[b]Extradimensional Junction[/b]

Drat.

Not only was the only way Julian could refer them any more knowledgeable sources on the curse a death trap, but it sounded like she was fundamentally wrong about just how it worked in the first case. 

If she was to find more information on the subject, she’d have to find it the hard way, through ancient books, letters, and tablets. Not a fun prospect. 
The curse, as Julian had mentioned, looked to have the fundamental evil of the vanishing of people built into it. Perhaps that was the necessary evil? Curses, while powerful, always required some proportional element of evil, loss, or pain to them. This was why many “rituals” require animal or human sacrifice- they were but curses by another name. 

If that was the case, then undoing the bad part of the Blankland’s spell would undo the whole thing, to cut the net, if you were to go along with Julian’s analogy. A change, then, would instead have to be made to the curse itself. A replacement of the necessary evil, to change the bad from one to another. 

She couldn’t think of any catalytic evil so strong as the saving of someone, but only so long as they remained incognito to others. It was a masterful creation. The loss so closely matched the gain that it would be one of the most stable curses in the world- Perhaps even the most of all. 

Still, though, it was unacceptable. Ancient curses were not made to impede the progress of those that came after- Or, well, maybe they were, but perhaps not in this case. As Julian had said, speaking with the big boss of the Vigils, an embodiment and protector of the Blankland’s integrity would be the best option, were it not for the crippling fear that came with the monsters and the inevitability of being cursed themselves. Knowledge, no matter how important, was almost never worth being cursed for obtaining. That was the route of the mad wizard, the wicked witch, the warped thaumaturge, the shade. 

There was the possibility that Julian knew more than he was letting on. He obviously knew quite a bit, and the kindness he shared could be but a facade hiding an ugly protector like the Vigils. Perhaps he was worried that Piper and Chumi would destroy what he held dear in their quest. It was, after all, a possibility. Curses could be warped or even destroyed just by looking at them wrong, after all. While curses were not a purely perceptional magic, all magic was, at its root, deeply affected by the person’s sight, thoughts, and feelings. 

Curses. This was all getting horribly complex. She would have to somehow find a curse, understand it without destroying it, find an evil fitting enough to replace the vanishing with, and meticulously replace it.

For now, she decided to focus on the finding of the curse. The Blanklands were roughly ovular, which could imply a central source of power. In the event that a library of lost knowledge was nonexistent, they would start there. 

“Is there a library, a repository, anywhere that ancient knowledge is stored, somewhere on the continent?” She asked, “You had said this place links to many places, are any of them like that?”

Suddenly, a thought entered her mind. Julian might not be supportive of giving her that information if he believed that she would use it for destroying the curse, which technically she didn’t want to do. Perhaps a more personal, sympathetic reason should be given.

Quietly, she added, “I want to know as much as I can about this curse. I don’t want to be unmade too,”

[@SepticGentleman]