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In the Great Hall the elements of water, fire and air were already gathered and seated in their places when she arrived. Her footsteps echoed more pronouncedly in the huge place, but with each step she took, she was almost certain that the echo was being made by the incessant hammering of her heart.
Once she was in front of the table and her own chair, the other three present rose and inclined their heads in the direction of the leader Elementa. Coriane merely nodded and sat down.
"You came," she turned to Eddard, who sat across from her with an expression similar to her own; full of disdain.
"Your message was quite clear, Terra," Coriane, in the absence of the man's presence at the last few meetings, felt the need to send him a message that made clear her position as leader and the things she could do to him if he did not show up. "And Calion was clear as well."
That sentence aroused some curiosity in her, but she didn't bother to show it; soon, the Caeli would be forced to share that explanation.
"Balance," she said after a few minutes of silence and holding Eddard's hard eyes with her own. "That is what we are, that is what we exist for. It is our responsibility to maintain the balance of this land as our forefathers could not. And when that balance is broken, it is also our duty to take the price."
Neither Ignis nor Aqua, it was Caeli who snorted a laugh.
"Finally, that's the first time I'd heard you speak like a Terra."
"It's not what you say that interests me, Eddard. It is Calion's word I seek, the word of all our guardians," at the last she turned from looking only at the man to look at the other two as well.
"Do you want to know what Calion says?" Eddard raised an eyebrow and leaned his arms on the table, looking her straight in the eye with that hidden hatred within him. "Dare et accipere."
Take and give.
Coriane raised her head slightly, holding Eddard's gaze for a moment before turning to meet Dominic's eyes. The man, who had been quite focused on the fiery symbol inscribed on the table in front of him, turned to look at her as well.
"Dare et accipere."
A small, almost imperceptible sigh escaped her at his words. Her gaze softened just slightly as she nodded to the man before turning to the woman. Melisandre had not taken her eyes from her, but unlike Eddard, she looked at Coriane with compassion and pride.
"Dare et accipere."
A second sigh escaped her. Those last words sealed everything.
In her head, the murmurs went on and on, growing louder and louder, almost clouding all sound from outside. They repeated the same three words over and over and over again. They were asking. To take, to give. They were begging.
And Coriane had to give.
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"I am surprised to hear from you, Octavia."
When Roscoe arrived with the message, curiosity was more compelling, and now she saw herself coming to Octavia's request. The girl, visibly hurt, stood with a pride that made Coriane slightly proud, no longer trembling or taking a step back when the huge feline that always accompanied Terra stepped out of the shadows like a nightmare with claws and sharp teeth. She no longer lowered her head when Coriane looked at her with a countenance of pure power.
Coriane was proud of the cat that ended up becoming a panther, but she didn't let a single one of her expressions show it.
Behind Octavia, in the shadows, Indra sat like a ghost. She was a ghost. Coriane had not seen her aunt since she had been injured in the massacre, and though the girl had sought her out at first, she had also realized that if Indra did not want to be seen, the woman would not let herself be seen, if her aunt wanted her time alone there was nothing Coriane could say or do to prevent it, and with all that was happening around her own surroundings as well, she stopped trying.
"Aunt, I'm glad to see you're still breathing."
She'd be lying if she said a part of her wasn't furious with Indra. Furious that she had gone into hiding and decided to writhe in grief and shame instead of coming out and seeking her revenge, seeking the justice with which the woman had raised Coriane as well. Because in spite of the wrenching pain she kept feeling, the constant urge to scream and tear everything to ashes, Coriane didn't have the luxury of hiding and wailing in the dark. Even if that was all she wanted.
Indra could feel the venom pouring out of her, but she did nothing more than simply avert her gaze from her niece to the girl standing in front of her. Coriane gritted her teeth for a second, clenched her hand until she felt her nails do the damage she needed to keep her cool, and looked away from the woman she once admired to the one who had requested her.
"Though it is always a pleasure to see you, Octavia —and I do not say that in vain—, you chose a really bad time for this reunion, and now more than ever I must-"
"Lincoln and Adriel are locked up," before she could even take a step back or finish her sentence, Octavia struck her with the words that changed that constant ache in her chest to an anguish just as strong.
