I reached over the counter and exchanged my forty fish, ten turtle shells and fifty pieces for the bottle of happiness. It was ridiculous what positive emotions could cost these days. Normally I would just take the fish home and sell the scales, but today was Hugo’s birthday. My younger brother never had much to feel good about, so I decided to save up everything worth anything for a single mouthful of liquid happiness. I looked down at the small glass bottle in my hand. I fought the severe temptation to take it myself and walked away from the stall. 

Most of the time magic was illegal, but the Emperor had allowed very specific vendors to sell positive emotions. What he didn’t know is that the vendors had trades running in the back rooms that sold the worst emotions for millions of pieces.

I tightly gripped the tonic as I walked through the bustling marketplace. I knew better than to stow it away in a pocket, there were too many thieves in Yokuatsu. Including myself. I began walking slightly faster to repress the urge to grab everything from everyone. I took deep breaths and focused intently on the bottle in my hands. Even as I passed a woman with bejeweled golden bracelets practically falling off her arm, I restrained myself. 

“Luna!” I whirled around to find the source of my name. A girl with platinum white hair came sprinting after me. 

“Jeez,” she panted. “I’ve been trying to get your attention all day!” 

“What do you want, Sol?” She crinkled her freckled nose.

“It’s Marisol, not Sol. I understand it’s easier, but,” She sighed. “Nevermind. I saw you walking and I figured you were on your way home.” I raised an eyebrow. Why had I caught her attention?

“I am, but why do you care?” I put my hand on my hip. My mom had always told me to act confident when I’m not to get what I want. I wasn’t sure what I wanted, but a little confidence never hurt anyone, right?

 “Well, we’re neighbours, so I figured we could walk home together!” She bounced. 

 “Why? We’ve never even had a conversation before today.” I frowned while Sol only smiled brighter. It was practically blinding.

 “I figured that since we live so close and are in the same grade, we might as well talk to each other!” She was ridiculously peppy for someone who lived in the slums. Maybe it was her coping mechanism? Either way, it wasn’t trustworthy.

 “Becoming closer to people will end badly. You never know who you can trust when you live in this sorry place.”

 “Well, you can trust me. Let’s go home.” She reached for my arm and I quickly swiped it away. The bottle of happiness tumbled out of my hands towards the rocky soil. My reflexes kicked in and I caught it an inch away from the ground.

 “S**t!” I shouted. People around us turned and stared at me. “What are you looking at?!” I yelled at them. They looked away and kept walking.

 “I’m sorry,” Sol whispered. She stared at the ground.

 “Just get away from me, I have places to be.” I swept past her and began angrily walking home. 

 “Wait,” I whirled around. “I just wanted to walk home with somebody. I really hate walking past the guard towers by myself, it’s freaky.” That was understandable. The guards were notorious for snatching girls walking by and doing terrible things to them.

 “Fine, but you have to be silent the whole time.” She smiled weakly and came over to stand next to me. We began walking, Sol occasionally stopping to grab herbs growing along the side of the path.

 “Jeez, there it is.” Sol shivered as we reached the top of a hill. The guard tower was about two hundred meters away. I wanted to comfort her, but I was still pretty mad about her almost making me drop the one thing my brother would get for his birthday.

 “Hey pretty girls, wanna come in for some beer and fun?” A guard stepped into our path, waving a mostly empty bottle around. I noticed Sol begin to shake. 

 “Sorry, not today,” I smirked at him and walked past with as much confidence as I could muster. 

 “Wait-” He reached out to grab my arm so I whirled around and kneed him in the groin. He doubled over in pain, and I grabbed Sol’s arm and started running while he was distracted. 

 “You’re awesome.” Sol gasped when we’d run as far as we could. 

“Thanks. What makes you so scared of that place, anyway?” I asked, clutching my stinging side.

 “Well, it’s kinda a long story.” She mumbled. 

 “We still have a mile until we’re home.” I pointed out. 

 “Okay,” She sighed. “My sister was walking home alone from the marketplace one day and one of the guards grabbed her from the path. He took her into the tower and did some awful things to her. It happened almost every day that she walked home. She got pretty shaken up by it, and one day she didn’t come home. We found her body behind the tower a couple of days after.” Sol wiped the tears crawling out her eyes.

 “I’m so sorry, I had no idea.” I sighed. “Would you like me to maybe teach you how to fight? It could help you be less scared when you walk home.” 

 “Would you? That would be great. Thank you so much!” Sol came closer and wrapped her arms around me. I wasn’t used to people hugging me or showing any kind of physical affection, so it felt nice. 

 “First step: endurance. Race you home!” I yelled, taking off.

 “What? No fair!” Sol laughed as she started after me. We charged home, running as fast as we could. When we reached our street of crumbling houses, we stopped and took a breath.

 “How do you run so fast?” Sol panted. 

