This chapter is brought to you by Privately Owned Spiral Galaxy by Lovejoy.

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The boy had no name.

His mother called him Brightstar, but that wasn't really a name. An endearment, perhaps, but not a name to be written out and placed in any records.

The merchant's caravan came to a slow and he laid low as it entered the city gate.

He had finally made it. The hidden city of Vesna. He was sure his father would be here, just as his mother promised.

"Where is he?!"

It didn't take long before the boy was running.

Running for his life, that was.

The hidden city of Vesna was not only home to the Imperial Family's dogs but also one of the largest black markets in the Empire.

The boy underestimated the dangers of this city.

They were gaining on him, the merchants--who turned out to be mercenaries--with their daggers drawn and out for his blood.

So perhaps secretly throwing out cargo to make space for himself in the cargo might have pissed some people off.

How was he supposed to know the things he threw out were precious ores for their weapons?

Why did they have to put it all the way in the back of the caravan if it was so important?

Honestly, they should have planned it better. For mercenaries contracted under the Imperial Family, they sure were incompetent. Didn't they have contingency plans set in place in case street rats snuck into their caravans?

Really, the boy wasn't impressed.

Not that he had any grounds to judge them. At some point, he found himself staring at a dead end. There was a tall wall covered in ivy leading up to... a window?

The footsteps of the mercenaries were getting closer.

The boy gritted his teeth and pulled on the vines.

He started to climb.

---

Nine was lying on the rooftop that bridged the space between Jovette's nursery and The Sun Room, alert but relaxed as he soaked up the midday sun.

The rooftop was a long stretch of stone and tiles, and he was pretty sure the midpoint between it was the Master Wing of the Claypto Estate, but this allowed him to keep watch over his cousin and his kittens in equal measures.

His Lady Aunt did not appreciate Jovette's ventures into the Sun Room. With so many kids sleeping in one place, she was concerned they would accidentally crush her if they rolled the wrong way.

It was a reasonable concern, though Nine would have never allowed that to happen.

But he smartly shut his mouth and nodded his head like the obedient child he pretended when facing her.

In the meantime, he slowly left the room, leaving his cowarding-against-the-wall Lord Uncle to her tender mercies.

The sound of a squirmish reached his ears.

Nine opened his eyes and sat up, looking over the side of the roof to see what was happening.

Calypto mercenaries prowled the area with their hackles raised and their daggers drawn.

Then he heard a slide of windows and a click from Jovette's nursery.

Nine narrowed his eyes.

He stood up and put on his coat before leaping onto Jovette's balcony.

---

The boy didn't know where he was, but anywhere was safer than being out in the open.

The window had led him into a bedroom of some sort. There was a large bed, fluffy pillows, and warm plush carpets all around. The room was made for comfort, the boy thought, noticing the dolls and toys scattered about.

"Who are you?"

The boy jumped, startled by the voice.

He turned to the bed and he saw large green eyes staring back at him.

Golden hair reflected off the sun.

There was a little girl on the bed, peeking at him from behind the velvet canopy.

"I..." the boy trailed off, mind stuttering to a halt.

It wasn't that he didn't interact with children, but he had only interacted with fellow street rats and he instinctively knew this little girl was an aristocrat's child.

She was a lady of higher esteem and he was just a lowly urchin.

"Who are you?"

Another voice asked, and the boy tensed.

He slowly looked over and saw another door wide open, leading to a balcony. Standing at the threshold was an older-looking boy with the same green eyes keeping him frozen in place.

He noticed a pair of daggers at his hip.

Pressure built in his throat as the other boy approached him with slow and graceful steps.

The boy shut his eyes tight and waited for the inevitable.

---

"Tobus, no!"

Valerius shouted as he burst into the room.

When his men reported to him of a child who had somehow gotten into their caravan and escaped, he knew he needed to find the boy before Tobus got to him.

The description of the boy, a child with violet eyes, was all he needed to know before he ran straight toward The Sun Room and then, when he saw Tobus wasn't there, Jovette's nursery.

The boy was Lord Eartha's responsibility, but he needed to get to him before Tobus decided to claim him.

And it seemed he made it just in time.

Some of his men had seen his nephew enter his daughter's bedroom through her balcony. It didn't matter if the missing boy had somehow gotten into the room, the main point was to know where Tobus was and to make him stay put until they found the boy.