The disinterested expression she had been maintaining fell away. A clenched jaw, suddenly angry and anxious eyes replaced it.
"What?"
"I know what you're thinking of doing, Coriane. I know you're angry, furious, hurt. And I understand. I swear I understand," a hint of desperation showed through Octavia's dark countenance. Coriane said nothing, just looked at her without being able to cool down the dangerous fire that burned inside her. "But I need you to help me. I need you to put Terra aside for a moment, because I need Coriane."
"I can't do that, not now, not when Tekara needs me."
Octavia swallowed dryly, but to her credit, she didn't hesitate.
"Well, then I need Terra on my side. You want revenge, justice? Excellent, because so do I. And I'll gladly give it to you. But not with all my people. I understand the severity of your pain, but I need you to understand that not everyone is like Pike, that there were those who voted for him, yes, and those will receive the consequences, but there were also those who didn't, who fought against him and stood in his way, Lincoln and Adriel and your parents among them. So I need you to help me save them. I will fight by your side and hold Pike's head while you do whatever you and your spirit deem to be the right punishment. But fight with me, Coriane, please. Not against me. I can help you, and you can help me."
Coriane was silent for a moment too long for Octavia, but she waited patiently, waited for Coriane to gather all that information and ask her question, her voice dangerously calm.
"Elara and Orion, they..."
"When they heard what Pike did they panicked, Elara almost killed him with her bare hands thinking you might have been there. And when they realized that it was...that...that Krista," there it was again, that chronic pain in her chest. "That she had been the one who got killed, they almost ran away from Arkadia to come beg your forgiveness, but Pike locked them up with Adriel because he knew they were your family."
"They're not my family, my brother is Lincoln, my parents are dead," that hatred, that bitterness that ate away at her every time she thought or heard of them, the venom was the only thing that betrayed her feelings in her voice, her face still didn't change.
"They know it, and they understand it too. Are you angry with Elara and Orion? 100% understandable, you're not the only one, believe me you're not. I also understand that you are wary of Adriel, too, but none of this is his fault, you were both just babies, Orion and Elara had no right whatsoever to do this to both of you. I also know that deep down down inside, you really care about him, because that's your nature, you care, he's your brother and as much as you want to deny it, you can't. You don't know how sorry he feels. So, you may be angry with the Tates, but if you love your brothers, if you at least love Lincoln, which I know you do with all your heart, then help me."
Octavia's speech dried her mouth and she had to put all her strength into not showing her feelings. She took a second before speaking, making sure her throat would not fail her and her voice break mid-sentence.
"Your brother is involved in all of this, what do you plan to do with him?"
The question hit Octavia hard, Coriane could see it in the girl's green eyes, as much as the mention of her biological parents and brother had done to her. Coriane knew that same grief, she herself had experienced it with Lincoln at the beginning of the whole mess, when his betrayal burned her heart.
"Bellamy... Bellamy was desperate."
"Desperate for what," she didn't even let Octavia finish, the fire growing more volatile by the second.
"For protecting you," the girl exclaimed.
That was the cold water that diminished the fire. Confusion came over Coriane's face, she stepped back in disbelief and arched her eyebrows at Octavia.
"Protect me? He let that damn monster kill my people, my sister!"
"Coriane, I don't... I don't excuse Bellamy's actions, I never will, but he likes you... I believe he cares about you, why else would he have been so desperate to protect you? He had the chance to kill Indra and Jensen, but he didn't, and when he found out that Krista was dead... it was the only specter of remorse I saw after everything that had happened."
Silence. Coriane had to turn away for a second to try to regain her sanity and calm the hammering in her heart. Astrid stayed by her side and gave her little nuzzles, asking her what to do, whether to attack, to run, asking her what to do to make her mistress stop feeling like this.
"You care for him too, don't you? I don't know what happened between you two these past few months, but I can see that you do like him, or at least care about him," Octavia's voice became delicate, compassionate, almost.
"No," Coriane spat.
"Then why haven't you killed him yet?"
