There were a lot of officers near the entrance of the prison and though Thea had fallen quite silent after the General's words in the car, he continued to speak, explaining that despite the inconvenience, they would always need to pass through the guard check before entering. He also told her that if somehow she came without bringing her ID, she would be immediately arrested.

She made a mental note to ensure she never forgot it.

That aside, Thea began to focus on the fact that the prison was massive. From the outside, the entire grounds were surrounded by large wired fences, seemingly for extra protection in case the prisoners were able to break out from the stone walls that also surrounded the building.

It was certainly an intimidating building, made of dark stone similar to that of Achlis itself, but Thea found that its only saving grace was the greenery and foliage that surrounded the outside of it, mixing with the gates and fences, vines even growing high up onto the stone walls. Something about the earth trying to make its way into the prison from the outside made Thea feel a strange sense of relief.

However, when they made it through the gates, past the guard check and into the actual heart of the prison, the relief she felt was gone.

The inside of the prison had an extremely unpleasant lighting, with long narrow halls that had absolutely no colour, no furniture, and no life, really. It felt... exactly like what she imagined a prison would feel like. It also certainly did not help that there were Aiverian officers everywhere.

Most of them Police Officers.

And if there was one thing that all Elorians knew, it was that the Aiverian State Police were even worse than the military. The State Military had some class, at least, trying to hide all the crimes and horrors they put her people through. The State Police however were, for the most part, a large group of despicable criminal thugs who got away with almost everything. Nine times out of ten, especially in the Capital, any violence against her people was either done by or at least sanctioned by the State Police.

So as they walked through the halls, she didn't fail to notice the looks of disgust and displeasure on the faces of the guards and officers. And despite how uncomfortable and nervous she was, the General seemed to either not notice or continuously disregard it as he proceeded to talk as if nothing was wrong, giving her a tour of the prison.

When they finally arrived at the end of a hallway and to a locked door which was manned by two guards, Niall gave them a wave with his hand, which gave them the signal to open it up and reveal another shorter hallway that led to a lift.

"This is the one and only way to get to the basement floors, all of which contain the most important prisoners of war," he said to her as they stepped into the lift. He slid the gate shut and pressed on one of the black buttons. The lift then rumbled loudly and angrily, before jerking down harshly for a second prior to beginning its descent. "You will be spending most of your time on the lowest floors, floor B-3 and B-4."

Thea nodded slowly.

And it was when the lift jerked its way to a stop, roaring loudly and giving Thea a near heart attack, that the most important part of this day began. One by one, the General walked her through the rooms of the individuals Thea was expected to talk to for the unforeseeable future. Thea frantically wrote down the names and small details the General mentioned– like Kari Aaur, the previous head of the now fractured Empro Province Crow Division. Or Jol Rikard, the son of the leader of the ever eluding Crow force in Kal – a significant group because they maintained their presence in the northernmost part of the Elorian province, holding control of all the northern ports even after the end of the Civil War.

Oh, and Shoy Yul, and Pan Gavian, and Lorus Bayan and... five or six more... all men who were part of the many different factions of Crows that existed in Abureth alone.

Thea's notes were a mess.

Then to make it worse, every single time the General stopped in front of the barred cell of the Elorian man – unsurprisingly, all of the prisoners she met were men – Thea couldn't help but freeze for a moment at the sight of them. Crow or not, these were her people, all of them looking back at her with an air of suspicion as the General introduced her as a soon to be journalist who was here to do research.

She couldn't blame them though.

There they were, sitting in a barred cell because they were, whether Thea agreed with their means or not, hoping to fight for their people. And here she was, on the other side of the bars, standing next to the General who took part in taking them, as well as the rest of their people, down.

She felt her heart sink and her stomach turn, hating that the General kept calling her a journalist. This was not what she wanted to do as a journalist. She wanted to be doing work that she, as well as her people, could be proud of.

"Good," the General said after Thea had made note of the thirty-second individual– Jun Frials, another Crow from Abureth. Most of them were from Abureth, though that made sense. Abureth was the largest region in Elore. It was also where the old Capital of Eloria sat before the State took over and moved it to Gaila. The old history in Abureth made most Crows feel a sense of pride being associated with the region. Men all over Elore seeking to become Crows would often come to Abureth instead of staying and joining the forces in their own region. Or so her brother says.

As she tried not to make it obvious that she was already exhausted, the General continued speaking. "We'll now be heading down to level B-4. There is only one more man that I want you to meet and he's down there."

One more.

Thea felt relieved.

"For the time being, we will leave you with thirty-three individuals," he continued. "As time passes, we can add and remove individuals from your list accordingly once we see who is worth speaking to and who isn't."

Thea nodded slowly, though she didn't entirely like the way he worded that. "The one who's below–"

"Is the most important man you will be working with," he said, rather firmly as they made their way back into the lift, his voice echoing. "He is from an incredibly significant faction that we desperately need more information on."

