Hi everyone!

In case you missed my post, I set up a timeline for the events that occur prior to this story to help readers understand the history of Elore and Aiveria :) You can find it in the chapter titled "Timeline" :D

I hope you enjoy this chapter! Don't forget to vote and comment to let me know your thoughts!

Love,

Luckycharms <3



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Thea didn't want to go out for dinner but Luana had been insistent. They were at Mayra's, the usual bar they hung out at, and the crowd was a great bother to Thea since she didn't want to be around so many people, the drone of their voices giving her a headache. She just wanted to go home.

Luana had gone on and on about her day, and on any other day Thea would have listened intently, intrigued by the work she did with Kaya. The Logistics department, which Kaya headed and Luana worked in, was an interesting department, and Thea was able to understand that Kaya basically knew everything about everything when it came to the military. She knew who was where and what was with who and where everything was going and so much more.

Yes, sometimes it was certainly confusing, but it was still interesting.

But today, Thea wasn't in the mood.

Her mind was still racing from the events from earlier. From the General's request for her to speak at his meeting, to Railand's threatening words, to the oddly familiar ex-Crow whose simple presence scared Railand away.

And at the top of her mind of course was Vetori's request.

She was still angry right now with everything that had happened with Railand. There was an anger in her and somehow that anger allowed her to put her foot down when it came to the thought that was at the forefront of her mind.

She was going to do what she wanted to do.

And she wanted to help Vetori with his simple request.

She wasn't a traitor like Railand had suggested.

She wasn't like... whoever that ex-Crow was, and as she stewed in her own thoughts, giving herself a headache as she did so, she suddenly realized something about him.

Though she could barely remember how he looked, she did remember that he was an Elorian with black hair that he tied up and a well kept beard, not to mention the fact that he was also handsome.

And he was in the hallway that led to the General's office.

Thea looked at Luana, remembering the numerous times that Luana had mentioned the annoyingly handsome young Elorian who spent little to no time on his hair and beard and somehow always managed to look perfect. The friend of hers who she thought was so lucky for his perfect locks that always did exactly what he wanted it too, unlike her own frizzy short hair that barely cooperated.

Thinking back to all of this, Thea realized who that man must have been.

Aari.

The man who gave her that beautiful pen.

The man in charge of the Screeching Crow.

"Aari," Thea said, making Luana stop talking about whatever it was she was talking about and look at her. "He's got kind of long black hair that he ties up, right? And a beard."

"Yeah, he does."

"He was in Achlis today?"

Luana hesitated. "He was."

"I saw him."

"Did you?"

Thea nodded. "Just for a moment... he's an ex-Crow?"

Luana suddenly looked serious. "Who told you that?"

"Railand."

"Railand?" She asked. "So that stupid son of a bitch is still talking to you?"

"Is it true?"

Luana let out a breath. "Yeah... I guess."

Thea looked down at her food. So Aari, the one who was in charge of the Screeching Crow also used to be a Crow himself. A traitor. He really was a traitor. The definition of a traitor.

Someone who betrayed and turned on his own people.

The General... well he was apparently always on the State's side. He just tricked the Crows into believing he was one of them, or so they say. Besides, he stayed true to at least half of who he was. So he didn't really fit in the definition of a traitor.

And Thea... well she... she...

She wasn't a traitor.

But Aari... he really was one.

He was actually a traitor.

"Thea, what's wrong?" Luana asked, all serious again. "You've been acting weird all night."

"One of the Crows who I'm interviewing, Vetori, asked me to seek out his family and tell them that he's alright," she suddenly blurted.

Luana didn't seem surprised, which made it clear to her that Milo must have already mentioned this to her. "And so?"

Why was she telling Luana this?

And why was she angry? All she could really think of was Railand and Phyl and all those other strangers who would follow her with her eyes and judge her. All these people who knew nothing about her, yet called her a traitor, no doubt.

And then, of course, there was Adrien.

She hadn't seen him in years and he was still messing with her mind. Somehow, without even being here, he was the cause of all of this, and she was angry... with something to prove. She had to prove she wasn't a traitor, it was the one thing she could control. She could control whether or not she made the decision that would make her a traitor to her people and she had to prove she wasn't to him and to the others.

