Hi everyone!

Once again, thank you so much for reading and supporting me! As promised in my announcement, since it took me longer than expected to make this post, I will be posting a second upload right after this! Enjoy!

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Love, Luckycharms <3



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Thursday.

It was Thursday.

Milo and Thea were hard at work that Thursday and though Thea knew she had three days left, the anxiety was welling up in her despite knowing she was doing her best. She had done absolutely everything she could to ensure that these days were not interrupted by nonsense.

Thankfully, it looked like her putting her foot down had made Phyl back off entirely, going as far as ignoring her whenever they crossed paths. And Railand... well, he had switched over to simply glaring and Thea knew her threat to report him to the General had worked.

Sure, strangers still stared at her and sure she knew they were still spreading rumours about her honour and her personal life, but she tried not to focus on that. She had important things to focus on and people who could help her with that.

The support of her team... her new family... was more than enough to keep her focused... and by Thursday, Thea and Milo had gone through his entire notebook, rewritten all of his poems in their own notebooks, and on their own, analyzed them to the best of their capabilities.

Thursday was the day they had planned to come together and figure as much out as possible.

Milo was ready with his maps and his books and everything else that they would need and when the two sat down to begin, somehow... neither of them knew where to start.

"Let's do this the simplest way possible," she said. "Who, what, where, when, why and how."

Milo chuckled. "Good idea," he opened up to a fresh page in his notebook before he wrote 'Who' on the first page, 'What' on the second, 'Where' on the third, and so on. "We'll start with 'who,' and if we need to flip around, we will."

Thea nodded. "Who... he never mentions his real name, a last name... or any name at all in any of the poems."

"No name," he said as he wrote it. "What do you think that means?"

"It means he was trying to hide his identity as a poet from day one. Maybe that had to do with his idea of using his poetry as a means of fighting the war and therefore wanted to be anonymous?"

Milo was jotting her words down. "Or he was a Crow from the beginning and knew to keep himself anonymous."

Thea nodded. "Right."

"What else for who?" Milo asked, flipping back to his own notes.

"He's got a brother who's dead... most likely killed by the State," if that wasn't made clear in the very first poem that was in the notebook, it was made perfectly clear in others. Specifically in one she had read for the first time last night.



They took my dear brother from me today. They pushed him down onto his knees and they Shot him. His brilliance splattered across the floor. A pool of deep red leaked all around him, The same colour as the rage within me.



She read it out loud to Milo to back up their point, and both of them shuddered at the same time. "His brother meant a lot to him," she added. "There are a lot of poems about him, so he can probably be added to the 'Why' section as well."

"Good point."

"Another 'Who' point was that his mother was also killed... by shelling," she flipped to the tabbed poem that referenced her death, "Once again, I am reminded of my mother as I close my eyes and Hear the explosions and the screams. I see Mother in my mind, blood on the floor still Warm."

Milo nodded. "And his father was a fisherman... or a sailor of some sort who was rarely ever home," Milo added. "While my father spent Most of my life out on the endless sea and my mother spent most of my life deep In longing, waiting by the window for Her husband's return."

Thea nodded. "And that's his family. A mother, a father and a brother."

Milo stared at his page, tapping his pen against his paper. "His father was a fisherman or sailor, and his mother would stare out a window waiting for him... that would mean he probably lived near, or close to the ocean, don't you think?"

Thea nodded again. "Yes... yes, that makes sense!"

Milo got up and pulled out his map, unrolling it over all of their notebooks and using the back of his pen to point along the west coast of the Elorian Province. "About seventy-five percent of the west coast in Elore is land that belongs to Abureth... the last twenty-five percent is in the north and belongs to Kal."

"But Kal is and always has been completely under Crow control and is too far North for the State to care about... there's never been any shelling or bombing in Kal, or at least none that we know of. And his mother died from a shelling."

"And that leaves us with hundreds of towns and villages along the coast of Abureth."

"We might be able to narrow it down," Thea said as she pulled Rue's notebook from under the map. She then read another poem she had tabbed.



My father once told me that the ocean Was a part of me. I hated that thought. I hated that no matter how many Times I ran from the ocean and into The city, my skin would still smell of fish, My hair would still have grains of sand in it, And I could still taste the salt on my tongue. Somehow, even as I walked down the streets Of the city, people could still tell that I was the boy from the little village Next to the ocean, who would run down to Their streets every few days to escape the Consistent, deafening roar of the waves. God, I hated the sound of those damn waves. But now, as a man, who lives miles away From the little village by the water, Shadowed by the great, grand city next door ... I long for it. I long for that cool breeze, The taste of salt, the feeling of my feet Sinking into the sand, the memory Of my father on his boat, the smell of My mother's freshly caught dinner, and the Sight of my big brother, coming home from That big city after a days work, looking As if he too was longing for home. Home. That's what it was. I didn't know it then. It was home.



