Hi everyone!

Thank you so much for reading! Here's a nice, long chapter for this weekend! Don't forget to vote and comment to let me know your thoughts! 

Enjoy!

Love, Luckycharms <3

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Things were going well and for the most part, Thea was progressing remarkably. Most of the individuals that Thea was speaking to were finally opening up to her and that meant she was finally able to start working with Milo on putting certain things together.

Nothing that was particularly game changing came out of it though, aside from the possible location of one or two minor Crow hideouts that they figured out using clues from the words some of those men used. Milo certainly was a genius when it came to things like this. If one of those prisoners mentioned even a tiny detail that was recognizable by him, he could extract tons of information from that simple detail alone.

Despite the fact that Thea was certainly learning to trust General Killian much more, she still didn't feel up to telling him absolutely everything. Thankfully Milo, who knew pretty much everything she discussed with those prisoners, left it completely up to her what she chose was important enough to share with the General. "This is your project, after all," Milo had said to her. "And you know the Crows better than I do. You know what's most important to share."

What didn't make her happy, however, was that her work with Rue was still extremely slow. As she had promised, she did come to him every time she was at the State Prison and talk at him about how things were going.

Sometimes, she would even tell him about some of the things the others had told her, knowing that it wasn't like he was going to tell anyone else. Thea was the only other person he ever interacted with in that cold, dark and glum prison after all.

It was a good idea though, because though he would oftentimes be quiet and simply listen, other times he would voice his opinion. Sure, he would sound annoyed and irritated, but it would be his opinion nonetheless.

Sometimes he would tell her when he thought someone was lying. Other times he would agree or disagree with people's opinions.

Though the information was useless to the General, it was certainly a step forward, and Thea was willing to take anything, especially when Milo suggested that she pay close attention to what topics Rue found interesting seeing as it may give them clues as to who he really was.

This piece of advice from Milo was certainly worthwhile as soon, just by seeing what piqued his interest, Thea was really able to figure out that he may have felt some opposition to a certain faction of Crows... the Revolutionary Crows.

Thea knew the gist of things prior to working for the State, mostly thanks to her brother, but she found that she was learning a lot more details about the Crows and their divisions now that she was here.

She had always known that one of the reasons that Rhys was defeated and the Elorians lost the Civil War was because Rhys' force, the Elorian Revolutionary Armed Forces, or the Original Crows, became divided.

There was conflict among the ranks and they split into two, the second division being called the New Elorian Revolutionary Armed Forces, or the Revolutionary Crows. This was the group that her brother was a part of, a group that was scattered among Abureth and was led by a man that Thea was not quite fond of– Arten Orynan.

In Thea's eyes, and the eyes of many of those loyal to the Original Crows, whatever people thought of the General, Arten Orynan was the real reason they lost the Civil War, because he wanted more than what Rhys wanted. He wanted complete revolution. He wanted to take over the Aiverian State completely and make it an Elorian State and do to the AIverians what was done to them.

Rhys, on the other hand, just wanted freedom and equal rights for his people. He wanted justice, not more than they could bite off and chew.

But so many were angry and lusted for power and revenge and death at that time when stakes were high, so Arten Orynan had enough support to divide the Crows and cripple them at the same time by taking with him almost half of the Crows who once fought with Rhys.

Then, whatever happened with the General had happened.

And they lost the war.

Now, despite the loss, the Revolutionary Crows were now the second largest division, second only to the division that Rue was once part of. However, they were certainly the most powerful and most active division, seeing as no one really knew what was going on with the remnants of the Original Crows, and that reason being exactly why the General needed Thea to pester Rue.

Whatever the case, the effects of the split during the Civil War still remained. Both divisions were certainly considered large, but not large enough to pose a real threat to the State, and they probably never would because though there were two main groups, the groups themselves were fractured into hundreds of smaller factions of Crows scattered around the country. They were all practically useless on their own, all wanting different things as well. There was no unity.

It was why most Elorians who had a brain knew that the Elorian cause would go nowhere. Not with someone like Orynan heading such a large force... someone who refused to work with anyone who had different opinions from him.

