4 - Masks of Pain and Healing
Roan was hurting, being shot hurt. Cracked Ribs hurt. Breathing hurt. But none of that mattered. The battle before him, that was important.
Over the last week, he had fought a demonic disembodied witch, stormed Polis with a handful of warriors, and nearly died more times than he wanted to count.
Pain meant that he was alive.
He wasn't moving fast. But this is where cunning and skill came into play.
Now in the war room within Skaikru's home he looked over the maps of this battle to come.
Polis was a mess, even taking it back had been a mess.
Roan winced as he sighed.
"King Roan... Still worried about what happened to the Nightblood boy who brought us the message?" The Floukru ambassador spoke.
"No my friend." Roan weighed his decision.
"Then what is it?" The ambassador Spoke.
"That boy's fate might be the fate of us all if we don't approach these foes well." Both individuals looked over at the picture the young Nightblood had painted of one of the many threats that Alie had left behind as her act of spite. The fact that it was housed behind a sheet of leaded glass spoke of the deadliness of the situation at hand.
Many of the Ambassadors of the Coalition had thought Clarke's warnings of a new threat before them was a myth until this picture had been seen by them all. That the the recounts of the Sankru warrior Caris when she had come across a rider on a horse that looked to have been boiled as he rode to warn other of this threat. The rider had made that image with his own blood as the flesh started to dissolve off of his bones. The recounting of what he had found had made those of Caris's group blood run cold. He gave his last breath and beyond to ensure that warning about this evil could be spread.
Now as Caris of Sankru looked over too at the drawing of the building that was on fire that she had brought in. Roan didn't envy the position the young warrior had been in when she had found the Nightblood or the fact that she had stayed with him and burned his body when he had finally succumbed. Even with the potion that Skaikru had given her to keep her from getting sick had been a small miracle. The blue ink compound that they had put in the young woman's body had been something that the ancient Skaikru had used during their early days in the sky before they invented blood forging. Thought she was more upset at the fact that they had to burn her clothes and scrub her down and her horse to ensure that the poisoned smoke didn't work its way into her flesh.
Over the last few weeks Roan had been somewhat impressed by Clarke's work at keeping the Coalition together. Even asking for his help on occasion when it came to dealing with various factions.
"King Roan..." Caris spoke as she looked over at the map as the reports started to come in. "... I hadn't known there were this many fires." Caris scratched at her body as she started to get used to her new clothes. Some of the Garments had come from trades with the nearby Trikru, but her blue and black shirt had been given to her by Wanheda herself just so that she could look formal in the current line of affairs.
"We are lucky to have found the Nine fires so far and the five buildings that are on the verge of burning have had teams dispatched to them to keep them from igniting." Roan spoke as a messenger came in with another set of dispatches. Messenger birds had arrived to their nests with the updates on the situation back in Polis and this poor lad and others had been riding back and forth from there to here until they could at least finish scrubbing the streets free of blood at fix the lift in the Council's tower. "What word do you bring?" Roan spoke to the young lad.
"Several messages from Floukru as well as from Azgeda." Roan moved to take the reports from the young man. Roan read through the reports. Smoke clouds had been seen from several villages in Azgeda as well as several Floukru ships had taken note of several of these strange buildings that had been on fire. Given that word had been sent around to the various Kru that these buildings should be found, but they were to say out of range of the smoke and flames due to their toxicity.
So far with Clarke's help, most of these structures had been found and identified. Considering that they were looking for only Thirteen of them, that meant that there was roughly one for each of the nations involved. So far the ones that were not burning had to be investigated and ensured that they didn't catch on fire. But it was a race against time to keep the smoke from spreading and the lands from being poisoned. This was when a young member of the Skaikru started to knock on the door. Looking up from the reports Roan saw that it was one of Clarke's friends, Jasper.
"Roan... Ontari is awake and she has a knife on Clarke's throat." The day was going well until now.
"Ontari." Roan groaned out as he started to walk out of the war room. "Take me to her." With that Jasper motioned for Roan to follow him. It was strange seeing how people had started to gather around the scene, but upon arriving Ontari was still holding the knife, but in a less threatening way. This was more defensive. Ontari had moved back into a crude crouching stance but Clarke had placed the young Nightblood on notice that her childish actions would not be tolerated.
"Wanheda..." Ontari swallowed. "...are you going to strike me for..." Clarke just placed a hand on Ontari's wrist that was holding the blade.
"Is that how Nia trained you? Pain for disobedience or failure?" Roan was watching this but stayed near as he let this play out.
