I hate it when people make fun of me and it turns out they're right.

Everyone I looked at, their whole lives, did exactly what they were supposed to do without even questioning it, without even wondering if they could do something different.

And if I didn’t, I’d spend the rest of my life wondering who I could have turned into if only I’d had the guts to try.

When you don't talk, there's a lot of stuff that ends up not getting said.

But it turns out that even if I don’t talk a lot, when it’s something that matters I still have a lot to say.

I ultimately decided to hold my tongue and settle instead for the comfort of ignorance. Not knowing the truth, I retained hope, and that hope I held like a smooth warm stone against my heart.

Despite all my public misconduct, in the past year, I had learned the Elemental spells, the Doppelschläferin, and the preparation and flying of a magic broom; I had survived two months as prisoner of war, saving the life of captain Johanne in the process; I had escaped the dungeons of Fortress Drachensbett, and after an arduous journey successfully reunited with my double, so preserving her, and all Montagne, from Prince Flonian's rapacity, I would somehow master the despicable art of being a princess.