Twelve years earlier...
Snow fell like whispered secrets across the City of Light, each flake catching the warm glow of lanterns that lined the orphanage's welcoming path. Six-year-old Adam stood alone before the great wooden door, his small form barely visible against the white-draped world around him. His breath came in small puffs of mist, and though the cold should have made him shiver, he remained perfectly still, as if waiting for something, someone.
The door opened with a gentle creak. A kind-faced woman emerged, her apron dusted with flour and her eyes wide with surprise.
"Oh my god," she breathed, kneeling down to Adam's eye level. "Sweet child, how long have you been standing out here?"
Adam looked up at her. "I don't know," he said.
Behind the woman, another caretaker appeared, his weathered hands already reaching for a blanket. "Where are your parents, little one? Who brought you here?"
"I don't remember." Adam's voice carried no sadness, no fear, nothing.
The two adults exchanged concerned glances. Children arrived at orphanages as infants, left in baskets with tearful notes from mothers who couldn't provide for them. They didn't arrive as six-year-olds who walked up alone on snowy evenings, dressed in clothes that spoke of careful tending and gentle hands.
"And what is your name?", she then asked worryingly, as if she was afraid he wouldn’t know it either.
"Adam!", he responded, with confidence.
"Well then, Adam" the woman said, "let's get you inside where it's warm. There's quite a celebration happening, and I think you'll like it very much."
As soon as Adam stepped across the threshold, his world exploded into color and sound and wonder he had never imagined possible.
The great hall of the orphanage had been transformed into something from the most beautiful dream. Garlands of evergreen wound around wooden pillars like embracing arms, their needles catching the light of a hundred candles that flickered from every surface. Paper stars hung from the ceiling on silver threads, turning slowly in the warm. Tables groaned under the weight of sweets, cakes that gleamed like small suns, roasted nuts that filled the air with rich sweetness, and fruits that seemed to glow with their own inner light.
But it was the children that truly stole his breath.
Everywhere he looked, boys and girls of all ages laughed and played and sang together. They chased each other between the tables. They gathered in circles to share stories. They clustered around a tall, graceful woman who moved among them like a gentle queen, her arms full of wrapped gifts and her smile bright enough to challenge the sun itself.
Queen Athena, though Adam didn't know her title then, caught sight of him and her entire face lit up with welcome. "And who is this?" she asked, with the kind of attention that made him feel like the most important person in the world.
But before anyone could answer, a small whirlwind in a red dress came barreling toward him with the unstoppable force of childhood curiosity.
Princess Evelyn, a storm, to a halt directly in front of him and began the strangest of examinations. She leaned close, her small face moving around him like a puppy investigating something fascinating and new. Her button nose wrinkled as she breathed deeply, her bright eyes studying him with wild intensity.
"Um..."
Then her face exploded into a wide smile. "You're new!" she announced. "You smell weird though, like the forest and pine trees and something wild and everything! Do you come from the forest? I never smelled anyone like that before but I like it, it's new and different and weird!", she then asked as if in a hurry. "What’s your name? ".
"Adam… ", he responded.
Before Adam could process this strange greeting, she was already spinning away, her red dress flaring like flower petals. "Wait wait wait!" she called over her shoulder. "Everyone gets a welcome gift! I have to find yours!"
She returned moments later clutching a wrapped package to her chest, bouncing on her toes with barely contained energy. "This one's special," she declared, pressing it into his hands. "Mama said the special ones go to the special people!"
Adam unwrapped the gift with careful fingers, revealing something he had never seen before, a box filled with pieces of painted wood that formed no pattern he could understand.
"It's a puzzle!" Evelyn squealed, clapping her hands together. Then her excitement faltered slightly. "Oh... oh no. That's a grade seven puzzle. Those are really, really, REALLY hard. I can't even solve grade four ones. Only my friend Noah can do the super hard ones and he's the smartest person in the whole world except maybe Mama."