"It was." There was a great weight placed upon Clarke's shoulders.
"Nightbloods are not beaten when they are trained." Ontari started to listen as whatever aggression Ontari tended to go to was now driving back to her curiosity.
"Then how are they trained?" Clarke was letting Ontari move the situation along. Ontari was a dangerous creature when cornered. The Golden Wolf was letting this wolf of the Ice Nation feel out the situation.
"They are not trained, they are mentored." Ontari was surprised by this. "Lexa and Titus did their best to guide along certain traits that would make for good leadership." Clarke looked at the blade. "Nia trained you as a fighter, but also as an observer. Something that caught notice of a poisoned blade, to strike when ready."
"She did." Ontari seemed to poking the dirt around Clarke like a wolf a manner that he was familiar with since his late whore of a mother dragged the girl into their court.
"Those are skills that will serve you well. Given the events that have taken place since your slumber we need your knowledge about what Nia possibly hid from Roan when she was Queen of the Ice Nation to help save your people. Alie left a few parting gifts behind before she was defeated."
"And I am damned if I am going to be losing any more of our people needlessly because of these events." Roan's heavy voice echoed throughout the hallways in chambers of Arkadia.
"Roan." Ontari turned to look at him. Her knife was still lifted, but in the situation she looked like a scared child. Clarke was staying still but was letting the girl calm down slowly and on terms that wouldn't get out of hand.
"Thanks for the blade Roan. It helped me and Ontari understand one another." Roan chuckled. Ontari looked at the knife in her hand.
"Clarke... It is the same knife I gave you to strike down Lexa." The statement caught Ontari by surprise. "Knowing you, you found another use for it to strike down another foe."
"Though it was able to help me find the truth behind why Lexa did what she did during the attack on Mount Weather." Ontari raised the blade up and swung it at Clarke. Then something happened, the blade came to a hard stop when it came to Clarke's throat. Ontari freaked as she struck several more times leaving no damage to Clarke.
"What magic is this?" Ontari was defensive.
"Ontari..." Clarke did her best to calm Ontari down but the young Nightblood moved backwards away from Clarke. "You have been lied to so much. Roan found a knife that makes one bring forth the truth while he was exiled. You have been lied to so much that you do not know lies from the truth. It won't allow you harm anyone when the truth is present." Clarke moved to take up the blade in Ontari's hand and with the young Nightblood still grabbing it Clarke spoke. "I am Pramheda Bekka." Then she cut herself. Blackish blood started to fall to the floor. "You need this more than I do." Ontari started to blink. Clarke had her blood flowing through her veins.
"What..." Ontari looked scared but as Clarke let girl who was holding the knife there was a clear nervousness to as she looked at the blade in her hand.
"You are girl who comes from a bloodline that has made many mistakes but has done much good to rebuild this world." Clarke spoke. "Your blood is in my veins as mine is yours."
"So I am still a member of the Hundred?" Ontari spoke sensing that she had gone through some test.
"You are." There was a deep sigh from Clarke. "Roan... So how have the meetings with the Lake People, Floukru and Delphi go?"
"The reports are still coming in about those burning buildings spewing out that poison smoke upon those lands. Floukru found another one. So far we have been able to evacuate several Azgeda villages from the path of the smoke from the burning structure on Azgeda lands."
"Why hasn't someone put out the fires to these burning structures?" Ontari sounded pissed. But Roan and Clarke looked at her with some sternness as she started to realize that, that specific option had been used already. "That option had been used, hasn't it?"
"Ontari... The main reason that we haven't put out these fires, is that what they are made out of is so poisonous that even at a distance, the smoke from these places melted the flesh off of the very riders and their steeds when they approached them."
"Alie's little going away present before she was defeated." Clarke spoke looking at Ontari. "It is a mess on a scale that no one was prepared for."
"Think buildings made from the wood of the Acid Trees, then imagine those buildings the size of nearly half of Polis. That is our foe." Roan spoke as he made his way through the gathered crowd. "Now realize that they are burning and they are poisoning the lands on which they are seated."
"We might as well as bring you up to speed on the situation at hand." Clarke spoke as she moved up help Ontari up. The Crutches Ontari was using looked more to keep her standing and stable than as a cane. With that the crowd moved out of the way to allow Ontari and Clarke to pass. These women were both wolves and they could be quite dangerous, but given that Ontari was a wolf that had been beaten into submission by his mother, Clarke seemed to be doing her best in easing and healing the wounds done the young Nightblood.
