Hi everyone!

Thank you once again for sticking by this story! Though you will FINALLY be seeing some progress within the relationship between Niall and Thea, I wanted to take a moment to throw up a trigger/content warning as this chapter does contain some content that may be triggering for some readers.





CONTENT WARNING!!

This chapter contains triggering content such as violence, racism, trauma, and sexual abuse/harassment. Please be mindful of these triggers if you wish to read this chapter.





Thank you for reading, don't forget to vote and comment!!



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Of course, Thea wasn't actually going to go to his house. Even if she was curious and also wanted to apologize... she wasn't going to go to his house. But when she left the inn, she did turn right, and without thinking much about it, she found herself walking up the hill until she spotted the old house all the way at the top, the lights on the bottom floor still on.

As she approached it, she told herself it was too late to turn back, so she had to stop by there. She had to take this chance to apologize. She was going to tell him that she had made a huge mistake. She would tell him that it would never happen again. She would tell him how grateful she was that he and Julian came for her and how she hated herself for putting them in danger. She would beg him to believe that her feelings were genuine.

Yes.

She knew everything she had to tell him.

She would earn his trust back.

And so, when reached the rickety wooden porch and knocked on the door, she took a deep breath, trying to be confident.

She could do this.

The General, as always, was rather quick to open the door, but this time he looked surprised to see her. His response to the sight of her though was a hardening of his expression. "Miss. Rhaanan."

All her prepped words, once again, vanished. Instead, without thinking, she clasped her hands together in front of her, almost as if praying, and closed her eyes tightly. "Please don't fire me!" She begged. She had no other thoughts at that moment and for some reason, she couldn't look at him.

She wanted to be a part of this.

She didn't want to leave the team.

She didn't want to leave him.

"Please give me another chance!"

After a moment, she heard the General sigh. "Theavi, I'm not going to fire you."

She looked at him with sad but pleading eyes. "Really?"

He closed his eyes and shook his head before looking at her again. "Though that's certainly what you deserve... I'm not going to do that."

Her heart filled with relief and almost instantly, all of her pent up anxieties came exploding out as the dam lifted, translating oddly into a mess of tears as she burst out crying.

The General was clearly taken aback by this, not knowing how to react as the woman in front of him cried like a child, trying to stop her own tears and wipe them away with the back of her hands though they wouldn't stop coming. "I'm sorry!" She cried. "I'm so sorry!"

"Theavi, there's no use in apologizing at this point–"

"But I want you to know that!"

"I know," he said, reassuringly. "Now come inside... you're going to wake the entire town up, wailing like that."

When she didn't come in herself, he put a hand on her back and guided her inside before shutting the door.

And then she cried some more inside.

She tried to stop, she really did, but it felt like in that moment, weeks, if not months, worth of anxieties and fears and nerves all came crashing down at the same time. Though the General wouldn't know it, she was crying because of everything. Because of the decision she had made, for feeling cornered by Kinny and the other Crows in Danyo, for being lied to by Vetori, for upsetting Luana, for the harshness that Rue presented to her, for putting Julian and the General in danger, for breaking their trust, and because of the people who were tormenting her back at the Capital.

She let it all out.

Then she apologized some more.

And when the General told her it was alright, she apologized for crying. And then she apologized for apologizing for crying. And then finally, the General seemed to give up. Instead, he stood next to her in silence and rubbed her back gently until she sorted herself out.

When she had finally run out of tears and the General's handkerchief was completely soaked, he let out an exhausted sigh. "Are you okay now?"

She nodded, but then shook her head. "It doesn't... matter... I don't want to make this... about me–"

"Well it is," was his response. "So are you okay?"

After a hesitation, she nodded. "I'm so sorry–"

"I know," he began to walk away, using his hand to wave it off. "You've made that abundantly clear. Just... don't do it again."