She wasn't a traitor.

"So?" Luana repeated. "What about it?"

"What would you have done?" She let herself ask, suddenly wanting to know what Luana's thoughts were... if Luana was also a traitor. She was an Elorian who was a State Soldier... that in itself didn't necessarily make her a traitor... but would she have helped an Elorian man in need?

"Nothing," Luana said, firmly and confidently. She clearly didn't second guess herself one bit. "He's a prisoner of the State and I have a job to do, as do you."

"Why does him being a prisoner of the State mean we can't help him? Why does our job prevent us from helping him?"

"Because we have to honour the trust of our superiors. We have to honour the fact that the General has put his faith in us to do the right thing."

"Why isn't helping him send a message to his family the right thing?"

"Do you believe that the right thing to do is to help him?"

"Yes."

"Then if it's the right thing to do, why don't you tell the General what you're planning on doing? Unless you know damn well that going to his family isn't actually the right thing to do."

Thea hesitated. She had never told her she planned on doing anything. "I'm not going to do it... I'm just asking."

"So you took Monday off for no reason?" Luana asked. "I can put two and two together, Thea."

Thea blinked. "I..." she then shook her head. "It is the right thing."

"Okay, explain why?" She leaned back and crossed her arms. "Tell me why telling Vetori's family that he is alive is the right thing to do?"

"His family deserves to know he's not dead."

"They deserve to know, instead, that he's rotting away in the State Prison? One of the worst places for a Crow to be?"

Thea let out a breath.

"Don't you think that it's better for them to not know? For them to assume he's dead and move on?" Luana asked. "Why give them hope? It's not like Vetori is ever going to be released."

She looked down, thinking.

No.

It wasn't better to not know.

She thought instantly about Aaryan... how he disappeared without a word years ago and to this very day, Thea had no idea where he was, or even if he was alive. She would have most certainly wanted to know the truth. It was better than knowing nothing. It was better than wondering if he was dead or how he may have died.

It was worse to not know for sure whether he may have been suffering somewhere out there on his own. She would want to know.

Even if he was in prison, she would still want to know... at least she'd know he was alive... right?

"Thea listen... maybe this has more to do with you trying to convince yourself of something–"

"You think I want to do this for myself?" Thea asked, looking up at her.

"I know you can't be stupid enough to believe that it's a good idea to go to his family and let them know and believe for the rest of their lives, that their son, brother, father, whatever, is imprisoned deep in the heart of the Capital under horrible conditions and will never come back."

She knotted her fingers together. "But he's alive. How could that mean nothing?" She thought of Aaryan again. She wanted so much to know that he was, at the very least, alive... to be able to stop blaming herself for not being able to change his mind that night after his sister died.

Luana gawked. "So you are stupid."

"No I'm not," she argued. "I'm being perfectly reasonable."

"Then naive, you're naive."

"Don't call me that," Thea said, getting annoyed. She hated when people called her that... and so many people here seemed to like to call her that.

Luana leaned forward. "Fine, Thea, whatever, feelings aside, think about this practically," she said. "There are reasons why a lot of our work needs to be confidential. You tell his family something and you think they'll keep it to themselves? It'll slip, word would go around and somehow, eventually it will come right back to you. To us."

Thea shook her head, not believing that. How could simply telling someone that a Crow was alive do that? She could just tell the family to keep it quiet. It was that simple.

Luana seemed to know that she wasn't getting through to Thea, because she continued to push. "Listen, I know you feel sorry for these men, Thea, I understand," she said. "I can relate to you there, but–"

"I don't think you can," Thea said, beginning to poke at her untouched food with the fork. "Not when you're wearing that uniform."

Luana blinked a few times, and when Thea looked up at her, she saw that the girl was glowering. "What do you mean by that?"

Thea knew she upset her, and she knew she had said something wrong, but the childish side of her refused to admit it. Besides, she was already annoyed with Luana for disagreeing with her. How could she disagree with something so obvious.

"Well? What? You think that just 'cuz I'm wearing this uniform that I don't care about my people? That I'm the enemy?" Luana asked, her face serious. Thea had never seen her look so serious. "Is that it?"

