Page 62 of Vanish

This information shed light on another shadow lurking in my past—my coming to the palace at a few years old to replace the deceased true princess made more plausible for how my illegitimacy had been kept a secret from the court, as well as offering a more tangible explanation for the Queen of Thorndale’s hatred towards me. It was one thing to be the daughter of a mistress, and quite another to be an illegitimate child who’d unwittingly taken the place of therealprincess. While nothing could justify cruel treatment of an innocent child, I felt a trickle of understanding for the woman who’d contributed to my misery; it must have been unimaginably painful to not only lose her daughter, but to be forced to pretend that a different child was was hers, losing the ability to grieve and heal.

The queen’s reception of me was nothing to the reaction I’d previously feared from the man beside me, the one I’d unintentionally deceived by assuming he’d known the circumstances surrounding my birth…only to later discover it’d been a closely guarded secret as a means of tricking Brimoire into accepting an alliance with our kingdom.

I sent him a grateful glance, thankful I’d found the courage to tell him the truth and even more thankful for the way he’d responded. He met my look with the same love he always had. “Nothing will change how I feel about you,” he reminded me. “I fell in love with a remarkable woman named Lisette, not your title.”

His reassurances confirmed the truth about his heart our courtship had slowly illuminated piece by piece, disapproving years of fear, doubt, and insecurity that my painful and often messy past didn’t matter—I was accepted, loved, and could entrust my own heart to his keeping.

This realization was enough to heal the last of the doubt afflicting my heart, leaving nothing holding me back for the first time. I straightened and looked around at the people who loved me before casting my gaze farther. It was time to finally figure out how to break the curse upon the land once and for all.

CHAPTER26

The land of the vanished unfolded around us like a colorless, transparent outline of the real world. We were overwhelmed by the number of our subjects that lined the translucent roads as Lucien and I wandered the small village. Hope brought by our arrival mingled with despair in the faces that greeted us at the thought of potentially being trapped in this state of partial existence forever.

Sadness shrouded Lucien as he took in the devastation on each subject’s face. “There are so many,” he murmured. “The curse is far more devastating than I could have ever imagined. To think that this is only one village of countless. At least my people are still alive…to an extent. For so many years I feared that they had ceased to exist. But though we found a way to reach them, without magic I’m left powerless on how to help them.”

I still believed a clue resided somewhere in this unseen world, hidden to protect it against the disappearing force. Yet our surroundings appeared to be a seemingly ordinary mining village…with the obvious difference that it was a mere shadow of the one that had been erased from the visible world.

Our wanderings eventually led us to small quarry where we found carts of raw stones, speckles of amber in an otherwise colorless world. A miner awaited us and bowed at our approach. “Thank you for coming, Your Highness. To think you found a way to reach us even in such a desolate place…” Emotion choked his voice.

Lucien extended a warm, reassuring smile. “I will do all within my power to help you. I’m only sorry that it has taken me so long to come, but now that I’m here, we must work together to destroy the curse. Have you discovered anything since you’ve been living beneath the influence of the curse?”

Several shook their head, causing his hunched postured created by the burden of overwhelm cast upon his shoulders to bely his feigned confidence. His eyes took on a lost, faraway air as he looked aimlessly around, as if unsure where to begin.

Finally a miner stepped uncertainly from the crowd. “I’m not sure how useful this information will be, but this mineral appears to be the only matter not affected by the curse.” He picked up one of the rocks and extended it to us.

As we drew closer, I recognized the mineral as phanite from the books we’d studied—a reddish-brown mineral with a naturally hexagonal crystalline structure, an appearance that looked even more ordinary in person than it had as an illustration on the page.

Could such a seemingly insignificant substance truly be the cause of such destruction? Evelyn might be able to tell us whether it contained magical energy or what enchanted properties it possessed—if any—that might help us uncover a solution in breaking the curse. If only we had a way of contacting her from here.

Mother joined our examination. “The mining village where I’m from is almost directly on the Thorndale border and was thus one of the first claimed by the curse. I’ve since witnessed countless villages succumb to the disappearing force…along with the Thorndale soldiers who excavate the mineral left over after the curse passes through. Phanite is the only substance unaffected by the transparency that taints everything else within the vanished world, causing us to surmise that it’s the source of the disappearing force.”

Lucien turned the mineral over as he examined it before handing it to me. “What do you think?”

I was touched that he valued my opinion, such a contrast to Father’s usual attitude. I accepted the mineral and gingerly explored its surface, as if its secrets could be found hidden in the ridges and glistening stones. My fingertips tingled, but otherwise there was no reaction.

Mother’s attention grew thoughtful as she studied it over my shoulder. “Phanite is a scarce element with unusual magical properties—its powers are quite potent when harvested, but its rarity is because when obtained through dishonorable means it will vanish.”

Her insight matched the information we’d gradually pieced together. “Do you know how to reverse these protective measures to cause what has vanished to reappear?”

She nodded. “Perhaps. Many legends about this mineral have been passed down from generation to generation, yet few have become known outside the mining villages where they originated. One in particular I remember my grandmother telling me is an ancient tale of a mage whose experiments accidentally cursed him to disappear. Many claimed his cruel fate proved he was greedy and deserved to be cursed. However, his fiancée refused to give up on him, and eventually discovered the truth—the king of that land had coerced the mage into collecting a large amount of phanite for his own selfish purposes, and the mineral protected itself by disappearing…along with the one mining it.”

I bit my lip, all too familiar with such a tale of a greedy king. “Was the mage ever seen again?”

Mother smiled. “It seemed a lost cause, but through the fiancée’s own dedicated efforts she was able to discover an antidote—comprised of an even rarer mineral that must be crushed and sprinkled on the earth by hands that truly loved the affected person in order to restore them.”

The story seemed like one that would appear on the pages of the fairytales I used to read—tales of magic, true love, and sacrifice. “Greed is what claimed the land, so selfless love is what’s needed to restore it.”

Mother smiled and I shyly returned it, still unused to the warm affection she bestowed even as I savored it.

Lucien’s brow furrowed. “You mentioned a mineral more rare than the phanite whose protective magic created the disappearing curse. Do you have any idea what this mineral is or how to obtain it?”

“Legend has it that there is a ‘sister stone’ to phanite that is even more rare, and may now be extinct. Yet here in this realm, I believe it’s the phanite itself that is needed.” Faint light glistened off the tiny embedded stones as Mother held the mineral aloft. Each shimmer seemed to illuminate the shadows of my understanding.

“The same thing that caused the curse is the very source of its cure, as if logic works backwards in the vanished world.”

Mother nodded. “That is the hypothesis of the miners as well, yet one that for all our efforts we’ve been unable to prove. Many have tried to process it according to the legends, but with every attempt the material disappears, until we gave up so as not to waste such a precious resource. Though it’s our job to excavate it, in the end the mineral doesn’t belong to us but the kingdom of Brimoire, leaving us without authorization to utilize its powers…at least not without the aid of dark magic, which would poison our souls and leave the magic prone to evil.”

Which meant that only a true ruler with the authority to handle such a precious mineral—and the desire to use it for good rather than selfish gain—could reverse its protective spell and restore all that had been lost.

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