Some scars are carved into our bones - a part of who we are, shaping what we become.

How foolish I had been to think everything would work out, just like in the books I had read: the lost child found by his mother, the monster defeated by a valiant warrior, the princess saved by the prince. But I was no princess and fairy tales did not exist for the likes of me, not even in heaven.

Those most trusted could still let you down, even when they did not mean to—a lesson I had learned with Liwei, and one I learned well.

I was learning that kings were not always as just as in the stories, and the mercy of gods was sometimes flawed.