Here it is, the story is almost finished, two or three more chapters I think, not more. I hope you still like it :)
Clarke and Lexa were now in their room. Neither of them could find sleep. Clarke had taken refuge in the arms of his companion, the neck delicately put on his chest. In other circumstances, this position could have led them to more carnal desires, but this evening, they just wanted to enjoy each other. To feel their heat, their breath, their heartbeat, it was all that they wished.
Because the next day was a day that brought them closer to the end, to the end of everything. And that thought was not a happy one for either of them.
And so, in this same position, they spent the rest of the night.
At first light the next morning, Philemon was in the great hall of the castle. He was busy finding candidates for their duel with Lexa. Nearly two hundred people were present.
Sitting in a leather chair in the center of the room, Philemon was trying to look like a future king. He was not yet a king because of the challenge and the fact that it was putting a stop to his rise to power, but he already saw himself as the head of Isarian.
Next to him was Alexander, who was trying to play the game as best he could. There was a lot of noise, a lot of support for Lexa in the room. For many understood Lexa's choices. Loving was not something one could choose and the prospect of a permanent peace was very appealing to some.
So they had come, in order to gauge the future adversaries their queen would face.
But many of them were also there to be candidates, it was an opportunity to prove their worth to Isarian, no matter if the fight was lost or not.
It is thus in an electric and lively atmosphere that the meeting began so that the candidates could make themselves known.
Philemon got up from the chair and ordered everyone to be quiet. Then he asked the candidates who had volunteered for the challenge to make themselves known.
At first, no one dared to volunteer. But Philemon assured them that each volunteer would be given a sum of money, which would increase as the challenge progressed.
Baited by the lure of gain, some voices began to make themselves known. First it was one hand that rose, then two, three, and soon the number of candidates was already up to 20 people.
The more the number increased, the more Alexander was worried, worried for Lexa, but also worried for his sister, because he knew that this time she would not get up if she lost her wife a second time. He was helpless in the face of the candidates' rise to power. He didn't know what to do to help the young women.
The only thing he could do was to write down and remember everything he could about the future candidates to share with Lexa.
But it was the last candidate that left everyone stunned, both in the audience and for Alexander.
Indeed, Philemon put himself forward as a candidate to be the last of the fighters, to the great astonishment of everyone. It was the first time that such a thing had happened.
Even though he had taught Lexa to fight, he should have found a candidate for the final duel. Nominating himself meant that he had great confidence in his victory and that did not bode well for the young woman.
If Clarke knew all of Lexa's moves perfectly, Philemon was the one who had taught her everything, so he knew them perfectly too.
The session to find the volunteers lasted almost an hour. In total, 24 candidates had to fight against Lexa. And if some of them were more attracted by the lure of gain than anything else and did not know how to fight at all, some of them were real seasoned warriors and will surely give the young queen a hard time.
In any case, each one of them will fulfill their role of exhausting Lexa so that when Philemon's turn comes, he will only have to finish her off.
Once the session was over, Philemon ordered Alexander to take the candidates to a safe place. Indeed, Lexa's supporters should not be able to eliminate some of them in order to help their queen. They had to be constantly escorted until the duel began.
Alexander then took them to a special wing of the castle. There was a huge room with everything they needed to provide for themselves. There were three huge tables where they could eat. The place itself was quite spartan, and there were no windows that would have allowed daylight to penetrate inside.
He ordered that as many beds as there were candidates be set up. The room was large enough to allow this. And it also gave access through a large wooden door to another smaller room that would serve as a training area. And it was in their interest to train hard.
When Alexander had finished showing the candidates around, he ordered that guards should watch the comings and goings and that no one should approach the place where everyone was.
Then he took leave and left discreetly in direction of the private quarters of the queen. Arrived in front of their door, he took care to look to the right and to the left to verify that he had not been followed then knocked discreetly. It is Clarke who opened the door to him. And when she saw the dark look that her brother had taken, she knew immediately that what he had just announced was not good at all.
She made him go inside and asked him instantly what was wrong.
- Is it so bad that that? Clarke asked worried.
Alexander didn't answer, he didn't want to answer, he knew that the news he had just announced was going to destroy his sister and he was sorry for it, because he wouldn't know how to manage his sorrow as he would like.