"You can't blame me–"

"Don't pretend you're some sort of saint. You're just like the rest of them, you know?" She continued. "You pretend to be better but really, you're exactly like them."

Now Thea began frowning. "What?"

"You look at the Aiverians and you fear them, think of them as the enemy without knowing anything about them, just like they do to us. And you look at people like me and think of me as a traitor, just like they do to me," her black eyes burned into Thea like hot coal, but her voice was icy cold. "You're just like them, so stop pretending you're something different just because you want to strut off and help one man sitting in a prison by betraying the trust Niall put in you to keep your work confidential. Who's the real traitor?"

Thea was flabbergasted, staring back at Luana with parted lips.

"You have no idea what happened in my life to lead me to decide to be here right now, and you certainly have no idea what I went through to even wear this uniform," she said. "You have no right to judge me when you grew up in pretty little Abureth, surrounded by a loving family and only had to deal with the occasional injustice."

"Luana–"

She stood. "Niall said you were supposed to be some empathetic scholar who could understand people in a way that others can't," she said. "I never imagined him to be the kind of man who would be wrong about something like this. But he is wrong. You're just a kid. A naive little kid."

With that, Luana turned around and left, leaving all her food behind with the baffled Thea who also knew very well that she had thoroughly fucked up.

Because even if she didn't want to admit it... Luana was right.

Luana was completely right.







Niall was at work early this day, primarily because Milo had asked to meet with him before the day started. So when Milo walked into his office, Niall smiled. "Good morning, Milo.".

"Good morning, Sir," Milo took a seat in front of Niall's desk as the General put down his pen and leaned back in his seat.

"What can I do for you so early in the day?" Niall asked. "Mrs. Railer said it was urgent?" The General noticed the nervousness on Milo's face and instantly began to worry, not liking the sight of that.

Milo was kind... incredibly kind, and certainly soft hearted, but he wasn't really one to get nervous often. Part of the reason was simply because he was so practical. He was always able to work things out in his head and figure out what to do. He always had solutions.

So if Milo was nervous, that meant Niall certainly had reason to be nervous.

Niall leaned forward. "What is it, Milo?"

He let out a breath. "It's about Thea."

The General raised a brow.

He hadn't expected that.

"I just..." he started. It seemed like he was fighting some sort of battle with himself to figure out what to tell the General and what to keep from him, and though Naill did not want to push him, it did make him feel a little impatient. "I'm worried about Thea," he finally continued, "because I've noticed something that's been concerning me."

He certainly had Niall's attention.

"Let me preface this by saying that Thea is amazing. I couldn't be happier to have her as a colleague and I don't want that to change. I just... I've noticed something and though I've tried to figure out what to do about it, I just don't see how I could possibly help her. Which is why I'm coming to you."

"I appreciate the preface, Milo, but please, tell me what the issue is."

"I think.... I think Thea is dealing with something... something that's rather worrisome."

Niall raised a brow.

Milo seemed to sense that Niall didn't particularly understand what he meant by that, so he continued. "I mean..." he took a deep breath and sighed before continuing. "There are people who seem to know her that keep messing around with Thea and I don't think she's handling it very well."

Niall leaned back in his chair, keeping his eyes on Milo.

"I suppose I'm worried for her safety, to some extent and Sir, I trust you... I trust that you'll know what to do because I've kept an eye on her and I–"

"Hold on," Niall held a hand up, startling Milo. Milo almost instantly seemed to assume he had crossed some sort of line, but Niall gave him a reassuring smile as he lifted the phone on his desk and dialed a number.

Julian picked up instantly. "Captain Brayne, speaking."

"Julian, I need you in my office, now."

"On my way, Sir."

When Niall put down the phone, he looked at the confused Milo. "Of course I want to help, but if this is going where I think it's going to go, then I'm not currently equipped to handle something like this on my own," he clarified, "Julian did the background check on Thea so he knows more than I do and his knowledge will surely be helpful."

Milo nodded. "Of course."

