News of another conclave reach Lexa and trigger a wave of memories, starting with the moments just before being named Heda, when Luna decided to run.
"There has been a conclave, in Polis," Cara murmured, shocked, entering Lexa's room. "A conclave? What for?" Lexa asked, confused. Roan had assumed leadership of the Coalition. The Flame had been destroyed and Azgeda ruled the city. "No one knows. They found some precious place and fought over it, or at least, that's what I understood from a fight just outside the walls."
Lexa nodded and sat back down, looking down at the spot where her shirt concealed the healed gunshot wound. She felt the urge to go back to Polis and reclaim her throne, but she also finally felt at home again, with Cara and the others, in the same place she had been living before everything, before Anya, before Costia, and before the Conclave. "Who fought? Nightbloods?" she asked carefully, playing with a hunting knife. "A warrior for each kru. There was only one Nightblood, Luna kom Floukru."
"Do I know her?" Lexa tilted her head, the name tickling her ear with familiarity. "She was in your Conclave, Lexa. She ran away after killing her own brother, don't you remember? Cara elaborated. "Everyone was rooting for her, and she just lost it."
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"Luna!" Lexa howled at the top of her lungs while the curly-haired girl panicked, the head of another curly kid swinging down her spear. "Luna, put it down!" The girl turned around and, seeing Lexa, put down the spear, her eyes full of pain and fear.
"I killed him, Lexa! I killed my brother!" she cried, lulling the dead body on her arms. "And I killed Ashia. I stabbed Ko. I am a monster!"
"No, Luna, no, you are no monster. I killed Ko." Lexa moved towards Luna, slowly. "I killed Galen. I have as much blood on my hands as you. We are not monsters." Luna looked at her, confused. "You are not here to kill me? We are the only ones last. You must kill me, it's the rules."
"I don't have to kill you, if you kill me." Lexa did not recognize her own voice. "I don't want to die, but I don't want to kill you, either. I guess... there is no solution."
"Maybe there is one," Luna murmured, quickly putting her spear's end against her own throat. "If I kill myself, you win, and you don't kill me. And I see Apollo again. I get to say goodbye."
"What? No, Luna!" Lexa ran towards Luna, her eyes full of tears as the spear started piercing the skin. "Don't, Luna. PLEASE, STOP!" Lexa's sword cut Luna's spear in two, blocking her. Luna's eyes looked up at her, confused. "If I stay, I'll kill you. I am a monster, Lexa, nothing more!" she cried, trying to get back her spear, that Lexa had promptly taken. "Then leave. Go away," Lexa murmured, looking into her friend's eyes.
She could not kill her, not after Ko, and Galen, and the others. She would not have known how to go back to Costia after killing Luna too. Luna looked at her one last time, nodding, almost in trance, before turning and running away. It was done. Lexa had won the Conclave. She was Heda, and ready to go home.
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"Did she win?" she asked, memories flowing back in her mind. "She was an amazing fighter, if my not-so-amazing memory isn't playing games with me."
"She didn't, but she was in the final two," Cara said lightly. "You won't believe who won!" Lexa tilted her head, curious. "Who?"
"The Skairipa," Cara said, smiling again at Lexa's confused look. "Oh, right. You don't know. Okteivia kom Skaikru is now known by that name. Indra did an amazing job with her."
"Octavia is alive? And she won? Lexa asked, shocked. "Does that mean that..." Cara's smile turned into a grin. "Wanheda is alive, too. If that's what you were about to ask me." Lexa did not understand. "Wanheda who? What are you talking about?"
"Maybe someday you and I will owe nothing more to our people."
Lexa's hands reached her ears, trying to keep something away. "I don't remember! I don't remember!" she started screaming, tears filling up her eyes.
Carra ran and hugged her tightly. "Chilla, Leksa. Em ste alright," Carra murmured, pressing her lips against her hair like a loving mother would do. "The Flame was forcefully removed from you, and it will take time to heal all your brain's wounds, but it will be alright. Now sleep, Lexa, and don't be too hard on yourself. You'll remember everything, one day, I promise."
Lexa nodded, looking at her friend with a painful look, and closed her eyes, trying to sleep. Something was wrong. She was forgetting something really, really important to her, but she could not remember what.
The candles' scent was tickling her nose together with the room's heavy air. The blonde girl looked at her with hatred.
"Well, if you want the power of Wanheda, kill me. Take it. Otherwise, go float yourself, because I will never bow to you!" the girl grinned, and something in Lexa's heart cracked.
"Cara?" Lexa tried to call, but the red headed girl did not come. The only thing Lexa realized, before trying and getting back to sleep was how lonely she had been feeling since she had come back home. As lonely as she had only felt after Costia's death.
"If you betray me again..."
"I won't," Lexa heard her own voice rumble through the air just before she bowed down. "I swear fealty to you, Klark kom Skaikru. I vow to treat your needs as my own and your people as my people."
Lexa woke up in a sweat, her memory stretching like a child would. "Clarke..." she murmured, tasting the name's sweet, yet hard to remember, taste. "Cara, come, right nau!" she ordered, getting up.
The red-haired girl entered the tent, sleepy and confused. "Chit ste going ona, Leksa?" she asked, slowly.
"We have to go to Polis, now," Lexa announced, putting on the Heda clothes she had refused to wear for all of her stay at the village. "I have to find Clarke of the Sky People. Ai souda tel her ai laik alive."
Cara smiled and bowed slightly. "I'll saddle the horses, Heda." For the first time since her arrival, Lexa did not correct her.
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