Xenia counted the coins they had gathered since morning, her fingers moving swiftly across the copper pieces. "We sold fifty lamps today," she said, a brief smile breaking across her face. "That leaves us with fifty sheels."
"Are we rich now, sister?" Lara asked, looking up with wide eyes.
"Far from it," Xenia replied with a quiet laugh. "To be rich, we would need to earn this tenfold for the next ten years." She gathered the earnings, secured them tightly inside a leather pouch, and tucked it safely into the inner pocket of her heavy wool coat.
Lara climbed onto the wooden lip at the front of the cart while Xenia took hold of the handles behind her. On their way through the market, Xenia stopped briefly at a confectioner's stall to buy a stick of spun sugar candy, handing it over to her sister, who accepted it eagerly.
"This is so sweet, sister!" Lara declared, tasting the sugar with delight while swinging her legs.
