The Ballad of Never After

The Valory Arch and the four stones (mirth, truth, luck, and youth) are at the center of the novel’s plot and conflict. The Valory Arch was a focus of conflict in Once Upon a Broken Heart, but the arch is not actually seen until the beginning of The Ballad of Never After. This creates intertextual suspense that resolves in The Ballad of Never After. When Evangeline first tries to open the arch without the stones, she is unable to, and the arch symbolizes the hierarchy of magic. As a key, Evangeline was born to open the arch, but even her birthright and destiny cannot substitute for the four stones. Magic has very specific requirements that must be followed; these rules and the sense of hierarchy drive the plot of the novel since they force Evangeline and Jacks to locate the stones for their various purposes. No explanation is given for the powers held by the four stones, which underscores the mystery of the magic; the reader is also left in suspense thus far in the series as to the value that mirth, truth, luck, and youth hold either for the Valors or for the North.

Throughout Once Upon a Broken Heart and The Ballad of Never After, rumors suggest that the Valory Arch holds either a great treasure or a magical abomination that will doom the world.