In front of the silence of his brother, this time she asked him again more violently, she pushed him with her hands by asking him to tell her. Implicitly, she was asking him how his wife was going to die...
- Go ahead, speak !
Lexa tried to calm down Clarke by putting her hand on his shoulder, but this one didn't want to hear anything.
This time Clarke grabbed her brother by the collar and ordered him to speak.
And while she was shaking him to make him speak, he finally dropped the bomb she was waiting for.
- Twenty-four! he finally shouted
- There will be twenty-four candidates! Finishes he by confessing by lowering the eyes, not being able to support the glance of his sister.
Clarke let go of him, she was downcast, how so many candidates could volunteer she wondered.
And as if he had read in the head of his sister he affirmed to her that at the beginning people didn't dare to speak against Lexa, but that Philémon offered money to all those who would carry themselves candidates. And it is only then that the candidates jostled to be part of the adventure...
Lexa, who was trying to be strong to not let her worry show to Clarke, was nevertheless unable to help being worried. Twenty-four candidates it was not nothing, it was even an important number and she had never had to overcome so many people in so little time.
But she had just found Clarke, and his love for her motivated her, it motivated her so that they could find each other fully and she hoped that it was enough to give her strength.
Seeing that her brother's gaze did not waver, Clarke asked Alexander what was wrong.
- That... that's not the only bad news Clarke... there's something else...
- The last candidate... it's... it's Philemon himself, he would be the twenty-fifth candidate.
- He's the one who will want to end Lexa's life...
Clarke wanted to end it immediately and go to kill Philemon, and no matter the consequences, he had to die.
But she was held back by Lexa and her brother. They made her understand that it wasn't worth it, that she had to beat him by the rules and that Lexa would win.
- Defeat? They will be twenty-four before him whose only goal will be to exhaust Lexa, how can you say that she has a chance to win ?! shouted Clarke
- It's nice for me, we see your confidence in my abilities! tried to joke Lexa to relax the atmosphere.
- It is not what I wanted to say ! affirmed Clarke by taking her in his arms and depositing her a kiss on the forehead, but nevertheless the worried face.
- Listen, I think I'll leave you two. I'll go back to Philemon and try to know more about the way he wants to proceed, to see if I can't glean some information that could be useful to you.
Then he left just as discreetly as he had come, leaving the two women alone.
- Listen Clarke, I know we're not leaving with the best chances, but we're leaving with an advantage that Philemon will never be able to contest.
- What is it?" asked the young woman doubtfully.
- WE Clarke! Let us make of our love a force, we have two days of training left, let us use this time and let us train, teach me the techniques that I knew before and that I forgot.
- I t... I mean, if we have come to this point today, it's clearly not for everything to stop overnight. I have so many things to catch up with you that I will never let him win, you hear me, never, I promise you Clarke !
On these last words, she approached the Zenarian to take her in her arms and to tighten it very extremely. She felt tears running on her shoulder then she moved back slightly, wiped with a backhand of the hand those and posed once again her forehead against his.
She felt the young woman's body tremble and her breathing become imperfect. Sensing that the young woman was losing her footing and losing hope, she whispered something in her ear that made the young woman immediately react and flinch.
- I... I love you Clarke and I will never leave you again, death itself cannot separate me from you. Lexa whispered in her ear.
Although not reassured by her words, the words Lexa had spoken sent a shiver down the young woman's spine. Even without her memory, Lexa had known how to find the heart of the young woman. It was as if time and space itself could never truly separate them. They loved each other, and soon the world would have proof that the strength of their love could overcome death itself.
After long minutes of holding each other, they wanted to get back on the path to practice, but just as they were about to leave a faint sound against the door was heard. They slowly approached, weapons in hand and ready to fight. But when they opened the door, Rose and Léonie were standing behind them with Nayak, who at the sight of his mistresses jumped on them to give them a monumental party making them almost fall over.
After the surprise, they hurriedly brought the two young women inside. Rose and Léonie had made sure that no one had followed them. In fact, they had only had to follow Nayak who knew the place perfectly and who, sensing the danger, had gone through a secret passage that he often used with Lexa when she had to sneak out of the castle to join Clarke without anyone noticing her absence.
