“Please tell my mother to quit weeping” Anthony says to his butler as he enters the mansion. His mother, Rosa, was between sobs and down half a cup of wine.

Every year the main family holds a hunting event on one of their planetary domains. This year it was on Aquilora Prime. All children with connections to the Thunderweaver family were to participate and whoever came back with a rare beast would be given a higher rank along with a suitable weapon as a prize. When Rosa found out the date of the competition she sent her son on a mission fearing what he would do. It turned out her intuition was correct. Somehow, Anthony managed to break into the cellar where she kept Darius and took him along to participate in the competition.

“Oh Anthony I was worried sick. Why did you leave without telling me” she said to her son.

“Were you worried for me or for Darius?” he replied. He looked sunburnt. The sun of Aquilora Prime had darkened his forehead. Scratches and bruises painted his body.

His mother did not answer. “Where is he, Darius?” she said instead.

Anthony shrugged. “I don’t know, I left him there. He’d be dead by now I presume. Oh well”.

“You knew that boy was not fit to participate in the games yet you took him nonetheless. Word has gone around. He may no longer be a Lancer but the fact that you took Saggitarius’s son like a ragdoll to a hostile planet has angered a lot of people”.

“Now mother. It was not my fault that he was in dire conditions. Last I checked you were the one you chose to lock him up and beat him and starve him. Wasn’t me, so if anything happens to him Its your fault.”

His mother bursts into tears again. Anthony rolls his eyes at the woman and heads for his room. On his way there his butler asks him, “did you meet my connection on Aquilora, sir”

Anthony unbuttoned his clothes, “yeah, i saw him. Dodgy guy but we made the trade”.

Wielding a crooked smile, he unveils a sealed container from his bag. The container was transparent so the butler saw a black serpent inside of it. A Carkuler. A serpent with poison deadly enough to kill a small army curled inside the container. The butler picked it up and took a glance at it. “Real deal” he said.

“I suppose we head to the ranking bureau and submit this specimen”

“Yup” said Anthohy, “although I’d have loved to keep the beast for myself. That poison is something I think might come handy in the future.

“Harboring poison from this species is illegal, my lord. If you’re caught by the Beacon’s authorities, there will be a heavy price to pay”.

Anthony let out a wicked smile. “Well, what they don’t know won’t hurt them, right Sean? Besides this is where having a handy butler becomes useful”

The butler sighed.

Anthony barges into the ranking bureau building. The place was cast in a marble facade and decorated with antique statues in opposition with the simple utilitarian buildings that surrounded it emphasizing that it was an old piece of architecture.

Anthony hadn’t reached the front desk yet before he was assaulted by Darius’s only friends. Eden and Ellie. Eden was shorter than most men his age but he compensated with a muscular build. Ellie had the average looks of a normal girl but she had the red eyes of someone from the Flameheart family. Obviously she was a hot head and the one who grabbed Anthony by the collar.

“You little shit” she said, “where the hell is Darius. We’ve been looking for him for months and here we got word that you took him to the hunting festival in Aquilora prime. What’s your problem and where is he”.

Anthony forced her hand away from his shirt, an annoyed expression crossed his face. ”Darius said he wanted to compete in the hunt. I took him with me because we’re brothers and I care about him very much”.

“Bullshit” Ellie flared. “You lying piece of shit.” She was about to hit his face when Eden stopped her. He shook his head. It's not worth it, he said.

“Smart” said Anthony. “I just came back from a very dangerous planet and I’ve brought with me a very dangerous animal” he waved his container that contained the snake. “So it would be unwise to cross me”.

The ranking bureau doubled as a marketplace where traders exchanged wares and goods. Hunters, warriors and students would attend with new found spoils and depending on the price of their trade would be adequately ranked. Anthony approached his bidding station and unveiled the snake. This turned the heads of the traders and the other attendees. Eden and Ellie were shocked at how he was able to get such a deadly animal. The Carkuler curled inside its contained tube. Its shiny black scales reflected the light around it and made it appear as if it were glittering.

A bidding war ensued among the traders. An excited frenzy took hold over the place. Many people wanted the snake but most especially, it’s venom. The beast is usually hard to find, although many reports claimed that the Servekker tamers and slave lords held a few in their possession along with many other exotic beasts. Of course that story was chalked up to a local superstition as such slave lords had all been rounded up and executed hundreds of years ago. However, seeing that rare beast in the possession of Anthony led Eden and Ellie to believe that Anthony must have gotten the animal illegally.

A trader by the name of Josef got the winning bid. He asked Anthony how he got hold of such an animal and Anthony told him an excessive tale of how he survived on the planet of Aquilora. The trader didn’t believe him and probably wanted to know where he got the tamer that sold these beasts. Regardless, Anthony was given a two hundred thousand credits and silver pin that granted him first class treatment on the Titanium flying ship for two years.

When he took his credits and his pin to the ranking official, he was subsequently questioned by a guard.

Guard: Due to the nature of the species you captured, you understand that harboring any part of it, such as its venom or its genetic sequence due to your lack of rank would result in your immediate suspension from the academy and placement in the local Penitentiary institution?”

Anthony: I understand.

Guard: Do you harbor this species or any other species like it in your holding.

Anthony: That’s the only one officer.

Guard: Do you have its venom or genetic information kept in your holding and do you accept the terms of investigation.

Anthony: I don’t have its venom nor do I have its genetic information. And you're free to investigate me as much as you want.

When the investigation was done, the ranking official upgraded Anthony’s rank from an F grade to a D grade and provided him with a D grade but upgradeable weapon. It was called the Serpent’s slash. A dual whip whose tail, which was fashioned to look like the head of a snake, was made of a light flexible alloy and its hilt was inlaid with rubies and decorated with arcane inscriptions.

Content with the proceedings he made his way out of the building. But not before being stopped by Ellie. Who told him that he would soon have to start fighting if he’s going to want to further his ranks. Anthony raised his dual whips up and said to her that it might not be a problem.

When Anthony made it back to his mansion, his butler Sean was not around. Which made sense because he had sent him somewhere on a little mischievous errand. His mother however still lounged in the living area on a reclined chair, draped in silk and crying. Anthony thought that she was being too dramatic. He knew how much the woman was obsessed with Darius, or his lineage, but he thought it made her weak. Darius could no longer use his birthright powers because of his disease. He was practically useless. But for some reason his mother believed that he was still powerful. She would always call him son of Saggitarius. Anthony did not envy his adopted brother. He only tortured him because it was amusing to him, if anything his mothers obsession made him feel bad for Darius. If someone were this obsessed with him, he’d kill himself. Or so he thought.

He sat in front of his mother and told her to stop weeping before he placed a golden check and a silver pin on the table. His mother who was a socialite knew what that meant. Her crying immediately subsided in a move that amused Anthony as he marveled at how fast his mother could move past her grief.

She picked at the check and her gloomy, sharp face brightened. “That’s a lot of credits” she said. Anthony displayed a satisfied smile.

Rosa looked at her son and said, “i bet Darius would bring something even more wonderful”.

Anthony didn’t say anything. He just looked at her.