As Ontari walked down the halls to the War Room she started to sense the direness of the situation at hand.
"So where is my Flamekeeper?" Ontari spoke.
"On a mission to Alie's mansion with several warriors to find out what else she left behind as little surprises for us." Clarke spoke as they made a turn to where the offices were.
"Heda, King Roan. Ambassador." A member of the court guard spoke as they passed into the doorway of the small room.
Ontari looked around the room, she seemed to be not so much impressed by its décor, but considering that she was looking at all of the maps on the walls and tables spoke to the situation. This was a War Room. Along one wall there was a map of the entire continent that had been marked on and highlighted of the various borders of the various nations. She moved to look at the reports that had been pinned up next to the maps. Ontari seemed to be concerned as she started to look over them.
Poisoned crops, sickly animals, people dying and large sections of the map showing where these occurrences were taking place. The sections that covered Ice Nation territory made her worry. Then she saw the picture of a burning building.
"What is this?" Ontari tapped on the glass of the picture.
"The image of one of our foes." Roan spoke as he moved over to Ontari's side.
"This is a picture of one of the buildings you told me of?" Ontari looked at the crude image before her. "The ink to this thing looks like a child drew it."
"That isn't ink Ontari." Clarke spoke to the young Heda. "It is blood... Nightblood blood." This now got Ontari's full attention. "The young boy who drew that image died from the fumes and used his own blood to warn others not to approach."
"It is because of his actions we were able to save several villages of people in the path of that smoke." Roan spoke.
"How bad..." Ontari seemed to realize that while she had been hurt, much evil had taken place and had been fought in her absence. With a deep sigh Clarke and him decided to tell her everything they knew.
"It's bad. This is not a foe we can defeat; this is more of a great storm that is coming." Roan spoke as he pointed to the map.
Roan covered the parts of the damage to the lands that the toxic clouds had done so far. Clarke covered the levels of sickness that had taken many lives.
Some of the pictures that had been sent by messenger of those who had fallen to these clouds had made Ontari wretch her stomach. The images of the Nightblood that had died, had been the worse.
It didn't matter if it showed weakness, Ontari was only comforted by the presence of mind that she hadn't been the only one who had seen the contents spewed across the floor. A nearby mop and bucket say ready to clean up the mess before her. Given it was there and had been used often spoke that some of the few images she had seen, hadn't been the worse presented to those who had been within these walls.
Ontari sat down as she was slowly placed into a chair. A stern drink of wine helped calm the girl's nerves but it took a while after the level of awe and horror of the facts to set in.
Clarke was doing her best to not be aggressive, but given the crisis at hand Wanheda was leaning upon her trained skills of a healer and not as a warrior to guide Ontari through her shock.
"Ontari… We don't need your skills as a Heda. We need you because of your skills in the Azadea court that you heard while being by Nia's side." Clarke spoke looking at Ontari as someone who had now seen the horror of the crisis before them. "You heard things and saw things around you. Things that might help save your people." Clarke knelt before Ontari. "I was trained as a healer. There is a sickness spreading before this land with these storm clouds. The best we can do is slow it down until it burns itself out or weather the storm in the places where it might be the worst. Once that takes place and the crisis passes the healing can begin."
"So… All of those points on the map are places where this toxic smoke is covering the lands." Ontari started to realize that Clarke was doing her best to save the people including those of Azeda with all of her skill. The scale of the problem was now coming forth.
"It is…" Clarke looked at Ontari. "We have been gathering all of the facts that are available so that we can save as many as we can. Alliances have been made. Some blood fudes have ended because of this." This is when Clarke spoke. "Blood must now save Blood. Like Pramheda before you who came back to the ground to save those that the flames tried to destroy. You have the chance to walk in her steps to make this world someplace she would have been proud of."
"Ontari, you can make the decision to continue Nia's view of the world, or claim your birthright and be someone whose name stands for something more than blood and death." This hit a cord in Ontari. Ontari had been trained for battle. This battle needed to be fought to save those yet to be born.
"What do you need me to tell you?" Ontari spoke a little scared.
"Are there stories or reports of any places that survived the Great Burning within the Ice Nation?" Ontari paused as she closed her eyes and started to think hard.
"There was a large dam, forged in the ages before the great burn. It was said to have survived the great fires. Nia forbade me to speak of it. I do not know why. But it was said to have great power or strength to it."
