- Cadence remembers how, when she was eight years old, her dad gave her a bunch of fairytale books for Christmas.
- She noticed when reading them that there were always three of something: bears, pigs, billy goats, princesses, and so on.
- Now that she's back from Europe, she's started writing her own fairytales. Here's the first:
- A king had three beautiful daughters. He couldn't decide which of them should inherit the kingdom, so he asked them to describe their love for him.
- The eldest daughter said she loved him as much as all the treasure in the kingdom.
- The middle daughter said she loved him with the strength of iron.
- The youngest daughter said she loved him as meat loves salt, and he flipped—compared to treasure and iron, meat seemed like a bit of an insult, so he banished her from the kingdom.
- The princess became a cook at an inn, and many years later, the eldest princess had her wedding dinner there. The king didn't know his daughter was the chef.
- Surprise: She didn't salt the meat. Again, the king flipped. He asked who would serve unsalted meat at a wedding dinner.
- Chef princess introduced herself, but she had changed so much her dad didn't recognize her. She said she'd never serve him meat with salt, because he didn't think salt had any value.
- The king realized who she was, and that she was the daughter who loved him best, so he took the kingdom away from the eldest daughter and gave it to the youngest.
- She was all about it at first, but then she realized the king was a power-hungry tyrant.
- She had a conundrum: leave her sick father so she didn't have to care for a crazy old man for the rest of her life, or stay because he promised her the kingdom?
- She couldn't decide.