The day of the challenge had finally arrived. Clarke was just beginning to realize. She didn't want to get up, she didn't want to let go of Lexa, because she knew this might be the last time she would see her wife.
When Lexa woke up, she looked tenderly at Clarke and placed a kiss on her lips. She lingered on her face, wanting to fix every line, every sigh, every twinkle in Clarke's eyes in her memory.
She had the impression to see the blue of the young woman's eyes for the first time. They were so beautiful she thought with love, so expressive. She lost herself totally in his look. And she would have liked to stay that way for the rest of her life. She had hope, hope of winning, but she was also realistic and knew that she had little chance of that happening. And her only regret, if she ever had to die, her only regret would be that she lost her memories of Clarke and never got them back.
She would have liked to have her old memories, to remember their first meeting, their first kiss, their first night together, their wedding or when she gave him Nayak. She had memories of her, yes, and if she were to die, then she would do so with honor, but her memories there were recent, and from Clarke's accounts, there were so many more she would have wanted to remember.
Unfortunately, this was not the time for lamentations, the ultimate challenge was about to begin, and no one had ever succeeded before.
Clarke wasn't too happy about it either. She was also looking at the young woman intensely. Her gaze was a mixture of admiration and absolute fear, the fear of losing the one she loved, the person for whom her life no longer had any meaning. Neither of the two women spoke, they didn't need words to understand each other. They knew, they knew what the other might be thinking. They knew their deepest, most intimate thoughts.
This day could be as much the first of a new life as the last moment they would spend on this earth.
Clarke placed a tender kiss on the lips of his companion. Lexa felt a tear flowing during this kiss. Then she moved back slightly, wanting to see the glance of her wife one last time. She cupped her face and whispered tenderly that her love for her would make her strong and that she would prevail. She promised him that all this was not the end, that her desire to regain her memory would give her the strength for everything, the strength to love, the strength to overcome all evils.
And it wasn't Philemon and his desire for revenge that would destroy the life she had recently begun to see with the young woman.
Too much was worth it, too much love to give, no, she couldn't not win, because if she did, then that would mean that evil outweighed good and she could never let that happen.
The two women were brought out of their silent conversation by Nayak who jumped onto the bed of the two young women. Seeing them awake, he wanted to enjoy the hugs and caresses too. He did not feel the danger to come, he was a dog, but he felt that his mistresses were not in their normal states.
In front of the tenderized face of this one, Lexa could not help asking Clarke how and in which circumstance she had offered him.
Clarke looked at her, smiled, fixed intensely the emerald green of her eyes and whispered in her ear that she would tell him when she would have overcome, and not before, that to know how he had arrived there, she was going to have to be patient she said to him while making him a wink. Sealing their promise and that she had to get out of there alive.
Rose and Leonie also woke up. They didn't want to disturb the two young women, but the repeated knocks on their bedroom door did it for them.
Indeed, a guard had just arrived and he knocked with all his strength on the wooden door, no delicacy in his blows, no modesty. He was only there to accomplish what he thought was his duty.
- I arrive shouted Lexa to him slightly irritated to have been thus disturbed.
The young woman then left the bed, gave clean clothes to Rose and Léonie and asked them to leave by the secret passage with Nayak who was disappointed not to be with his mistresses any more.
Once gone, Clarke and Lexa got ready. The queen of Isarian put on her most prestigious warrior's outfit, the outfit that just by the sight of it imposed respect to her opponents, the outfit with which she had never been defeated.
This reassured Clarke a little. She knew that this outfit had always brought luck to the young woman. And in other less dramatic circumstances, she would have found her wife of a beauty without name inside this one.
It was besides the case, she found Lexa of a breathtaking beauty, and she had well of evil to contain herself in front of the sight which offered itself to her.
But when the guard knocked again on the door, asking them to hurry up, Clarke was brought out of her torpor and her somewhat lustful thoughts. The situation did not have to lend to it, she never had more desire of the young woman than in this moment. Surely that in this moment, precisely, the fear to lose her was quite as present as the strength of her desire for the young warrior.
Rose and Léonie, although still in the secret passage, looked at each other, and as if they had read each other's thoughts, they decided to stay in Isarian and give their support to the two young women. The clothes that Lexa had given them were the traditional Isarian clothes, so they decided by mutual agreement that when they came out of the secret passage they would go and mingle with the crowd and be in the audience to give their moral support.
The guard still pressed heavily on the wooden door of the queen's chamber, so that he did not have time to strike his last blow before the door flew open under Lexa's dark eyes.
