The Mysterious Merchant (16) : Almadel has visited Destiny City to take part in the Star Festival for several years now, and he has been very vocal about the importance of this ritual of his. Every year, he arrives with treasures, and usually a bit of trouble, too.

This year, he isn’t there at all.

On the same hill where he usually peddles his wares, there are no tables. No barrier. No merchant.

There is only an odd pulse of energy broadcasting its presence fixed to a single sidewalk sign, too ornate to belong in front of the expected coffee or sandwich shop, set on a patch of even ground. The dark wood had a gilded frame and on the sign, elegantly scrawled in fancy, iridescent ink: ‘Now Hiring: Emergency Part Time Assistance. Looking for fearless, battle-savvy exterminators. Please arrive promptly, Friday June 21st, 10 PM. Will reward HANDSOMELY.’


(( for appearances - this solo takes place shortly after the ORP ))

Irenaea's gaze was hard as she stared down at the sign. Innocuous in nature, perhaps, but that pull of energy that had called to so many others. Everyone who had heeded the sign's message had been given the choice to leave Earth for a night in order to battle an infestation of Kosopods in Almadel's museum. The experience had been something else entirely. The whole time that the kosopods had been engaged with the various senshi, knights and cats ... Almadel had been conspicuously absent. He had said that there was a need to fix the lighting and then when something else went on the fritz he had stayed behind to fix that as well. It just made no sense. At least it had not seemed like Almadel had even noticed in the chaos the object that she had accidentally broken when her spider silk string had pulled it to the ground. How much time would she have had to spend trying to make amends if the broken bust had been commented on? At least the silk thread had come in handy. That was perhaps the only bright side of the whole experience.

Shaking her head, the veiled senshi felt anger simmering just below her skin. Had Almadel simply called for assistance in order to use those that had come as bait? Would there ever be a chance to find out? She now had two cards from the Merchant and for the moment, she was not keen on using either one. Closing her eyes and breathing in deeply, Irenaea drew back her right foot and sent it forward with momentum to smash into the sign that obviously Almadel had not bothered to retrieve yet. That was okay, she would take care of disposing of the ornate thing. Even as her foot complained about the action she had just unleashed, Irenaea went back to staring down at the sign. The only difference was now it was in multiple little pieces. Each piece that she then handled disappeared into her subspace pocket for the time being. Once there was no trace left of the sign Irenaea sighed before simply walking away. She would complete the disposal of the sign another night. For now it was just enough that she had destroyed the thing.

Taking a simple breath in and out Irenaea fished out her mirror shard before walking in the direction of the Starfest Festival. There was a growing sense of needing to at least gain something from this odd night's endeavour. Her fingers fiddled with the shard as she subtly began to look around for a suitable place to hide while she sent out her wraith. Taking a seat on a stone picnic table, Irenaea listened to the burble of voices that indicated at least there were civilians still out and she sighed once. Her mirror shard flashed and her gaze tracked the departure of the wraith as it headed towards the promise of potential targets that it could drain. Even the ordinary task of gathering energy for the Dark Mirror Court had been overshadowed by this strange turn of events. Her compact came out and even as she opened the clasp on the side to stare down at the empty space where silk had been an hour earlier did the Dark Mirror senshi begin to question things. The sign probably would not have caused anymore issues but it had felt good just to destroy the object in question.

(( 577 words ))