She stood there and watched as he walked away from the small foyer of the house and into what looked like the living room. Thea only now really got the chance to look around and see the house itself, and to her surprise... it was a mess.

But not just a mess... it was falling apart.

The wooden floors were cracked and clearly termite ridden, the walls were covered with an ugly wallpaper that was peeling off in many spots and there was barely any furniture. In the living room, right in front of the stone fireplace that had practically collapsed, were only two chairs, a table, and a few blankets and pillows on the floor.

When she looked to her right, however, she could see the kitchen, which was surprisingly clean and looked relatively newly renovated, though it lacked any color or personality.

She looked back at the General, wondering what this place really was. Could the wealthy General really own a place like... this?

The General, who was standing next to the table, pouring himself a glass of whisky, turned to look at her. "It's a work in progress," he said, seeing her surprise and clearly wanting to change the topic away from the events of today. "My focus was finishing the kitchen first... I work on it whenever I can... clearly not as much as I'd like."

She could tell from the way he was speaking that he was certainly, at least a little, drunk, but whatever the case, she was intrigued. Intrigued enough to distract herself, even if momentarily. "You... plan on redoing this place completely?"

He nodded. "It was abandoned when I first came across it a few years ago, so I bought it from the town and maybe one day it'll look right," he said before he held out a glass for her. "Whiskey?"

Though Thea wasn't entirely a huge fan of whiskey, the thought of having a little bit of alcohol to ease her nerves seemed like a pleasant thought. "Sure."

He handed the glass to her and poured himself one as well before gesturing at one of the two seats.

When they were both seated in the not so comfortable seats with their glasses of whiskey, in the house that was practically empty and falling apart around them, Thea looked at the General as she sipped at her drink before lowering the cup and letting out a soft laugh. It wasn't an amused laugh, it was more of a laugh of disbelief.

The General looked up at her. "Glad you're not crying anymore, but what's so funny?" He asked, placing a cigarette between his lips as he spoke before he began to light it.

She hesitated. "I just... this is a little unexpected. All of this... including the fact that we're... here," she looked down at the amber liquid, though because of the lack of lighting in the room, it looked mostly dark brown. "I... I've completely misjudged you."

After he lit the cigarette, smoke escaped from between his lips as he put the lighter on the tiny table. "You're not the first... you certainly won't be the last."

"I'm sorry," she said.

"Enough with that," he said.

She was going to apologize again, but choked on the words. Enough. She repeated in her head as she kept her eyes down.

"I am curious though, what else did you assume?" Now she was sure he was purposely trying to change the topic... trying to move on. "I've never really asked anyone what they were wrong about... maybe it'd be enlightening."

It worked. She looked up at him through her lashes, embarrassed. "Well, when we first met I thought you were going to kill me."

Now he chuckled, taking his cigarette away from his lips and holding it between his fingers. "I remember that."

"And I thought you were selfish and working for yourself... and that you were cruel and hated Crows... that you were a traitor." She was wrong about everything... or at the very least, in situations where she didn't really know the answer, he had proved himself enough for her to have no reason not to trust him. "Oh, and I thought you were a spoiled rich boy."

He snorted. "Spoiled... do I really come off as that?"

"No," she said, watching him.

He really didn't.

Sure, he looked like he had a constant stick up his ass whenever they were at Achlis, with his perfectly pressed clothes and sparkling boots and hair combed back with not a single strand out of place. But seeing him now... or really at any point when no one else was around... she was starting to understood now.

He had a lot to prove.

With his green eyes and his black hair... he must have had to do a lot of things he didn't care for in order to survive within the upper echelon of the Aiverian State.

He wasn't a spoiled rich boy.

"I also didn't know that you were adopted... I thought the previous Secretary of Defense was your actual father," though right after she said it, she wondered if maybe she was crossing the line.

However, the General didn't seem too bothered by that. He sipped his whiskey, staring at nothing for a moment, before speaking up. "Yes, Secretary Killian adopted me."