And worst of all, Thea found that somehow his thoughts would seep into the minds of those he led... her brother included. The man was charismatic enough to brainwash even her brother, the smartest man she knew in this world, and those who were brainwashed never opposed him, despite the fact that he was the cause of the Elorian demise all those years ago.

And clearly, though Rue didn't know her brother, he felt the same way about those Revolutionary Crows.

She wondered what Rue would think if he found out that her own brother was one of them. Maybe he would decide then that he liked her even less than he already did.

Soon, it was September. The weather was getting colder, the trees were changing colors and, best of all, it was soon Thea's birthday.

Well, usually that would be the best part of September, but this year's September ninth felt a little lonely and a little stressful and maybe a little unhappy. Aside from the fact that her entire family was hours away from her, she felt that she had a lot of work that still needed to be done to get Rue to open up to her... and though she was beginning to enjoy her job, she found herself on high alert, putting a lot of time and effort into trying to avoid people at Achlis that she didn't want to talk to. People like the man from before, the man she knew now was named Phyl.

Any time she would leave the comfort of Milo's office or the General's office, her first thought would be to keep her head down to avoid her old classmates, and it was getting both exhausting and lonely, especially since she was spotting more and more of them as time went on. It shouldn't have surprised her, seeing as most graduates from the prestigious Aiverian National University would get jobs with the State, yet she cursed her luck nonetheless every time she saw one. It didn't matter if it was obvious that they didn't remember her or even look in her direction... she still felt an anxiety that made her assume all eyes were on her.

She soon figured if she didn't do something about this, she'd drive herself insane, and so the only solution she could think of was to keep herself busy. When she was working, she kept her mind on her work, when she was at the hostel, she would read or cook or clean, when she was with Luana and Milo, she kept her mind on how cute the two were, and when she was with the General, she would keep her mind pondering the details of the man. She found herself soon wanting to get to know him more, wondering more about his interesting, unexpected past, and thinking deeply on whether she could really trust him.

And though her constant thinking did help keep her mind off of her days in University... it was still quite exhausting and she still wanted things to be better.

So when it was Monday, her birthday, she left her room hoping she could make the best of the day. When she arrived on the bottom floor of the hostel, she walked right by the matron with a smile. "Good morning, Mrs. Karse."

The woman was standing behind a desk, flipping through papers. She looked up at Thea over her glasses, her green eyes looking rather stern, before looking back down at the papers. "Ah, Theavi. Good morning."

Though the Matron of the hostel often came off as cold, she was actually rather kind. In fact, when Thea fell 'sick' after she ran into the man from her university, Mrs. Karse came to check on her almost every day, even bringing her soup for lunch the day that Niall had come to visit her.

It surprised Thea, but she was grateful.

"Happy birthday, by the way," the woman said. "I hope you have yourself a good day."

Thea expected that the Matron would know it was her birthday, seeing as she knew nearly everything about the girls in the hostel, so she smiled. "Thank you," Thea said, "I hope so too." With that, Thea made her way to Achlis, walking rather quickly because it looked like it was going to rain and she didn't want to get soaked.

When she arrived at the gloomy building, she went up to her office with Milo first to see her two closest friends in the Capital. As always, Luana was there with Milo and the two greeted Thea with a loud and joyful "happy birthday!" After giving Thea a tight hug, they handed her a beautiful leather bound notebook that they had gotten her together. It was a wonderful gift that Thea adored.

Then the work day started for all of them. After Luana left, Thea headed out for a quick trip to the mailroom to help the very busy Milo by grabbing some of his mail. When she made her way back, she found herself running into Julian. "Good morning," Thea smiled.

"Thea," Julian smiled back. "Happy birthday."

She was surprised that he remembered. "Thank you!"

"Do you have any plans for the evening?" He asked, beginning to walk with her.

"Not really," Thea chuckled. "Just going to relax, probably."

"Well keep your evening free," he responded. "Luana is certainly the kind of person who would want to take you out to celebrate."

