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"Isaac, Isaac, where's Isa?" Asked Coriane in desperation, shaking the blond's shoulders so that he would wake up from the trance in which he had arrived at Tondc.
"Isaac!" Shouted the others around him, equally frightened by all the blood in which the boy had returned and without the girl who had accompanied him.
"Maunon... Maunon took her," the boy confessed after swallowing hard.
Those words hit Coriane like a stab in the back. Suddenly she felt the world falling at her feet, everything spinning too fast to keep up with her. The others stood in stony silence as well, unable to believe their ears either.
"How... what happened?" The Terra questioned, her voice trembling and the air choking in her lungs.
"I told her to go deeper, that where we were we wouldn't hunt anything, and they found us. She got trapped in one of their traps and... I couldn't do anything, they were coming, I... I... left, I hid..." He couldn't finish speaking when Jensen's fist slammed into his face.
Aren and Krista had to stop the boy from beating the blond to a pulp as they restrained themselves from doing so. Odeya stared at her brother with her eyes glazed over and her mouth hanging open. And Coriane was sure she had stopped breathing at that moment.
Thankfully, Astrid had arrived in time when she felt her Terra's pain to catch her before she hit the ground.
And while the dream Coriane fainted, the living Coriane woke up.
The only clue that she had had a bad dream was the sweat on her forehead and the irregular way her chest rose and fell, but being used to nightmares, this one might have gone unnoticed by the unaware eye.
Literally seconds after waking up, Aren came into her tent suddenly with a small smile on his face.
"The Skaikru did it, the fog was deactivated."
"Ad Bellum," whispered a voice in her head.
The familiar pinch in her head, the dizziness, the trickle of black blood running from her nose. But the impact hadn't been even merely close to what it always was when she heard them. The pain did not last longer than the words did, nor did the dizziness leave her immobile for a few seconds. All that remained was the echo of whispers.
"What did they tell you?" Aren knew the signs well enough by now to know that the voices in Terra's head had given her a message, and he waited anxiously to hear it.
"To war."
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Her face was painted with charcoal, her body adorned with the armour of a warrior, her hair mostly loose, with a few braids falling down her shoulders. Naga hung around her neck, Astrid stood to her left, representing the felines, and Ankor; to her right, representing the canines. Krista was behind her. Aren, Jensen and her other animals were waiting outside Lexa's tent.
The other Commanders were gathered around the table, the Skaikru representatives had just arrived, and the meeting was about to begin.
"Commanders," Lexa spoke once everyone was organised. "Today is the day we get our people back. The enemy believes they are safe within their gates, but they could not be more wrong."
The speech continued, after Lexa, Clarke proceeded to explain what the mission was and then the plan, everyone listened attentively, one or other Skaikru asked questions, the rest just analyzed everything and nodded.
Once Clarke finished there was a brief silence, everyone was waiting for the next thing. Lexa looked at Coriane and raised her head in her direction.
"Skaiheda?"
Attention was immediately drawn to her, all eyes, both grounders and sky people, turned to Coriane.
"The mountains have cast their shadow over the forests for too long," she began to speak in a strong voice, with the power of a warrior. "They have hunted us, tried to control us, turned us into their monsters," she looked at Lincoln as she said the last and took a breath to continue addressing everyone. "That ends today."
Lexa went on to talk about the alliance they had made with the Sky People and the clarification that the mission was not about wiping out the mountain, but those guilty of the terror caused over the years. There was a pause in the Commander's speech, a pause where she looked at Coriane, speaking to her without words, communicating as only they could.
Lexa wanted her to say it, she looked at Coriane expectantly, they all did.
"Jus drein jus daun," Coriane said with her head held high and her voice loud.
They both repeated it this time at the same time, and the other Commanders joined in chorus with them. Skaikru did so once they saw Clarke join in, and outside, the shouts of those joining the chorus could be heard.
Coriane's heart pounded to the rhythm of the war cries, her chest filled with euphoria and her hands cried out for the blood of those guilty. Although she could not hear them at the moment, she could feel the spirits within her fluttering with the same emotion, she felt Tekara's embrace on her shoulders, her God protecting her, her God giving her the strength she needed, she could feel the earth beneath her feet pulsing with a heart of fire, giving her strength and, like her, trembling with the intensity of the power that coursed through her veins and in every root and rock beneath her.
