“He did not fight for me,” Dierdre continued. “None of them did. All of those brave warriors, who put so much stock into chivalry, did nothing when one of their own was taken away, right out from under them. Why? Because I was a woman. As if that gave them the right not to care. Because they were following a law written by men. If I was a boy, they would have fought to the death before I was taken away. But because I was a girl, somehow it didn’t matter. It was men whom I lost all respect for on that day—my father most of all. I trusted him.”

Kyra remained silent, understanding all too well her feeling of betrayal.

“And yet you are returning to them,” Kyra noted, confused.

Dierdre teared up. She fell silent for a long time.

Finally, she wiped away a tear and spoke with difficulty.

“He is still my father,” she finally said. “I don’t know where else to go.” She took a deep breath. “Besides, I want him to know. I want them all to know what they did. I want them all to be ashamed. I want them to understand that the value of a girl is as great as that of a boy. I want them to understand that their actions—their lack of caring—had consequences. I don’t want to give them all the chance to avoid me, to be able to forget what they did or what happened to me. I want to be there, in their presence, a thorn in their side that they cannot avoid—and be a living testament to their shame.”

Kyra felt a deep sorrow as she pondered how her friend felt.

“And then?” Kyra asked. “When you’re done shaming them?”

Dierdre slowly shook her head, tears in her eyes.

“I don’t know what is left for me,” she replied. “I feel washed up. As if my childhood was taken from me. I used to dream of being taken away by a prince—yet I feel that no one would want me now.”

Dierdre began to cry, and Kyra leaned over and draped an arm around her shoulder, trying to calm her, while Leo came over and laid his head in her lap.

“Don’t think that way,” Kyra said. “Sometimes, life can be filled with horrible things. But life goes on. It must go on. And sometimes, even years later, it can also be filled with amazing things. You just need to hang in there, to give it time, to give life a chance to be born again. If you can hang in there long enough, life will give you a fresh slate. It will become brand new. The horrors of your past will disappear, as if they never happened. Old memories will fade so much that one day you won’t even be able to remember what it was that troubled you.”