The next day, Scipio returned to the theater and saw that Perla was missing. He asked the girl in all black if she'd seen Perla and the girl simply giggled. A boy who was dressed in a white tunic and brown leggings came over carrying a box. "You lookin' for Perla?" he asked, his voice sounding slightly familiar. "If you wanna see her, you'll have to wait... she had a little slip this morning and fell in the canal." He adjusted his grip on the box and Scipio saw the same top hat from Dove the other night, with a smudge of soot on it. "She had to go home to get her spare costume for today's performance."
The doors burst open and there was Perla, her hair still sopping wet and she came running over. When she reached the stage she finally stopped for a breather. Scipio watched her as the boy walked away. "Hey, can I ask you something, Perla?"
"Don't ask my why I fell, please..."
"No, no, no! Um... what's the Thief King's name?"
"Alexander." She smiled up at Scipio. "His name has always just been Alexander... I don't know why..."
"PERLA!" it was the boy with the slightly redish hair from last night. "Hi!" He smiled merrily. He spotted the boy with the white top walking off and he saw Scipio. "AH! Did Colomba frighten you?"
"Colomba?"
"Him." The boy pointed at the white-top boy. "He hates his name... because he's always being compared to Columbus... OH! My name! My name's Pyro!" He held out his hand and shook Scipio's. "Pearla?"
"I fell... please don't ask--!"
"Why'd ya fall in this time?"
She groaned. "I thought I saw a mermaid in the water again... only this time, she looked dead..." Perla had finally caught her breath and she leaped up, onto the stage in a familiar way to Scipio, the same as the Theif King... "Besides 'Pyro', it's better to be known by a real name." She tried to shake off the fall, but she still managed to slip-up a few times.
"I'll never understand how she's able to be such a clutz when we're practicing and be so defined and graceful when we perform... said the girl in black. "Oh!" She had spotted Scipio. "I dunno if they told you their first names, but that's Diamante Colomba, Rubino Pyro-Pheonix, and I'm Smeraldo Raven." She smiled. "I dunno why, but they all perfer their last names... except me and Perla... she hates the family name Alessandro because... let's just say her father and her would rather shoot each other over her having that name..."
"So, she's like a Gina-Marie?"
"No, a Mary-Sue..."
"To who's fairy tale?"
Smeraldo stared at Scipio and then shrugged. "Dunno... people call her the 'goddess' of their fary tales... and they invision the perfect girl she is on stage, all doused in lights and beauty and white... she imageines a world where she isn't thrown out on the street every night... so I suppose it's all how you look at it. I, personally, think she is an angel... but I've already got a boyfriend... and she wants one..." Smeraldo sighed and watched as Perla fell off her chair... for the millionth time since she'd sat down to practice her lines... and sound really weird about it, too. "She saw the Thief Lord once... thought he was the angel clad in night and fell in love with him... the Thief King hasn't caught her eye yet, for good reasons..."
Scipio was stunned. "What makes you say that?!"
"Smeraldo! We need out narrator!" Diamante called. Rubino and Perla were spouting out laughter as Perla tripped and fell sideways instead of forward and Rubino got his script taken by Perla's shoulder. Diamante sighed and shook his head. "Please, act like your a little older, please." They continued as Scipio watched from the side.
That night, after the performance of "Romeo & Juliet", Scipio went back there to talk to Perla again. He was sure there had to be a greater flaw in someone so... flawless. He just wanted to know how bit a flaw he really wanted to see...
He silently rapped on her door and he heard the knob click and the door open. Perla smiled and let him in. "Can I help you?"
Her dressing room looked like a messed up laundramat. There were cloths everywhere and some of them were worn and other were just wrinkled. 'Why do I always assume smaller things?' Scipio asked himself. "Well, I was wondering, how do you know the Thief King so well to know exactly what he wants?"
She flushed. "I, um..." There was a rap at her window and she whirrled around and saw Eagle sitting on the window sill with something wrapped in golden rod linen. "My wings!" she called happily and flung her window open. "I've never seen you before... who are you?" she asked as Eagle held out the package.
"My name is Eagle. Pheonix had an errand to run, so I'm here to deliver your request." He bowed slightly from his sitting pose and he hopped off.
Scipio noticed Perla's hair as she drew it back and held it in a ponytail looked so familiar... he shook it off and said goodnight as he left. When the door closed Scipio thought he could see a flare of Pheonix's coat tail and he thought his mind was just playing a joke on him and he walked off, stuffing his hands in his pockets.