To that, Thea laughed as they reached Milo's office. She found it silly that she didn't think that through herself, of course Luana would do something like that. "You're right," she said, stopping in front of Milo's door. "I'll be sure to keep myself free... do you have a busy day today?"

"The usual," he responded. "I'm actually headed down to see the General now."

"Oh, right, I won't keep you long then, I'll see you later."

Julian gave her a nod. "Have a wonderful day."

Thea waved before walking back into Milo's office.

After making herself comfortable at her desk and getting ready to review her notes, she suddenly heard Milo gasp as he stood up quickly, startling Thea. "What's wrong?"

"I was supposed to hand my report to the General first thing this morning and forgot," he said, frantically gathering up the pages. "I was so consumed by today's work... there's so much to–"

"Here, give it to me," Thea said with a smile as she approached him. "I'll take it over to him since you're busy. You keep at it."

Milo was initially hesitant, but gave her a grateful smile after he looked down at the piles of newspapers in front of him. "Thank you, Thea."

"Not a problem," she grabbed the pages from him, put them neatly into a folder before leaving the office. Recently, she was happy to have any reason to go see the General seeing as she was growing more and more interested and intrigued with the man. And though she would never say it out loud, she couldn't deny that the consistent teasing from Luana and Milo about her thoughts on the General's eyelashes kept the man on her mind more often than she would have liked. Whether she trusted him or not, that didn't change the fact that he was handsome... in her opinion at least.

When she got to the General's office, Mrs. Railer gave Thea her usual friendly smile before sharing her wishes, "Happy Birthday, love!"

"Thank you!" Thea responded as she walked towards her desk. "I know Captain Brayne might have come in a few moments ago but is the General available? I have a report from Milo."

"Oh yes, walk right in, they're just having a casual conversation, nothing urgent."

"Oh," Thea nodded, always a little baffled by Mrs. Railer telling her to just walk right into the General's office. "Sure, okay. I'll be right back." She turned and headed for his room, knocking lightly on the door before pushing it open.

General Killian was sitting in his usual spot behind his desk, leaning back in his chair with one leg over the other. He looked rather tired, despite it being so early, but when his eyes fell on Thea he gave her a smile. "Good morning."

"Morning," she said as she walked in, smiling at Julian too, who was sitting on one of the chairs on the other side of the desk.

"How can I help you, Miss. Rhaanan?"

"Milo was a little swamped this morning so I thought I'd give him a hand and bring over his report."

"Swamped is he?" The General asked with a raised brow as Thea reached over the desk and handed him the folder. "Thank you," he said. "I hope he's not overworking himself too much."

"Milo always tends to push himself to do beyond what's expected of him," Julian said to Thea, "even if it means overworking."

"I can certainly see that," she said. "I'd be happy to help him out wherever I can though."

"Good," the General responded, his eyes already scanning through the report. "His work is essential, any help you can give him would be great... assuming it doesn't interfere with your own work, of course."

"Of course," Thea agreed.

She then waited a moment... undeniably waiting for the General to wish her, and felt a slight disappointment when he didn't, instead opting to keep his eyes down on the pages in front of him, his elbow on the arm of his chair and his hand over his mouth as he read. Trying not to be awkward though, she continued. "Well... I'll let you two get back to work."

The General nodded, looking up at her. "Thank you."

She kept her smile on her face, waiting another short moment for him to wish her. When he didn't, she took another breath and left, disappointed.

She was... yes... disappointed.

And as she said goodbye to Mrs. Railer and left the office, she immediately started to feel embarrassed. Why would she feel disappointed over the fact that the General forgot her birthday? He had way more important things to deal with than remembering her birthday.

Shaking her head, she forced herself to push the thought aside before returning to Milo.

The General did not fail to notice Julian's gaze while he spoke to Thea, so when he heard her say her goodbyes to Mrs. Railer, Niall met his aide-de-camp's eyes. "What on earth are you looking at, Julian?"

Julian raised a brow. "Sir, did you forget that it is her birthday today?"

Niall blinked a few times.