"So," she started. "Killian isn't really your last name?"

He shook his head.

"What's your actual last name, if you don't mind me asking?"

To that, he smirked. "I don't have one," he said. "As a child, I was just Niall."

Her brows rose.

He watched her, leaning back in his seat, looking amused by her surprise. "Shocking?" he asked. "I was dirt poor as a child and never knew my father... spent most of my childhood on the streets of Southern Kiryu, even when my mother was alive."

Though Luana had mentioned previously that he spent most of his childhood on the streets, she was still shocked. Hearing Luana say it was one thing, but hearing it from his own lips was something completely different. It made it all completely true.

He wasn't just not a spoiled rich boy.

"Another thing you got wrong about me, huh?"

Yes.

It was.

"Well..." Thea started, trying to find the right words to say, "your parents probably would be really proud of you, no? You got so far–"

"Unfortunately, you are wrong again. We could make a drinking game out of this... drink every time you get something wrong about Niall... all of Achlis would be wasted after the first few minutes."

She chuckled, knowing now more than ever that he was most certainly drunk, and though they weren't actually playing any drinking game, she found herself sipping her drink before continuing. "Why wouldn't your parents be proud? You're so successful..."

"My mother hated the State, just like most Elorians," he said. "Though she had more reasons than most to hate the military."

"Because... the State failed her... because you were poor?"

He tilted his head. "Sure, not wrong. But not completely right."

"Where... did you grow up?"

He looked amused again. "My mother grew up in the Railway Slums of Southern Kiriyu, I spent some of my childhood there, but then my mother and I came to the Capital and lived there until she died."

Thea was dumbstruck... though now understanding very well why Niall was fluent in Old Elorian.

The Railway Slums of Southern Kiriyu... that was where the poorest of the poor lived– most of whom only spoke Old Elorian.

Though they were in a quiet, peaceful little town in northern Kiriyu right now, Kiriyu as a whole was generally the poorest province of the entire nation. This was mostly because, as the easternmost province in the nation, the farthest away from the water that the Aiverians and Elorians wanted control over, no one really cared for the mountainous Kiriyu. With little valuable resources, including no important locations that were useful to the military, the province was largely ignored.

But the Railway Slums... those were a whole different story.

Those slums consisted of hundreds of Elorians who lived in shacks and tents along the tracks of the main Elorian railway line because they simply had nowhere else they could afford to go. With a majority of the people living there being transients, living by the tracks, though being extremely dangerous, allowed them to hop on and off the trains without paying.

It was a horrible way to live, and the slums were considered one of the biggest failures of the State, both to Elorians and the Aiverians. Once the Aiverians took over, it then became both a failure and an embarrassment.

Notoriously, as a means of trying to get rid of some of the slums, the Aiverian State "accidentally" ran over hundreds of people who lived in the Railway Slums when driving tanks and military vehicles along the tracks one night during the Civil War.

The State called it a horrible accident, but anyone who was smart enough knew that that was a lie. At the point that this had happened, the State was winning the war - and they were more than happy to get rid of the 'undesirables' within their State.

And Niall... the General of the Aiverian Army and Deputy Secretary of Defence... came from that?

It didn't take much for Thea to realize that this was probably a secret. There was no way in hell that the State would have allowed for someone born from that, half Aiverian or not, to have such a prominent position. "No one knows..." she started, "about this?"

He shook his head. "No one who doesn't matter," he continued before taking a deep drag of his cigarette, the end of it glowing brightly. When he pulled his lips away, his breath was smokey, covering his face momentarily. "No one who doesn't matter knows that my mother was so poor that all she could do was sell nuts at the Southern Kiriyu Station," he continued, not looking at her, "from the day she could walk, or so I heard."

Thea blinked, watching his face closely as the smoke faded.

"And when she was thirteen, a State Soldier arriving in Kiriyu on a train took her, beat her, raped her and left her along the tracks to die."