"I have heard of this place, The Moses. A proud people live there. If it survived the flames, then it might be a place where we can move the Ice Nation displaced so that they might be safe against the oncoming storm." Roan spoke as he moved over to look at the map. "I will see what scouts can find out about this place."
"Do so Roan." Clarke spoke. "I will continue to work with the rest of the ambassadors and Ontari here to see if we can find other places that survived the Great Burn as well so we can start evacuating people to them." Ontari realized that in her way she had helped to save some of her people. This wasn't a battle that could be won with one's fists or a blade. This was a battle that one had to fight using their head and using it to head butt their opponent wasn't going to work. If Wanheda was going to teach this young girl to be a leader, then she was off to a good start.
Jasper walked over to Ontari and sat down next to her as she sat at one of the dining tables. She looked a little ragged. Murphy and Raven had taken several warriors and Arkers to search through the equipment and computers of the old mansion that Alie had used as her base of operations prior to Jaha freeing her. Ontari… If Lexa wanted this girl to be a member of the Hundred, then she was getting the Wilderness Skills crash course the hard way.
Ontari looked over and tried to glare. She looked drained from verbally fighting. This was a girl who was used to fighting foes with her fists. But how do you fight a force of nature that is coming to destroy you? She looked like she needed a break from the battle, even for a little while.
"So... You and Murphy and that other girl Emori?" Jasper spoke to her. Ontari changed her stance, when she realized the line of questioning that was heading her way. Jasper wasn't there to fight her; he was just there to listen.
"Emori?" Ontari looked at him realizing that he wasn't there to start a fight with her.
"Mutant girl, weird hand, tattoo across her." Ontari raised her hand when she made the connection to who Jasper was talking about.
"Yeah her…" Ontari seemed to be a bit worried. Maybe because he was talking about her relationship with her Flamekeeper. Grounder politics, Jasper got the feeling wasn't always fighting, they had codes they followed for themselves and seeing some of it in action here had given some insight to the Arkers of the Crap Clarke and Kane had dealt with. Whatever Murphy had done to get that spot seemed to almost made him more of a less of a jerk than he had been before. This role of Flamekeeper seemed to fit him well. Clarke wasn't yelling at him anymore.
"So... You said that you had sex with Murphy, so..." Jasper was using his best tact in trying to say. "are you into girls too or is it like... you go then she..." Jasper knew of version of Ontari from the City of light, but this version seemed to also know of their relationship... as friends.
"We shared Murphy... Not at the same time." Ontari opened up. Realizing that she was unsure how to proceed. "Though we did watch the other perform." Ontari did her best to come to terms with what had happened to her. Though sex being seen as a theatre event was something that caught Jasper's attention.
"So you haven't told the others about the friends you made in the City of Light?" Jasper spoke. "About us being friends?" Ontari seemed to calm down and worry.
"I didn't know you were Skaikru..." Ontari spoke.
"Nor I knew that you were Ice Nation." Jasper responded.
The pause lasted a while.
"This is strange... two people who find a truthful relationship in a city of lies, turn out to be from people who are blood enemies." Ontari spoke.
"So... We have gone Romeo and Juliet territory." Jasper spoke remembering his literature history.
"Romeo and Juliet?" Ontari spoke as this line of inquiry seemed to open her up.
"Two lovers from some ancient play. They were from rival clans."
"Like Skaikru and Azgeda." Jasper nodded.
"Yeah..." Ontari seemed to let her guard down "They fell in love, Romeo the boy courted the girl by speaking to her under her balcony, they planned to run off. The girl got caught, the boy planned to fake their deaths, so he takes a sleeping potion, drinks too much, she thinks he killed himself so she takes a dagger to kill herself, then when the boy wakes up, take the same dagger and kills himself with it because he lost her again."
"I don't know to be love struck or sad at this story." Ontari sighed.
"This side of you is more approachable." Ontari did her wolf head tilt thing that showed that she was liking you.
"I want respect." Ontari spoke as she started to realize that Jasper knew her only as Ontari, and not the Ontari of the Ice Nation.
"Respect is earned. You want it given to you, but that is not how it works." Ontari looked at Jasper.
"And your respect?"
"You already have, and you are my friend." This is when a girl with long brown hair and a very petite frame came walking over to the table.
"Hey Jasper." the girl spoke, Jasper had to turn around to see fully who it was.
"Karina?" Jasper called out to see the full wide grin on this girl's face.
"Yeah it is me... me and Survey team three just got back from doing that salvage run to what was left of one of the old Ark sections that went down in the Lake People's territory."