Adam sat down on the floor without a word and began sorting the pieces with methodical precision. His small hands moved with surprising confidence, grouping colors and shapes with an intuitive understanding that seemed to come from somewhere deeper than conscious thought.
Evelyn plopped down beside him, her eyes growing wider with each passing moment as the impossible began to take shape under Adam's steady fingers. The puzzle depicted a magnificent tree whose branches reached toward painted stars, and piece by piece, it emerged from chaos into beauty.
When Adam placed the final piece, a small wooden star that completed the tree's highest branch, Evelyn's reaction was everything he could never have imagined wanting.
"HOLY MAMA AND KIDS!" she shrieked at a volume that stopped every conversation in the hall. She leaped to her feet and began jumping up and down, "HE DID IT HE DID IT HE DID IT! The grade seven puzzle! Nobody can do grade seven puzzles except Noah and now ADAM CAN TOO!"
She grabbed his hands and pulled him to his feet, spinning them both in a circle while every child in the orphanage turned to stare at the commotion. "You're amazing! You're brilliant!!"
Adam stared at her flushed, delighted face and felt something bloom in his chest that he had no name for. This feeling, being seen, being celebrated, being declared amazing by someone whose joy seemed to light up the entire world, was completely foreign and completely addictive, even though he had no memories of his past, he was certain, that this feeling of acknowledgment, was completely knew to him. Her admiration washed over him, and he found himself smiling without knowing why.
"Well done, little one." Queen Athena appeared beside them, her hand settling gently on Adam's dark hair. "You've found your family now. The caretakers will prepare everything you need, a warm bed, fresh clothes, toys and books of your own. Welcome home, Adam."
Home.
But Evelyn wasn't finished being amazed. She was already scanning the room. "NOAH!" she bellowed across the hall. "NOAH COME HERE RIGHT NOW!"
In a quiet corner, nearly hidden behind a stack of books, a boy with blonde hair and serious eyes looked up with the expression of someone whose perfect hiding place had just been discovered. He glanced longingly at the book in his lap, then at the exit, then resigned himself to whatever chaos Evelyn was about to unleash upon his peaceful evening.
She bounded over and grabbed his arm, tugging him toward Adam with irresistible force. Noah allowed himself to be dragged, his book clutched protectively against his chest, his face wearing the patient expression of someone who had learned that resistance to Princess Evelyn was not just futile but exhausting.
"Look Noah, look look look!" Evelyn practically vibrated with excitement. "You have a new rival! He solved a grade seven puzzle just like you can! Isn't that AMAZING?"
Noah glanced at the completed puzzle, then at Adam, then back at his book with obvious longing. "That's nice," he said politely. "Can I go back to reading now?"
"But Noah, "
"I was just getting to the good part," Noah continued, already turning away. "The main character finally figured out how to talk to the rabbits, and I want to see if they'll help him reach the castle."
Before he could escape, another voice joined the conversation, this one warm.
"What are you reading about, Noah?"
Zoe appeared, settling beside Noah. She leaned close to peek at the book's cover, and Noah's face immediately turned the color of ripe strawberries.
"It's... um..." Noah stammered, suddenly unable to remember how words worked. "It's about this boy who can talk to animals. He's really smart and honest and good and everything, and he loves this girl from a noble family but he's too nervous to talk to her directly. So he sends messages using birds and squirrels and things."
Zoe's eyes sparkled with interest. "That sounds lovely! What happens?"
"Well," Noah continued, his confidence returning as he lost himself in the story, "he gets impatient waiting for her to notice him, so he decides to bring the entire animal kingdom to help him win her heart. The whole book is about him convincing every creature in the forest to follow him so they can... um... storm the castle and rescue his princess."
Zoe tilted her head innocent curiosity. "Would you ever do something like that?"
Noah's face achieved a shade of red that shouldn't have been possible in nature. He opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again, and produced only a series of strangled sounds that might charitably have been called attempts at words.