She looked at Milo. "He lived in a village by the water with a 'grand' city close enough for him to go to frequently," she said, "close enough for his brother to go there for a days work and come back."

Milo nodded, still staring at the map. "And somewhere that was hit by bombing during the war... yes, that helps."

Thea looked at the map too. "The state wouldn't bomb a location that isn't significant enough to them, right?"

"For the most part, yes, and knowing that he's from a village with a big city nearby... it would be safe to assume that there must have been a significant port nearby."

Thea nodded. "His father was a sailor but probably not a fisherman... there's no indication throughout all of his poems that he was horribly poor and most fishermen in Abureth are relatively poor. Maybe he worked on a merchant vessel? That would explain why his father was gone for long periods of time, which Rue makes reference to a lot."

Milo bent over the map and began using his pencil to circle specific locations. Seven spots. "Major ports that handle merchant vessels, with cities very close by."

"Wow... that narrowed it down a lot... and you have all the ports that handle merchant vessels memorized?"

Milo shrugged. "What can I say, I have a big brain."

Thea laughed. "So, seven ports... and that's if we're on the right track."

"Well, let's see if any of these suffered any major bombing," Milo said before he walked over to one of his shelves and pulled out a dense notebook that he began flipping through. It was one of his many personal collections of well organized notes that he developed himself in order to help him work.

Thea was always mesmerized by his dedication.

She waited patiently as Milo flipped through the pages of his notebook and found herself holding her breath when Milo looked up at her, eyes wide. "Well?" she questioned when he didn't speak out right away.

"Four of those seven locations suffered major shelling," Milo said. "But... only one of them was a significant Crows Nest during the Civil War, though momentarily being recaptured by the State."

Thea's eyes widened too, her mind flashing back to the one poem of Rue's that she had read so many times that she had memorized it. The one that was a call for Elorian's to take pride in their black hair and eyes... the one where he said he picked up a pen instead of a gun. "They said to be proud and grab our weapons, to look deep within our own black, black eyes and slick back our hair, as dark as a crow. Revere the obsidian that makes us Elorian," she quoted. Phrases along these lines were classic, used by Crows to recruit young men into their forces.

Rue had many other poems that referenced phrases like this, phrases that referenced Crows marching down the streets while shouting their views out for the people to hear. You could only do that in a Crows Nest... a place that was fully occupied by Crows, no State Military to shut you up and put you in your place.

"They... the Crows must have occupied the place he's from... that makes complete sense."

"Thanina," Milo said as he pulled out another notebook from his shelf and began flipping through his pages. "Thanina Port is the major port."

But Thea didn't need to wait for him to find out more information. "Thanina?" She repeated.

Milo looked at her, his finger on a page.

She combed through her memory, remembering all the things she had heard and learned about the Civil War, most of which was told to her by her brother.

Thanina...

She knew the name.

She knew what happened there.

"Thanina City... every Crow knows what happened there... it's a major selling point of convincing people to oppose the State," she started. "It was a Crows Nest right when the Civil War started. It was almost immediately occupied by Crows in late 1942, seeing as the Port there is essential to trade and they needed it to help with bringing in weapons and resources from oversea allies. But it was temporarily recaptured by the State in 1946... and the records say that the State Officers who held the city captured anyone and everyone they believed to be a Crow and brought them to the city square..." her voice started to trail off.



They pushed him down onto his knees and they Shot him.



Milo nodded. "I do know about this..."

"They pushed every one of them down onto their knees and shot them... one by one... in the back of their head."

Milo didn't blink, staring at her.

"The only problem was... most of the actual Crows had escaped or were in hiding by the time the State captured Thanina. So though the records say one thing, what really happened was that the army still wanted to show off their power and so the majority of the people they publicly executed were civilians."

"Scholars, teachers and students... just able bodied men... that's what most of them were," Milo finished. "And the outrage associated with that was what allowed the Crows to recapture the city soon after."



They pushed him down onto his knees and they Shot him.



"Rue's brother... must have been one of those people."

Milo sat next to Thea, taking her hand in his, excitement in his eyes. "Thea... we may have just figured out where Rue was from... and when he joined the Crows."

Thea's heart was racing.

For some reason... it hurt.

It wasn't just some metaphor or something like that which he used in his poetry. Rue must have actually watched his brother get shot, and if what he mentioned in his other poems were true, he may have believed it was his fault.



