Tae had just entered into her twenty-second year, was still single, and her family was poorer than ever. Her mother came from a well off family and thought she could keep up her extravagant spending habits on her husband’s income, which was substantially smaller than her father’s. Tae’s father tried to budget and keep track of the finances, but he had never been good with numbers. As a result of this both his family’s and business’s financial situations were less than desirable. He couldn’t impress upon his wife just how little money they had, either, so she was spending money without telling him, and he wasn’t even doing a good job of keeping track of all the money he thought they had.

By the time Tae started figuring out just how bad things were for her family and attempted to help, since she was much better with numbers, it was too late. Instead of figuring out where all their money was and what they could spend it on, she spent more time figuring out how much money her parents owed to different people.

Still, she persevered in trying to help them. It was hard, though, since she had never been properly taught how to budget, and her parents weren’t particularly keen on taking orders from their daughter, no matter how much trouble they knew they were in. As a result, things got worse, and her father turned to drinking and her mother turned to another man.

She thought she was being secretive about it, and maybe she was, but Tae knew. It was with one of the extra hands they had hired to help out with the mill. Tae was supposed to be inside studying, and her mother and the man were supposed to be grinding the grain.

Tae didn’t say anything when she saw them, she turned and ran as if she could out run it. She told herself that it was a mistake, she had been seeing things, but she couldn’t get the images out of her head. Then she told herself that her mother had just made a mistake. These things happen; twenty years is a long time to be with someone and you continuously meet knew people, and sometimes you just get sick of the same old thing and you falter.

One of the women in town, Sarah had told her this when it got out that a married man had been flirting with her. She’d put up with it for a week before yelling at him to get his act together and to remember that he did in fact love his wife and he needed to stop being a stupid . Unfortunately, someone had overheard Sarah’s yelling and told the man’s wife and it was a whole scandal, but the couple worked through it and seem to have a good, healthy relationship now.

Tae told herself that must be what was going on with her mother, she was just having a stupid moment and this man just didn’t know and had played along. Even if she was in the arms of another man because she was seriously fighting with her father, it was just over money. Money was important, but love was more powerful, wasn’t it? Money problems can’t break up and good, strong relationship, right? Isn’t that how it’s supposed to be?

When Tae accidentally caught them again a few months later, she realized that how things should be isn’t always how they actually are.

*

“What about this? How does this make me look?”

Tae studied her friend, Suzy, who twirled in the dress she currently had on. They were in a dress shop owned by the mother of their friend, Min, who was also analyzing the dress.

“A very skinny pig,” Min said, arms crossed, eyebrows drawn together and her arms folded in front of her.

Suzy frowned, looking down at the solid pink dress, while Tae put a hand over trying not to laugh.

“Honestly, Min, you are so hard to please,” Min’s mother said who was helping Suzy change into the different dresses and pinning them up to the right size.

“Well, I think that makes it the perfect dress for this occasion.” Tae didn’t even bother to try hiding her smile anymore.

“What do you mean?” Suzy asked warily.

“I mean, the king is coming out here to go hunting and if he runs into you, dressed up like something he might be hunting later…”

“Tae!” Suzy said, flushing.

“It probably wouldn’t be a good thing if he gets startled and accidentally sticks her with an arrow because he thinks she’s a real pig.” Min was smiling now, too.

Min’s mother put her hands on her hips and gave Suzy a firm look.

“You’re not buying this dress to catch the king’s eye when he comes to town next week, are you?” By this time Suzy’s entire face had turned pink. She looked to the ground, hands folded in front of her, an embarrassed assent to the question. “Suzy, you’re beautiful, and you can have any man you want around here. But the king isn’t going to marry a girl from the country, no matter how much he likes her. Besides, the king is an idiot.”

“Oh mom,” Min groaned, rolling her eyes. “Please, I’m sick of hearing about politics.”

“You shouldn’t be. This stuff is important. We could very easily have been the ones suffering a famine right now instead of those poor people from the east.”

“But didn’t the famine start because the Gangorians burned a lot of the crop fields and somehow put poison into the ground?” Tae wasn’t much more aware of politics than Min was, she didn’t really have the time to keep up with a countries problems anymore when she was so busy trying to take care of her family’s. She did know, however that the famine in the east, something a lot of people are now referring to as “The Great Famine” as it has lasted for nearly a decade now, started when Chilrion’s relation with Gangoria became rocky. There was some sort of dispute over trade that eventually escaladed into a couple of battles. There was never an official war, since none of the battles were ever initially “sanctioned” assaults against either nation, however the Gangorians managed to do a lot of damage. They had burned down many crop fields and raided plenty of the villages on the boarder. The Gangorian’s that had attacked, they were never called soldiers, managed to plant or bury something in the grounds that made the once fertile lands impossible to farm on. Nothing grew there anymore.

