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Niall was leaning against the side of the desk, stroking his beardless chin as he thought, Thea watching him intently.

His entire team was in his office right now, with Milo sitting in the seat to the right of her, Luana, Julian and Aaryan standing at attention to the right of them all, and Kaya sitting in Niall's usual spot on the other side of the desk.

Niall was closest to Thea, close enough for Thea to smell his cologne, and though she was quite aware of how close he was, she knew that his mind was racing as he tried to process everything Thea had said.

Everyone seemed to be aware of this, and in order to respect him and allow him to filter through his thoughts in peace, everyone remained silent for what felt like forever. "The president had mentioned something about how Rivier's daughter was killed... but he said it was a Crow who did it. Her body was apparently cut up into pieces."

Thea's eyes widened as she wondered if that was true. Though Rue got her hair in the mail after she was killed, he had no reason to know that extra detail... and Thea wondered if it would be best to keep it that way.

"I'd believe Rue over Rivier any day," Kaya mumbled. "It'd make sense for Rivier to come up with a lie like that, and the rest of the world would believe him without a second thought."

"Agreed," Niall said. "And though this is an unfortunate fact.... our priority right now is this Tai person, and the remnants of the remaining Crows. I suppose it's not a surprise that they are hiding in Kal. It would be the safest place for them."

"Yeah," Kaya agreed. "That entire region is considered a Crow's Nest, after all. Though I've never heard of Ilia."

Thea tried to imagine a detailed map of Karl in her head, to see if she knew anything about Ilia, but she didn't. What she did know was that the little town of Ilia in Kal was where Rue said she would find this Tai character. She also knew that Kal was the most northern part of the Elorian Province and had been a known Crow's Nest from the moment the war started. However, its distance from the Capital and its unimportance to the State in terms of trade, finances and resources had left it largely untouched. The State cared little about that area, assuming it to be poor, worthless and unimportant. Frankly, the state probably assumed that whatever Crows lived there would die from poverty before they ever had a chance to try and rebel again.

Whatever the case, Niall was right, poverty or not, it wouldn't be a surprise for the remaining Original Crows to be hiding in Kal. It was almost as if they were hiding in plain sight, in a spot that the State couldn't care less about.

"What do you know about Ilia, Milo?" Niall asked.

"It is rather unassuming and relatively safe for a town in Kal," Milo said, easily proving his genius and ability to just know things. "Actually, Ilia is the only town in Kal that we get any form of knowledge from. I believe they publish the only newspaper in the entire region."

Niall was once again deep in thought. "And nothing of significance has ever come out from them?"

"Nothing, Sir," Milo said. "Frankly I'd assume it was a regular, peaceful little town if it weren't for the fact that it was in the middle of Kal."

"Do you recall the name, Sir?" Julien asked. "Tai?"

Niall shook his head, pushing himself off the desk and beginning to pace. "It probably is an alias, as with most Crow's, including Rue's..." he started, "the only thing that I can't figure out is why Tai."

"What do you mean?" Thea asked, not realizing that this was a thing. She assumed Rue just made up a fake name to protect himself, not that Crows in general did this. Did her brother have an alias that she didn't know about?

"Crows are given aliases as a means of hiding their identities," Niall explained, "the aliases are usually awarded to them after they succeed in training and become official members of their groups, almost like being knighted. And most importantly, the names are often old Elorian words that are relevant to their personalities."

Thea's eyes widened in interest. "What does Rue mean?"

"Rue translates to Autumn... and your most recent discoveries seem to make clear why that alias was picked for him."

Thea nodded, knowing that everyone was now reflecting on Rue's relatively happy upbringing that led him to want to be a pacifist, but was followed by death, death and more death... including the new information of his lover that she had just shared with everyone. Autumn... the beauty before the bleak, cold winter. Somehow, Rue fit that perfectly. "And Tai?"

Niall hesitated. "It means... cow."

Luana snorted. "Maybe he's fat."

"Knowing the significance of the alias would help figure out more about the individual, which may have helped to figure out who they are specifically," Niall said, ignoring Luana's comment. "Unfortunately that name gives me nothing, which means finding Tai and getting him to give us this letter that Rue told us about is more complicated."

Thea was thinking too. "Well, I guess I'll have to just go looking for him the traditional way... just going there and asking around."

Niall stopped pacing and looked at her, raising a brow. "You?"

Thea looked back at him. "Yes... I mentioned this. Rue specifically said he wanted me to be the one to go."

"Absolutely not," Niall said, firmly.

Thea gawked. "But–"

"You know very well what happened the last time you went to a Crow's Nest on your own."

Thea found herself frowning. "He didn't say to go alone! He said to take..." she began pouting a little, "Aaryan... with me."

From the corner of her eye, she saw the silent Aaryan raise his brows.

Niall hesitated, looking up at Aaryan before back at Thea.

