When Thea woke up the next morning, she didn't wake up feeling particularly great. The bed was rather uncomfortable and the first sight being the bland and tiny room she was in made her feel a little gloomy too.

Plants. She reminded herself. I'll need to grab some plants. A little green would certainly help liven up the tiny room.

But another reason that Thea had a not so great morning was because she had completely forgotten that she would need breakfast. She had not thought to get groceries the night before because her primary concern was to find a phone to call her family and let them know she was okay. She also had to call Laila and tell her everything.

So while getting ready, she was more than grateful that she woke up a few hours earlier than she needed to so that she could find her way around Achlis. She would certainly have enough time to stop by the cafeteria for a coffee and breakfast.

After putting on her nicest plaid trousers and the most expensive blouse she had, Thea made herself up to look as professional and sophisticated as she possibly could for her first official day. When she was satisfied, her hair done up perfectly into a neat half ponytail and her crossbody bag over her shoulder, she took a deep breath and left her room.

It was only just past seven in the morning, so when she walked out of her room, the floor was relatively quiet aside from some shuffling within the rooms as the girls began to wake up and get ready for their days.

Not particularly ready to meet her housemates just yet, Thea left the hostel as fast as she could, slipping past the matron as well. She would save the introduction to them for later since she was in a rush. At least that was the reasoning she gave herself... in reality, she figured she was just nervous about the idea of meeting new people.

The walk to Achlis was not necessarily that long, but since the hostel was closer to the back of the building, getting to the front of the building to where the main entrance was was what took long. As expected however, once she arrived, she got lost quickly. Finding the cafeteria wasn't too hard, seeing as it was close to the entrance, but after having a quick and quiet breakfast, she made her way to find General Killian's office.

That was the hard part.

To Thea's dismay she even, for a moment, forgot what floor it was on. However, she quickly figured out it was the third floor before taking the stairs up there and making her way to the Generals office. In the end, she actually managed to get there quite early. She was supposed to meet him at nine a.m. sharp afterall, and when she looked at her watch she saw that it was only a quarter past eight.

Thankfully for Thea, there was a bench right outside the entrance to his office but just as she made herself comfortable, she heard heels clacking against the floor and saw Mrs. Railer making her way towards her from across the hall. "Thea," the woman smiled her hello as she approached. "You're nice and early... I hope you weren't waiting long, I went down to pick up some mail."

"Good morning, and no, no," Thea smiled as she stood. "I just got here."

"Good," the woman opened the door and held it open for Thea. "In the future, feel free to come right in. There's a much more comfortable sofa inside that you can wait on."

Thea chuckled nervously and when she walked in, she was surprised by the sight of the General, who was flipping through papers at Mrs. Railer's desk. As usual, he was dressed to impress, his uniform looking absolutely spotless and his perfectly groomed hair and dark eyelashes making his green eyes stand out intensely. "Miss. Rhaanan," the General said when he saw her. "Good to see you early."

Thea was certainly taken aback by how early he was. He definitely left work after her, and he was here before her too... did he really have nothing better to do than... work? "I was worried I'd get lost so I left early... but I found my way."

"Good," the General said. "Alright, since you're early, why don't we get right to work?"

Thea nodded eagerly. Yes, she was ready.

After the General grabbed one of his many fancy folders, he guided her out of the office and back down to the main entrance. Very shortly after they arrived outside, a nice black car, not the Rolls Royce, Thea noticed, was driving up to where they were standing. After parking, a young man got out of the driver's seat.

"We're leaving the headquarters?" Thea asked.

The General, who had been so absorbed in the contents of his folder that they had barely exchanged any words as they walked there, looked at her. "Did you think the prison is in Achlis?"

He asked it in a way that made Thea feel silly for thinking that. "The building... is huge."

Now the General let out a short laugh before opening the passenger door for her. "I suppose I understand why you would think that. But there are too many elite folk that work here," he said. "And prisoners of war, particularly Crows, are considered the lowest of the low. Scum, actually. I don't think any of the higher ups would want to come into work if they knew that the Crow scum were living nearby."

Though that sounded absolutely ridiculous, Thea believed it, feeling a little bit of frustration burning inside her. "I guess they would taint the absolutely delightful atmosphere of such a majestic, awe-inspiring building," she said, sarcastically, as she got into the car.