“That’s right,” Suzy said, perking up at this. “It’s not something that could have happened anywhere. And it wasn’t the king’s fault, either, since the Gangorians started it.”

“A good king wouldn’t have allowed this to happen in the first place, nor would he have allowed this problem to get so bad,” Min’s mother said, coloring a bit at being caught in the wrong. “Still, I can’t in good conscience sell you this dress if you’re going to use it for such a silly reason.”

“Oh come on Mrs. Lee, you’re dresses are the best in town,” Suzy said, hunching her shoulders, widening her eyes, and pouting. It was cute but comical as Suzy was much taller than any one in the shop but she was trying to appear smaller.

“Alright,” Min’s mother said, easily susceptible to a good compliment. “But don’t say I didn’t warn you. Now, let’s go put on another dress because now I’m scared someone really will accidentally shoot you with an arrow. I’m definitely going to have to change this dress up a bit.”

Tae and Min shared a smile as Mrs. Lee ushered Suzy back into the changing room.

“Sometimes I miss living with her, and then sometimes I’m glad I don’t have to listen to her politics anymore. Well, at least all the time, anyways.” Min’s arms were crossed, but she was smiling as she said this.

“How is Bucky?”

“Nichk is doing fine, thank you. You know he hates it when you call him that.”

“Oh come on, his middle name is Buck. How can I not call him that?”

Min pursed her lips together, but Tae knew she wasn’t really annoyed. Min thought the name was funny, too, but still felt bad laughing about her husband’s name ever since she became Mrs. Nichkhun Horvejkul.

“Nichk’s finally graduated from apprenticeship and become a professional butcher.”

“That’s great!”

Alrin was a small town and it was about a full day’s ride to a town any bigger. It was mostly a farming area, where there was a lot of wheat, which was why Tae’s family mill was so close to here. That being said, there weren’t a lot of calls for much else, and it was hard enough making a living as anything else around town. The only thing that could always promise a good income, or at least one of the better incomes around town, was to be a butcher. People needed to eat, and people loved meat.

Min moved from one good family-her mother’s shop was very well known and loved for miles around-to another, as he was a very promising apprentice. Tae was happy for her friend, especially since they really did seem to like each other a lot, which was a rare thing for such a small town. Tae still felt that twinge of bitterness, though, in the bottom of and the pit of her stomach.

Tae was widely considered the beauty of Alrin, the beauty of this side of the country, really. Once she entered society, she had many admirers, and even a few suitors, but something always got in the way of any of her relationships moving on to marriage, or even engagement. Men still flocked to Alrin for a couple of years, hoping to be the one to marry the beautiful, clever girl from a well off and well respected family. Unfortunately, about a year ago one of her father’s debts was called in and they couldn’t pay it, and it became common knowledge they didn’t have money anymore, and they lost a lot of the respect they had before, too.

Still, some men do show an interest in her from time to time, but they’re not always the nicest of men. No respectable man from a good family would ever seriously entertain even the thought of courting Tae.

As horrible as she felt for thinking it, Tae was actually glad that Suzy was still single and not being courted at the moment.

“You know,” Min started, getting that look in her eyes that Tae was beginning to recognize. “Nichk’s friend, Lu Han, is part of the king’s royal guard. He’s going to be in town with the king next week. Maybe you could come over for dinner some time while he’s here.”

Tae chewed on her bottom lip for a moment, deliberating. It had been seven years since she had entered society, two since her family’s disgrace. An advantageous marriage would be a good thing, especially to a man far from Alrin. If he had money they could pay off her family’s debts and move somewhere to make a clean start. Besides, if he was Nichk’s friend, Tae was sure he’d be a good man. She was just tired of having to be set up, of having to try and sell herself to men. She had probably just gotten spoiled from all those years of men flocking after her, but there was something degrading about the whole business.

“That sounds lovely.” Tae smiled. “But with that profession, he sounds more Suzy’s type.”

“Suzy’s still so infatuated with the idea of marrying a king I don’t think she’d look twice at one of his guards.”

Tae nodded, but she could tell her friend’s face was a little stiff. She wasn’t telling Tae everything, but she could guess what the real reason was; Tae was three years older than Suzy, and in a couple more years she’d be hitting the range where the only men who’d be interested in marrying her would be widowers.

“Okay, you guys, how about this one?” Suzy asked, rushing back out and twirling in her dress before reaching us.

Tae and Min studied Suzy for a moment as Mrs. Lee trailed out of the changing room herself. Tae liked the dress, and gave it a thumbs up, but honestly couldn’t really remember the other dresses very well at this point since Suzy had tried on so many. Min, on the other hand, being the daughter of a tailor, could.

