Long ago, there lived a girl. The girl dearly loved books.

She lived with her father in a village deep in the woods. Her mother had set out on a journey when the girl was born. She had loved stories since she was very little. In time, she herself had acquired stories and knowledge from numerous books.

The girl had a special talent: She could read and understand any book. She could read words she'd never been taught or languages she could never have heard.

If it became known she had that power, she would be persecuted...yet even knowing this, her father did not lament.

The warmth of her mother holding her, her mother's voice speaking to her.

If she couldn't have these, her father thought, then at least she'd been gifted with eyes that could envision any world at all.