The scene he came upon was a small child standing near the window of his daughter's bedroom, eyes closed as if readying himself for a blow. In front of him, his nephew was bent down to his eye level, looking confused as to what was wrong with the child.

"This one is not yours. He belongs to Lord Eartha."

Emerald eyes turned to him, staring deeply into his soul with a hint of reluctance.

"No, Tobus. You have enough," Valerius finally put his foot down.

A few seconds later, his nephew thankfully stepped back and allowed the mercenaries to approach the other boy.

"No!"

Yet, the boy did not want to go.

"Don't touch me!"

Valerius took a quick glance at Tobus, who now wore a contemplative expression.

Absolutely not.

"Tobus, take Jovette--"

"Star," his nephew said, cutting him off before he could finish his sentence.

The boy shut his mouth and looked at Tobus with wide eyes.

"How did you--"

Tobus merely pointed to his eyes.

"Same color as Mercury Stella."

Valerius paused.

Hold on.

When did Tobus meet Mercury?

"Not kitten or puppy," Tobus continued, for some reason sounding disappointed.

"Star." Again, he stated this with the confidence of a child claiming the sky was blue. He gestured to the men in the room. "Go. They will take you where you need to go."

The boy swallowed, but finally, he obeyed, becoming meek as he allowed one of his men to pick him up.

Valerius pinched the bridge of his nose.

Lord Eartha said something about another candidate for House Stella, but to think he would have the boy sneak into the city as the entrance exam... what in the world was he thinking?

The boy looked barely older than his daughter.

However, he did manage to evade capture by his men and managed to stay hidden during the journey to the city.

Valerius sighed.

At least Tobus didn't claim.

That would be a disaster in the making and he didn't think the estate could handle any more children.

He pretended he didn't see the boy wave at his nephew as he left.

---

Eartha sat in the audience chamber as men dressed in Calypto red entered with a boy in tow.

They had the bow stand respectfully before him with his head lowered. Eartha examined him in silence.

The child was small for his age. His mother had told him he had recently turned eight. He must have inherited her hair, a shock of white framing violet eyes, but nothing else besides that.

It was true, then, that the child was of House Stella. Similar to Mercury and Venus, he had found his way to Vesna like every other violet-eyed Stellas.

His blood must have sung when he entered the city, his instincts honed in on home. The boy knew he belonged despite having never stepped foot into it.

He was another qualified candidate for City Lord.

"Your name shall be Pluto from henceforth. Get that on the records."

His attendant, who stood beside him as the acting scribe, wrote down his declaration.

The boy's head snapped up and met his gaze with one of shock.

Eartha snorted.

"Prepare him a room and draw him a bath. I expect him to be cleaned and dressed by dinner."

Lord Calypto's men drew back and allowed the servants by the walls to approach the boy.

He was whisked away soon after.

"After the Calypto ball, send him out to the sister city. He shall train there until he is ready," Earth ordered his attendant.

"Your reason, my Lord?" his attendant asked curiously. The request was, admittedly, unusual.

Eartha clicked his tongue. "I fear Mercury's influence will lead him astray."

His attendant made an "ahh" noise in reply.

"I will arrange for the estate to be cleaned out and ready for him."

"Please do. Everyone is dismissed."

---

Nine brought Jovette to The Sun Room despite his Lord Uncle's protest.

He allowed her to sleep separately from his kittens and look what happened.

An intruder managed to sneak into her bedroom.

Jovette would be much safer with him than by herself.

His Lord Uncle could handle his Lady Aunt.

Nothing could persuade Nine to let his cousin go back to her nursery now. Any argument was shut down by the fact that no one was able to catch a little boy running around the estate.

Speaking of the child, Nine wondered what happened to him.

He had to have been an important character if he had the same eye color as Mercury.

Since the world was a story, eye color was especially vibrant and noticeable, and a necessary descriptor to determine the relevancy of certain characters.

He was sure the boy would turn up eventually.

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[.................. Pluto Stella: Mercury's cousin and a supporting character of Poison-Laced Daggers. A suitor for Jovette's hand-in-marriage ..................]

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The author has something to say:

With each chapter I write, I wonder to myself, whatever happened to my action-packed, violent-filled, battle-laden, thriller-esque, and tortuous brutality of a storyline? Gone in favor of... this. Well, anyway, can you guys guess who the boy is based on? More lore will happen during the Capulet Ball and we will see all the characters of the story together, but I think part ii will be focused more on character introductions.