How, Ilmare thought to herself, could the air still be so hot this late at night? She’d given up on trying to sleep and had gone out to patrol, hoping that it would be slightly less gross outside. Only it wasn’t and every breath still felt like she was trying to inhale soup. For a moment, she found herself truly envying her white moon and dark mirror counterparts. They, at least, could escape the heat by retreating to their own spaces. Grand as it was, the Dark Kingdom really wasn’t built for air conditioning. Even if it was, she wasn’t so sure that she’d want to visit there at the moment. She had no idea if that idiot lieutenant had made a report on her or not.

Frankly, she didn’t want to risk going into the lion’s maw to find out. Doubtless, she’d know if she was in trouble. The Generals weren’t the types to let any form of insubordination pass.

“I’d make the same choice if I had to do it all over,” she muttered to the scarred and scuffed lamp-posts. It was safe enough to make such confessions right now as there wasn’t a single powered soul close enough to hear her. And even if there had been anyone close, her words were nebulous enough to be about almost anything one could imagine.

Reaching out, she curled her fingers around the still warm surface of the post and let her body lean back, stretching her arm out. Despite the oppressive warmth, it was kind of nice out. The sky was clear and she could see twinkling pinpoints of light peeking through the darkness. And somewhere up there, she thought wistfully, is a place that belongs only to me. She wondered about that world sometimes. What had it been like in the past and what was it like now. She knew just from listening that most senshi worlds were dead. But even knowing that, she wished that she could go up there. Just once… And then, almost unbidden, she thought about the funny little card she’d gotten from Almadel for helping to protect his museum. If the longing ever got too bad, she could probably use it to have him take her to her world. But wasting a favor from a Very Powerful Person on something as silly as a visit to her dead and dust world… No.

But she still thought about it and only the fear of accidentally activating the dam thing kept her from pulling it out of subspace. She wasn’t that desperate yet. And what if she used it for a quick tour and then something happened later where she would need the Merchant’s help? She’d be S.O.L.. Nah, she could behave for now. Letting her eyes close slightly, so that she was looking through a soft veil of lashes, she watched the sky for a moment longer. There were so many little dots of light. Was her world one of them? Or was her place only visible to people in, like, Australia? s**t, she was going to have to wiki that later, wasn’t she…

Word Count = 524