His brilliance splattered across the floor. A pool of deep red leaked all around him, The same colour as the rage within me.



She put her hand over her chest, trying not to imagine what that would have been like... trying to force the image of her brother's brains splattering across the floor in front of him from her mind. But she couldn't.

The thought infiltrated her mind and terrified her.

His brilliance splattered across the floor.

Her brother was brilliant too... that made it all the harder for her to wrap her mind around.

Why was it that she could relate to this man so much? She thought he was so different from her, but from all these days of living in Rue's mind, she was coming to realize that he really wasn't.

And knowing this made her feel... sadness.

Seeing her reaction, Milo toned down his excitement, realizing that there was more to this than just finding out what happened to Rue.

Thea had developed a relationship with Rue. Of course she would feel for him.

So he gave her a moment, and when she was finally ready, she looked at him. "Let's go tell the General."







General Killian stared out the window of his office as he reflected on Thea and Milo's findings. They were still sitting on the other side of his desk, but they respected his silence and let him think.

The failed Siege of Thanina.

Niall was twelve at the time, but living in the estate of his adopted father. Seeing as he was being groomed for this position, even at twelve, he knew all about the siege, including the slaughter that came after.

He always knew that the State called it a Siege to make it seem like some glorified recapture. It wasn't though. It was anything but that. It was sloppy and disorganized and the only reason they were able to capture the city and the port was through indiscriminate bombing of both rebels and civilians, and then the slaughter of a vast number of able bodied men in an effort to make sure that none of them turned into Crows.

It was the perfect example of... well, war crimes.

And Rue came out of that?

Niall let out a breath, turning around. "Good work, the both of you," he said, taking a seat. "This is substantial... I can't begin to explain how significant this is."

The two smiled at him, though Niall didn't fail to notice that Thea's smile seemed forced, not that that was a surprise to him. It wasn't necessarily good news to find out that someone came from something as tragic as that siege. "But... how does this help?" Thea asked, looking at him. "How does knowing this about Rue help? What does this change?"

"Knowing he's from Thanina allows us to narrow down his movements significantly," Niall clarified. "To be specific, from my position and from the knowledge I have, I can tell you that the majority of the men from Thanina who went on to become Crows after the Siege became Revolutionary Crows. They joined under Arten Orynan. The slaughter that ensued after the State captured the city led most of the inhabitants to hate the State, wanting to overturn it completely. To take over Aiveria and make it Eloria."

Thea nodded slowly, looking like she was understanding.

"But from what you've already learned from Rue, he despises the Revolutionary Crows," Niall said. "Which means... he most likely left Abureth, which is overrun by Revolutionary Crow divisions, and moved into Gaila."

"Gaila..." Milo nodded. "It's where most of the Original Crows are."

The General nodded. "And another thing I know about the Original Crows, especially those who worked directly under Rhys, is that Rhys did not allow children to join his forces, unlike Orynan. Which means just like with the State military, you need to be at least sixteen to join the Original Crows."

"Which means he would have had to be sixteen or over when he joined," Thea said. "That helps to narrow down his age."

Niall looked at Thea. "I want to hear your thoughts, Thea," he started. "Knowing this, and knowing what may have happened to Rue... why do you think Rue is so opposed to the Revolutionary Crows? Don't you think it would make more sense for him to join them after witnessing what he did?"

Thea nodded. "It would... but..." she began to wring her hands together, thinking. "The actions of the Revolutionary Crows are rather well known among Elorians in Abureth. It's just that whether their actions are considered crimes or a fight for freedom depends on who you ask. We know that Rue initially opposed fighting with weapons... he was a pacifist, I suppose... and though that changed and he did pick up arms, I can't imagine that he would spend so long believing that fighting with words was the right thing to do, and then turn completely to revolution. He doesn't seem like someone who would believe in an eye for an eye."

Niall nodded, that made sense.

"And... I did notice something else." She looked down, flipping through Rue's notebook. "I think I can categorize all of these poems into two categories, a before and an after. The 'before' poems are from before he joined the Crows... they are hopeful and optimistic and... well... maybe even a little naive," she said. "But the 'after' poems, which are from after he joins the Crows... they're more angry and sad and pessimistic... but still somewhat hopeful."

Naill raised a brow.

"But the key thing I noticed is that all of his 'before' poems, if we can call them that, are written with minimal errors, no words crossed out or phrases rewritten... it's almost like he's recalling them and writing them," she continued, opening the notebook and flipping to one as an example. It was the one about the call to arms, and his hope that his father would be proud of him when he found out he picked up a pen. "But the 'after' ones... well they seem new, like he wrote them for the first time in this notebook. Words, and sometimes entire passages, are crossed out, he adds to them and edits it and does all the things a writer would do creating something brand new."