Thea flinched, gasping as a chill running through her as she placed her hand over her mouth to cover her gawk.

No.

Niall looked at her. "No one who doesn't matter knows that that was my real father. Not the deceased, popular, noble and high ranking Secretary of Defense."

Her eyes began to water, completely out of her control.

"Another thing you got wrong, I'm assuming," Naill smiled at her, rather warmly despite the contents of their conversation. "Did you think that maybe my parents were star crossed lovers who couldn't be together because one was Elorian and the other was Aiverian?"

She had thought it was something like that, and in response, after a moment of staring, she chugged down the last of her whiskey, wincing as the liquid burned its way down her throat.

Niall chuckled before reaching out and grabbing the bottle, pouring her some more before doing the same for himself. "It looks like we're both going to need some more of this."

She took it happily, but hesitated a little. "Why... are you telling me this?"

He kept his eyes on his glass as he poured. "Because I want you to know I trust you," he said, looking and sounding almost instantly sobered. He placed the bottle back down when his glass was filled and continued. "That you're not one of the people that don't matter, and that I'm not entirely a bad person. Sure, I've done some horrible things but that was the past and I need us to move forward. We have a lot to do and such little time... and I need you. I need your help. I need you to trust me. I don't want you going behind my back ever again and I want you to know that you can tell me anything."

The guilt welled up in her again, though she knew that was not his intention, and she felt her eyes water more. Yes... he indeed had so much to prove... but now he was trying to prove himself to her, going as far as to share something so dark with her, something that must have hurt him deeply. She knew she didn't deserve this... he didn't need to prove anything to her, but he felt otherwise.

And the thought made her feel incredibly guilty... but more than that she felt grateful. Grateful that he still wanted her, grateful that he still valued her trust. "My role..." she started. "You said everyone has a role on your team... what did you want from me?"

"Communication," he said. "I want you to be the middleman... or woman."

Her brows rose. "To what?"

Niall looked a little concerned. "Do you really not yet understand?"

She pressed her lips together, embarrassed and worried. "I–"

"Why do you think I care so much about keeping Rue alive?"

"Because... he has information that he can give you," that's what the General had told her, after all.

"Yes," he said. "But what do you think I would use such information for?"

He had told her, all those months ago when they first met, that she and him had the same end goal, which was the ending of 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 hadn't thought past that because she was too busy trying to prove to herself that he was lying or that he was a traitor.

So she tried to think, remembering quite vividly the fact that he had kicked Kinny out of the car and let him live not to help him, but to help anyone who was innocent and living in that Nest... like the old woman who had helped her. Clearly, he wanted to help innocent people.

But how would getting information on the Crows help with that?

Niall let out a breath, sounding rather surprised. "Thea, I'm trying to get information on the Crows so that I can get them to work with us."

Her brows shot up. She would not have ever expected that. Never. Not in a million years. "Getting the Crows to work with you?" she asked. "What? Why?"

"Because we can protect more people and improve the condition of the Elorians if the Crows could band together and fight for the same cause. Instead of trying to destroy the State, if we can get them to work with us, we could change the situation dramatically–"

"The Crows will never work with the State," Thea said, confidently. "Their whole... ideology... goes against that!"

"Which is why we need you," he said, looking right at her. "This is why we need you to get to Rue. Getting Rue to trust you is key."

"But even if he did trust me... trusting me and trusting the State is hugely different!"

"We don't need Rue to trust the State. We just need him to trust you."

"Just me?"

He nodded. "If he trusts you, he will learn to trust the rest of us because you trust us. We just need him to work with us," he said. "Frankly, I'm certain that Rue will come to agree with our ultimate goal... we just need him to take a second to listen."

Thea hesitated, but could see where Niall was coming from.

Rue, despite being a Crow, absolutely despised the Revolutionary Crows. She could imagine that maybe to him, anything aside from them would be a better option.