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The fight had begun and while Lexa went one way, Coriane was fighting on another. Her animals had been hiding in the woods, in the trees and bushes, in the darkness of the night, so as not to be seen and to be able to attack by surprise. Many sharpshooters had fallen thanks to the wolves and felines that darted at their backs and the snakes that slithered with the most dangerous stealth to terrify and distract them.
Once the enemy forces were finished, it was up to them now to open the door that would give them entrance. Everyone waited patiently and attentively, ready to attack if attacked.
Anticipation was pounding in Coriane's chest, nerves too, but when she saw the door open slightly, she could not help but let out a sigh of relief.
Everyone celebrated that step to victory and Coriane raised her voice to lead the attack. But before anyone could approach or do as ordered, Lexa's voice stopped the motion.
Clarke and Coriane looked at each other and walked together to the Commander. Both women were surprised to see Lexa accompanied by the guard they had captured and then released to deliberate the message that would protect Bellamy from being caught.
Coriane looked at her friend with her head cocked to one side and her eyes slanted in confusion, but she didn't manage to get a word out of her already open mouth when someone announced the exit of people through the half-open door. She turned to look at each person who came out, mouth agape with a surprised look on her face. Clarke questioned in surprise if the mountain had given up, but Coriane knew better, Coriane knew it, deep down, she already knew.
Clarke realized it too, and without needing to look at her, Coriane could identify the pain of betrayal in her voice.
They were all in shock from which they could not react. Lexa announced the retreat despite how much Clarke begged her not to. Lincoln tried to convince her to let him help those who would stay behind, but Lexa had him gagged and forcibly taken away.
The only one who hadn't said anything yet was Coriane, just staring at Lexa's bloodied face without expression.
"Coriane... let's go."
She looked at the blonde beside her who now had her crystalline eyes fixed on her for support. She was begging her to stay, because she knew Lexa couldn't force her to leave, because Coriane wouldn't obey if she wanted to and no one could stop her if that was the case. For a moment she thought about doing it, about staying, about fighting for the people who were willing to fight for her people. It was the right thing to do, it was what her brother wanted, it was what she wanted. She remembered Bellamy and the huge, almost suicidal risk he took by going on his mission into the mountain, she remembered her brother and everything he had to go through just to be with the woman he loved and stand up for what he believed in.
Lexa's betrayal not only burned in Clarke's eyes but in her own as well, Coriane felt stupid for a moment; she knew her friend very well, they had grown up together and many of the things Lexa knew today were thanks to her. She should have seen it before, from the first hint, she should have known that she was hiding things from her, that the risks and the lives lost in the process were mere coincidences at the end of the day.
"Ann!" Someone shouted behind her back.
Her words and response were cut off in a second. When she turned around, her eyes widened, her jaw fell to the floor and her heart stopped in an instant. Her eyes must have been deceiving her, her heart too, because Aren and Jensen couldn't be holding a fainting Isadora at that moment.
"Isa..." She felt the air escaping from her lungs and her eyes suddenly burning.
She walked slowly and uncertainly to her friends and looked at them still with the same uncertain expression, they too were looking at her the same way.
Coriane raised a trembling hand to push back the girl's brown hair and get a better look at her face.
It was her, it was Isa.
Despite her severely bruised face. Despite the obvious lack of weight, despite how bad she looked, Coriane knew it was her.
She was going to be sick.
"Coriane..." Lexa spoke to her again, so she turned around trying to hide the uncertainty in her eyes, but it was impossible, her heart was pounding too hard and she felt the bile burning in her throat, her face was surely too pale. "Come on."
She looked at her companions and Isadora, then at Clarke and Lexa. Looking at the blonde she had to close her eyes for a moment and swallow hard to push down the trembling she felt in her throat.
She nodded to the others behind and they, without hesitation or protest, started walking to follow everyone who had already left. Coriane sighed and opened her eyes, beginning to walk as well.