Once the lift arrived on B-4 and the two stepped out of it, Thea was surprised by the fact that this floor looked quite different from the last as though it was also a long hallway, each cell did not have bars. Instead, each cell was like a room with a door.

"Every individual on this floor is isolated," the General said, seeing her surprise as he made his way down the hall. "Completely isolated," he accentuated. "They are in there alone, cannot see each other or hear each other as a means of a form of torture. The hope is that the isolation becomes too much for them and breaks them just enough to get them to talk."

Thea's brows rose, her throat drying up a bit.

"You must admit though," the General started, stopping in front of the last door in the hallway. "It's certainly better than physical torture."

At least there was that.

As the General looked for the right key to this door, he continued speaking. "We call the man in here Rue," he said. "We don't know his actual name and he's managed to keep it from us despite being here for four years now."

"Four years?" Thea gawked. He's been in an isolated room for four years?

The General nodded. "He's a tough one... so tough that frankly, it's rather admirable though equally as frustrating," he said. "And he is the primary reason for why we decided to start this new project to try and get information through a different approach... through you."

Thea nodded slowly. "So who is he? Why is he so important?"

"Rue was, at the time of his arrest, second in command of the biggest, most united Crow division that exists in Aiveria."

Thea's brows rose. She knew exactly what group he was talking about. "The division that Rhys once held?" Formally known as the Elorian Revolutionary Armed Forces, or ERAF.

The Original Crows.

"Exactly."

Though the Original Crows had now nearly completely fallen apart and were replaced by the New Elorian Revolutionary Armed Forces, or NERAF, at the time that ERAF was still the major force, the Crows were... something else entirely.

Crows were trusted by the Elorian people... loved, even.

And he was part of that old group? At the very least, he may have been someone to respect. "So he was second in command to Rhys?" She could hardly believe that. Rhys was the man who most people attributed to creating the Crows and, as per the Aiverian history books, was the one who started the Civil War over a decade ago. To the Elorian's however, he was considered a hero despite being seen as the worst of the worst in terms of criminals by the Aiverians.

But he was a war hero... the man that most Crows aspired to be like.

Even to Thea, who didn't particularly love the Crows, Rhys was a legend. His efforts were almost treated like mythology by her people, despite the fact that it all happened not so long ago. And when he was forced to flee after the Elorians lost the Civil War, he disappeared off the face of the earth and now he really seemed like a man of legend.

And this man was second-in-command to him?

Surely he too must have been a legend then... how could the state not know who he was?

"No," the General answered, bursting her bubble. "He was second in command to the man who took over after Rhys was forced to flee."

"Oh," Thea said, a little disappointed. However, she had to admit that being second in command to the Crow who took over the remnants of ERAF after Rhys was brought down was certainly in itself an impressive feat.

After the defeat of the Crows, ERAF almost instantly fractured and separated. Infighting became more prominent and the Crows soon became what it is now... an incohesive, ineffective mess of a revolutionary force, the groups scattered across the country and crippled by their inability to come to any agreements.

Whoever was in command of this group, the group that Rhys had once led, was someone who was the most successful at getting at least some order back, managing to pull together enough of the divided Crows and forming the largest group there was. Even larger than the group in Abureth, despite the Abureth Crows being the more well known and popular division.

Though there wasn't an active war, Thea knew, as well as most other Elorians, that if a Civil War did break out again, this group would certainly pose a threat.

And clearly the State felt the same way.

"As you can imagine," the General continued. "Getting as much information as we can from a man like him is vital. We have absolutely no idea where his group is hiding and I need at least something that can help with figuring this out."

Of course they didn't know where these men were hiding. If there was one thing that the Crows that once belonged to Rhys were good at, it was staying hidden. They were the greatest guerilla force that existed, knowing damn well how to hide in plain sight.

And everything they knew was thanks to Rhys, a man who apparently was studying to become a history teacher before the war started. He was incredibly educated and knew what he needed to know to win a war after studying the topic for most of his life.

But they lost.

Though everyone knew the Elorian's didn't lose the war because of Rhys.

They lost because they were betrayed from the inside.

And one of the turncoats was the General himself.

When Thea looked at him, a feeling of frustration began to well up within her... her brother's words once again filling her mind.

It was his fault.

"Getting to this one will be a challenge," he said, not noticing her stare. "But one thing I want you to keep in mind is that his days are numbered."

"What?"

The General looked at her, his hand sitting on the door handle. "One of the reasons I put together this project was because my superior, the Secretary of Defense, has had enough of Rue's silence and wanted to make an example out of him. Keeping him alive for this long could give other prisoners a reason to not speak up too, afterall."

"They were going to execute him?"