Rose and Léonie explained the situation to Clarke and Lexa, that they had fled to protect Nayak, whom Philémon wanted to have killed by Alexandre. Nayak should not go out of the house until everything settles down and Lexa wins her challenge. If not, they promised to take care of him. After Nayak had calmed down well from having made the party to the two women. Lexa went behind his bed and opened a trap door that was hidden behind a carpet on the floor. She explained to Rose and Leonie that it was a secret passage that led to the forest and that it would allow them to get Nayak out. But because of their relationship with her, they would have to stay hidden.
For Philemon knew that Rose and Leonie had been saved by Clarke and Lexa and therefore owed them a debt. Not knowing if Philemon would have them arrested or worse, Lexa asked them to stay here. They would be safe here until the duel.
Clarke, on the other hand, looked at Lexa with incomprehension. There was a tunnel, a secret passage they could have escaped through, and yet Lexa hadn't used it. She had not escaped, she had chosen voluntarily to stay here, putting her life in danger.
Clarke asked the two women to leave them alone, that she wanted to talk to Lexa alone.
So they went through the hidden tunnel behind Lexa's bed and left them alone.
No sooner had they left than Clarke turned to Lexa, glowering. For the first time since she knew Clarke, the queen saw the disappointment through Clarke's eyes and it literally broke her heart, she never thought she would feel such an emotion one day. And the sorrow invaded all her being at that moment, she felt sorry to make her feel that way.
- Lexa, all this time we could have been running away, and you didn't tell me?
- We could be safe, somewhere, and together, but you made the choice to stay...I don't understand Lexa...
- Clarke... I could never fail my people! How can you blame me for such a thing, how can you believe for a moment that it could have been otherwise?
- I don't want to live in hiding Clarke, I don't want to hide you, I want us to live in the open without the risk of having to constantly look back to see if we are being chased.
- I don't want us to survive, I want us to live, together and in peace.
- Of course it won't be easy, but I have faith in us and our history, I know it will give me the strength to overcome, and you have to believe in it too, you have to believe in me, in us and in our future!
- What future would we have had if we had run away from Clarke? A life of fugitives? Thank you, but I would never want to do that to you, I love you too much for that, you deserve better, you deserve life, light, not darkness and death at the first turn...
- So please, let's not spend our last moments to make us the head, we have much better to do, I'm going to win, and you're going to help me Clarke !
- How can I help you? How can I help you when the fear of losing you is so strong that I have to fight with myself to even breathe...
- You will help me by trusting me and us Clarke!
- I would not have known you, I would not have had any doubt about the finality of this duel. It would have been lost in advance...
- Now it's different, I have something that gives me the strength to fight Clarke, something I never thought I would know...
- What is it?
- You Clarke, you, us, the prospect of a better world. I have hope that all this is not the end, and I do not intend to die before having recovered my memory, I want to recover my memories, but I especially want to create new ones...
On these last words, she kissed tenderly Clarke's forehead and hugged her. She enjoyed for a long time the soft sensation of feeling Clarke's skin against hers, then she went to look for Rose and Léonie and set up a place for them in the room so that they could spend the night there.
Then she asked them that if they were defeated, they should testify about their captivity so that Philemon could be locked up and condemned. When the people know that he is the cause of all this, they will no longer be supported. The people will revolt, and without support, he will not be able to rule. For Lexa, this would be the backup plan in case of defeat. But she didn't tell Clarke about it, she didn't tell him her reasons why she asked Rose and Léonie to testify, her reasons, they would remain secret. She didn't want to worry Clarke more than she should.
Clarke and Lexa trained the rest of the day, leaving Nayak to Rose and Leonie. Lexa found more and more her reflexes thanks to Clarke's advices. The training was very intense for both women, but Clarke, in front of the obvious progress of the young woman took back little by little hope. She wanted to believe it, to believe that all this was not the end, but only the beginning of their new life.
Despite the low success rate, she was determined to bring all her strength to Lexa, to give her courage, and to make his love for her a strength and not a weakness.
The last day of training finally arrived. Just as intense as the other two days.
This time, the D-day had arrived, the day when everything would end, or everything would really start.
Let the challenge begin...