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Few knew of the tiny island of Silvata; even fewer had ever been there. All but forgotten, However, beneath all of the splendour was fear. The trees — though they
it floated like a whisper in the white-tipped waves of the Halissian Sea. had the appearance of fine velvet — had become prison walls.
Although the land had been blessed with a rare beauty, rumours of dark magic had long Nobody had left the kingdom for decades.
kept travellers away. The only visitors were birds. They sailed high above the leafy forest,
which hung around the kingdom’s neck like an exquisite emerald chain.
It had been thirty-seven and a quarter years since the first message had arrived.
At the break of dawn, as the kingdom had slept, handwritten letters had silently inked
themselves across every mirror in the land.

There was no question of defying the order, for the Silvatans had always been unquestioningly
obedient. Besides, every route out of the kingdom went through the trees. They were trapped.

The warning had come from Prince Wilfred, who — according to the messages that followed
— was the only one with the power to break the curse. As the new king, brave, young Wilfred
pledged his life to this duty.

Grateful to their ruler, the Silvatans would look longingly out of their windows across the
forest towards the castle. All that could be seen of it, however, was a twisted spire, which
peeped out over the treetops like a golden periscope.

Imprisoned behind an evergreen wall, the only way for the people to see beyond
the trees was through their mirrors. Each morning, the Silvatans’ looking-glasses
would come to life, sparkling with the opulence of the king and his castle.
The mirrors became the people’s eyes and Wilfred’s voice.
Wilfred’s father had been popular but his courageous son was idolised.
Every day, as they gazed upon the king’s latest message, the
people of the kingdom would show their love for him by pressing
their hands to the cool surface of their mirrors in reply.
Their fingerprints would dance like dandelion seeds
upon the wind, before forming once again on
Wilfred’s own looking-glass.

The fledgling king would count

the fingerprints as they appeared.
When the numbers grew, his pride swelled.

Despite the years that passed, the Silvatans waited patiently

for the curse to be lifted. Nobody went near the forest, where the
trees oozed out terror like sticky tar. Even when brambles ate up
the pathways at the edge of the kingdom and threatened the
little gardens they tended so lovingly, the people would accept
their shrunken world and retreat further inwards.
 One morning, as the first shards of light pierced the sky,
a glimmerbird burst from the forest and somersaulted
through Satya’s open window. She giggled in delight.
The delicate bird knew no words, yet somehow he spoke to
her. When he chirped into Satya’s ear, she felt something
spark inside her, but its meaning was just out of reach.

But Satya was different. Her spirit

was full of adventure; she longed to explore.
At bedtime, Satya’s mother would tell her stories
about the enchanting places she had visited as a child,
back when the Silvatans were free. As Satya drifted off to
sleep, she would dream of the glittering sea and endless
beaches that were calling to her from beyond the trees.
 At the dinner table, questions would
spill from Satya’s mouth.

“ Why did the curse kill the old

king? ”
n’t anybody else bu
“ Why ca ing Wilfred br t
K eak it?
”
irds enter the forest
“ Why cabnubt we can’t? ”

From then on, during the hours of daylight,

the girl and the little bird were inseparable.
As the sun rose, he would zip through Satya’s window and at dusk, he would
return to his nest deep in the forest. She would tiptoe after the tiny creature, Satya’s mother would chide her for questioning their beloved king.
pausing at the shadowy edge of the trees until the hum of his wings had faded “Because we have been told so!” she would snap, as if scared that
into the gloom. She decided to name the bird Kanoa, meaning ‘free one’. too much curiosity would invite the curse inside.
 One day, she turned to Kanoa and murmured, “I think I
understand what you’ve been trying to tell me.”

Satya would gaze into her bedroom mirror’s polished The following morning, before the cloak of darkness had lifted, Satya woke early.
glass, desperately wishing she could see beyond the limits She slipped her little compact mirror into her pocket and left a note on the
of its ornate frame. However, as she began to look deeper,
dressing table in its place. Then, she closed the door softly behind her.
she saw things beneath the twinkling surface that she had
never noticed before. Slowly, the spark inside her grew into a fire. It was time.
Satya crept to the edge of the forbidden
forest and waited, eyeing the ghostly
trees beyond. Eventually, Kanoa emerged.
“Take me inside,” she whispered.
Then, resisting the urge to look back over
her shoulder, Satya took a deep breath and
stepped into the shadows.