"He said it's the safest option," she explained. "He said I need to go because of my relationship with Rue, and Aaryan needs to come with me because he used to be a Crow and he'll be able to navigate the Crow's Nest and other Crows better. Besides, the rest of you guys won't be entirely welcome."

"What about me," Luana frowned. "I'm an Elorian."

Thea shrugged. "I'm not sure... he just said me and Aaryan."

Niall crossed his arms. Though clearly not pleased, he was at least considering it now. "I suppose I would prefer that over you going alone, though it's still not ideal," he turned to Luana. "And I'd be concerned about you going since you are a State Soldier. If that fact is discovered then your life will be at risk. Aaryan, as a man, can at least more easily get away with calling himself a Crow, but that would be harder for you. I'm sure Rue thought of that too."

Luana let out an annoyed breath but didn't argue.

"I'll take care of her, Sir," Aaryan said, and though he obviously meant well, Thea still felt the urge to roll her eyes. "It's usually me you send to these kinds of intel missions anyways. I'd be most equipped to handle it."

Niall began pacing again, thinking. "That is true," he said, and after a moment, he stopped and turned to face his team. "Alright, I'll allow this so long as you enter Kal in the morning and you are out before the last train leaves the station that same day."

Thea scoffed. "We couldn't possibly find who we're looking for and get what we need in just a day!"

"Ilia is actually a rather small town," Milo said, his eyes on Thea. "It would certainly take some time if you try to find Tai without asking around, but assuming it's a highly guarded, tight knit nest, if you just ask someone, you'll probably get to Tai rather quickly."

"But the moment you ask someone about Tai, you will instantly be on their radar," Niall said. "The fact that you know the name of the leader will be worrisome enough for them to want to deal with you immediately."

"In that case, I think the safest option would be to have Thea and Aaryan mention from the beginning that they're in Kal because they're connected to Rue," Milo suggested. "Rue was the second in command to Tai, so I'm sure he'd be eager to find out more about what happened to him."

"Right. I agree, but whatever the case I'd feel much more comfortable about this if we plan every detail before you head out. Every. Single. Detail," he emphasized, suddenly looking stern. "I want to make sure that I know what is going on every step of the way and I want us to have a backup plan. I need to be sure that if anything goes wrong, we can come in there and safely remove you."

"I have some thoughts and ideas," Milo said, turning to look at Kaya. "Though we'd need to evaluate the resources we can have for the backup plan."

"Whatever you need is at your disposal," Kaya grinned. "So long as I know in advance, I'll make it work."

Milo nodded, looking back at the General. "Simply put, we send Thea and Aaryan in first to try and make contact with Tai and get this letter amicably. If they are threatened and are unable to make it to a predetermined checkpoint, maybe a specific train station stop, by a predetermined time, we go in and apply force."

The sudden seriousness made Thea officially realize how real this was... how close they were... and how she was in the exact center of all of it.

"Good, we're on the same page," Niall said. "We're going to need your detailed maps, Milo. How about I let all of you prepare everything and we'll proceed with meeting again in here in an hour to discuss the specifics?"

"Yes, Sir," Milo responded.

Niall looked up at the rest of the team. "I'll dismiss you all for now, take note of any thoughts, questions, concerns you have and we'll go over them together."

There was a collective chant of "yes, Sir," before everyone started making their way out. However, as Thea stood to join Milo in helping him prepare the maps and other notebooks that she knew he would need, Niall called her. "Thea, I will need you to stay back for a moment."

Thea hesitated, before taking a seat again.

Once everyone was gone, Niall took a seat in his chair and looked at her with an expression that made it clear that he wasn't messing around. He was speaking to her as her leader, not Niall. "You do understand that from the moment everyone returns and we start planning, everything goes by the book... right?"

"Of course."

"Whatever we plan, you stick to it to the tee. No diverting because of personal feelings are curiosities or concerns or anything of that sort. No doing things on your own."

"Yes."

"And what I say, goes. You follow my instructions as if they were scripture."

She nodded. "Yes. I understand."

"And when I am not there, you listen to Aaryan as if his words are scripture."

Now she hesitated.

"Theavi."

"Fine." She frowned. "Fine."

The expression on Niall's face made it clear that he didn't believe her.

"I promise," she said. "I'll listen to him."

Niall watched her for a moment, clearly trying to read her.

"Trust me, Niall," she said. "The way you trust Luana to do backflips."

That managed to make his lips curve up ever so slightly before he sighed. "Alright."

Thea smiled.

"One more thing," Niall continued. "Do you have the first manuscript?"

Thea hesitated. "What?"

"Rue's poems. You said you're splitting them into two separate volumes. Is the first one completely ready?"

Thea nodded quickly. "Yes," she said. "Yes it is... all typed out and ready."

"Bring it over when you return with the rest of the team. I'm going to send it off with Julian to have it published. Tonight."

