Lightning Only Strikes Once - Clexa

Chapter 68: Think of the Children

Facing the ambassadors as a group is always draining. They debate every little thing. Even when not arguing against Lexa's orders, they throw subtle insults at each other, always angling for a higher position, for a better deal. In this case, however, the news of the Mountain stuns them. They grumble when she announces the new position of the Mountain Slayer, second only to her and above them all, but they stop when she meets their eyes.

It occurs to Lexa she is more powerful now than she has ever been. From the ambassadors' viewpoint, she controlled the stars falling from the sky, she helped take down the Mountain and recruited the one who destroyed it, she has traded little-used land for technological marvels and destructive weaponry, and her greatest opposition is now considered a traitor to be killed on sight. It is no wonder they quiet when she glances at them. She could kill them all and the people of Polis would raise no objection at all. Their clans would most likely not even object. They listen to her news in unfamiliar silence and at first she believes the meeting will be over quickly. Is it wrong of her to use their increased awareness of her advantage to hurry this?

Uzac is the one who extends it beyond that, as he did the day before. "We must attack now, surely. Surprise her," he says. His narrow face becomes even more forbidding as he scowls.

"I am not sure we can surprise the Azplana anymore," Lexa remarks. "We can block the border now but it may be too late to prevent anyone getting through. Even if we set up guards, they would be better suited to warning us of a gonakru than a single gona, and a single gona is all that is needed to work a radio. If Nia has any mind at all she will already have someone here to warn her of our actions."

"Then we attack in force before she can martial her people," Uzac says bluntly.

"My people will not side with one who helps the Maunon," the Azgeda ambassador says hotly. Lexa tries to recall his name. Azgeda ambassadors do not tend to last long, being regularly recalled by Nia before they can develop what the Azplana considers to be "inappropriate sympathies" for the other clans. This one she remembers killing in the other world for his insolence towards her – but here, he seems more inflamed by Nia's treachery than anyone else in the room. She supposes it makes sense. The only reason the Azgeda joined the Coalition to begin with was out of fear of the Maunon. Nia's actions must seem even more of a betrayal to him.

"Of course they will," Uzac growls. "Maybe not in malevolence, but in ignorance, they will. We must strike quickly before they have the chance."

"Broadleaf clan is far from Azgeda," Lexa remarks, eyeing Uzac coldly. "If we strike fast your people will not have enough time to come north."

He flounders for a second, before regaining his footing. "That is beside the point, Heda. We cannot give her time to organise her gona and attack first."

"So you advise that we head north at the beginning of winter?" Lexa says, raising an eyebrow. "So our gona die of the cold? That is not a battle plan, that is a suicide. The Azgeda know the terrain and how to survive the snow far better than our gona ever will."

"And what if we wait, and she kills the Fleimkepa?" Uzac challenges. His pale cheeks are flushed with feeling. "We cannot risk it."

"We can, if I say we can," Lexa says flatly. "Remember your place, Uzac." She stares him down. "Nia will not kill Titus, not while there is a chance she could use him. She is not a fool. And if she does kill him, the Commander spirit may still be able to pass without him. A Fleimkepa aids the spirit, but he does not control it. None control the spirit."

She does not understand the spirit, herself. She experienced it being placed in her, she hears the voices in her dreams and when she meditates, and sometimes she knows a piece of the past she has never been told. But otherwise the spirit is something that dwells imperceptibly within her. She felt no surge of certainty or strength when the spirit entered her. Much like the ambassadors, the spirit gives her advice and arguments, but it does not make her decisions for her. Sometimes even when she asks for guidance it is like shouting into a void.