The General raised a brow but smirked. "Look at you, less than a day and you're already fitting right in. That kind of attitude is perfect."

Though he too was being sarcastic, Thea could tell he didn't mean any harm from it, so she responded by chuckling as he shut her door.

After he got into the driver's seat, they drove out the gates of Achlis and down the streets of the Capital for some time as he explained to Thea all the steps of getting to this prison. He explained to her that three out of the five days of the week would be spent with Thea meeting up with this Luana woman in the morning, visiting the prisoners for a few hours before coming back to Achlis and debriefing with Niall.

The other two days would be spent doing more research and work with an individual named Milo. Though Thea had heard nothing about this man before, the name made Thea nervous, seeing it was a clear Aiverian name – the short form of the name of an old Aiverian king. Whoever Milo was, he was certainly Aiverian.

However, as the negative thought passed through her head, she immediately tried her best not to assume he was someone worth fearing simply because he was Aiverian. That would, after all, make her truly no different from the Aiverians who were worth fearing. The ones who treated her differently because of her black eyes and black hair.

It was hard but she knew she couldn't stoop to their level. She had to try.

Maybe Milo and Luana wouldn't be so bad. Maybe they'd be more like Julian.

The General continued explaining her schedule to her as the car soon drove right past the northern city limits and towards a long bridge that led to a small island in the midst of the Capitals Lake Forr.

On that small island was the famous Aiverian State Prison. The largest and most frightening prison in the nation, it surprisingly looked quite like a castle... though an ugly, gloomy and unpleasant looking one at that. The castle-like building had quite a few tall towers that had been converted into guard towers and from where they were on the other side of the gate, that was all she could really see.

As they approached the checkpoint at the bridge, the General slowed down before jerking his chin towards the right. "If you keep driving east from here for about five minutes, you'll reach Camp Jackdaw."

Thea looked to her right and saw, off in the distance and high up on a hill, a gloomy gated Fort like premises that made her hesitate. She recognized the name of the place, hearing of it from her brother. "Is that the place that people call the Screeching Crow?"

The General nodded as he rolled his window down to greet the soldier at the checkpoint. At the sight of him, the soldier immediately saluted before gesturing towards the gate.

The General mumbled a thanks before driving forward onto the bridge and returning his attention to Thea. "The one and only. And it's under my authority as well. I may need you to have conversations with some of the men there too at some point."

Theas lips parted in shock as she turned to look at the General.

The Screeching Crow was known among her people for being the most infamous labor camp in all of Aiveria, getting its name from the rumors that the military would often throw the imprisoned Crows who worked ineffectively off from the cliff and into the perilous waters below, listening to them screech. It was one of the many reasons the Crows hated the State Military, often accusing the state of calling it a labour camp to prevent the heads of powerful neighbors from turning on them, though actually using it as a way to cover up the torture and inhumane activities that go on there.

The stories of it were horrifying.

And this was under the control of the man she was working for?

The first thing that Thea began to do was criticize herself. She had not changed one bit. She hadn't learned anything. Twenty-four hours of her working here hadn't even passed yet and she was already joking away with a man she should have known she couldn't trust.

She told herself to be wary, yet she was allowing herself to let the walls crumble already... and now she had just discovered that one of the most terrible places in Aiveria was under his control.

How could she have been so stupid?

Any respect or trust or confidence she had in the man next to her had vanished almost instantly, a deep, rumbling fear beginning to well up in her as she quickly began to build those walls back up.

She was sitting next to a murderer. A traitor. He may have been half Elorian, but clearly he cared nothing about her people.

Her brother was right. You can't trust a single thing that comes out of that traitor's mouth. He is the last person you should be trusting, he had said to her.

He was right.

Thea looked down at her hands as they were beginning to shake again. She tried to control and hide it. What had she gotten herself into? How could she agree to be a part of this?

Memories from her time in university began to flood her mind. Back then too, she thought she could handle something that everyone else told her she couldn't. And they were ultimately right, because though she did manage to graduate, she nearly lost herself in the process.

Too much of her was gone... maybe even still gone. And here she was, stupidly offering up the rest of her to strangers in the Capital for them to rip up. Yes, here she was again, in the middle of a mess that she was slowly beginning to realize was something that she probably couldn't handle.