"How are you alive?" Jasper called out embracing his friend fearing that she had been carved up by the Grounders.
"Well for the past three months we have been pulling out stuff from where our station went down." Jasper stopped her.
"I mean how are you alive, I mean since things went crazy during the past election. The entire death order of any Arker caught off of our land when Pike went crazy?" This started to hit home.
"What do you mean Death Order?" Karina spoke worried.
"She doesn't know?" Ontari spoke up.
"And what is up with the Ice Nation girl?" Karina spoke looking at Ontari. This is when Jasper decided to bring Karina up to speed. The entire thing with Garden Station coming down in Ice Nation territory, them fighting for their lives. Pike losing his people from Garden Station due to an Ice Nation Bombing against the Arkers and Trikru. Pike getting elected as Chancellor, Him slaughtering three hundred Trikru solders sent to protect the Arkers, now called Skaikru from future attacks from any repercussion from the Ice Nation. Pike's attempted land grab land from a Trikru village. Throw in the entire Jaha City of Light Cult and its el nutso A.I. leader invading Arkada and Polis... Well the look on Karina's face spoke volumes.
"What other craziness took place?" Karina spoke as she laid down a mask she had been carrying. Now Ontari was slowly working at getting up.
"I am a member of the Warriors of the Hundred as ordered by Heda Leska and Wanheda Klark."
"Wanheda?" Karina spoke looking at Ontari.
"Clarke's new name slash title given to her via the Grounders." Jasper added.
"Lexa asked you join the Hundred?" Karina spoke to Ontari. The Arker acknowledging Ontari's status among the Delinquent's community.
"Not so much ask as in ordered me to become part of. I am a member of the Nalblada, but since Queen Nia denied me the right of joining the other Nalblada, Nightbleeders in their training when I was younger. Leska considered that I should be trained by the Warriors of the Hundred so that I would have the leadership and combat skills to perform the conclave and become the next Heda of the Coalition. I was to be given the position that was to be that of an ambassador to..." Ontari seemed to be conflicted on how to proceed as she shifted around. Jasper hoped she wouldn't go for her knife again when she became flustered. This is when Kane started to come by.
"It's alright Boudicca..." Jasper spoke as Kane turned to look at her.
"Boudicca?" Kane spoke as he turned to look at Ontari.
"Boudicca... it's alright... you were meant to be ambassador between us and the rest of the Grounder Community. Were there any other concessions that had to be made that you feel uncomfortable speaking about?" Karina spoke as Kane took a hard look at her.
"So... you are taking up the role Lexa did when she decided to learn about us after our first few disastrous encounters with each other? To see who we truly are without the effects of any miscreants who could have caused trouble for the rest of the peoples around us?" Kane seemed to be saying something in code to her, but Ontari nodded.
"To learn who you are." This is when she responded. "Can I speak to you about that? There are things I cannot because of my oath to Lexa." Kane nodded. What oath to Lexa... Lexa was dead... unless it had to do with that damn chip in her head and Lexa's memories rattling around her damaged brain tissue?
"What do you want to know?" Kane responded.
"Lexa's... Lexa... told me about the knife incident with you and Jaha." Ontari seemed to almost be fighting something. Ontari shook her head heard as she looked to Jasper as she was fighting for control. After a wince Ontari seemed to have regained control over her mind as Lexa seemed to settled into being a suggestive voice in the back of her mind.
"Is the chip chewing into you?" Jasper moved to touch her on the shoulder.
"The flame of the Commanders is..." Ontari was doing her best to search for the words.
"Flooding you with the information from Lexa's memories about the information she gathered." Ontari nodded to Jasper's response.
"Chip?" Karina spoke up worried.
"Lexa, Ontari, Luna, Boudicca and the rest of the Nightbloods are cyberized networked humans. Commander Lexa's one of them and Boudicca here is have a little argument with Lexa over what to do next." Jasper withheld some information to protect Ontari's sense of self.
"Wait, you mean she is accessing..." Karina started to realize what Ontari was.
"Lexa's database on Skaikru. Us..." Kane stated as he reached out and placed a hand on Ontari's shoulder.
"You are a noble person." Ontari spoke looking at Kane this is when she moved towards Karina. "Don't know you yet." This is when something caught Ontari's eye in a pile of salvage that had been brought in by Karina's group. Moving through the items she found a mask with a red face shield on it with a series of vent pumps on it that looked to some like bird wings.
"Bound's mask. Found it in the ruins of one of our station sections." Karina spoke as she came over to Ontari.