"If we can use his influence... it could change everything. You already know that Rue was second in command of the largest Crow division that exists, and they've got a lot of influence. Many smaller groups that don't identify as Revolutionary Crows would easily accept anything that his division did. The only problem is that despite their size, they've kept hidden since the end of the Civil War. Capturing Rue was the closest we ever got to getting to them, and even that failed."

Thea nodded slowly. "So... if I can get to Rue, and he gives me the information you're looking for... it would be on me to get that division to work with us?"

"Yes. Rue cannot be released from prison, of course, so you would be the middleman. You will be the one doing the talking," he said. "Whatever my intentions are, people won't trust me," he gestured to his eyes as he spoke. "People won't trust Milo or Julian or Kaya because they're Aiverians and people won't trust Luana or Aari because they're soldiers of the State. People will, however, trust you."

She nodded again, understanding now.

Communication.

That was her role.

Her role was about trust, and she wouldn't be able to do it unless she trusted the rest of her team and they trusted her. And despite everything, despite giving them every reason to not trust her, he wanted her to know that he still did.

He believed in her to keep at this.

He was giving her another chance.

"That's why Rue is important," she said, more to herself. The General wasn't trying to use the information Rue gave her to follow in the State's footsteps and ruin her people. He was genuinely trying to help. The entire team was trying to help. And though she knew that now, she wished more than anything that she had figured it out sooner.

She would have saved everyone so much trouble.

After sitting in silence for a moment, processing all that he had said, she looked at him again. "If you don't mind me asking... what happened after?"

"After?"

"After... your mother..."

"Oh," Niall nodded, looking away again. At this point, his cigarette had completely burnt out, so he dropped it in the ashtray. She wondered if he'd light another one, seeing as he always seemed to smoke when he was stressed... but he didn't. Instead, he took another sip of his whisky and continued. "She picked herself back up and walked home," he simply said.

Thea's eyes widened.

She picked herself up and walked back home?

Thea felt a little light headed, thinking back to her time in university. If it had gotten that far... could she have picked herself back up and walked back home? No... she certainly couldn't have, and so those words alone were enough to tell her a lot about the girl that was Niall's mother.

At thirteen, she was much stronger than Thea could ever be.

"Then, when she got home, to her shack or tent or whatever it was that her family was at, she didn't need to say anything for them to know what had happened to her... and despite the fact that she was only thirteen years old and none of it was her fault, her father deemed her to be filthy and used and kicked her out."

Thea felt her heart begin to ache. "At thirteen."

Niall nodded. "Thirteen," he repeated. "She was failed by everyone and she was only thirteen... thirteen, pregnant and thrown onto the streets on her own."

Thea swallowed back the lump in her throat.

She was just a child.

"When she was fourteen, she gave birth to me, and right after giving birth to me on her own, she placed me on the floor in an alleyway and left," he continued as Thea felt her blood begin to run a little cold. "But... despite only being a child herself, and being abandoned by everyone who meant anything to her, she didn't have it in her to leave me behind. Despite having every reason to hate me, she came back for me because apparently, I was just an innocent and helpless baby."

Letting out a breath, Thea felt the desire to reach out and touch Niall's hand.

"And she raised me. On her own. She somehow managed. Then, when I was seven or eight, my mother was taken in by the woman who owns Mayra's... the bar you and Luana visit," he said. "And after my mother died, and when I was old enough to understand, Mayra told me all of this... so that I don't forget who I'm fighting for."

Niall was fighting for his mother.

An Elorian girl who was wronged by both Aiverians and Elorians alike. She now understood more what Niall meant when he said he wanted 'everyone who is innocent to be allowed to live in peace, comfort and relief in knowing that they are safe.' He was fighting for everyone who deserved to be fought for.

She was finally starting to understand him a little better. "What... happened to her?"

"She got sick," Niall said before taking another sip of his drink. "When I was ten. She was the strongest woman I knew but it was an illness that got her."

