The Forgetting Trail
Filed under: Mirecourt Flora | Stealth Botanicals | Emotional Parasites
Contributor: FDG Field Botanist No. 6
Last updated: May 2025
Overview
Twisting just beneath the surface of the Mirecourt’s loneliest bog paths grows a rare and bitter plant known as Lanethrush Root. Named for the soft lanethrushing sound made as its thorns are pulled from wet ground, this pale-rooted herb is prized by scouts and feared by romantics.
Lanethrush Root doesn’t simply conceal footsteps.
It conceals significance—blurring the emotional bonds that hold someone visible in memory.
Appearance
- Structure: Thick, gnarled root structure, often exposed in marsh erosion or rotted treefall.
- Thorns: Dark brown to black, hooked and brittle, sometimes still bearing tatters of fabric from previous handlers.
- Sap: Pale blue, almost milk-glass in colour, and faintly glowing under moonlight or in the presence of mourning.
- Smell: Sweetly metallic—some describe it as “like pennywater or wet blood oranges.”
The plant is rarely seen flowering, but its blossoms (when found) are described as:
- translucent grey
- warm to the touch
- shrivelling immediately upon being named
Fae Realm Use
In Mirecourt, Lanethrush Root is harvested and crushed into a mud-black paste used by:
- scouts, who apply it to their boots to leave no trace
- emissaries, who smear it on their wrists before entering human settlements
- the Mud-Queen’s messengers, who must cross places where they’ve already been forgotten
Those who use it are said to be:
- unseen by former lovers
- unheard by those who called them friend
- lost to those who once remembered
It’s not invisibility—it’s emotional displacement.
Effect on Earth
Human exposure to Lanethrush Root causes temporary emotional vanishing, but only within existing personal connections:
- Immediate Effects (Topical or Inhaled):
- Becomes unnoticeable to anyone who loves, remembers, or mourns them
- Strangers, enemies, or indifferent acquaintances still perceive them normally
- Effect lasts between 11 and 40 minutes, depending on dosage
- Aftereffect:
Upon reappearance, the user often experiences:- profound, inexplicable loneliness
- the sense of having walked through a world where no one missed them
- phantom voices calling their name from great distances
- sometimes brief episodes of derealisation
One operative described it as “being the ghost at your own wake.”
Folklore and Field Signs
- The Cold Glow Beneath the Muck:
If the marsh path glows slightly blue on a moonless night, you may be stepping over Lanethrush Root—or over someone recently vanished. - Lover’s Curse:
In older tales, betrayed lovers would brew root tea and drink it at night so their former beloved would walk past them without ever seeing them again. Most died within a month—from cold, grief, or silence. - Scout’s Folly:
A well-known FDG training tale warns that overuse of Lanethrush leads to erasure from personal records—photos blurred, letters rewritten. No known cases have confirmed this. Yet.
Harvesting and Handling
- Roots must be pulled with hooked bone tools, as metal seems to dull the sap’s glow.
- Gloves lined with salt or waxed linen are advised.
- Never speak the name of someone you love while carrying the root—doing so may sever the bond for the duration of its effect.
Storage:
- Keep wrapped in dead moss
- Store near mirrors
- Never refrigerate
Summary for Field Operatives
| Trait | Detail |
|---|---|
| Threat Level | Low, but psychologically destabilising. |
| Signs of Presence | Pale glow in marsh soil, sudden silence from companions, fading footprints |
| Containment Risk | Moderate. Root spoils when named aloud. Effects linger emotionally. |
| Engagement Advice | Do not apply without clearance. If affected, remain near strangers and record your own name every 30 minutes. Seek reconnection rituals immediately. Avoid mirrors.** |
Quote from Field Report #241:
“I saw my brother on the path. He was walking toward me—coat torn, eyes lost. But when I called out, he stepped around me like I was wind.
I didn’t realise I’d stepped through his footprint until later. I haven’t seen him since.”
—Field Observation Log, Mirecourt Ridge, 1987
Faylinn Defence Group 