As she passed Clarke she stopped and looked at her with real pity, swallowed again, and then spoke:
"I'm sorry, I don't expect you to understand, but I'm truly sorry. Good luck, and may Tekara and the warrior spirits be with you," she said with complete honesty and didn't wait for a reply before leaving behind the others.
On the path through the forest Astrid joined her, her mouth full of blood and her paws and muzzle red and dripping. With her emotional support now close behind her, she was able to walk to Nix without fainting.
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Back in Polis, the entire village was ecstatic at the return of many of their family and friends, at the liberation of their people from the mountain. Everyone was in their own celebrations, either with those they had recovered or for themselves.
Odeya had had a similar reaction to her own when Jensen and Aren had burst into her cabin with Isadora still passed out in their arms, but she hadn't had time to say or do anything, the girl looked too bad and if she didn't get to work right then and there, they feared the rescue would be for nothing.
Nearly two years locked up in that horrible place, how had she survived for so long?
"Of course she did, it's Isa," she told herself, sighing for the fifteenth time in 10 minutos.
When Odeya said she had finished doing everything she could think of, they all looked at each other in silent agreement to leave Coriane alone with the unconscious girl.
She sat down on the side of the bed once she was alone and again, sighed. She couldn't believe everything that had happened that night, it was still hard to believe that Isadora was on that bed in front of her. Alive.
Well, barely.
"If I'd known, I wouldn't have taken so long to do this," she said, more to herself than to the girl.
Three knocks on the door made her turn around. Isaac poked his head in a second later. He looked tired, exhausted, in fact. He had bags under his eyes and his arm was held up by a support of leaves that Odeya had surely given him.
He asked permission to enter in the least malicious voice Coriane heard on him on the last two years, and when she nodded, he limped in and closed the door behind him.
"I'm sorry, Odeya just told me and I... I had to..."
"See if it was true?" The brunette finished for him, not sounding as rude as usual either.
Isaac nodded, lowering his head, he didn't seem to be able to stare at Isadora either, to believe in what was in front of his eyes.
"Well, apparently she is."
"Do you think she'll wake up?" Asked the boy uncertainly after a few seconds of awkward silence.
"She has to," she replied, fixing her gaze back on the girl.
"And do you think... that she'll..."
"Forgive you?" She sighed, still not turning to look at him. "It's Isa, I know she will, she'll probably give you a pretty good punch, or punch-es. But she'll forgive you."
"And you? Do you ever think you'll forgive me?"
Now she did turned to look at him. The question caught her off guard. Isaac was looking at her with a vulnerability she had never, even in their years of friendship, seen in him.
For a moment she thought about answering yes, but then shut her mouth again seconds later. Not only had he abandoned Isadora in the woods that day, he had also abandoned her, his own twin sister, Krista, Aren and Jensen. He had abandoned them under the weight of his own remorse. He had abandoned Coriane at the moment when she needed him most, possibly what hurt her most was not his escape from a scene that would have cost him his life, but his abandonment afterwards, the lack of courage he had to face her and the cold way he had closed in on himself and treated them all, even in spite of all Odeya and Coriane's attempts to talk to him.
But he had been their friend for so many years. Her brother...
Before she could open her mouth again to answer, another knock on the door distracted them both. The person behind didn't wait a second to proceed inside, and when Coriane saw Lexa, anger suddenly returned to her.
Isaac hurried to curtsy, but Coriane didn't even flinch, simply rolled her eyes and turned back to Isadora.
"Can we talk?"
"No."
"Coriane..." Lexa sighed, as if Coriane were a child who hadn't yet learned to discipline herself.
"Lexa, not now. Go away."
"You know I had to..."
"Go away!" She exclaimed, already exasperated.
The cabin fell completely silent. She turned to look at the Commander sternly and Lexa took a step back, surprised Coriane yelled at her. Without another word, she nodded and left the cabin once and for all, leaving Coriane with a bundle of building anger, sadness, betrayal, relief and guilt all at the same time.
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Hours and hours passed and Isadora only got up twice. Once, complaining of pain and having to be put back to sleep with an infusion from Odeya, and the other one from thirst, begging for water. After Odeya gave it to her with Coriane's help, she fell unconscious again.