“I run like this a lot, it helps you get less tired.” I sat down on the rough pavement

 “Oh. When can we start with the kicking and punching stuff?” Sol joined me on the ground, punching the air for emphasis.

 “How about tomorrow? You go to the marketplace every day after school, right?” She nodded. “Okay, we can do what we need to in the marketplace and then practice our fighting on the way home. Does that work?”

  “Yeah! Thank you so much, I really can’t say it enough!” Sol smiled. 

 “It’s no problem.” 

 “Marisol! Get in here right now!” We whipped around to see Sol’s dad leaning out the window. Sol winced.

 “I’m coming!” She called warily. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” Sol whispered as she stood up and walked up the steps to her house. I waved to her and looked down at the bottle of happiness. Hugo would be overjoyed to see that I’d gotten him something. Every year we were too poor to afford something, but I’d managed to work extra hard to get him something. I stood up and walked over to my house. 

 “Hugo! I’m home!” I called as I opened the door to the tiny shack we called our home. The sound of thumping feet grew louder as my younger brother raced out from behind a curtain that served as a divider from our room and the space that we used for cooking, sitting, and eating. 

 “Lu!” He tackled my legs in a hug. I leaned down and hugged him with my free arm, trying not to drop the potion I was holding behind my back.

 “Hey, Hugo! Guess what?” I smiled.

 “What?” 

 “I got you a very special present!” Hugo jumped up and cheered. I held the potion out to him.

 “What is it?” Hugo asked as he took the bottle into his hands. 

 “It’s a special potion that makes you very happy! You can either drink it now or save it for later if you feel sad.” He smiled and gave me another hug.

 “Thanks, Luna. You’re the best big sister ever! I’m gonna tell mommy about this.” He ran over to the small framed picture we had of our mother and began talking excitedly. How was I lucky enough to get the sweetest brother in the world?  

 I walked over to the small wooden table we have and set down the other supplies I brought from the market. A loaf of bread, two whole chickens, and a small bundle of herbs. This should be enough to last us at least a week. I also splurged a bit and got a few rice cakes as another surprise for Hugo.

 “Hugo, I’m gonna go get some firewood, wanna come with?” I called out.

  “Okay! Bye, mom, I’ll talk to you later.” He ran past me to the door and threw it open. I laughed and chased him outside. We ran over to the shack across the street and went behind it to snatch some of their firewood. They never really cared, as long as it was me and Hugo taking it. We had no idea who lived there, but they left us a couple of things like food and weapons after our mom died and our dad left. 

 Hugo grabbed a small log that was almost as heavy as himself while I grabbed two others. He was surprisingly strong for a seven-year-old, but it was helpful. We walked back to our ‘house’ and set the logs down in the hole that our shack was built around. I pointed my finger at the logs and whispered an incantation. The logs lit up and the room was instantly warmed. I grabbed the metal grate and set it over the fire to heat up. 

“Hugo, would you mind filling this up at the well?” I asked, holding out a clay pot. 

 “Yeah!” Hugo yelled enthusiastically, grabbing the pot and rushing out the door. A minute later, he walked back in, much slower this time, and handed me the pot before skipping back to his ‘bed’ where he was drawing in the dirt. I poured some of the water into our clay teapot, one of the only things in this kitchen that I didn’t make, and put tea leaves in it and set it on the edge of the grate. Next, I de-feathered the chickens and cut the meat into small portions. Before mom died, she loved gardening and taught me how to take care of all her favorite plants, so we have plenty of fresh herbs and tea whenever we need them. I smeared some homemade vegetable oil onto one piece of chicken, sprinkled a mix of herbs on it, and set it on the grate to cook. I did this until I had four pieces cooked. The rest I salted and hung from the rafters near the opening for smoke to preserve them for later. I made two plates of chicken, bread, spinach, and fruit and set them near the fire. 

“Hugo, time to eat!” Hugo swept his hand through the dirt to clear away whatever he was drawing and walked over to the small table. I sat on my knees across the table from him and began eating. I tried to eat slowly, to savor the meal, but it was difficult. We hadn’t had food like this in a while. We finished eating and cleaned our plates, and I taught Hugo a little bit more basic math and reading, just like every night. Hugo will probably have to miss a lot of school so that he can continue to work, so I made sure that he will be ready and won’t have to delay his education. I tucked Hugo into bed, then lifted my straw mattress and pulled out my spellbook from underneath it to study. 

After a couple of hours, I put the book back, extinguished the fire, and laid down to try to sleep. Unfortunately, my thoughts weren’t okay with that plan. I kept worrying about how I was supposed to teach Sol how to fight and Hugo how to read and do math while still going to school and working ten-hour days on the weekend. Maybe if that idiotic emperor of ours would get off his lazy butt and actually help the poor survive for once, I wouldn’t have to worry about all of that. I laid awake for a couple of hours thinking about these problems, and then eventually fell asleep.