"I… that is… you see… the thing is…"
That's when Adam, who had been listening with growing fascination, finally spoke up.
"Isn't that boy just a stalker?" he asked with the blunt honesty. "I mean, if he likes her but she doesn't know he exists, and then he decides to invade her home with an army of animals... doesn't that make him kind of scary?"
The question hung in the air like a challenge thrown down between knights.
Noah's embarrassment instantly transformed into indignation. "You wouldn't understand," he declared, clutching his book protectively. "It's not stalking, it's devotion! And it's not scary, it's brave! Maybe you should try reading some books before you judge stories you don't know anything about!"
Adam nodded thoughtfully. "Maybe I will. But right now I like puzzles better. I just discovered I'm good at them." He glanced at Evelyn with hope bright in his eyes, waiting for her reaction.
She didn't disappoint.
"OOOOH!" Evelyn bounced on her toes, her mind already spinning with possibilities. "We should have a competition! Adam versus Noah! A puzzle battle to see who's the smartest!"
Zoe clapped her hands together. "That sounds wonderful! Like a tournament!"
Noah and Adam looked at each other across the small space between them, two six-year-old boys suddenly faced with the question of who was better at what they did best.
"Okay," Noah said.
"Okay," Adam agreed.
And with that simple exchange, a friendship was born.
The four children descended upon the remaining gift boxes like tiny pirates searching for treasure. They unpacked puzzle after puzzle, examining difficulty levels and piece counts with the serious attention. Other children began to gather, drawn by the infectious excitement radiating from their small group.
"Grade five... grade six..." Evelyn muttered, tossing boxes aside with increasing frustration. "Where is it where is it where is it?"
They reached the final box together, all four of their heads clustered so close that their hair mingled in a tangle of different colors.
"This has to be it," Zoe whispered.
With ceremonial gravity, they opened the last box together.
Inside, nestled in tissue paper like a sleeping dragon, was the most complex puzzle any of them had ever seen. The image showed a vast library with books floating through the air. At the bottom, in small letters, were the words that made even Noah intake a sharp breath:
Grade 8
Within minutes, the entire orphanage had been transformed into an arena. Children formed a circle around Adam and Noah, who knelt on opposite sides of the opened puzzle box preparing for battle. The noise level rose to nearly deafening proportions as every child began choosing sides and placing imaginary bets.
"Go Adam go!" Evelyn cheered, bouncing so enthusiastically she nearly knocked over everyone next to her with every move.
"You can do it, Noah!" Zoe called, though her voice was gentler and her encouragement came with shy smiles instead of wild gesticulation.
"I bet Noah wins because he reads all the time!", Zoe added.
"But Adam solved the grade seven super fast, much faster than when Noah does it!", Evelyn replied with excitement.
Even the adults had gathered to watch. Queen Athena stood at the edge of the crowd with the caretakers and Mathiane, he was the one who brough all of those gifts in his cart Afterall, Athena’s face bright with the kind of joy that came from watching children discover their own magic.
Evelyn and Zoe positioned themselves as the most enthusiastic cheerleaders, their voices rising above the general din of excitement.
"Ready?" Evelyn announced, appointed herself as official referee. "Set? GO!"
Four small hands dove into the pile of pieces, sorting and organizing with fierce concentration...
Present day...
Adam blinked, the memory dissolving like mist as the cold night air brought him back to the rooftop where he sat overlooking a city that no longer felt like home, he could hear the sound of patrol guards making their rounds.
He stood, stretching muscles that had grown stiff during his long contemplation, and looked toward the horizon where Millhaven waited with his friends, he had being waiting for night to fall, so he could be more discrete.
But as he prepared to climb down and begin the dangerous journey out of the city, one question rose.
"Wait," he said aloud to the empty night, his voice mixing confusion and amusement in equal measure. "Who won that match again?"
The stars offered no answer.
He began his descent, carrying that warmth with him into the cold night ahead.