"Okay... so?" Niall asked.

"The first page is a poem he wrote after his brother's death, the one about his brother's ghost being disappointed in him for holding a gun" she started, "which means it's safe to assume that every poem in the notebook was written after his brother's death, but some of them are referencing the before... it's like he's recalling and rewriting poems he wrote before his brother's death as well. And just... if I sit there and read through all of them in one go... in one sitting... it seems like he's fighting some internal battle. There's a rise of anger and it will rise and rise and rise and then he'd tone it down with a poem from his past. And sometimes it would be the opposite. He would become sympathetic and sad and so he'd then rewrite a poem that I believe he wrote right after his brother's death, a poem filled with anger."

Niall nodded. "He's fighting with himself."

"To stay reasonable... to be fair and not spiteful, but also to make sure he keeps pushing forward," Milo added, nodding. "That's a good interpretation, Thea."

"He's a good man," Niall said. "He uses his poetry to check himself. To keep himself sane. And to remind himself what he's fighting for."

Thea nodded. "If there's one thing I know about Rue, it's that he's good at controlling his emotions. He's rational and strong... he held up through four years of torture... they cut his fingers off for crying out loud," she said. "He doesn't seem like someone who would support the overthrowing of an entire state only to replace it with one that does the same thing, except to the other race. He's smarter than that. He'd want the most permanent solution and the Revolutionary Crows don't offer that."

Niall continued nodding, but let Thea continue.

"The Revolutionary Crows want to take power and make the Aiverian's pay for the suffering they forced onto us. But if they do get what they want, that will only last for however long it takes for the Aiverians to fight back," she said. "The Original Crows just want equality. They want rights and freedom, and that is a more promising solution."

"Makes sense. Good work," Niall said, making Thea smile. "What you've found... that's already a lot. I can't imagine the President not being intrigued by this alone. Anything else you find is just an added bonus."

"Might I make a request though, Sir," Milo perked up.

"Of course."

Milo looked at Thea and then back at Niall. "I'm wondering if maybe it would be worthwhile to take a trip up to Thanina? They've got a library there with archived newspapers from decades passed... it may be useful for the purpose of finding more information... like names and more dates?"

"When were you thinking?"

"Maybe over the weekend," Milo looked at Thea, "if you're fine with that?"

"I think that's a great idea," Thea responded.

"The only problem is that the train to Abureth is about a four hour trip," Milo added.

"Yes, but then you'd have to transfer onto another train to get to Thanina, and that's another three hours," the General added. "Seven hours of commuting one way may be too much for the weekend right before the meeting, don't you think?"

Milo frowned. "I didn't think about that."

"Hold on," Thea started. "The Elorian State Public Library in Abureth Town should have it."

"Really?" Milo asked.

"Yes," she answered. "There was a project started by students at the University of Elore... during my grandmother's time. The E.S.P.L. is the largest library in Elore and before the Aiverian invasion, it was the national library, so U of E thought that it would be the best library to preserve as much of our history as possible. From that larger project, the Newspaper Project developed. It was huge, with the goal of collecting, organizing and archiving newspapers from as many Elorian towns as possible in an effort to ensure our history isn't lost. I used it when I wrote my thesis."

Niall nodded. "Thanina is a major Elorian city... E.S.P.L. would most certainly hold their newspapers."

"And it's only a four hour train ride... E.S.P.L is a ten minute walk from the train station in Abureth Town. You could even walk there from my home."

Milo looked excited. "That could certainly be more feasible."

"All right," Niall said. "Leave on Saturday morning. Do what you have to do," he then looked at Thea. "You've not gone back home since you first got here... how about you take this opportunity to visit your family as well... spend the evening at home if you want, and take the train back on Sunday morning. You can spend the rest of Sunday preparing for the meeting on Monday."

Thea was suddenly excited and looking grateful that Niall would allow her to see her family, despite the pressure they were under. "That would be wonderful."

"Alright," Niall said. "That's settled. I'll let you two continue, but again, fantastic work."

And he meant it.

For the first time in a long time, Niall felt a sense of relief.

Things were moving forward.







Thea wanted to see Rue.

Unfortunately for her, Luana was busy and Milo had taken on the responsibility of completing all the report write ups of everything they had figured out today. Though Thea volunteered to help, Milo had a very specific way of doing things, and when he insisted, she knew not to push on. So instead, she tapped her pen against the desk, the pen that Aari had gotten her for her birthday, and her mind wandered as she tried to think of how she would get to Rue.

