Since Day One

Part 33. Bitter Harvest

The next morning I awoke in Polis, the same room I was held in a few days prior.

I decided to go with Indra to make sure her recovery was fast.

Lexa came in with a tray of food. Usually the guards would do it herself.

"I hope your hungry." She said as she left the tray on my room.

As I stood on the balcony I could still feel her presence.

"What do you want?" I asked wanting her to leave.

"Sit, and I'll tell you." Lexa suggested, a hint of happiness in her voice.

"You either tell me now or you leave." I told her .

"The commanders, they warned me last night. Showed me their deaths, I felt it all." Lexa explained. I never neared the flame, but I knew exactly how it worked, that's exactly why I never wanted to take it myself.

I turned to look at her, she was sitting on my bed, seemingly troubled.

"They're warning you, they don't agree with your stupid decisions."  I cleared up.

"They're not stupid, they bring peace." Lexa defended.

"I'm not doing this again, you told me what you had to say now leave." I told her.

"I didn't mean what I said last night." Lexa started.

I took the tray off the bed and walked up to her, "I'm not hungry."

She took the tray and seemed disappointed as she left.

———————————

A few hours later I decided to see what had changed, I hadn't seen or heard from Clarke or Indra.

As I made it to Lexa's bedroom I opened the doors.

"What's happening? Why aren't you in your throne room?" I asked.

"Emerson is being held in there." She answered .

"Emerson is here." I said shocked.

"I thought all the Mountain men were dead." I began.

"One left, and he's here now."  Lexa explained.

"Wow you really are full of bad decisions lately aren't you." I scoffed.

"Keep your opinions to yourself." Lexa ordered.

"Everyone may see you as the brave commander, worship you, but I see right through you. You know what I see, I see the same scared little girl who isolated herself from everyone since her mother died. I see a girl who's trying to make up for the bad things she did but instead, she takes it out on her sister who's only trying to help her." I said as I slowly took a step closer to her, and then another, and so on.

"Well then your wrong." She said as she stood before me, "A ceremony that will decide Emerson's fate will be held tonight."

"And what makes you think I'll go?" I asked.

"Because it's not invitation, it's an order." Lexa said coldly.

As we stood eye to eye, I couldn't even recognize my sister anymore, the few months we'd spent reunited, she'd gone back to the cold person I'd met a few months earlier.

"I don't take orders from you."

"Yes you do." She answered as she left.
When she closed the door behind her I heard a click.

I ran over to the door to try and open it but it didn't budge, and I was in the highest floor of the entire tower. The little bitch locked me in.
——————————-
About an hour later 4 guards came to my door.

They surrounded me as they began walking towards the throne room.

I took my elbow in jabbed into the man standing right behind me on my left. He grunted in pain letting the others know what I was doing so I kicked one of the guards in front of me and took his sword. I cut one of the guards leg leaving him weak on the floor and jabbed the handle of the sword into the other guards head leaving him knocked out.

Now it was just me and one more. He aimed the sword at my throat but I managed to back up and kick his legs. He fell on the ground and I kicked him one last time to make sure he'd stay down.

In a few seconds I'd manage to get them all on the floor and escape. As I ran towards the elevator I didn't stop until I saw Lexa and a dozen people behind her.

I assumed it had to be ambassadors and guards who were here for the ceremony.

"Glad you could make it." Lexa said sarcastically as she signaled me inside. I went inside and saw Emerson bleeding while tied up to some pole I stood next to Clarke as everyone took their places.

"Oso hit choda op guan op.(we come together tonight)" Lexa began from her throne, "Flem koma cofe nowe(as we have countless times before)hatch na op, hef wanon (to watch a man die). Wanheda." Lexa gave her blade to a guard to give to Clarke.

"Vengeance is yours." Lexa said to her.

Clarke stepped forward and refused the knife. "No."

"I don't know if your death will bring me peace. I just know I don't deserve it." Clarke continued.

"This man must die. If Skaikru will not take his life, then Heda will." Titus intervened.

"Heda will speak for herself. Enough Titus." Lexa ordered.

"What The hell is this?" Emerson said seemingly mad.

"I wouldn't be killing you for what you've done. I'd be killing you for what I've done. I give this man his life." Clarke announced. "Jus drein no jus daun."

Emerson screamed.

"Hush op!(silence)" Lexa ordered. "The crimes of one man cannot be answered by one man. Wanheda knows this. Her actions show us a promise for our new future. A world in which violence does not always answer violence. A world in which our children can flourish without the shadow of death. This prisoner is banished from my land. He will live but he will live with the ghosts of those he has lost, haunted until the end of his days by the knowledge that he is the last of his kind."

I understood Lexa's wishes and I really wished that what she was trying to do was able to become a reality, but it was only a dream.
A dream that would take her life, and until she realized that, I need to show her the real world that she lives in. It's the only way to save her life.