Little Mirth by Visha Graves
LITTLE MIRTH
Some performers are born to gather light. Some are born to become it.
Under the flickering lanterns of the Wonderhouse Circus, Joy—known to the world as the sad Pierrot girl, Little Mirth—possesses a beautiful and heavy gift. She sees the “Joys” people leave behind: tiny, glowing sparks born from laughter and shared secrets. She captures them in her glass jar, feeding their warmth back into the circus to keep its magic alive.
But the circus is a hungry thing, and Joy’s curse is simple: she can hold light for others, but she cannot create a single spark of her own.
When Milo arrives—a juggler with perfect hands and a hollow soul—Joy senses an emptiness that mirrors her own. Breaking the circus’s oldest rule, she gives him one of her hard-earned Joys. For Milo, warmth finally blooms. For Joy, a dangerous cold begins to settle in.
As a brutal storm threatens to tear Wonderhouse apart, Joy must choose: cling to the fading life she knows, or shatter her jar and sacrifice everything to illuminate the world one final time.
