There was so much work to be done. Copies of all of these books had to be 
made for all of the girls in the Disenchanted Army. The Land Beyond had 
vanished, and Princess Nell wanted to make it anew. She wanted to write down 
her own story in a great book that young girls could read. And she had one 
remaining quest that had been pressing on her mind of late, during her long 
voyage across the empty sea back to the island of the Dark Castle: she wanted 
to solve the mystery of her own origins. She wanted to find her mother. Even 
after the destruction of the Land Beyond, she had sensed the presence of 
another in the world, one who had always been there. King Coyote himself had 
confirmed it. Long ago, her stepfather, the kindly fisherman, had received her 
from mermaids; whence had the mermaids gotten her?