The guard put the eyes on her, then on Clarke, and seeing him sketch a smile which did not please him when he put the eyes on the young woman, she could not prevent herself from striking him in full face, ordering him to change his glance if he did not want to die in the moment. He wiped with a backhand his lip which was from now on in blood, looking at Lexa with a black look and she was quickly mastered by the other guards come to help their colleague, Clarke had to calm her down not to make her replicate. She had to keep her strength up, the fight hadn't started yet and she shouldn't get lost in the one that was waiting for her.
The guards led the two young women to Philemon. All the way to Philemon, the two young women held hands, enjoying their last contacts with each other. The guards disapproved, but they understood that it was better not to get between the two young women. The arena would take care of these two soon enough.
Arriving in front of Philemon, he stood up, took a sip of the drink that was on the table to his right, and looked at the two women, a satisfied smile on his face.
- Your satisfied smile will not last forever threw to him Clarke the hateful glance.
- Contrary to you, I do not fear anything, Lexa has little chance to arrive until the last duel, and even if it was the case, I will be made a pleasure to finish it affirmed it the luminous face.
When Clarke saw the satisfied smile on Philemon's face, she immediately let go of Lexa's hand, grabbed the sword of one of the guards and put the blade under Philemon's throat.
He didn't dare move a millimeter, he felt that the slightest movement on his part would end his life. Clarke pressed the point of the sword even harder under the man's throat, until blood began to flow.
Lexa didn't say anything, she approved her companion, even if she knew that the situation wouldn't last like this.
Then Clarke saw again a smile illuminating the face of the man. She understood why only when her glance went on her right and she saw entering the room about twenty armed men, all ready to put an end to Lexa's life if she did not drop her sword.
Lexa put her hand on Clarke's sword and lowered it to her, letting her know with her eyes that everything would be all right and that she had nothing to worry about.
She leaned into his ear and slowly whispered that everything would be okay and that she loved him.
Clarke relaxed slightly, though her anger and hatred for Philemon did not wane.
She finally dropped her weapon. And that's when Philemon nodded to his guards, giving them an invisible signal. At that moment, and under Lexa's horrified look, they all threw themselves under Clarke. She didn't have the time to make a move when she received a rain of blows, each one stronger than the other, and she fell to the ground unconscious. The guards then took her away from Lexa's sight.
Lexa struggled hard and tried to help her, but there were too many of them and she could not do anything to help the one she loved. Her worst nightmare was coming true, she told herself that she had just lost her loved one, that it was over. Her heart was in pieces, she could not believe what had just happened. Clarke had been taken out of there, unconscious, not knowing if she was still alive or not.
At that very moment, the urge to kill Philemon had never been as strong as it was at that moment and she continued to struggle, wanting to break free of the hold of the two guards that were holding her down in order to go rescue Clarke. But her hope was quickly dashed when she was knocked unconscious.
She woke up a few minutes later. She was chained to a chair, Philemon was patiently waiting for her to open her eyes.
As soon as she saw him, she tried to escape. In the distance she could hear the crowd that had come en masse to watch the duels, the duels of their queen.
Her gaze, her gaze that had been so valiant a few minutes ago, had lost its beauty, it had become empty and lifeless, without hope. So when Philemon told him that she was alive, but chained somewhere, his heart suddenly started again. She was alive and that was the only thing that mattered to her.
He told her that she would stay alive as long as she did all her fighting and won them all. He wanted to kill her himself, to fully assert his authority over all the detractors who still supported Lexa. If he killed her himself, then no one would dare to speak out against him.
For Clarke to live, she had to survive and die only in the final battle. If she did, then she would be free to return to Zenaria, which Philemon intended to have razed to the ground in any case.
Lexa was torn between her despair at not being able to keep her promise that all would end well for them both, and her happiness at knowing that if she survived to her last fight the woman she loved would be alive. But this would also mean her own death and would plunge Clarke into total confusion. However, she eventually resigned herself, she resigned herself, because she knew that as long as Clarke was alive, then that was ultimately the most important thing. She would first start to resent him, to resent the whole world, to want revenge, the rage would overtake her, would consume her, but life would eventually take its course and it would eventually bring her back to life one day.
At that very moment, Lexa was no longer the glorious warrior she had been, she had lost her majesty. She would have so much wanted to see Clarke one last time, to explain to her the reasons why she will not be alive anymore when she will be released. She would have liked to look her in the eyes one last time to tell her how much she loved her, how much she wanted her, how much she wanted her more than anything else in the world, and that only her safety was important to her and that the rest didn't matter.