"Is this one of your war masks?" Ontari spoke starting to realize that she was attempting to figure out the Arker's culture.
"Not really. the helmet is used as part of our celebrations, mostly during our Unity Day festival. But it is a functional respirator helmet." Karina spoke as she reached for the helmet.
Jasper started to recognized the mask. The clear Reddish gold face shield that went to the rest of this costume/Mit-body formed spacesuit had been pulled out during most of the celebrations on the Ark. The petite girls who wore that costume had been trained in zero-g acrobatics and traditional acrobatics. But you had to be limber as hell to do some of the moves in that damn suit. Jasper had dreams of talking to the girl during the last festival and seeing how much clothing she was wearing underneath it. Mostly Bound had been sort of a figure that had cheered children up when she appeared during the festivals with her dancing and playing with the children. Mostly for Jasper the girl who had been her at the last festival had a seriously cute ass on her.
Seeing Ontari study and look at the mask and hear some of the tales. The Ice Nation girl seemed to be having some of the worry taken away.
"Could you please don the mask?" Ontari spoke handing the mask to Karina.
"Sure." Karina spoke as she took the mask the flipped the hatches on it and slipped it over her head. Ontari just watched as Karina went through the procedures to get it secured to her head.
"I cannot see your face?" Ontari spoke as she looked at the mask.
"It is a little hard to speak in this, but..." This is when Karina moved to one of the Gunners who had been watching the scene unfold and asked for the radio. Taking the radio and setting its channel to that of the mask she moved and handed the radio to Jasper.
"Jasper can you hear me?" Karina's voice came through the radio.
"Yeah I can hear you." Jasper spoke as Ontari realized that the Mask had a radio in it.
"It has one of your communication devices in it." Ontari moved to touch the side of the mask.
"It does. The suit that goes with this helmet was designed for different atmosphere work and prelaunch and decent proposes." Karina's voice came through the radio. "Most of the ornamental stuff such as the wings were added later as part of our festivals."
"The wings on the helmet are covering up other things, such as your ra-dio?" Ontari spoke as Karina nodded.
"So tell me about some of your masks and traditions? I mean could you tell me about your scars. I like the pattern on the right side of your face. They look very artistic, but the other two... The hook and the one that looks like a flame seem more crudely done." Karina saw Ontari reach up to her face and touch the markings. Jasper got the feeling that Ontari may have made a friend today that wasn't from the City of Light.
Roan watched from a distance as Ontari who under the guise of the name of Boudicca seemed to have befriended two members of Skaikru. Word had slowly gotten around that Ontari and the rest of the Nalblada had been made members of Wanheda's sect of warriors called the Hundred. But seeing the girl in the strange red faced mask talk to her, Ontari started to act more like the young woman that he had known in his youth prior to his exile. This was the girl whom he felt that he had to undo most of the damage done to by his mother. Ontari wasn't some trophy that needed to be displayed. This was a girl who had dreams of having a family. She didn't want to ever to be known as a Nalblada, she just wanted to return to her village and live her life in peace.
Roan had seen Ontari in his youth sticking a pillow under her nightgown when his mother had allowed her to start wearing clothes without her running off. She had dreams of having a rounded belly full of child and a proud man who made her happy. Made love to her when she was in the mood. Dreams of a young woman who just wanted to escape from the destiny that had been now thrown at her. But here among the Hundred, Ontari seemed to have regained some of her old self.
Given the events of what was happening, making Ontari disappear and letting another Nalblada take her place could be possible. The flame could be passed to another. Wanheda had learned the secrets of the Flame and could pass them on to the next Heda. The passing of the Flame could be done without all of the violence that his mother Nia had lusted for.
The length of the reign could be dictated by new terms. Years or a period of succession could be set up so that the Heda could pass their throne to a new leader when necessary.
Something in his mother's case would have been handy so that the Ice Nation wouldn't have to be fighting tooth and nail to secure protection of its citizens who had been driven from their lands by this monster/storm/plague of death that was now ravaging the lands.
Then Roan heard something that he hadn't heard in a long time.
Ontari laughing.
Not an evil laugh...
But a happy joyful laugh with no ill intent.
"Let me hear this straight... you and Jasper met over drinks, and he was attracted the markings on your face." This is when Ontari started to blush.
Maybe these events were a blessing in disguise. A chance to start anew. Maybe for them all.
Pramheda Bekka was definitely looking out for them.
Let me know what you think so far,
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