Lightning Only Strikes Once - Clexa

Chapter 126: Take It On Faith

"So," Lexa says, watching her Natblida spar with each other. They glance over at her so regularly that they are doing poorly at it, but the grins on their faces at the sight of her are so relieved and proud that she cannot bring herself to reprimand them. That is also why she is here this morning, instead of still tucked away with her sleeping niron. "Report."

Cenn kom Sankru is a well-known drunken gossip, has lived in Polis since the beginning of the alliance, and happens to be the most effective spy Lexa has in the capital. "About the state of Polis?"

"No," Lexa says. "I have gotten enough reports on that, I think."

There were two riots during Lexa's time in the north, the first of which Aden was able to convince to lay down their weapons, the second of which ended in Indra's gona handling the matter in a more final way. Transitions of power are never easy, and the leader of the alliance changing is unprecedented, so this was not unexpected. From the reports, however, Lexa does believe that Aden had the capital well in hand by the time they were on their way back. She thinks that even if she had not survived, most of the alliance would have remained intact, if weakened. That is good to know.

"On the other matter," Lexa prompts him.

Cenn hesitates. "It changes by the day," he warns. "It is... developing, I suppose. Or they have begun to find more accurate information...?"

Lexa eyes him blandly, though she stores away his question for future reference. That even Cenn – who has reported to her personally for years now – should wonder if she and Clarke truly are deities... that is interesting. In a way, it is a report of its own. It tells her that these beliefs are spreading fast, and are very convincing.

"Anyway," Cenn continue, accepting that she is not going to tell him the truth of the matter. "They have realised – I mean, they have decided that you have power over life, Heda, just as Wanheda has power over death."

Lexa frowns. Those seem like two sides of the same thing, to her. "Explain."

"Well," Cenn says, eagerness growing visibly. "Wanheda need only speak a word and the world itself obeys. The Mountain falls. The ice cracks. The Azplana's castle collapses. She chooses when life ends."

"She sounds powerful indeed," Lexa says, a little dryly.

"Sha, she is," Cenn says, and there is a glow that is uncomfortably like worship in his face now. "But they know – they believe, moba, Heda – they believe you are more powerful still. Wanheda can tear their spirit from their body, but only you can choose where it goes, just as you returned your own spirit to its favoured home. You are Keryonheda, commander of the soul. You can bring them back to life, if you wish, but that would be to refuse the gift of spirits that Wanheda uses to court you. Since you do not wish to offend her by returning her gifts, you choose new homes for the spirits, sending them on to new children – if you wish."

"If I wish?" Lexa questions. "And when I do not wish?"

"When they are natrona, when they have failed you," Cenn continues earnestly, bowing again. "That is when you send them – elsewhere, Heda. They say you freeze the spirits in the northern ice if they have displeased you, or if they have truly angered you, you allow the spirits to burn with the body, never to return. They say you called Wanheda's people from the stars by sending our spirits to their newborn babes to tell them of us. They say she came because she was amazed by your powers, and that the spirits of her people who died when their world fell were her bonding gift to you, and the deaths of the Maunon were your bonding gift to her. They say when you are bonded, spirits will touch this world for a moment, and the sky will be lit by the memories of our lost ones."