Shattered Skies: The Morning Lights

CHAPTER 50: In His Stride

Chapter 50: In His Stride

Crossroads

The Lighthouse

Sitting and waiting for things to happen is hard for all but the most patient and disciplined of people. When some of the Morning Lights were out on missions and others stayed behind, all the latter group could do was find ways to pass the time until they received word.

Some of the Lights handled these waiting periods better than others. Homura Akemi sat at the ring-shaped crystal table in the middle of the Crossroads, staring resolutely straight ahead with her hands knit together in her lap. Her expression was neutral, her back was straight as a flagpole, and were it not for her deigning to blink occasionally, one might think that someone had placed an uncannily realistic doll in one of the chairs.

On the other side of the ring, Meilin Li waited with her headset at the ready and a holotablet close at hand, listening intently for the first word from Strike Team Tiger. She and Homura shared a similar determination to be there when the team called in, but that was about all they shared. Not for nothing was Meilin on the opposite side from her; she was quite content to do her duty and leave Homura well enough alone.

Not all of the Lights shared Homura and Meilin's commitment to wait in perfect silence, however. Only a few meters away, near the portal to Vertex Four, a heated match was in progress. Four young women sat around an Immaterial card table a few meters away. Two faced each other, and the other two watched them from the side in varying states of distress. There was also a white cat sitting atop one corner of the table, his interest primarily on the game... but he was also quite aware of his designated duty to step in should things get truly out of hand.

Surprisingly, it was Usagi Tsukino who suggested poker. "I've always wanted to learn it," she had said to her flabbergasted friends when she posed the idea. After repeatedly confirming that yes, she was serious, Minako Aino and Rei Hino agreed to teach her the ropes. Usagi was utterly hopeless at first, but after a few dozen losing games she had gained enough skill to hold her own some of the time. No one was betting actual money, of course... fortunate, for a number of reasons.

Making a drinking game out of their matches was not Usagi's idea. That came later, once Michiru joined in. It was Michiru Kaioh who suggested this rather unusual method of "making things a bit more exciting", and it was because of that suggestion that Artemis felt the need to supervise them. They were of course all of legal age and he trusted them implicitly, but, he told them, there were some things for which one really needed a sober adult in the room.

Usagi and Rei were out, having folded their final hands of the game. Their champagne glasses stood dry save for a few lingering drops. Rei had a slight tinge of color to her cheeks, but she still watched the game with rapt attention, totally enthralled. By contrast, Usagi wobbled in her seat, her cheeks and nose tomato-red. No one was quite sure how this was the case, given that she'd only drunk at most an eighth of a glass.

Minako had her cards fanned out before her face and her elbows on the table. Her expression was a veneer of calm over an intensely focused core. Her cheeks were warm, a slightly darker shade of pink than Rei's, but she felt solid as a rock. She was just the right amount of drunk: buzzed enough to loosen her nerves, but clear-headed enough to stay focused. When she put her mind to it, she discovered, she had quite a knack for card games... or at least that was what she thought before Michiru started playing with them.

Wearing the same serene and faintly mischievous smile that she always did, Michiru sat across from her, radiant in her serenity. The enormous piles of poker chips that surrounded her would be evidence enough of her skill to an outside observer. What was truly worrying was that she had finished an entire bottle of vintage—replicated vintage—Dom Perignon Reserve de L'Abbaye and was halfway through a second, and not only was she still winning, but she displayed not even the slightest sign of drunkenness: no rosy cheeks, no swaying, not even a hint of slurred speech. Not so much as a single refined, classy hiccup.