After a moment, he took a long, deep breath before flipping open his journal and seeing that he had in fact written down "Theavi's Birthday" in his not very neat handwriting.

It was usually part of his morning ritual to check his planner the moment he got in, seeing as everything was written down in there, from important meetings to all of his employee's birthdays. Conveniently, today was the one day that he had been distracted.

"Shit," he mumbled to himself before looking up at Julian. "You didn't think to mention it to me?" Niall asked before closing his eyes massaging his temples with his thumb and pointer.

"I didn't think you'd forget," Julian responded. "It's really not like you to forget."

That was true too, but the mounting pressure of everything going on was enough to consume him over the last couple days.

A little frustrated and annoyed, he stood up and walked to the door, opening it up and seeing Mrs. Railer in her usual seat. "Did you know it was her birthday?" Niall asked her.

She looked at him with surprise. "Why yes, Sir, I did."

He sighed. "And you didn't think to tell me as well?"

"It's not like you to forget, Sir," she said. "I didn't think I needed to remind you."

Niall heard Julian chuckle from behind him.

Niall responded by scowling a little, though he realized quickly that there was no point trying to blame others. "You're right," Niall said before sighing. "I think I'm losing my mind."

After finishing his meeting with Julian, he sent the man off before heading out to find Kaya and Luana. As expected, Luana was with Kaya, and to Niall's displeasure, the two of them were already discussing plans for a party. "You two knew it was her birthday?" He asked when he reached them.

Kaya, who hadn't had a chance to work much with Thea yet, though they had interacted quite a bit, chuckled. "Don't tell me you forgot?"

"You knew?"

"Of course I knew!" Kaya responded as Luana laughed.

Niall frowned before turning to Luana. "Well, I came to ask you to do what you normally do. Let's all go out for dinner or drinks or something," he said. "Arrange it for me, will you?"

"Sure thing," Luana said. "The weather isn't looking too good though so maybe somewhere close?"

She was right, it was pouring outside. "Sure," Niall said. "Wherever is fine, I'll cover the costs. But you arrange it because I need to leave Achlis for the time being, I'm heading to the Camp for my meeting with Aari. So I'll trust you to handle it."

Luana grinned. "Yes, Sir!" she gave him a lazy salute. "You know I love party planning."

"Good," Niall responded. "Keep me posted on what you decide."

Thea was more than a little thrilled when Luana came with the news that the General had offered to throw a party for her. Though he had yet to wish her, the thought was nice.

When they arrived at the prison, she was surprised to see that nearly all the prisoners she was interviewing that day seemed to recognize that she was wearing a nicer than usual outfit, a brand new green dress that Luana had helped her pick out, and that she looked happier than usual too. Some even guessed it was her birthday before she said it herself.

Despite the kind of men they were, most of their wishes were sincere and friendly and it filled her with a warmth that made her remember exactly what she wanted to do for these men.

She wanted to help them.

By the time it was Vetori's turn, she was already in a wonderful mood and greeted him with a big smile on her face. "A pretty smile to match a pretty dress?" He asked her as he sat down in front of her.

"Thank you, Veto," Thea was beaming. "I'm glad you like the dress."

"And the smile," he added. "You should smile like that more often."

She felt her cheeks warm a little. "I do smile like that... often."

"No you don't," he responded. "You're quite gloomy and always look nervous, you know?"

"Really?" She felt her cheeks heat up more. Though she certainly knew that she always seemed nervous, she hadn't intended on coming off as gloomy ever.

"Yeah," Vetori gave her a crooked smile. "But that's fine since you're a good person."

"You think so?" She smiled, a little embarrassed and surprised. "You don't think I'm a traitor since I'm an Elorian working for the State?"

"You say you're here because you want to help us Crows," he said. "And I believe you."

She chuckled. "Thank you, Vetori."

He continued to smile before he reached out and touched her hand. "Can I ask you for a favor? My hope is that it's a simple request..."

His touch surprised her. None of the prisoners ever touched her. But for some reason, she didn't feel odd about it, instead, she put her other hand over his. "Of course you can ask. I'll do my best to help."