She would have been twenty-four. Only two years older than Thea was... and with a ten year old child.

Yes... she was strong.

Stronger than anyone Thea knew too.

To raise a child all alone at fourteen years old... to deal with so much pain and betrayal... that took strength.

"It must have been difficult growing up."

"Not really," Niall responded. "My time with my mother was when I was happiest. Despite everything, she loved me... and despite having nothing, she did all that she could to keep me from wanting," he laughed to himself. "We lived on the streets, but I was happy with her... happier than I am now in one of the most expensive apartment buildings in the Military District of the Capital."

Thea smiled sadly.

"She was forced to grow up well before her time... but she was a better mother than most."

She wondered what it would have been like for him to know that his father was... well, a rapist. What would it be like to know that your father hurt your mother in one of the worst ways possible and your mother never initially wanted you, even if she ended up loving him better than most mothers loved their children.

She now wondered if every time he looked in the mirror and saw his eyes, he didn't see Aiverian... but he saw his father instead. Every Aiverian feature in him was from the man who had hurt his mother... what would that feel like?

And she wondered if maybe he hated himself for who he had become, because not only did he probably look like his father, as most men often do, but he was also a soldier to the very authority that his father served. So maybe he hated himself... even if he did nothing wrong.

It must have been incredibly hard, and the thought of that made the tears escape from Thea's eyes again, and she was grateful that he wasn't looking at her. "Isn't that more of a reason to think that she would be proud of you," she asked, trying to keep her voice under control, "even if she hated State Soldiers? She was a good mother. She would love you for you."

Niall was leaning back in his chair, his elbow rested against its arm and his chin against his knuckles as he looked out a window. "Maybe," he said. "But really, she wanted me to be a pianist," a small smile formed on his face and he looked like he was somewhere else... remembering something happy. "My mother could sing remarkably well... my fondest memories of her involve her singing... and she dreamed of singing while I played."

"Really?"

He nodded. "Her father never let her sing to earn money because he thought it would attract unwanted attention from men... but when Mayra took her in, she let her sing at the bar for tips. It was then that I started to play... I was horrible, but my mother was encouraging."

Thea chuckled at that through her tears.

"When Secretary Killian adopted me... that was the only thing I asked from him... to let me learn how to play. Properly."

"You play beautifully," Thea said as she wiped her tears away and remembered the day she had first heard him play. Her heart skipped a beat at the thought.

Her compliment made Naill look at her, brow raised. "When have you..."

Thea felt her heart stop, realizing she had outed herself, but not wanting to lie to him, she felt herself blush as she looked down at her glass. "The day I came to ask for the day off... Julian scared me and I made a noise... I think you heard but I ran away."

He hesitated, thinking before nodding slowly. "That was you..."

She nodded, embarrassed. "I wasn't... I didn't mean to spy or anything... I just..."

He responded by chuckling. "It's alright," he said before smiling warmly at her, probably seeing her trying hard to hold back her tears. "You don't need to worry about me, Thea. I'm fine."

She didn't know why, but for some reason, that made her choke up more. She tried to hold it back, but instead, a rather ugly cry escaped out of her. So much had happened over the last few days and none of it was particularly great. She had felt such a wide variety of negative emotions that she couldn't help but feel overwhelmed and angry and confused... but somehow, after spending this time to really get to know the man, she was beginning to remember exactly why she got caught up with all of this in the first place.

She wanted to tell the stories of people who were misunderstood.

Niall had only found her because of that interview with the Elorian Times... a position that she had wanted for so long so that she could have a platform to share the stories of Crows so that people could see them for more than what they seemed like they were.

Most of them were just boys... boys with families and feelings and pain and people they wanted to fight for.

People like Aaryan.

A boy who felt like there was no other alternative to getting justice for his murdered sister than joining a rebel group that he felt would stand up against the State

People like her brother. Theus.