Everyone on his team knew that Julian knew nearly everything about them. It had always been Julian's job to look into Niall's team and continue to monitor them. That was just what came with working for the State and if Julian didn't do it, some random employee in the State would do it and Niall preferred that to not be the case.

And since Niall also preferred to keep his own knowledge of his employees personal affairs to a minimum, to only what was relevant to their work, any discussion of anything outside of work would require Julian's presence and insight.

Julian was there in no time, as expected of the man, and the moment he came in, Niall had Milo catch him up before continuing. "She shakes," he started, "immensely... I'm sure you've seen it before too, Sir."

"I have," Niall said.

"Well in addition to that, she gets angry and cold. I mean, she doesn't take it out on me, of course, but sometimes she says things that are unusual... or not really like her."

Niall's mind was racing, trying to see if he could remember noticing anything like that himself, and the first thing that came to mind was something that happened months ago. The day before she fell sick for quite some time. The one and only time she had snapped at him after he asked her if that boy... he couldn't recall his name... was her friend.

Her tone and the sudden aggression, he remembered it was unusual. He remembered it concerned him.

And then she didn't come into work for quite some time.

Niall began massaging his jaw with his fingers, the feeling of frustration filling him. He should have looked into it then and there.

"What else?" Julian pushed.

"Concentration," Milo continued. "Whenever I notice she's starting to act strange, her concentration is always off. She's with me, but she's not with me... you know? The concentration thing is the most common thing I noticed, aside from the shaking. And sometimes... like the most recent time I noticed it, she had trouble speaking. Like, she couldn't get the words out."

Niall looked at Julian, who was listening to Milo carefully.

"And... the reason I came here today to talk to you, sir... was because I found out this morning that she got into a bit of an argument with Luana last night. I haven't had a chance to talk to Luana about the details but Luana was ranting about how she was acting so unusual and not like herself," he said. "And though I was worried before, I'm even more worried now because now, whatever it is that's going on is affecting their friendship... and in turn the team dynamic... which is why I thought to bring it to you, Sir."

"Is there a trigger?" Julian asked in a matter of fact tone. "You seem to suggest that this change in behavior is triggered by something. Do you know what exactly it is?"

Milo hesitated before looking at his hands. "I do... I think," he then looked up at the General. "It's a man named Adrien. Adrien Karney. Friends of his have been... heckling her and spreading rumors about her and her relationship to this Adrien."

Niall raised both his brows slowly. Karney.

"Any time I've seen these people interacting with her, I've noticed that directly after that, she acts differently."

Julian's frown was deepening. "Yes, I've been keeping track of these rumors," he said. "I've heard them myself."

"What are the rumors," Niall asked.

Julian sighed as Milo frowned. "Something happened in university. They're spreading around this idea that Thea was..." Milo danced around the words, trying to phrase it as politely as possible. "That she had... a relationship with Adrien."

"Adrien Karney..." Niall hesitated. However, before Niall could proceed with asking for more information on this individual, hoping that it wasn't who he thought it was, Julian seemed to have read his mind. "Yes, it's exactly who you're thinking of," he said. "Adrien Karney is Jakob Karney's son."

Niall let out a groan as he rolled his eyes and Milo's frown deepened. It seemed Milo had already figured that detail out, though of course he would have. "That was... another reason... why I thought I should bring this up to you," Milo said, his voice sounding rather depressed. "Rumours being spread around about her having a relationship with the son of Jakob Karney... it doesn't bode well. Her safety... I'm just worried."

Niall closed his eyes tightly.

Jakob Karney... the Premier of Acteon. An almost untouchable career politician who was pretty much one of the top five most powerful men in Aiveria, seeing as he had control over the most important province in the nation.

He was also most certainly a criminal, being one of the main reasons why it was incredibly difficult for Elorians to live in the Capital. Though completely off the record, it was entirely obvious that he had happily sanctioned anti-Elorian riots, looting, attacks and murders that occured in the Capital before, during and after the Civil War.

The alleged Anti-Elorian pogrom that occurred in the Capital right after Rhys and his small group of rebels attacked their first State Military vehicle, marking what Aiverians considered the start of the Civil War, was also sanctioned entirely by Karney.