Cocooned in darkness, all of her senses were heightened. Scratchy creepers

clawed at her face with their phantom fingers and, nearby, twigs cracked
beneath unseen feet. As a gust of wind whipped through the branches, the trees
seemed to hiss at her. Satya braced herself, trying not to think of the hollow-eyed
demons that she had been warned about in stories so many times before.
But as she followed Kanoa’s light deeper into the forest, a mystical world was
unfurled like a forgotten tapestry. Slowly, Satya’s fear was replaced with awe
and her racing heart began to quieten.
Entranced, Satya neared an overgrown gateway on the opposite side of the forest. As the
royal castle revealed itself from beneath a curtain of ivy, her eyes widened in bewilderment.
It was unfamiliar yet familiar — different yet the same. It was as though its glittery
mask had slipped away, leaving behind something quite… ordinary.
Satya had timed it perfectly: the king had just emerged from his castle and
was shuffling across the lawn. Shrinking from view, she watched in awe as
Immediately, Wilfred slid to
he climbed rather clumsily onto the back of an old, dishevelled horse.
the ground and returned the weary
Wilfred pulled a mirror from beneath his coat and angled it horse to its post. The whole act had taken less
carefully above his face. After mumbling some words that were than a minute yet as Satya flipped open her own
lost upon the wind, he touched his fingers to the glass. The mirror, it told a different story.
mirror responded with a dazzling flash.
 While she marvelled at the mirror’s words,
Fearlessly, Satya crept towards the king’s mirror, which he had left somebody familiar appeared behind her in the
upon a weather-beaten, old bench. As the twisted handle nestled in frame. Spinning round, her mouth fell open. Like
her palm, she felt its powerful magic pulse through her body. a coin, the king had two different faces.
The inscription round the frame read, Satya’s suspicions were confirmed: for the past
thirty-seven and a quarter years, the people of
‘Look in the glass and
Silvata had been living inside an illusion.
you may find
A mask you’d like to
hide behind.
But wear it wisely or
be trapped
In a world that truth
can never match.’
 “There is no curse! What we’ve seen in our
mirrors isn’t real!” Satya bellowed, aching
for all the lost years.

The moment she spoke, Wilfred lurched forwards to snatch

his treasured possession. His hands brushed the glass and
instantly, their faces froze inside the mirror’s eye. He tried to As the same image and writing appeared in mirrors across the land, a crescendo
stop it but it was too late. Satya’s words had already begun to of cries began to echo through the forest. The Silvatans, finally freed from the
loop across the polished surface in the same handwriting that illusion after all this time, ripped through the trees like a blazing fire. Their rage
she knew so well. Then, with a flash, everything was gone. was white-hot. The same question was burning on everybody’s lips: ‘Why?’
There was nothing the king could do: once a message had been
sent, it was impossible to take it back.
 “One stormy night, my father was involved in a terrible
accident at sea. Suddenly, I was alone, consumed by
grief and fear. As heir to the throne, I would become
king — yet I knew I couldn’t be what the people
would expect of me.
Full of panic, I ran to the only place I felt safe:
the forest. All at once, a creature I’d never seen
before appeared from the darkness. Its face had
been swallowed up by shadows but something
mysterious was clasped tightly in its hands.”

You could have heard a leaf flutter to the ground as the

king began to speak.
“As a boy, I lived in this castle with my father. He was an
incredible king but I never felt like a prince. I hid myself
away in the forest, climbing trees and exploring barefoot.
Somehow, I only felt at peace among nature.”
“Without uttering a word, the visitor held the object up to my face. In
its reflection, I had transformed. I looked just how I thought a king
should look: strong, wise and powerful. I wished aloud that I could
become that person in real life.

“The temptation was too great; nobody had seen much of me

before. By morning, I’d sold all of my family’s riches in exchange
for this intriguing mirror. As dawn broke, I sent the first message.
That was when the stranger spoke. ‘When The more love I received, the more I craved. It was easy to forget that
you control what other people see, you the person everybody adored wasn’t quite real. As the years passed, I
can be anything you choose,’ it snarled.” became lonelier and lonelier, yet I didn’t know how to stop.”
“I should have never pretended to be something I’m not. I am very sorry.”
His voice cracking in two, Wilfred sank to the ground and buried his face.
However, the people had no pity for their fallen king.
“He’s a fraud!” an angry Silvatan yelled.
“Lock him up — see how he likes it!” demanded another.
But Satya, who had been listening to the story beneath his words, stepped
forwards. “Please, stop!” she cried. “Don’t you see? The king has been trapped,
too. It wasn’t really him who imprisoned us. What kept us locked up for so
many years was our willingness to believe everything we were told. If we had
asked more questions and sought more answers, we all could have set ourselves
free at any time.”
The crowd, once again, fell silent. The truth of her words stung like a hornet.
Now, the forest is no longer a wall: instead, it is a bridge.
The golden statue of King Wilfred at the edge of the forest has
gone. Instead, the Silvatans gather around a gleaming glass
case. Displayed inside it is an ornate mirror. When the
people pass it on their way out through the trees, it serves
as a reminder of all they learnt from the years they lost.

As for Wilfred, locked away alone in his castle for thirty-seven and a quarter
years, it was perhaps he who had lost and learnt the most of all. The
Silvatans decided he had suffered enough and they offered him forgiveness.
Today, he no longer needs an enchanted mirror, for he has discovered
something far more valuable: acceptance of himself, just the way he is.
When life is a patchwork of snapshots, a moment in time can become anything
you choose. But there is nothing better than just being yourself; in the end, that
is what sets you free.
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 Although the land had been blessed with a rare
beauty, rumours of dark magic had long kept
travellers away. The only visitors were birds.
The tiny island of Silvata is both a home and a
prison to the people living there. Warned not
to step into the forest due to a deadly curse,
the obedient Silvatans have no way out of the
kingdom. Daily messages sent through mirrors
show their beloved king and his devotion to
defeating the curse. But Satya is curious
and she sets off in search of answers.
Will Satya and the Silvatans ever
discover the mirror’s true message?

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