A boy who felt so betrayed by the system put in place by a State that stole all of his dreams from him, that he too felt that the only alternative to getting justice was to join the same rebel group.

There were thousands and thousands of people like this. Boys and girls.

And somehow, in the stress of trying to understand whether or not to trust the people who were giving her every reason to trust them, she had done exactly what she was trying to stop. She judged them unfairly before giving them a chance to tell her their stories.

She knew now more than ever that Niall too was the same as all of those boys.

To everyone, he was rich and powerful and to each side of this hateful, useless conflict, he looked like he had everything everyone wanted but none of which they thought he deserved. But in reality, he wasn't what everyone thought him to be. Even as she looked around now, she could see in the disaster that was this house, but also the intricate care that was going into it, as seen in the kitchen that he was slowly but surely working on putting back together.

Niall Killian... or really, just Niall, felt more comfort here in this little home that was falling apart on the top of some hill in some unknown mountainous town than he did in that luxurious but cold apartment that lacked personality and sat in the middle of the Capital.

Everyone knew him as the man who had the entire army of the Aiverian State in the palm of his hands... not the man with a mother who everyone failed. No one knew he was raised and loved by someone who was violated by a man who represented the Aiverian State and then abandoned by a man who represented the Elorian people.

Thea knew nothing about this woman, but she could easily figure that Niall was raised by a woman who was alone, yet had the strength and courage to push forward and still unconditionally love a child who was the result of such pain.

She was much stronger than the men who hurt her... Elorian and Aiverian.

She looked down at her glass and thought of her own pain.

What Adrien had done.

She wanted to be strong too... stronger than the man who inflicted the pain.

Her suffering was nowhere near as painful as what Niall's mother would have endured, so what excuse did she have to not be strong. And Thea... well, she was never alone. She had her brother who loved and took care of her despite everything, friends who cared for her, and a family who would never abandon her, whatever the circumstance.

And sure, her pain was resurfacing thanks to people like Railand and Phyl and all those other strangers... and Theus wasn't here right now to protect her... but now she had someone else here who she could trust. Someone who she now knew would understand her pain, maybe better than most.

And who knows... maybe she could tell him her story.

Maybe she could show him that she trusted him too. She trusted him enough to tell him the pain that she went through.

She could trust him.

But as she opened her mouth to speak, she choked on her words and she knew that despite everything, she couldn't do it. She clammed up. Her hands became cold and her lips dry. A sense of humiliation washing over her.

Did she really still not trust him? Why couldn't she just let it go?

To her surprise however, the General reached out and placed his hand over hers, squeezing tightly.

For a moment, she thought that maybe he knew.

But he couldn't have known. There was no way.

But then again, maybe he didn't need to know.

"We all have our demons," he said, looking at her with a kind smile. "We learn to deal with them in our own ways. What's important is knowing that we're not alone and believing that the people we trust will be there when we need them to be."

She closed her eyes for a moment, the tears warm against her cheek.

"Those fools that I call my team... they're my family. They're yours now too. And the knowledge that they trust and believe in me and what I do gives me purpose, and it's what pushes me forward. That's how I got through it. That's how I continue to get through it. And soon, you will understand that too."

She looked at him again, hearing the sincerity in his voice.

He was not what people thought he was. He was not what she thought he was. And sure, she wasn't going to be telling his story, that was neither her job nor her right, but she realized at that moment that there was so much she could learn from him... him and his stories... just as she hoped people, Aiverian and Elorian alike, would feel when they read her writing in the future.

She knew then that he could help her become better.

He could help her become the person she wanted to be.

Just as Julian had promised her grandmother what felt like forever ago.

And sure, she didn't exactly have it in her to open up about her past, but she did have it in her to get up and step closer to him before wrapping her arms around his shoulders and embracing him.

He didn't seem bothered by this. Instead, he returned the embrace, allowing her to feel a kind of warmth and relief in her that she hadn't felt in a very long time.