Thousands of Elorians were killed by Aiverian mobs over the span of four days.

Jakob Karney was the epitome of a tyrant.

"How the hell did Thea get mixed up with that criminal's son?" Niall asked.

"He went to A.N.U... he's the same age as Thea, if I remember correctly," Julian said. "In her background check I did see him come up, but nothing more than that the two had a class or two together. I didn't look into it much further than that."

"You can't rely entirely on the school records to be truthful," Niall said. "It's entirely fair to assume that Karney would have ensured his son's record was clean. She's an Elorian girl... if the two had any sort of relationship, good or bad, I'm sure Karney would have had it wiped."

"That's a fair point."

"Do you know anything at all about the son?"

"No, Sir... except that he's following in his father's footsteps and making his way into politics slowly but surely... though that does prove to be more of a reason to keep any relationship with an Elorian girl out of his records."

Niall frowned, feeling annoyed and knowing there really wasn't much he could do in terms of dealing with Karney's son. Even finding more information would be hard, seeing that if his father, a very public figure, was untouchable, he imagined that Adrien would be too. Though aside from that, Niall also felt trapped by his own morals. Was it really fair to go digging into Thea's past about something that was more or less irrelevant to the job she was doing for him? It seemed like an invasion of privacy, and Niall always prided himself in his ability to gain the trust of his people by valuing their privacy.

How could he look into this... even if it was to help her? "Has Thea spoken to you at all about what happened with this man?"

"Thea did tell me that... that Adrien had tormented her in the past."

Niall kept his eyes on Milo, an anger filling him. So the relationship she had with this man was a bad one... though he shouldn't have expected any less from the son of Jakob Karney.

Finally, Julian said what Niall was worrying about. "I know our goal is to help her and protect her privacy at the same time, Sir, but this situation is clearly affecting her work. We can't exactly just allow that to continue... the work she is doing is too vital to the cause."

Niall nodded.

"So it would therefore be wise to monitor the decisions she is making because, though I hate to say this, this problem may hinder your ability to trust her," he said rather bluntly.

Niall knew he was right. Sure, he wanted to help her, and despite the fact that he already felt like he had crossed a line, trying to evaluate her situation without her presence or even her permission, he knew Julian was right.

Niall could not risk the failure of this project... something needed to be done.







Thea couldn't stop thinking about all the things that Luana said the night before. She was angry and sad and struck and so much more... but that was mostly because she knew Luana was right.

"She's right. Everything she said is right," Rue said, upsetting her more. "And you're quite the fool to have said something like that to her."

She frowned, looking down at her hands. "I know."

As expected of Luana, she had been blunt and straight to the point when speaking to the General, telling him quite clearly that she was not in the mood to see Thea's face today. And the General being... well, the General, chose not to ask any questions and assigned Luana to something else today. So now, Thea was stuck with another Aiverian State Soldier who was a stranger that looked at her like she was the dirt on the bottom of his boot.

Though frankly, Thea did deserve it.

"Do you still plan on going?" Rue asked her.

"I don't know," she said, looking up at him. "What do you think?"

"I think that I don't care."

Thea rolled her eyes. "Oh come on," she said. "If you were me, what would you do?"

He let out a breath from his nose. "If I were you I would not go," he said, disappointing Thea instantly, "I would listen to the advice of those who are more experienced than I am and move on. I would choose not to risk my job and my freedom and instead, I would look for another way to help the prisoner."

She sighed.

"But I am not you. You are you, and you clearly don't want to accept the views of someone who disagrees with you," he said, crossing his arms. "And for that reason, it really is a waste of both of our time for you to ask me what I would do."

"Do you not have a nice bone in your body?" Thea asked.

He responded by smirking.

"Really–"

"Go away now, I'm tired," he said, closing his eyes.

"What do you mean, all you do all day is sleep," Thea muttered, more to herself than anything.

He opened one eye and looked at her. "I don't sleep all day, I spend most of it contemplating."

That made Thea smile a little. "What is it you plan on contemplating about today?"

Now he opened both of his eyes, raising his head a little and looking down at her. "I'm going to wonder how it is that a girl as highly educated as you are, could be so stupid."