Coriane took a deep breath and pushed the tears back inside before turning to look at the brunette again. Rage, pure hardness. Fire. Pain. Confusion. So many things and feelings were going on behind the brown eyes that for Indra and Octavia it was almost impossible to count and name them all. Bellamy had promised he would never want to hurt her, just one night before he became involved in the events that hurt her more, hurt her and broke her more than any other time in her life. She couldn't describe what learning of his involvement had felt like, it was one of the biggest stab of betrayal she had ever felt. Bigger than Lexa, bigger than Lincoln. She couldn't explain it either, give herself an answer to that question, her head was screaming at her to throw the whole forest at them and let both Pike and all the guilty ones, like Bellamy, drown in it, but her heart just wouldn't stop aching, squeezing and balling every time she thought about it. So now she understood what her aunt, Titus, and so many others had always told her; "the heart will be your greatest weakness, calm it with your head, and never let it take over."
"I will help you," a sigh of relief escaped the green-eyed girl. "But my terms are strict and clear, Octavia;" a terrifying pause as she slowly approached the girl, Octavia did not back away, but a bead of sweat began to descend from her brow. "Pike is mine, he will die by my hand," Octavia nodded, waiting for the next condition, a foreboding creeping up her spine. "And if you care what happens to Bellamy, you will have to worry not about what I decide, but what the gods decide. His life is in the grace of the spirits. Is that clear?"
Again, Octavia only nodded, unable to speak with Coriane so close to her, giving off that ferocity that made the wildest and most dangerous animal tremble and recoil. She could not reproach that last decision, not if she wanted to keep the new alliance she had managed to achieve with the most fearsomely powerful woman, with the one who would be the salvation, or the doom, of all her people. Octavia could only hope and pray that the warrior spirits would not sentence her brother to the painful and cruel death that Coriane was capable of inflicting.
"One more thing," she finally found her voice as Coriane was already walking away with her ligeress following her.
Coriane turned around, and so did Astrid, and the woman raised an eyebrow in anticipation.
"He wants... he wants to see you."
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The night left little in sight of the forest, but Coriane, with more than eyes on her person, found the night a sweet companion rather than a troubling inconvenience.
She was near what had once been the camp of the first Skaikru to land on Earth, that being Bellamy's stated landmark for the meeting.
Once Nix stepped through the shattered gates and in front of the wrecked ship, Coriane first took a deep breath before jumping down from her mare. Bellamy stepped out of the darkness, taking careful steps towards her, not getting too close without first taking in the wolves around her, counting them, trying to identify them. Only two of the bunch were familiar: Akira and Ankor stared at him with those yellow eyes that almost seemed to glow in the darkness of the night. Another wolf, one Bellamy wouldn't have seen if his eyes weren't glowing a deep red, stood behind her. Bigger than the others, as big as Søren, perhaps; the wolf was like a wraith, nothing more than a shadow that wielded with the night as one. It had to have been altered by the radiation, otherwise Bellamy might have thought the animal was made, plucked, from the darkest nightmares.
Coriane smiled sideways as she noted the discomfort and anxiety that the night terror standing behind her generated. A sly, dark, even satisfied smile.
"I don't think I've ever introduced you to Kalak before," she spoke with a dark amusement that chilled Bellamy's bones in seconds.
That, and also the name of the demonic shadow. Something in the way Coriane pronounced it seemed to sound like nothing more than a promise of death.
"But I suppose you remember that I told you about him."
She had, Bellamy remembered only just now.
He wished he hadn't.
Now the fear was pouring out of him in every bead of sweat that slid down his entire body, and he knew that thing could smell it.
Kalak was what all the Clans considered a harbinger of death; a dark soul that fed on fear and all evil feelings. It was the product of nightmares, of horror stories to make children go to bed early and obey their parents without question. Nature had its goods, but it also had its bads. Kalak was in the middle of it all, neither good nor bad, but far worse than either.
As far as he remembered from Coriane's stories and explanations, the black wolf only appeared when a soul was clouded, when darkness gripped a person's heart. Usually, the stories told of it feeding on that darkness, growing with it and absorbing it as a snack, leaving nothing but soulless bodies in its wake. Yet there he was, standing behind Coriane as if he were her own shadow, a servant waiting on his mistress's orders.
"I'm surprised Astrid isn't with you," Bellamy finally took his eyes off the beast and set them on the girl, trying his best to hide the terror that pinched at his heart.
