Jack of Harts

I saw a king cry. It doesn’t matter that he was a Game AI. He was a king. And a stranger promised to save his people that day. A people destined to die in his world. I saw him cry in relief. He actually hugged Tai. Well, I think it was more of a collapse. She held him tight so his family would not see him fall. And she smiled at me. When he stepped away from her and looked to me, he was awake. The king who looked at me in that moment had bridged the gap between program and true self-awareness. And she had made him into a friend. He thanked me. He thanked Tai. And then he told the family and friends who had fought a decades-long losing battle against an unstoppable empire that their people would be safe. It was an amazing sight.