Apparently he used to be better at telling stories. He should work on that. "His son ended up in the land without magic. In order for him to find his son, he had to get to the land without magic. He needed the curse for that. Then he needed it to be broken so that he could restore magic and use it to help him find his son.

Emma knew about the curse because her son read about it in a storybook and tracked her down and told her about it."