"She was left guarding things far more important than you. But don't worry, I took the liberty of bringing her weight in wolves. After all, these beautiful animals go so well with the night, don't you think?" She said as a dig at the deadliest of them all.
Bellamy realized that the three wolves present were not the only ones, three more were stationed at the gates, watchful and alert for any tricks Bellamy had decided to hide in the darkness of the night.
"I'm alone, Ann, I have no hidden tricks," pain, sorrow, regret, Bellamy couldn't contain those feelings escaping in the fluidity of his voice.
"Don't. call me. that," the girl blurted out through gritted teeth and a mortality that chilled the boy's body again. "And I wasn't going to not take the risk, not this time."
She didn't have to be specific for Bellamy to know what she was talking about. He sighed, his chest contracting into a single ball.
"A... Coriane, I'm sorry, I'm really sorry."
Saying her full name brought back memories for Bellamy, memories that managed to make his heart feel even more miserable. Of the time he was about to leave for Mount Weather and they had exchanged words of mischief, promises of tomorrow, and Coriane had been concerned for his welfare, to see him come back from the mountain alive.
Now, standing face to face in the night? Not even before everything had unfolded between them had Coriane looked at him so... distant.
Right there and now, they were nothing more than strangers. Enemies, almost.
"I don't need your condolences or your regret, Bellamy, what's done is done, don't waste your breath trying to erase that."
"Coriane I don't... I'm not trying to make you forgive me, nor do I expect you to. I just want you to know that I'm really, really sorry, I'm going to regret it for the rest of my life, and I'll do whatever I can to try to make it right," one step, just one step was all it took for Kalak to finally move closer to Terra. And that alone was enough to make Bellamy take two more steps back.
"You took my sister from me," Coriane spat again through gritted teeth, not even turning to look at the wolf that now stood so close to her.
Bellamy swallowed hard, feeling unable to look Coriane in the eye as he lowered his head to the ground and felt the thud of a thousand knives in his chest.
"I know."
As if the forest had literally fallen before the grief and the darkness that was emanating from the Terra, it had gone completely silent, it had stopped moving, stopped breathing.
"You betrayed me," Coriane moved a single foot forward, leaning her body towards Bellamy.
"I... I know."
"You betrayed me. I trusted you. And you betrayed me," something more than anger sounded in Terra's tone this time.
Pain. It was pain.
Bellamy squeezed his eyes shut and swallowed hard again. He took the courage he hadn't had to look at Coriane, to try to show her, to make her see that there was nothing but regret in him.
"I know," he said, even with all his intentions, he could find no more words to offer to her pain.
Coriane lifted her head slightly, clenching her jaw, as if trying to stop the burning in her eyes that threatened to let the tears flow.
She turned the foot she had moved back, and that pain, which had been the only specter of Coriane that Bellamy had been able to see, faded away, being replaced again by that cold rage, that calculating look so... evil.
"What am I doing here, Bellamy, what did you call me for?" Nothing, absolutely nothing could be felt in her voice.
Bellamy. No longer Bell, or idiot, or any of those clever names Coriane had given him over the course of the months they'd spent together.
He would have felt less pain if she'd just hit him.
"I want to help you, I want... I want to try to make up for my mistakes in any way I can, whether you forgive me or not, I want to make up for the pain I've caused you, the pain that I've caused everyone."
Silence. A cold and uncomfortable silence that made Bellamy stir in his place.
Coriane just looked at him, analyzing him. Bellamy could see the engines working behind her eyes, that she was thinking about so many things, and that it was more than likely that more than half of those things were ways to make him experience pain. But when she finally seemed to make up her mind what to do, Bellamy stood still as Coriane began to walk towards him. Slowly, like a predator teasing its prey.
"I wish things were that easy, Bellamy."
Her voice sounded so thin, so low. For a moment it took Bellamy back to the forest sides where they had slept together in the moonlight against the trees, in the company of wild animals and witnessed only by the stars.
It was because of these fantasies of a past that would never return that he did not realize the dangerous closeness in which Coriane now stood, the intent behind her dangerous brown eyes.
"But they are not."
He didn't know how, or when, or why, but unconsciousness hit him in seconds, and the last thing he saw before he fell into true and absolute darkness, was a small grimace on Coriane's beautiful and deadly face.