"Exactly... but I however am certain that if we could just get the man to open up then we can drastically change the situation within Aiveria," the General said, though his words reminded Thea that she still wondered how he planned on changing the situation in Aiveria.

He was a traitor.

He had told her in the car a few days ago that they had the same end goal. That end goal being ending this conflict and ensuring that everyone who is innocent is allowed to live in peace, comfort and relief in knowing that they are safe. She remembered his words verbatim... though she didn't entirely trust them now.

Her brother was right.

How could she trust a traitor? Especially as she now imagined Crows flying off of cliffs around a facility that was under his control.

"So," he continued, "I convinced the Secretary of Defense to have some faith in this project and managed to push back Rue's execution date. I know it may seem like a lot of pressure... but when it comes to this man, I really want you to do everything you can to get him to talk."

Thea kept a straight face, waiting for him to continue.

"And if he never does... and he is ultimately executed, I want you to make sure that you are in a position to think that you did in fact try your absolute best."

She nodded. She was going to try her best. But whatever information she would share with the General would be at her discretion.

She had decided, at that very moment, that she wasn't going to tell the General everything right away. She would do what he told her to do on the drive here– figure out if she could trust him by using her own judgment and come to her own conclusions... then see where it goes from there.

She wasn't going to be used and she wouldn't be a traitor.

When the General finally opened the door Thea took a sharp breath.

The room was tiny– even tinier than her new room in the hostel– and had nothing in it except for a tiny little toilet, a sink and a thin mattress with an ugly brown bedsheet on the floor for a bed. There weren't even any windows and the only light in the room came from an ugly, dim bulb that hung pathetically at the center of the high ceiling in the room.

So this was how they treated the ones they thought were the worst of the worst?

Thea's eyes then fell on the relatively thin looking man who was sitting cross legged with his hands resting in his knees as he leaned against the back wall right across from the door. For a moment, she examined the man, seeing that his hair was black and long. It fell down past his shoulders and to right below his chest, and some of it had even been pulled up into a knot on top of his head to keep it out of his face. He wore an unkempt beard as well, growing well down past his neck and to the center of his chest. He certainly looked like a man who had been locked up for four years.

For a moment, he didn't look up and Thea thought he may have been sleeping, however it became clear that he was just slow to react. "Killian," the man simply said.

His voice was deep and stern and had a tone that was not one that you would speak to a General with. Yet somehow, from just the one word he said, Thea could instantly feel a rush of nervousness as she could feel the kind of man this man was.

Cold.

Cold and fearless.

Someone who felt like he had nothing left to lose.

The General, however, seemed unphased. "Good day, Rue, how are you doing?"

"I think you can figure that out for yourself," he simply said.

The General didn't respond to that, and when he didn't, the man on the floor raised his black eyes and looked at him. Now that Thea could see his face more clearly, she could see the age on him. He certainly wasn't that old, but the exhausted look on his face seemed to add a few years to him. Taking that into consideration, Thea imagined that he could have been in his early to mid thirties.

After holding the General's gaze for a moment, his eyes moved to Thea and when their eyes met, she felt the urge to look away, though she didn't. She held his gaze despite there being something certainly intimidating about him.

"You're here for a reason," he said, looking back at the General. "Spit it out."

"Fine," the General started. "I'll cut to the chase. I'm here to introduce you to Theavi Rhaanan. She is a journalist–"

"No," Rue said, his stare unwavering.

The General didn't seem surprised, but Thea was.

"I'm not a fool, General," he said. "And I'm not playing your games."

General Killian began smirking, a look of contempt washing over his face. "I'm not here to play games either, Rue," he said. "I'm just here to make a few introductions. Whatever happens next is between you two."

"Nothing shall happen," he said. "Just let me live my remaining days in peace."

General Killian kept his eyes on the man for a moment, looking as if he was trying to find something to say. He proceeded to simply shake his head. "Whether you like it or not, she's going to be coming down three times a week to keep you company. Take care of her for me, won't you?"

The man closed his eyes tightly, looking annoyed. Thea then saw him begin to tap his left pointer finger against his knee, and when her eyes went down to his hand, she pressed her lips together.

He was missing two fingers.

His ring finger and his middle finger.

Her blood began to boil a little. How horrible.

"Just leave me be," the man repeated, his eyes still closed. "I'm tired and I don't want to talk to anyone."

"Sleep on it," the General said as he turned and began walking out the door. "She'll be back here tomorrow. Who knows, maybe you'll change your mind. Besides, it's not like you have anything better to do anyways."

Though the General made his way out, Thea stayed for a moment, keeping her eyes on the man. He seemed to have felt her presence, opening his eyes and looking directly at her when he did. "It's nice to meet you," Thea finally said.

The man didn't respond.

Instead, after holding her gaze for just a little longer, he simply closed his eyes again.