He kept quiet for a moment before sighing. "My family," he started. "I want them to know that I'm here... and as okay as I can be."

Her eyes widened.

"They have no idea where I am, or whether or not I'm alive..." he said. "I know you aren't here to betray us, you've made that clear... yes, you work for the State, but it seems like you are still on our side. So I ask that you do this favor for me."

She was overwhelmed with worry for a moment, knowing quite well that technically this was certainly not something she could do. This was supposed to be confidential work, and speaking to the family of a prisoner would break that.

However, though she knew that, something inside her pushed her to want to help. How bad could it possibly be? All he wanted was for her to tell his family that he was okay. Would helping with that really be that bad?

After a moment, Thea looked up at him. "Can you give me some time to think about it?"

"Of course," he pulled his hand away and leaned back in his chair, smiling. "But I do trust that you'll be able to help."

Could she? Could she really help?

Her meeting with Vetori had left her feeling a little anxious and also confused as she wondered whether or not she could do what he asked of her. However, she tried to push that thought aside as she was still looking forward to seeing Rue. She knew now that she tended to come off as gloomy here and that the prisoners could clearly sense her nervousness, so she put on her best smile before the door to Rue's cell opened up.

When she walked into his cell, he looked at her with the same face he always looked at her with, however, today he spoke up first. "It's your birthday today."

Surprised that he remembered, especially since the General did not, she smiled widely. "It is!"

"Don't get too excited," he said. "You mentioned the last time I saw you that it would be your birthday when I see you next, that's all."

"Well, thanks for remembering anyways." She chuckled before sitting down on the floor in front of him, not too worried about the dress she was wearing. "The General is paying for dinner tonight on my behalf." She said, beginning her usual dose of conversation with the man. "It'll be with the whole team."

"Doesn't sound like a kindness the man would normally offer."

"Well you don't really know him," she said with a short laugh. Though, to be fair, she really didn't either. "He's actually rather kind... though, I'll be honest, he surprised me too."

"Hmm," Rue responded, sounding skeptical.

"Anyways, since it's my birthday and I'm in such a good mood, I decided I won't torture you with my talking for too long today."

To that, the corner of his lip curved up just a little.

"That being said, I do have one thing though."

He didn't respond, simply waiting for her to continue.

"Vetori..." she started. "He just asked me if I could reach out to his family for him to let them know he's okay."

Rue raised a brow.

"I wanted to know what you thought of that."

"I think nothing."

"Nothing at all?"

"Nothing," he said. "I don't know the man so I have no opinion on his requests."

"I guess that's fair."

As she pondered his response, she saw him watching her carefully. "But..." he suddenly continued. "You should be aware and cautious, seeing as your ability to be trusted is being evaluated just as much as you are evaluating everyone else."

Surprised by his words but knowing he was right, she nodded slowly. She had never really thought about it, but of course everyone was evaluating whether or not she could be trusted, the prisoners and her coworkers alike. It would be incredibly foolish if they weren't.

And though he hadn't exactly said much at all, his words had her thinking for quite some time as she reminded herself that whatever she decided, she had to be careful. "Well, thank you for the advice, Rue... but I'll leave it at that for today."

Rue looked at her for a moment before nodding.

"Have a good evening."

She didn't fail to notice the surprise on his face, probably because of how quickly their meeting today had gone. Then, he let out a quick breath through his nose. "You too."

Aari watched as the General leaned forward in his seat, resting his elbows on his knees and looking unusually anxious. He knew the General had a lot on his mind recently, seeing that the clock was ticking and the extra time that Rivier had given them to get Rue to talk was slowly running out. And of course, the news that Aari just shared with him certainly did not help.

However, Aari also knew the General to usually be someone who was well capable at hiding his anxieties.

But then again, there was the smoking. Smoking was the General's way of calming himself down, and the fact that the man smoked a lot really spoke volumes on his state of mind.

Maybe he wasn't that good at hiding his anxieties.

