The Little Crow

Chapter Fifty - [The Articles]

As Niall read the letter that contained the deranged scratches of Rivier, a man who had clearly lost his senses, he could not help but be disgusted with the box that sat on the desk of his home office. Sure, it was simply hair... but really, it wasn't. It was hair that came off the head of a girl that Rivier had killed... his own daughter at that. And for what? For loving a man? Certainly, she did love Rue, at least that is what Niall could tell from the few letters he was able to skim through in that short period of time.

She loved him and was killed for it. And she would have been dead for years now, with the rest of her body buried deep within the ground somewhere far from here.

Probably somewhere she didn't even want to be.

The poor girl.

However, despite the intense emotion he felt at the sight of that box, he could not even pretend to be unmoved by Thea's proclamation that Tai was, in fact, a woman. Frankly, everyone in the room, the entire team, was stunned.

"Though I can't deny that it did in fact feel like she was the one calling the shots, it's hard to even imagine a woman leading them," Aaryan said.

Luana, who seemed to have been beaming at the revelation, began to frown. "Why, you think a woman can't lead the Crows?"

"It's not about what I think," Aaryan responded, frowning. "Let's not forget that the Crows are comprised of mostly young boys who strongly believe in the patriarchal culture of Aiveria despite fighting for Eloria."

"He's right about that, Luana," Milo said. "Some of these Crows are not much different from university fraternities. Remember the Danyo Crows?"

As Luana mumbled something about boys being stupid, making Kaya snort, Niall looked at Thea. She seemed to be falling in and out of deep thoughts since she had returned and Niall was more than a little curious as to what was playing out in her mind. "That's true, but I'm absolutely convinced. Even thinking back to my conversation with Rue... he told me that Tai was the person who he gave this box to... and remember what the woman said?" Thea looked at Aaryan. "She said that she had not touched the box since Rue gave it to her. Unless Rue misspoke, and Rue rarely ever does that, this should be proof enough that she is Tai."

Niall nodded, seeing the validity in that as Aaryan let out a breath.

"Plus, you're considering what you know of Orynan's Crows... the Revolutionary Crows," Thea continued. "These are the remnants of the Original Crows, remember? Rhys's Crows."

Milo nodded at this too. "That's a good point," he agreed. "Rhys is known to have allowed women into his ranks. He even had an elite force composed primarily of women. The Ravens."

Niall let out a breath. He had practically forgotten about the existence of the Ravens. "The Revolutionary Armed Volunteers of the Elorian Nation," Niall said. They were a small group of mostly women who were both extremely effective and extremely deadly. One of the main reasons for their success was because everyone underestimated them.

"Wasn't their leader very close with Rhys?" Milo asked.

"Sayira," Julian answered. "Yes, she was. But she died in that final battle where Rhys surrendered and her body was disposed of by the State. The Ravens are said to have completely disbanded after that."

Milo frowned. "So Tai is not Sayira."

Kaya was shaking her head. "Though it is possible that she may have originally been a part of the Ravens," she said. "Yes they disbanded but it's not hard to think that some stuck around."

Niall sighed. "Though I understand that the thought of Tai being a woman has certainly captured our attention, we must push that aside and continue to move forward," he said, returning the attention of his team back to him. "It is frustrating to think that whoever Tia is, they have managed to take the control we had of the situation away from us. They have attempted to outsmart us." He saw the frowns on his teams faces, and though he was extremely frustrated with the threats that were made and the organization's decision to want the upper hand, he knew that this could not be his focus right now. "But my belief is that the only way for us to get ahead of them again is to get Rue out. To use him as our bargaining chip."