“I still like that third one you tried on best. The one with the blue ribbon.”

“I agree,” Mrs. Lee chimed in as she joined the girls to look at the dress. “It fits the best on your tall frame.”

Suzy studied herself in the mirror as she processed their words.

“Do you agree with them, Tae?”

“I mean, it’s whatever you want,” Tae said, trying to cover up the fact that she had no memory of a dress with a blue ribbon.

“Mmmm. Alright. I’ll try it on one more time just to make sure.”

Mrs. Lee followed her back into the changing room with professional calm, but Min rolled her eyes when Suzy was gone.

“If someone made her choose between life and death she’d still need to take time to deliberate and make sure she was picking the right one,” Min said.

“It’s good to weigh your options,” Tae shrugged. “You’re more likely to make the right choice.”

*

“I have made a horrible decision.”

“What?”

“I drank milk with my breakfast because I forgot it makes me sick.”

Baekhyun was currently holding his stomach doubled over in his chair, his face changing colors.

“Do I need to make another one of those potions for you?” a concerned Lay asked.

They were both currently in his study. Lay was working on a recent order, a fear inducing potion for a woman trying to get her husband to stop drinking alcohol. He apparently has a bad temper when he drinks, and they don’t have the money to support the habit anyway, so she wants to slip him a little bit of the potion every time he gets drunk in order to wean him off of it.  Baekhyun, his apprentice, was supposed to be practicing a simple insect killing potion, but was currently incapacitated.

“No, no I don’t need that potion. It just makes me throw up. I’d rather just wait an hour so it’ll come out the other end instead.”

“Alright, but you need to get that potion done before noon. People are buying those up by the cart full since it’s crop season and I want to make sure we don’t run out.”

“Are you sure it’s gonna be a problem? I saw in a shop the other day some stuff that does this exact thing but it doesn’t require magic to make. People hate coming to us for anything, so we probably won’t sell much.” Baekhyun grimaced, his stomach cramping again.

Lay frowned while he stirred.

“People are scared of new things, too,” he said. “Besides, they probably don’t believe it can be made without magic. The only thing they’re more scared of than buying something magical directly from a wizard is buying something magical and not knowing if the wizard is trustworthy or not.”

Baekhyun wasn’t so sure about this, but decided not to press the matter.

“Are you going to need help working on the king’s order after you finish that one? Mineral locating spells aren’t that hard, right?” he asked instead.

Lay smiled at him.

“I’m impressed. Or were you reading that section for reasons not exactly academic?”

“Selfish reasons,” Baekhyun answered, tilting his chin up with a smile before doubling over again. “But when I saw the spell to dig them up was so complicated…”

“Are you sure you don’t need the reflux potion?” Lay asked, scrunching his eyebrows as he watched his friend.

“I’m fine,” he answered, sitting up straighter.

“Alright. But yeah, after you finish the insecticide potions I will need help. The king commissioned so many, and he want’s them all done in a week.”

“You’d think the government was running out of money if he’s going to all this trouble,” Baekhyun commented.

Lay didn’t say anything.

“Is it?”

“It’s not exactly public knowledge, but the loss of those crops all those years ago really hurt the kingdom. Of course there’s the food shortage since a large portion of our country’s food came from the farms that were destroyed, but the king has been trying to supplement that by importing crops from neighboring countries. It’s gotten expensive since a there’s not a lot of good farming soil in that area anymore, plus he’s been paying witches and wizards to try and figure out what was planted in that soil to ruin it and how to reverse the effects, but no one’s come up with anything yet. It’s probably been draining the treasury.”

“And yet he has the time and money to waste to go hunting.”

“He probably has to keep up a front for the people. Everyone’s already upset that the famine’s still going on here, if they knew he had, at least how it would seem in their eyes, wasted all of their tax dollars with no results, they’d be mad.”

“But Alrin?” Baekhyun asked as he grimaced again. “There’s not that many people out there, and no one important.”

Lay stopped moving at that.

“Did you say the king went hunting in Alrin?”

“Yeah,” Baekhyun grimaced again. “That little hamlet… oh.” He stood up, clutching his stomach. “It’s coming,” he said, and then darted out of the room.

Lay had forgotten that the king’s father, who had died only a few years ago, had liked going to that town for his yearly hunting trips. King Jongin, having been close to his father, had gone the year after his father had died, but hadn’t been much for it. He had been able to claim being too busy to go in recent years, but the courtiers were growing tired of waiting. It seemed he had to finally give into their demands.

He thought about Tae, and wondered for a moment if he should drop by, check on her again since it had been so long since he’d last been there. He decided against it, though, as he was sure she was fine, and he had so much work to do.