Upon reaching the room, he saw that there were five similar doors on the wall of the room. In the room there was a round table. By his quick estimations, there were about eight chairs. However, only three of these chairs were currently occupied.
He didn't recognize a grey haired old man sitting on one of the chairs, nor did he recognize a woman with jet black hair. However, he did recognize the third person. He had black hair and green eyes, with a very muscular figure. He had never met him before, but he recognized him from one the statues in the city.
It was one of the deputy leaders of Na'Ok Thu, Balam.
All three of them were looking at Kain with curiosity and slight hostility. Monara sat down on one of the chairs, before motioning him to sit at a chair to his right.
As Kain sat down, Balam spoke up, "Are you a spy from Ra'Ok?"
Taken aback, he replied, "Uh... No."
He waited for Balam to speak again but he didn't say a word. He did, however nod his head, causing everyone else in the room to let out a sigh of relief. He noticed that the people around him no longer showed any sort of hostility towards him. This made him even more confused.
The woman spoke up, "Well then, I guess you're a new recruit. What's your name?"
Kain asked, still confused, "Wait, a new recruit for what?" adding, "Oh, and I'm Kain Owen."
Balam nodded again, and seeing this the woman replied, "Well then Kain, welcome to the war wolves. We're a group that roots out the traitors in Na'Ok Thu. My name is Amura. I'm a merchant."
Kain was still extremely confused, 'Why the hell are they telling me all of this. Did they all start believing me because I just told them I wasn't a spy. Did I accidentally stumble upon a group of mentally ill people?'
The old man who had been silent until now suddenly spoke up, "My name is Manar. I'm a master waterbender. he chuckled, "I guess your first thought would be why we trust you enough to tell you all of this. Well, I'd assume that it'd be best for our, oh so great leader to tell you about it."
He turned his head to Balam. Balam curtly said, "I am Balam, deputy leader of Na'Ok Thu. I can tell lies apart from truth with waterbending."
Hearing this, Kain immediately became interested in what he had just heard, 'He seems to be a man of few words. Also, telling lies using waterbending? Is he somehow... tracking my heart beat using bloodbending?'
'Back on earth, it was known that both blood pressure and heart rate could increase when someone told a lie. But it's actually possible to check things like heart rate and blood pressure using bloodbending? Interesting...'
Balam once again spoke, "Who was the one that invited you?"
Kain replied, "I was sent here by Carron, uh... leader Balam. He said that if I wished to find out what was happening here I should come to this place."
Balam nodded, "Very good. Welcome to the war wolves." Leaving Kain a bit astonished, 'Wait, am I not supposed to get a choice? Then again, I guess that I know too much already. If I tried to back out now, I might find myself under the attack of at least two master waterbenders.'
He could only swallow any sort of displeasure he had, and besides, he had already made his choice back in that alleyway with Carron.
He started asking questions, "Well, what do you mean by rooting out traitors? Have you found any leads yet? Also, you mentioned Ra'Ok. He's a traitor too?"
Monara responded to him, "The war wolves used to be elite warriors. Now, we just investigate and try to root out as many traitors as we can find." His face fell, "But, we haven't really done a good job."
"What do you mean by that?" Kain questioned as his brows furrowed.
This time, Balam spoke up, "Ra'Ok is a traitor. We found out months ago." he paused for a few seconds before continuing, "However, he's made a pre-emptive strike. He's already convinced Kror that I'm the traitor"
Kain's eyes widened at the sudden bombshell of knowledge dropped at him, 'Ra'Ok convinced Kror that Balam's the traitor? How'd he even find out that Balam was plotting to expose him? Unless... there's a traitor in this group as well? Regardless, with two people against one, Balam wouldn't be able to make any moves of his own without getting stopped at each turn. And the leader, Kror had become an ally of the actual traitor.'
As he delved deeper into the rabbit hole that was the fall of Na'Ok Thu, he felt hopeless. How was he supposed to change anything about Na'Ok Thu's fate if everything seems to be rigged against the city itself?
He watched from the side, indulged in his own thoughts as the others talked about progress made on their side concerning the traitors. It seemed that Amura also worked as a sort of information broker, buying information from the earth nation, which they had gotten from fire nation traitors.
He was not surprised by the idea of fire nation traitors. While the fire nation was in a war against all other nations, there were many soldiers that didn't want to fight in a war at all. These soldiers were mostly non-benders, who would be able to easily disappear without garnering much suspicion.
He imagined that these non-benders would trade away the information they had for earth kingdom coins, one day randomly disappearing into the earth kingdom, where no one would be able to find them. After all, why would the great fire nation care about just a few non-bender soldiers.
Maybe even some higher up fire bender soldiers decided to flee, trading with their even more valuable information.
After Amura had finished reporting, Balam stood up, with everyone turning to look at him, "We have made heavy progress these few weeks. I again, thank you all for your efforts. We will win this war."
As he finished speaking, everyone stood up from their seats, walking away towards the many various doors. The doors seemed to be exactly the same as the ones he had gone to. Therefore, he assumed that these might also be secret hallways that lead to other trapdoors around the city.
The only people left in the room were Balam and Kain. Balam asked him, "Kain was it? You were invited by Carron to the war wolves correct?" Kain nodded his head to both of these questions, preferring to stay quiet.
Balam continued, "You are willing to fight for our side and help the people of Na'Ok Thu?"
Kain hesitated, before speaking a single word, "Yes."
Balam nodded, "Good. You are speaking the truth." He walked over to Kain, "I've never seen you in Na'Ok Thu before. You must a new soldier. You don't have much use for me."
He put a hand on Kain's shoulder, "However, every part of a machine has a use, no matter how useless they seem."
'Did this guy just call me useless?' Kain felt a bit insulted, 'Then again, I guess I'd just be another random waterbender in his eyes.'
He replied, "Well then great leader, what use am I to you?"
Balam looked down at him, his face stern and serious. Balam was at least two heads taller than Kain. When he looked at his face again, he recalled that not once in the entire meeting had Balam ever changed his facial expression. He had always had that serious look.
He answered, "A spy. You will join Ra'Ok's personal guards as a spy. He won't suspect a random new soldier to be one of us. But first you'll need to be skilled enough as a waterbender for him to actually hire you."
He turned around, "You will be training with Manar, until you attract Ra'Ok's attention. You will train with him at the fifth practice ground every day. Act like you don't know him when you first meet him. Don't disappoint me."
He left, using the door behind him. Kain was left there perplexed.
'Isn't this a bit sudden? Am I just supposed to do this for free? I guess I'd be getting waterbending training as payment. Hopefully I at least get some money for doing this.'
'Then again, this could have gone way worse...'