"Zeph, I'll come with." Eetu ran through the front door after his sister, shrugging on his coat.

"Alright, let's go. The crowd's getting pretty big." Zephrine waved Eetu over. "I want to get Rhys, Mother, and Caius their presents for Itiiraea."

Itiiraea, the Family Day, was a yearly celebration in which citizens would join their families at home for a week, with feasts, and parades, and on the very last day, gift giving. On the last day, no one attended their jobs.

Zephrine's brothers had come from all over Yna to spend the week with their mother. Rhys, the court physician in the royal town, Viâna, traveled for a week and a half to reach Ithia. Caius, a huntsman for the poor people in the Fields of Raë, didn't have to travel far, so he ate with his mother once every month. Eetu lived with Zephrine and her mother, still unemployed, but, like his younger sister, looking for work.

"What were you thinking of getting them?" Eetu jumped over a dog that had run through the gap in his legs.

"Well, Rhys's vials are getting old and cracked, so I was hoping to buy some nicer, new ones. And Caius, well, he could use a new dagger, I've seen the state of his current one." Zephrine made a disgusted face. "And mother, I want to get her a nice looking glass."

"Do you have enough money?"

"I've been working all year to buy these. I've worked in the library, in the tavern, as a housemaid. I've done it all. Trust me, I've got enough."

Eetu shrugged, following his sister through the crowd, glancing over the shoulders of people as he walked.

"There." Zephrine pointed to a booth across the street. Red and purple tapestries hung around the sides, and the table in front was decorated with beautiful glasswork, in all sorts of vibrant colors, that caught the sunlight in various ways and tossed it back in equally random patterns.

"Are we going to be able to make it?" Eetu looked down both sides of the street.

"You're too careful." Zephrine teased, pulling her brother by the hand. They weaved through the crowd, then, danced through the street, as if they were a part of the parade itself twirling like the dancers, until they reached the other side.

"That wasn't so bad." Zephrine smoothed the skirt of her dress.

"Easy for you to say. You're the biggest daredevil in the family. Sometimes I think you actually have a deathwish." Eetu shook his head.

"I wouldn't say 'deathwish', more like, 'taste for adventure.'"

"Whatever you say, Zeph." Eetu smirked. "Zephrine's always right."

"I am." Zephrine nodded, "You've finally noticed. Between you and me, you're not as slow as Rhys and Caius say you are."

"You're making that up."

"Am I?" Zephrine raised her eyebrows slightly.

Eetu affectionately pushed his sister's head away, smiling. "You're ridiculous."