Sifelius shouts at her to close the doors behind her as he hates the sunlight and as he heads back to his room to brood, he notices a bag of treats sitting on a coffee table. Just as Musa is about to leave through the gates, Sifelius comes out of the villa to apologize for being so abrasive. He tells Musa to come talk with him after learning her name, and the two go to sit on a bench in his garden. He tries to make small talk by being mesmerized by the beautiful of the outside world but Musa is still upset. He then confesses that Irenja was his life and that once she had passed, his life became dark as he no longer cares for anyone anymore. He apologizes for his behavior, claiming that he cannot help it now that Irenja is gone, but Musa thinks he can pick himself up and continue his life like how it was before. Sifelius still believes that he cannot go back to his old life so long as Irenja is gone and promises that things would be different if he could just see her one last time, though, he knows that it is impossible to turn back time. Musa then tells Sifelius that she needs to leave, but she tells him that she believes that it could be possible and the two say their goodbyes as Sifelius tries to figure out what she meant.

Later in the evening at Alfea, Musa asks the girls if they would be able to bring Irenja back for Sifelius to get some closure. The girls tell Musa that it would be impossible until Tecna points out that it could be done with black magic, but the outcome of using black magic is mostly terrifying. Musa specifies that she does not want to resurrect Irenja but that she wants to invoke her spirit somehow so Sifelius could see her one last time. Stella claims that subjects such as phantasmology and invocation are difficult and that if they were to get one thing wrong, they would get in serious trouble but then she further claims that she remembered seeing books on the subject in the library. Tecna claims that they can try invoking Irenja's spirit but only after they get on their homework, but Musa believes that they need to do this as soon as possible before Sifelius' mood changes again. That is when Stella gets frustrated over the amount of homework they have and suggests that they split up in order to get this done: she, Bloom and Musa will deal with Sifelius' situation, whereas Tecna, Flora and Aisha can handle the homework. Tecna is not so sure as she believes this to be another ploy of Stella's to get them to do all of the work until Flora interjects, claiming that it would be a good plan since they can all help each other out. Tecna reluctantly agrees and Stella asks Musa when they should start, to which Musa claims that they should start as soon as possible when there is a suffering person involved. In the Alfea Libraries, the three of them are trying to read up on how to invoke a ghost but cannot seem to come across anything. Other than the fact that the formulae needed to invoke a spirit is difficult, they also need a strong positive energy catalyzed into an element similar to a spirit. Bloom realizes that they need another ghost in order for this to work and tells Stella and Musa that they can search for her older sister Daphne in order to make the spell work. The three of them make their way to Lake Roccaluce, but bump into Faragonda on their way out. She asks why they are not in the laboratory yet, to which Stella claims that they are on their way their as the run out. Bloom is afraid that they will get in trouble since Faragonda caught them but Stella assures her that they were not doing anything suspicious, so she, Bloom and Musa all transform and fly towards Lake Roccaluce. The girls quickly arrive at Lake Roccaluce and submerge into the lake's depths, where they soon come face to face with Daphne. Daphne asks what Bloom could need, to which Bloom explains that they need her to do a very important favor for them. She explains the situation to Daphne and Daphne claims that the Winx should be able to accomplish their task now that they have their Enchantix powers. After explaining the spell to them, she hands Bloom a large seashell and tells her to disperse the magic inside the shell once the time is right, reminding her that the spell will only work once. Daphne then wishes them good luck as the three girls head back for Alfea

Meanwhile, Tecna, Flora and Aisha are performing their exercise for the exam as Faragonda begins surveying all of the other students. She begins to come their way, which makes Tecna nervous as the other three have not returned and Faragonda will catch them doing their exercise as well if she gets to their table. Just as she and DuFour are about to take roll call, Knut comes into the classroom to let Faragonda know that there is a phone call waiting for her. She hastily leaves the classroom in order to take the call, which unintentionally saves Tecna, Flora and Aisha from being caught.

A day passes and Musa is visiting Sifelius again. She reveals to him that she and her friends know of a difficult spell that would allow him to be able to speak to Irenja one last time. Sifelius is excited to see Irenja despite barely knowing how he will be able to do so but he quickly becomes nervous as he and his villa are not in a very presentable state. Musa assures Sifelius that she and her friends will be able to clean up the house as he tries to make himself more presentable.

Later, at Alfea, Musa explains to the girls that they will have to clean up the villa before summoning Irenja's spirit, which freaks Stella out because they still have to deal with classes. Musa tries to tell Stella that she called the boys over to help until Trista tries to quiet them down. Stella tells her to mind her own business, to which Trista sticks her tongue out at her. Bloom tries to calm Stella down but she claims that it is impossible to understand Tecna's notes. She asks Flora for her notes but Flora tells her that she is already in trouble for doing her exercise for her when she snuck off to Lake Roccaluce earlier that week. Stella starts to lose hope as she gets increasingly more frustrated by all the work they have to do.