Thea's heart jumped into her throat. "Tonight?"

"Yes," Niall said. "You're right. Rue doesn't deserve to be cooped up in a prison. And you're right about these poems... if getting these poems out there will bring any positive attention onto him, that will assist in our cause of getting him out."

Joy overwhelmed Thea as she nodded her head eagerly.

"Plus, we can't pretend that having Rue out of prison wouldn't be the perfect bargaining chip when dealing with whoever Tai is," Niall continued, honestly. "From a strategic standpoint, Rue is more useful to us out of prison."

She knew that to be true as well. "Whatever it takes to get him out," Thea responded.

Niall nodded. "I can't guarantee anything-"

"That's alright. As long as we try our best."

He watched her for a moment before nodding once more. "Right."

She felt her heart racing, a confidence rising in her. "We can do this."







Thea had never been a part of a meeting like this, a meeting to plan... what would she even call it? A trip? An excursion? A mission?

Whatever it was, the meeting to discuss it was fast paced, with words and ideas and thoughts and critiques being thrown around from everyone who joined in. It lasted hours and hours and hours, Ms. Railer writing down pages and pages of notes as the meeting went on.

And though she wished she could contribute more, she found that she really began to understand exactly what Niall had said to her that night up in the little mountain town Imanay.

Everyone had a role to play in this team... and everyone excelled in their role.

Milo seemed to shine in a way that Thea had never seen him shine before, explaining with ease train routes and plans and the histories and the backgrounds that everyone needed to know to understand everything as best as they could.

Kaya was able to list everything they would need for this, from weapons for Aaryan to a vehicle they could escape with in case anything went wrong, to an entire secret force that she could put together as backup if things went very wrong. And on that last note, Luana was easily able to identify the exact State Soldiers that could be trusted enough to call in to join said secret force if need be... she even picked out the best one to drive the getaway car too.

Julian had a strong ability to make sense of everything and fill in any gaps that were missed, tying up all the loose ends and questioning anything that seemed to be the slightest bit too risky.

And Aaryan played his role too. He knew more than Thea ever imagined he would... knowledge he apparently learned from most of the prisoners in the Screeching Crow. He was able to point out secret Crow checkpoints, list exactly what weapons any division that was anywhere near the route to Kal would have, and clearly explain how to navigate different kinds of Crows Nest. Thea was certainly impressed.

Finally, of course, there was Niall.

Niall did what he did best.

He listened.

He listened to everyone, chiming in whenever he needed to clear up anything, to give approval or to voice his opinion. Then, finally, when everything was on the table, he took all that was discussed, made the final call and drew up the final plan.

That final plan being that Thea and Aaryan would leave the day after tomorrow, after all the getaway cars and back up were stationed where they're meant to be stationed. They would catch the overnight train out of the Capital and towards Kal, with the plan of arriving there around ten in the morning the next day. There would be three checkpoints along the way where the two would be expected to call a number that Kaya would provide to prove that they were okay.

Once they arrived in the capital of Kal, Gayath, Aaryan was certain that they would be stopped and they'd be expected to show their ID cards. Aaryan would use his fake ID card that did not have the State Seal on it. Thea, on the other hand, would keep her State ID.

Everyone decided that using Thea's experience that led her to Danyo would be best, allowing her to pretend that she interviewed Rue, was disgruntled by how the State was handling things, and wanted to find Tai on behalf of Rue, reaching out to Aaryan, a Crow she met in Achlis, to show her the way.

They could not allow for anyone to know that Thea and Aaryan had been childhood friends, firstly to protect Aaryan's identity, secondly, to accentuate Thea's naivety. Similar to what had happened to Danyo, the Kal Crows needed to think that Thea was a naive girl who was spontaneously doing this because she thought she was doing the right thing.

If they found out she knew Aaryan for years, it would be easier for them to assume this was planned and coordinated... it would put them more on edge, even if they believed she meant well.

Her naivety, on the other hand, would make them assume she was harmless and foolish... to trust her enough to maybe take her to Tai.

Though Thea was embarrassed by this, the expectation was that the Crows would believe this, especially if she had her State ID and Rue's notebook as proof.

If everything went well, they would either be left alone to take a bus to Ilia, or, the Crows would take her directly to Tai. They would talk to Tai, get what they need, and then catch the last train out of Kal at 11:45pm.

But if anything went wrong, Aaryan had direct orders to do whatever it took to get them away to safety.

If things went well and they were taken to Tai, then that's when Thea's main would come in. It would be Thea's job to talk to the man, to convince him to trust her and then finally, to get him to give Thea the letter that Rue mentioned. It would also be her job to maintain contact with Tai, so once Naill was in a good enough position, ideally when Rivier was out of the way, they could reach out again so that Niall could do what he was planning to do from well before Thea ever started working for him... try and convince them to work with him.

They were almost there.

They were so close.