-Lux-

She didn’t really need sleep, in the biological sense of the word.

Light bounced off every corner of the world. Lux couldn’t control it all; her influence was eternal among the stars, but she needed acknowledgment to affect the planet. But it was essentially a part of her. The timeless, quick-dying strands of energy—built from violence against and for every element—was the basis of her Being.

So, as she fell asleep, everything the light touched came to her. Dwelt within her.

Among many fragments, she saw…

Junior bureaucrats and scribes, embittered with resentment and secrets.

Children playing kick-the-rat in grimy streets. The same children, catching sight of the local official, scattering back to their homes in fear.

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Royals and nobles pulling young women into places beyond Lux’s sight. The girls left with those blank, empty faces worn by people who had been used and abandoned.

Priests with grease running down their chins, tearing into rich meat and fruits from far-off lands. Their employees walked carefully around many of them. Tension, like that of a tightrope walker, had engraved itself in every bone of the attendants’ bodies.

A group of magicians, light from their magic barely illuminating them as they experimented on dungeon monsters.

Prostitutes who shared their food with the homeless.

Rich heirs who gave everything they had to charity. Other heirs, using their power to extort widows and the newly orphaned.

A gang member carried a sick child home to his mother.

A farmer refused to employ a desperate father of four, knowing the father had angered the local official. Not wanting trouble from those in power.

Mothers slowly died, coughing up blood with polluted lungs. It was an open secret that the magical run-off at their work was causing it; but many worked there anyway. They would not have their children go hungry.

Other mothers sold their children into slavery.

The decrepit king was apathetic on this throne. Any reports or complaints were left to his officials, who knew they would not be held accountable…

Lux woke with tears in her eyes.

As a goddess, she didn’t need to sleep. But it was important to do so.