Two hours pass and the girls are finally out of class. Stella complains about how hard it was to try and make sense of Tecna's notes, which causes Tecna to get angry as she yells at Stella about how hard it was for her to summarize eight whole pages of exercises for her, Bloom and Musa. Musa tries to calm the girls down as she tells them that after lunch, they need to rush to Sifelius' villa if they want to accomplish this in time. The girls meet up with Sky and Timmy just outside of Sifelius' villa as Tecna asks Timmy how long the two of them have been there. Sky explains to the girls that they got permission from Codatorta to come and that they already managed to clean up the park between the gates and the building, but they had trouble cleaning up the inside with how rundown it is. Musa tells the boys to rest easy since she and the girls have saved up a lot of energy. Then Sifelius comes out of the villa with sandwiches and drinks for the boys until he notices that Musa has arrived with the Winx. Musa could hardly recognize him now that he has cleaned himself up, but Sifelius fears that Irenja will be disheartened to see the inside of the villa in terrible condition. Musa tells Sifelius to leave the rest of the cleaning to her and the Winx as they transform. The girls fly up to the top of the house and use a powerful spell that completely restores the state of the villa to before it became rundown. Inside, Sifelius is awestruck with how clean and new the villa looks and the Winx prepare to summon Irenja's spirit. Bloom takes out the large seashell she got from Daphne and the Winx begin to combine their powers as they use the spell. From the seashell, Daphne and Irenja's spirits emerge. Sifelius is completely taken aback by the fact that his deceased wife is now standing in front of him again. He tells Irenja how much he has missed her but Irenja insists that she was always by his side, even after she had passed. She urges Sifelius to perform with her again and the two perform one final piece together again. The girls are moved by the couple's performance and once it ends, they give the two a round of applause. Irenja approaches Sifelius, telling him that she has to go and she has him promise that he will not change and will not forget her. Sifelius vows to keep that promise and Irenja tells him that he still has much to do for himself and for the both of them as she fades away. Musa tells Sifelius that she thought their performance was beautiful and Sifelius tells her that it is all thanks to her and her friends as he urges them to come outside with him to enjoy the sun. However, on their way outside, there is a large crowd of people gathered as they applaud Sifelius' performance. Sky explains that he and Timmy could not stop the crowd from coming in as they were all drawn to the music Sifelius and Irenja were making but Sifelius accepts the crowd and takes a bow. Sifelius realizes that he is still useful to many people and offers to open his villa to aspiring musicians as he will give lessons and concerts to anyone that wants them, until he is interrupted by Faragonda making her way through the crowd.

Faragonda tells the girls that she suspected they were up to something and followed them, but then she too got caught up by the crowd that was attracted to the music. She claims that she figured that the girls were applying the technical potions that they picked up from DuFour's class to a complex situation and decides to let the girls pass their test with full marks thanks to their success. The girls rejoice at the sudden turn of events.

At Alfea, Bloom explains to her diary about all that happened and tells him that Sifelius granted his pavillon to the Specialists for their band to rehearse.

Spells Used

 * "Return this house to its former glory. May the strain of time be just an old story ... Bring back its color inside and out, and chase away sadness beyond any doubt!" - Used by the Winx to restore Sifelius' villa before Irenja's arrival.
 * "We want Irenja back again. Want her to speak, to see, to love, and then... May she come back from where she appeared before, for there shall be no sadness anymore!" - Used by the Winx to summon Irenja's spirit, alongside Daphne.

Mistakes

 * Throughout the issue, Musa's hairbands often change color from red, orange and pink.
 * Throughout the issue, Stella's shirt tends to switch from being pink with blue jagged stripes to being blue with pink jagged stripes in some of the panels.
 * As the Winx transform on page 37, Stella is missing her long pigtails in her Enchantix form.
 * Throughout the issue, Stella's Enchantix wings appear without the orange border, making them appear mostly grey.
 * Also on page 37, Flora's buns are missing after she transforms into her Enchantix.

Debuts

 * Sifelius
 * Irenja
 * Solimante
 * Enchantix

Characters

 * Winx Club
 * Bloom
 * Stella
 * Musa
 * Aisha
 * Flora
 * Tecna
 * Specialists
 * Sky
 * Timmy
 * Alfea Staff
 * Faragonda
 * DuFour
 * Knut
 * Alfea Students
 * Trista
 * Red Fountain Staff
 * Codatorta (mentioned)
 * Nymphs
 * Daphne
 * Ghosts
 * Irenja
 * Humans
 * Sifelius
 * Solimante