But Philemon didn't care about all that. Only his revenge mattered. His revenge against the people who had taken the woman she loved, Clarke's mother, the one he thought was the love of his life when in fact this woman had left him for another man and from this love was born Clarke, the love of Lexa's life and who had become his wife.
But the time was not any more with the lamentations, the time of the revenge had come, it was there, waiting patiently its hour like a cancer waiting the good moment before showing its first symptoms.
Alexander, at Philemon's side, was listening patiently, in his head he was already looking for a way to get Clarke released in order to rebalance Lexa's chances of survival who would be rejuvenated if she knew her love was safe. But he clearly didn't expect what had just happened. He didn't expect Philemon to have Clarke locked up.
But he knew, he knew he had to find a way to get his sister out. Sure, he didn't have the same mother, and their father, the Zenarian leader, didn't even know she existed, being the product of his brief affair with a complete stranger. But he had a special bond with her, he was the one who had helped her when Lexa had lost her memory, when she was a shadow of her former self and when they had discovered each other's existence.
Lexa was completely lost in her thoughts, lethargic, she did not react any more, was as if absent. And Philemon had to snap his fingers in front of her eyes to bring her out of her torpor.
Suddenly realizing that Alexander was Clarke's brother and that he was on her side, a fraction of her regained a slight hope. Slight, but important enough that she planted her look full of hatred towards Philemon and that this one found himself disturbed, although he tried not to show anything.
The time for the challenge to begin had finally arrived. Although inside, Lexa and Philemon could hear the crowd chanting Lexa's name in the distance. Some to encourage her, others to boo her. The tension between the two camps was palpable. All it would take was a spark to ignite the whole thing and a civil war would engulf Isarian and its people.
Philemon ordered that Lexa be untied, she would need both hands to fight. Then he had her escorted to the arena where she would have her first fight.
On the way to the arena, people everywhere were shouting, screaming, cheering and sometimes insulting her.
Philemon felt he was the master of his destiny and he enjoyed it. Lexa was escorted by two guards. She had put on her traditional warrior outfit, the one that commanded respect just by the sight of it and the symbol it represented.
When she arrived at the entrance of the arena, she did not even glance at Philemon, the man who wanted to break her life and the people of Clarke. But inwardly, at that very moment she wanted him dead almost as much as she wanted Clarke back and safe.
The arena in question was huge. In different places were posted weapons, weapons intended for the fighters. They could choose the ones that suited them best, the ones that would allow them to win or to be beaten miserably by an angry Lexa.
There were swords of different sizes, daggers, spears, maces, throwing stars, knives, sticks, etc... They were arranged in such a way that even disarmed, a fighter could always find a weapon without any difficulty and thus endanger Lexa.
The ground was dusty, each step that Lexa made accompanied by the two guards in charge of bringing her in its center created a cloud of dust which fell down at once heavily on the ground.
In the stands were Lexa's people, waiting with vigor for the beginning of the fight. It was noisy, oppressive despite the size of the arena. Lexa felt suffocated inside. She didn't want to be there, she wanted to be near Clarke. She told herself at that moment that she understood Clarke when she had reproached him for not having used his secret passage to escape. How stupid she was not to have run away with Clarke when she had the chance, she thought. She would have given anything right now to go back in time, take Clarke by the hand and run away where no one would ever find them.
Clarke, on her side, was emerging. She realized that she was in a cell, guarded by only one guard, all the others were probably watching the arena where the challenge was to take place.
She wanted to get up, but realized that she was bound hand and foot and that there was nothing she could do. Outside, she could hear the crowd, a sign that the challenge was about to begin or was about to begin. She screamed with all her might in despair and collapsed to the ground in tears. But as she tried with all her might to free herself from the grip of her bonds, she saw a servant approaching the guard. She said she had been ordered by Philemon to give her food. The guard checked, and indeed he found that there was only a kind of vegetable porridge and a glass of water.
He brought her into the cell so that the servant could feed Clarke, who was tied up and couldn't do it herself. But when Clarke looked up at the servant who was facing her, she got her hopes up again, indeed, it was Leonie who was there.
Discreetly she slipped her a dagger which she hid behind her back and pretended to feed her. Then, once made, she slipped him a wink and returned as calmly as she had come.
Lexa, for her part, was facing her first fighter. There was nothing impressive about him. Lexa saw at once that he was there only because of the reward that Philémon had promised to the young man.
He couldn't have been more than twenty years old, was puny and made Lexa feel sorry that such a young man had gotten involved in this story.
After having looked at each other intensely, as soon as the signal of the beginning of the fight was given, each one chose a weapon. Lexa had obviously chosen a sword, the young man also.
The fight could now begin.