The Invisible Castle
On a distant planet, everyone believes the invisible people have nowhere to live — so, for generations, they’ve paid them out of pity.
The invisible people have become fabulously wealthy.
Then humans arrive… and make the castle visible.
Now an entire planet wants its money back.
The Invisible Castle
The Invisible Castle is a fantasy adventure set on a strange planet far beyond our solar system, where reality does not quite work the way the inhabitants believe it does.
For generations, the people of the planet have lived with what they believe is a tragic fact of life: somewhere among them are invisible beings who have no homes.
Nobody can see the castle.
Nobody can see where the invisible beings live.
Instead, the inhabitants see these mysterious beings apparently existing on different levels of reality, wandering around outside their houses with nowhere to go. Out of sympathy, the visible population has always given them money. It has become an accepted part of society — almost a moral duty.
What nobody realises is that the invisible beings do have a home.
They live in an enormous, magnificent castle.
It is completely invisible to everyone outside it.
And here is the strange part: the invisible beings can see the visible inhabitants outside the castle, but they cannot see the visible beings themselves. To them, the outside world appears empty.
So there are effectively two worlds occupying the same space.
The visible inhabitants look at the invisible beings and think:
"Poor things. They have nowhere to live."
The invisible inhabitants look out at the visible world and think:
"What an empty place."
For centuries, the misunderstanding continues.
And because the visible inhabitants feel sorry for them, they keep paying them.
The invisible beings consequently become astonishingly wealthy.
Then humanity arrives.
A group of humans discovers a way to travel to this distant planet. Their arrival has an unforeseen effect on the planet's strange reality. Somehow, the presence of humans disrupts the forces that have kept the castle invisible.
For the first time in living memory, the castle becomes visible.
The planet is stunned.
The people suddenly discover that the beings they have been paying for generations have been living inside a gigantic, luxurious castle the entire time.
They feel betrayed.
They demand their money back.
The invisible beings refuse.
From their perspective, they haven't stolen anything.