"This is certainly not good," the General said, looking up out of the window in Aari's office, watching as the rain poured hard. "If their words are to be trusted, then we've fallen another step behind that fool Orynan."

"My judgment is that we can trust them," Aari stated, referring to the Fei Province Crow prisoners that he had managed to get all the information he had just shared with the General from. It took a couple months but they cracked, giving him plenty of information not only on their own group, but also information on other extremist divisions of Crows like a strong and relatively worrisome group in Northern Danyo. Of course, the General's primary concern right now was Orynan. "Milo would probably be better at deducing their motives, but my understanding from the talks I've had with them is that they too are not fans of Orynan... they're just following the orders of their own superior, who is tied with the man... or at least, their superior is in line with Orynan's second in command."

The second in command.

That was the new information.

They hadn't know that Orynan had a second in command... they never imagined his ego would have allowed for that. But he did, and that was reason to worry.

"Our only upper hand against the bastard was the fact that he was completely incompetent," Niall said as he began to flick his lighter on and off, fidgeting. "Now... to find out there's a second in command who is pulling the strings?"

Aari nodded. "Another blind spot."

"And Orynan is incredibly narcissistic... how the person managed to convince him to let go of the reins..."

Aari had thought about that too. "Further shows how capable this person is," Aari finished for the General. "But Sir... don't you think it's possible that maybe this new second-in-command could be someone we could influence?"

The General was still flicking his lighter on and off. It was distracting, but Aari didn't say anything. "I find it unlikely. The Revolutionary Crows, especially those in Abureth, are extremely loyal to Orynan... because he's an extremist. Any action opposing their general ideologies is not permitted," the General looked at Aari. "You would know that best."

It was true.

Aari did know.

He was, afterall, an ex-Revolutionary Crow from Abureth.

And though Orynan was in fact his superior, Aari had never even met the man. He did however hear all the great things that the men had to say about him. It was only after Aari left and got to look at everything from an outsider's perspective that he realized how truly incompetent and unimpressive that man really was.

Orynan was a pathetic little rat that stood in the shadow of the exiled but worthy Rhys... and the man knew it, which was why he did everything he could to try to make himself look bigger... including all the wrong things.

Whoever this second-in-command was, the man certainly had his work cut out for him. But he was smart. He was smart to keep himself hidden, like a puppet master who pulls the strings of his puppet– the shows were best when you could not see them. When the puppet master has the skill to make himself so completely invisible, that the puppet itself seems to be alive.

"Is it possible that Thea is speaking to anyone in the prisons who may know anything?"

The General shook his head. "This seems like a relatively recent development and any Revolutionary Crow in prison that she is speaking to right now has been there for at least two years," he flicked his lighter back on but held it that way for a second. "But..."

Aari waited, his eyes on the lighter for a moment before he looked back at the General. He knew what he was going to say.

"That brother of hers," he continued. "He's a Crow. And he's from Abureth. I don't know where his allegiances are but it'd be safe to assume that he is a Revolutionary Crow."

"You think she could try to ask her brother for information?"

They were silent for a moment.

"I can't ask her to do that," The General finally said. "Not now, at least. Not when I still am not entirely sure about her."

"Has she mentioned anything to you about her brother?"

"No."

Aari frowned as he picked up the penny he always kept around. He always found himself fiddling with it when he was thinking and right now, he rolled it between his thumb and finger.

That wasn't entirely good. Though her brother's allegiances weren't really any of the General's concern seeing as it had nothing to do with their current plans, the General would never truly be able to trust Thea unless she told him the truth herself.

"We'll figure this out," the General then said before taking a deep breath and sighing loudly. "I'll think of something."

"Sir," Aari started. "Are you sure there isn't anything I can help you with? You seem... restless."

The General looked at him. "No," he said. "Unfortunately I have to figure these things out on my own. And though this new information is significant and something else to add to our mountain of work... right now my priority is Rue, and making sure Rivier doesn't get his way with him. I have the follow-up meeting coming up with all the Achlis superiors, including the President himself. My thought is... if we could get the President to agree with us, to believe that Rue is useful, then Rivier will no longer be a concern."

