Alessandra boasted. I paused to listen, concealed from view by the night and trees in the forest where I had lived with soon to be thirteen-year-old Lyssa, the female nymphs who kept her company, and the priests managing the orphanage where we all lived. “Wow!” breathed one of the slender, elegant teens with her. “I heard he competed in seven separate events in one day and won gold in all of them.” “He did. He’s called the People’s Champion, because everyone loves him,” Lyssa said proudly but in a whisper. “He’s stronger than all the gods combined.” “That’s not possible!” “But it’s true!” I smiled despite my disapproval. Lyssa knew I didn’t want her talking about my gold-medal past. She was too young, and sheltered, to understand why, but I couldn’t think of my past without recalling everything I was ashamed of. Would she look at me with the same glow of admiration and love, if she knew what I did to her real parents? The past was best left in the past.
