With the first quest complete, we’re on to the second — to find the dungeon where the king kept his greatest pleasure. I have a lot of questions for the king, like why he has so many stupid rules. And more importantly, why the cage where he kept my mother is empty. Where did she go? What happened to her? I know it’s not real, but I still want to know, more than I’ve ever wanted to know anything.

When Humphrey has zoomed us off to Starworld, I pick up where we left off.

Me: *looks in the throne room but finds only dust* *sends Humphrey on a scouting mission to chase the king out of any hidden rooms*

Sam: *follows a spark of light back into the kitchen and down the cellar stairs*

Me: *lights a torch to guide us through the darkness*

Sam: *crawls through a low space and bursts through a grate into the dungeon*

Me: *hopes there aren’t any spiders* *coughs on dust*

Sam: *holds torch up* *points to a sign on the wall*

ANY WHO DARE TO DISOBEY

WILL BE CAGED HERE TO ROT AWAY

Me: *shudders*

Sam: *notices a piece of paper poking out from behind the sign* *breaks the king’s seal, then unfolds paper and reads*

To: My Favorite Songbird,

Your imprisonment here was not my desire

Your songs and your love are all I require.

But foolishly you loved my knight and not me

Now no one is happy, and none can be free.

Only your daughter has escaped by your grace

With your kiss goodbye forever marked on her face.

I touch my hairline with trembling fingers. My birthmark. Rather than a flaw, Sam is depicting it as the mark of a mother’s love.

My eyes well with tears. How does she do this? She not only gives me hope that the things that hurt me most may not even be true, but she dismantles my fears and insecurities and reassembles them into beliefs that make me special, worthy, even beloved.

Me: *hugs* *is fucking leaking again*

Sam: *applauds language* *hugs you back*

Me: That fucking king. What a fucking asshole.

We found the dungeon and now only one object remains: Starworld’s most perfect treasure. I’m excited, but also hoping it doesn’t come too soon, because I am not ready for the story to end, and because I don’t know how many more of these tales I can handle. How is she so good to me when she can so clearly see these broken pieces inside of me?