No one had been able to sleep for hours, least of all Coriane. Every time she closed her eyes she relived everything and the overwhelming feeling in her chest made her open her eyes immediately. After a few failed attempts, she decided to go for a walk in the forest. It was only early morning, the forest was still dark and the sky was just beginning to lighten its blue a little.
This time no one was accompanying her, she asked Astrid to stay in bed, not wanting to disturb the ligeress and give her some well-deserved rest. Yet she was not alone at all, the forest was her company, it soothed her with its soft murmurs and its chorus of voices understandable only to her ears.
Coriane was so quiet surrounded by her element, she didn't even hear when someone approached her until she heard him speak.
"Why?" At first the voice made her jump on alert, preparing to attack if necessary. But when she saw Bellamy standing a few feet away from her, with dried blood on his face and not a weapon in sight, she calmed down a little.
"What are you doing here?"
"Why, Coriane?" The boy ignored her question and approached her with a big step.
His face was more serious and somber than she had ever seen him before. Coriane didn't need to ask the reason, or what he meant by his question, she already knew.
"You are not armed," she said instead of an answer. She didn't know what to give him on this one.
Bellamy laughed bitterly as he shook his head and licked the inside of his mouth with a helplessness that weighed heavy on Coriane's shoulders. When he finally looked at her, she recognized the disappointment in his brown eyes, and for some reason, that look hit her deeper than expected in the chest.
"Would it make any difference, if I pulled a gun on you?" Before she could answer, he did it himself. "Damn it, I don't think even putting a damn gun to your head would have any effect."
"Bellamy..."
"Why?" He demanded again, this time shouting it.
"I'm sorry!" She also shouted with an honesty that weighed heavy on her heart.
The forest fell into a total and sepulchral silence, not even the crickets could be heard around them. Bellamy shook his head again, this time his movements full of uncertainty and a sadness that crystallised his eyes.
"Do you know what I had to do?" When Coriane didn't answer, he took another step and answered his own question with anger and pain. "I murdered them, I murdered them all, Coriane. Children, women, men, all of them."
"Bellamy, I... I don't expect you to understand, and you really don't know how sorry I am, I know what..."
"You have no idea!" With that shout he silenced her.
Coriane didn't do or say anything to stop all the anger directed at her because she had been in his shoes many times before. She understood perfectly the need to vent and scream and cry, so if for Bellamy she was the target, she didn't have the heart to stop him. Specially when she was partially responsible of that anger.
"Listen. I really understand, and I'm really sorry, but I just couldn't..." For some reason she couldn't find the words to express herself. "Lexa didn't tell me anything, I swear. I was as surprised as Clarke. I wanted to stay, I swear I did, but..."
"Your had other priorities," Bellamy finished for her.
Coriane closed her eyes and nodded, sighing.
"Show me your shoulder," after seconds of silence, he spoke to her again in that cold tone, surprising her more by his words than anything else.
"What?"
"Your shoulder, show me."
Coriane looked at him as if the boy had lost his mind and was speaking in a language she couldn't understand, she opened her mouth but closed it almost instantly, ready to ask again what he meant when suddenly her back hit the trunk of a tree with such force that it robbed the air from her lungs.
"What the hell are you...?!"
Just before she could react and hit him, knock him off her, Bellamy pulled away only to stare at something on her shoulder that he had discovered. Coriane looked at the same spot as the boy, seeing her unusual birthmark. The anger was hard to compress, Coriane could allow some things, that he take it out on her, but he was stepping over the line.
"You'd better have a good explanation for that, Blake," she covered her shoulder again, looking at the boy through gritted teeth.
"Do you even know who you are, Coriane?" He asked incredulously and apparently amused.
"Who I... what? What the hell are you talking about?"
"Forget it."
Without another word he turned around and began to make his way back where he had come from. It took her a second to react, but when she did, she was offended by his words.
"You're angry, and I understand that. But if you talk to me like that again, I'm going to show you who I am, Bellamy."
"You have to know first to prove it, Coriane."
And with that, the forest swallowed Bellamy as Coriane swallowed the questions, the offences and the doubts.