So it was that when I saw Millerna for the second time, I completely forgot about the folder of legal briefs that I was at the palace to deliver, and I stood there like an idiot, blushing my fool head off and watching her run up and down the hall with a bunch of other little girls. I was hoping that she would recognize me from the last time. I wanted to talk to her, but in front of all those other people I didn't know what to say.
My father eventually came out of the meeting rooms looking for me, or rather, looking for the papers in my hand, and he saw me still standing there. That moment right there would be why he sent me away. For I was sixteen years old and though shy, full of penny-bright passions. And Millerna, though she was beautiful even then, she was only eleven. My father came over to me and he slapped me so hard that I fell to the ground. |