She could take the bus... but buses didn't cross the bridge to the island that the prison sat on and the walk would be exceptionally long. She would waste too much valuable time and she couldn't allow herself to do that.

She then looked down at her pen, her mind now wandering to the thought of Aari.

She still hadn't met him, and frankly, she hadn't heard anything of him since she returned from Danyo. Usually Luana or Milo would reference him as the three were good friends, but the past week there was radio silence. To be fair, everyone was super busy with Project Rue, so maybe that was the simple explanation.

But she did find it odd that everyone referred to this team as a family, yes she had still not met Aari... someone who clearly played a significant role in the team and had a strong relationship with the others.

She turned to Milo, who was carefully typing away at his typewriter. "Milo," Thea called.

She broke his focus, making him jump a little but despite this, he smiled warmly at her. "Yes?"

"Why haven't I met Aari yet?"

He hesitated. "Aari... well, though he's part of our team, he actually works quite independently of all of us," he said in a rather matter-of-fact tone. "It's relatively rare that even we run into him in Achlis these days, seeing as he spends most of his time at Camp Jackdaw."

Thea nodded slowly, fidgeting with her pen. "I just-"

There was a knock on the door right then, and right after that Julian opened it and entered. "Hello you two," the tall man said. "I know you're both busy, but Milo, I have the usual collections of newspapers for you to go through... it seems like you didn't pick them up this morning."

"Ah," Milo took off his specs and rubbed his eyes. "I completely forgot."

"That's alright," Julian said, walking over to his desk and placing the stack of papers down in front of him. "The research on Rue is certainly the priority right now. Do a skim through the papers and if you find anything important, just make a note of it for now. You can catch up on the written reports next week."

Milo smiled and nodded. "I'll handle that tonight."

"Milo, I'm staying to help tonight then," Thea said. "You won't let me help with the reports but at least let me help with going through the papers."

He hesitated. "But-"

"No but's," Thea said, standing. "When I get back, I'll get started on the reading."

An expression of relief washed across his face as he nodded. "Thank you... but... get back?"

Thea grabbed her notebook, pen and bag. "I'm going to ask the General if I can take a quick trip to see Rue," she said to Milo, hoping that maybe the General could assist in arranging a ride for her. "I didn't go today, but I wanted to talk to him. I'll head out with the Captain."

Milo simply smiled. "Got it."

Julian walked Thea to the General's office, praising her for her hard work and letting her know that he was impressed with her. His words were kind and motivating and Thea once again couldn't help but think of this man as a gentle giant.

A gentle giant she was growing to love.

When she arrived at General Killian's office, the man looked at her with surprise. "Don't tell me you've already found something else?"

She chuckled as she took a seat in front of his desk. "Not yet... but I was hoping to ask if I could go see Rue before the day comes to an end... I wanted to talk to him."

"Of course. Luana..." his voice trailed off as he looked over at the expensive looking grandfather clock in the office. "Hmm, she'd be busy right now."

Thea smiled awkwardly as she watched him think. To be honest, she was a little thankful that he would be in meetings all evening. If not, he'd probably offer to take her, and she wasn't exactly ready to be in a small space with him yet. Her heart probably would succumb to the humiliating thoughts of her proclamation of the General's pretty eyelashes.

"Julian has quite a bit of his own work to do, and I'm sure Milo is busy..."

For some reason, she thought he may suggest Aari. Would this be when she finally met him?

But he didn't. "It doesn't seem like anyone would be available to take you... and public transit would just take way too much time, especially since you'd have to cross the entire bridge by foot..." he stroked his beardless chin. "Well then, how about you take my car?"

Her brows rose, surprised. "Your car?" Not a Rolls Royce, but still a very expensive and beautiful black car.

"I trust you," he said with a smile. "And I'm sure by this point you know your way there and back."

She blinked a few times. "Your car?" She repeated.

"Yes, Thea," he said as he opened a drawer and pulled out his keys. He placed them in front of her. "I've seen your driving record, you're fine."

That made her chuckle.

Of course he had.

He smiled as he looked down at his papers for a moment before looking back at her. "Let me walk you down."

"Oh, no," she said, quickly. Of course, she would have loved him to do that for her, but she didn't want to be a hassle. And of course... the intrusive thoughts of her humiliation were well... intrusive. "I can-"

"It's fine," he said, standing. "I'm on my way to my next meeting anyways. Let's go."

Despite the thoughts of her embarrassment though, she found herself unable to hold back her smile, her heart warming over how incredibly kind everyone was to her... how safe she felt with them. Niall was right.

Family.

This was her new family.