She was in the heart of the lion's den... not just in the middle of the Aiverian capital, where the Aiverians frolicked as the majority, but in the midst of the State Military as well.

The enemy of her people.

What was she thinking?

"I know what you're thinking," the General said, startling her. "And you're right to feel that way. Though if it makes you feel better, yes the camp is under my authority, but it is run almost entirely by an Elorian."

Now Thea looked at him again, brows high on her forehead.

The lamp posts on the bridge looked to be zipping past them as they continued fast down the bridge, the greyish blue water of the lake in the background looking still. "An Elorian?" Why on earth would that make her feel any better?

"Aari," he said. "You'll be working with him at some point too."

Confusion enveloped her. That dreadful place was run by an Elorian?

A small smile formed on the General's face, seemingly amused by her confusion. "You'd be surprised by what the Elorians in the Capital get up to."

Thea didn't know what to say, not knowing if he was mocking her, or just trying to take some of the blame of what horrible things happened at that place off of himself.

Could he simply have been lying?

"What I'm trying to say is," the General continued as he began to slow down before they drove off the bridge and in through the gates of the prison. "Things are often not as they seem. Before you jump to any conclusions when learning things here in the Capital make sure you investigate. Look into things as thoroughly as you can and make your own decisions and conclusions only after that."

When the car came to a stop in a rather empty lot, the General shifted the gears into park before continuing. "The stories of the Screeching Crow, for example, start off one way, and by the time they reach Abureth, they have grown and twisted and reshaped into something far more monstrous and horrifying than they really are."

Right. Thea thought. That had to be true. This General that Julian had spoken so highly of to her family couldn't be that evil, right?

Maybe she wasn't making a horrible decision. Maybe she really wasn't in over her head.

A little bit of relief filled her. "The stories of the cliff... that they threw Crows off from the highest point of the cliff... is that true?"

The General blinked. "Yes," he simply said as he opened his door and stepped out. "Unfortunately that one was true."

She felt her stomach drop once more.

Well, that was all she really needed to hear.







Aari looked out from the window of his office in Camp Jackdaw at the perfect time, spotting the shining, black car speeding down the bridge over Lake Forr off in the distance. The only person he knew who drove down to the prison in a car that nice was the General, and so he assumed that he was already taking Theavi down to meet the prisoners.

He leaned back in his seat, rubbing his bearded chin.

Theavi.

Though in all these years, the memory of her had never once vanished from his mind, she had not been such an active part of his thoughts in a very long time. Now, she was really all he could think of.

He knew how things worked here... he knew that it must have been Julian who had done the digging into his past and found Theavi, passing her information off to the General... and though he tried not to be upset, knowing that it was his job, he couldn't help it. There was only one way that Julian could have found out about Aari's relationship with Theavi and knowing Julian had invaded his privacy like that was infuriating.

It also upset him to know that Julian's investigation had brought Thea back into his life well before Aari would ever be ready to face her.

He tried to ignore it but he knew, deep down, that she would never look at him the same way. Nothing could ever be the same as they were back then and he hated that.

He hated that, yes, but it was also his own fault.

He let out a sigh and reminded himself of what his job was.

Aari knew that they'd be gone for quite some time, so if he wanted to follow the orders of the General and ensure he, for the time being, was not seen by his old friend, then maybe now would be the perfect time for him to get some work done at Achlis.

Letting out a breath before standing and stretching, Aari threw on the coat of his uniform and left the office, his hand reaching into his pocket and grabbing a hold of the penny he always kept in it. It was an old Elorian coin, the coolness of which relaxed him.

Right as he shut the door and started walking however, one of the officers rushed towards him. "The four Crow prisoners from the Fei Province just arrived, Sir," he said after saluting and falling in step with Aari, who continued walking.

"Good," Aari said. Fei was the province right above Acteon... rebels that close to the Capital were certainly a surprise that Aari wanted to get more information on. "Get as much information from them as you can. Take however long you need... and then put them to work or get rid of them. You know what to do."

"Yes, Sir," the man said before saluting once more and heading off to follow his orders.

When he was out of sight, Aari sighed. More paperwork. He thought.

God... he hated the paperwork.