Exactly a year had passed since Marie Stahlbaum came to live with Judge Drosselmeyer and his family. Vibrant, with those green eyes shining as brightly as the candles on the tree, she spun about the room, adjusting the decorations and marveling in them.

Christian Elias, his eldest son, followed her, hands stuffed in his pockets. For the party, he wore the only nice clothes that he hadn't ruined with grease from his dissection of clocks and other machinery.

"Oh, I love Christmas," Marie said, clasping her hands together. She whirled around, sending the skirt of her scarlet gown flying. "Don't you?"

"I like the parties well enough," Christian said with a shrug. "I didn't realize you'd like it so much."

"Well, Mother and Father liked it," she said. "They made devices every year— these wonderful clockwork contraptions, like little villages of real moving little people, that worked on their own! Everyone thought they were rather clever!"

"Everyone?" Christian gently prompted. "How many people worked at your household?"

The light in Marie's eyes died, and she stiffened. "I don't know."

Christian wasn't so sure she was telling the truth. He shifted to his right, hating that he had screwed up once again. Over the past year, despite Judge and Madam Drosselmeyer's warnings against it, he had tried to pry the details of Marie's past out of her. But she refused to give even the slightest hint.

He remembered his first impression of her. It snowed the worst Christian could remember when she arrived, so she was shivering, wet, and covered in furs when Judge Drosselmeyer returned early from a trip to mysterious family friends. She spoke with a posh accent and stood like an aristocrat, but there was something strange about her all the same. She was certainly no Stuart, but she was definitely from nobler stock than the Drosselmeyers— that was certain.

The Stahlbaums were also supposed to be family friends, but Christian had never met them.

"Such subjects aren't meant for younger ears," Madam Drosselmeyer said, one of her prim shudders following.

Christian couldn't help his curiosity. Marie Stahlbaum was an alluring mystery set loose and alive in front of him. And he was determined to discover her secrets someday.

"Marie, Christian!"

Judge Drosselmeyer's voice carried through a room, full of power and timbre that Christian could only hope to aspire to. Judge Drosselmeyer's very voice commanded power. He towered over all, with an intimidating and fierce expression, and mysterious scars striping all over his body, hinting at adventures that he deflected and dismissed with charismatic ease.

Matched with petite, prim, and proper Madam Drosselmeyer, the judge and his wife made quite the pair, in Christian's opinion.

All the same, he and Marie made their ways to the couple, and Christian was relived to see that he was not, in fact, in trouble.

In Madam Drosselmeyer's hands were two different gifts.

"It's a tradition in our family to give one special gift the night before Christmas," Madam Drosselmeyer explained. She handed the gift wrapped in green and gold to Christian. "Merry Christmas, my darling boy."

"Thank you, Maman," Christian said, accepting the gift.

"Well, go on, open it," Marie said. "No need to wait for me."

Christian smiled shyly as he opened his gift, and in it was a mechanical owl.

"I know that owl." Marie's voice was as dark as the night sky. "It was my parents' last commission."

Christian picked it up, and wound up the back. The owl's deep emerald eyes sparked to life, and it began to flap its wings and fly through the room.

"Thank you," Christian said, after the owl perched upon his shoulder. "He's a marvel."

Madam Drosselmeyer smiled, and turned to Clara. "This is from your parents."

Marie snatched it from Drosselmeyer's hands, without a second word. She ripped the paper, and pulled out a nutcracker.

"The wind-up key is missing," Christian observed.

Marie tugged on the golden chain of the necklace she kept mysteriously beneath the bodice of her dress. Then she looked self-consciously to Christian. "I know where it is."

She then looked back to Madam Drosselmeyer and the Judge. "Thank you."

Marie then walked off, before Christian could say another word.