Aari let out a breath through his nose, beginning to understand more clearly the pressure his General was under. "Might I suggest taking Thea with you to that meeting?" he asked. "Having her share the progress she's making with them herself may help? She may be Elorian but she is a Graduate of A.N.U. so she's smart. And really seeing for themselves that it's an Elorian who is doing the work with Rue may help them believe that progress can be made. Who else could Rue trust if not an Elorian?"

"That is a good idea. But I'll be honest, I do feel like that might be putting a lot on her shoulders, and I'm not sure yet if that's something she can handle."

"I believe she's capable of handling the pressure."

"How are you sure?"

"I'm not..." Aari said, honestly. "But she was strong when we were children."

"Being strong as a child is different," Niall said, looking back in the direction of the window. "The high ranking men of the Aiverian State won't be kind to her."

"You seem... to be worrying about her more than you would others," Aari said. "Normally you'd be a little harder on us." Like throwing them straight into the lion's den, or grabbing them by the collar and shouting sense into them, as the General had done to Aari himself quite a few years ago.

"It's because she's handling a rather sensitive situation that is vital to our cause. We need Rue. The difference the knowledge he gives us could make... the difference he could make... it's substantial enough for me to feel the need to be careful. I don't have any alternatives to Rhaanan and if we lose her then we'll have to start all over again and we do not have the time to do that."

Aari nodded, understanding. So it wasn't because Thea was a girl. "Okay, but I still think you shouldn't be too easy on her," he said. "Especially if we want her working with us for the long run. She needs to understand how things really are."

"You're right. I suppose I am going too easy on her."

"She'll surprise you, I'm sure," he said, earnestly. "She used to surprise me a lot too."

Niall smiled at Aari before letting out a breath. "We're taking her out for dinner to celebrate her birthday. I know we discussed you staying low, but know that you are welcome to join us. You are a part of this team as well, afterall."

He raised his brows, taken aback by the invitation. He thought about it for a moment, considering the fact that he did want to come. It had been a while since they've all done anything together as a team and he really did want to see Thea again. It had been three months since she had started and though he managed to get glimpses of her in the halls of Achlis and heard about her often from Luana and Milo, it didn't really feel like enough.

He felt an odd sense of longing that he hadn't expected. Though he had spent years without seeing her, uncomfortable with her absence but satisfied with just her memory, the sudden reentry of her back into his life had made him realize, without wanting to, how much he had missed her.

However, he knew the General was only inviting him out of sympathy, probably knowing exactly how Aari felt. Knowing well that it upset him to know that they went behind his back to find her and that it hurt him to realize that though she had so often been on his mind, she had most certainly forgotten about him.

Of course, he couldn't blame her.

She probably thought he was dead.

Everyone back in Abureth probably thought he was dead.

And then there was the other issue... what would he even say to her when they met up again? He would have so much to explain and so much to apologize for. What if she was angry with him? How would he deal with that? Just the thought made him both nervous and even a little fearful.

Whatever the case, despite whatever it was he wanted or what it was that made him nervous, he also knew the staying away until the General was certain about her was for the best. It would be the best for the team and the cause, but also for her. "I appreciate the invitation, Sir... but I think it's for the best that I continue to stay away."

Niall nodded, looking appreciative. "You're doing good work."

"Thank you, Sir," he smiled, but then it faded. "Oh... I did want to ask a favor though." Aari set down his penny before he stood, walking over to where his coat was hanging. Sticking his hand into its deep pocket, he pulled out a long little box, wrapped rather poorly. He stared at it for a moment, second guessing himself before sighing and turning to face the General. "I got her a gift," he said. "I was going to drop by Achlis and give it to Luana to deliver it for me, but since you're here, I hope you don't mind giving it to Thea?"

"Of course," Niall said, taking it from him. "I'll make sure she knows it's from you."

Aari smiled. "Thank you, General."

Only a little longer, he thought to himself. Once he sorted everything out and figured out what he could say to her, the two would be able to rekindle their friendship again.

He'd just need a little more time.