“You made her so happy, you know, but I hated whenever you visited her, because…” She tried to laugh, but what came out was strangled. “I was so afraid of losing her to Arcadia! Ever since we were small, ever since that time we fell in—the way she looked at everything around us, I knew her heart was set on it. Everywhere she looked she saw a whole hidden world of riddles to solve—except when she looked at me. It was as if … if it weren’t for me, she would be on an adventure. But she was my whole world, so I made her promise never to leave me—so childish, so selfish!” She stroked the crown of
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