━━━━━━━━━━━
MEDEA'S CUP
━━━━━━━━━━━
WHEN THE LAST EMBER DIED and was carried away by the wind, Raulf came to usher them into a basement room where a banquet was laid out before them. The Grounders and Sky People stood on either side of the long dining table with civil courtesy for one another. Prominent members of the village and their retainers stood along the walls to observe the convention of the two parties. Jinny was positioned in the middle of the table across from Raulf between Bellamy on her left and Clarke on her right. Kane was beside the blonde girl, holding a bottle of spirits in his hands. Jinny had been told that it was rum; he'd thought that a stronger liquor like whiskey or brandy might be too much for the occasion.
"Please accept this gift, Commander," he said. "We drink this at special occasions... I believe this qualifies."
Lexa nodded at the offering and glanced towards Gustus who reached over to take the drink from Kane. He passed it to Lexa and she examined the gift with mild curiosity before looking back with appreciation. "Thank you, Marcus of the Sky People."
"You're welcome, Lexa... kom Trikru," he replied, the words sounding incredibly foreign from his tongue. "Just, uh, don't drink too much of it."
"Raulf, Clarke, Jinny," she addressed, singling them out. "Let us drink together."
"It would be my pleasure," Clarke replied automatically.
Jinny merely smiled without feeling and said, "How gracious."
Lexa turned to her, unfazed, but Raulf rolled his eyes by his sister's side. A retainer came forwards with four chalices and Gustus set them down neatly on the table. The Commander uncorked the bottle and poured the alcohol into the cups, which she personally handed to each one of them.
"Heda, allow me," Gustus said and she instantly raised her chalice for him. He took a sip of the drink, then passed it back to Lexa when he deemed it was safe.
"Today we celebrate our peace, tomorrow we plan our war," Lexa said, raising her drink in toast. "To those we've lost, to those we shall soon find."
Clarke, Jinny and Raulf followed suit, raising their cups to each other before bringing it to their lips. Jinny had already taken an eager gulp of the alcohol, frowning when it tasted off to her—like bitter metal instead of the sweet flavour of aged molasses—when Gustus started to sputter, before collapsing onto the table. His choking sounds continued to fill the room as he stumbled backwards into the wall and Lexa turned to stare at him in alarm. Bellamy took the chalice from Jinny and flung it at the one in Clarke's hand to knock it over, spilling amber liquid everywhere. He grabbed Jinny's face with widened eyes set in panic. "Did you swallow?!"
She nodded her head frantically with shallow breaths just as the unsheathing of swords rang in her ears. Clarke was already yelling beside her. "This wasn't us, I swear!"
"Sou nou teik em wan op!" Lexa yelled at another warrior.
Indra pointed her blade at them and Bellamy pulled Jinny closer into his arm, while throwing the other out in front of Clarke. "Gon yo we!" Indra shouted to the others. "Pad emo daun!"
Jinny felt the poison starting to course through her bloodstream and she coughed uncontrollably, knees buckling as her throat started to constrict. She raised a hand to claw at her neck, taking in choking gasps that did nothing to draw oxygen into her lungs. The cacophony surrounding her turned into a loud buzz in her ears as Bellamy held her tightly in his arms to keep her upright.
"Help her! Please help her!" Octavia screamed, rushing to Jinny's side.
"That isn't mine!" Raven yelled. "He put it there when he searched me, it's not mine!!"
The Grounders started to leave, Lexa pushing her brother out of the cellar and ignoring his loud protests to bring Jinny to their healer. The doors clanged shut behind them, and only Jinny's wheezing could be heard as her shuddering body collapsed completely to the ground. Bellamy's hands were frantic, not knowing where to put them as they clutched her arms or brushed against her face. Unshed tears blurred her vision, the only thing she could make out being the murky cracked ceiling above them with its heavily stained paint peeling backwards from age.
"Jin, no," Bellamy bemoaned. "No, hold on."
"Lincoln, do something!" Octavia pleaded.
"Herbs," he muttered, barely audible above the loud breathing. "They use it in their cooking too. If it's a common poison, it should work."
They started to search the plates of food that were left on the tables and Lincoln came back with some kind of yellow root in his hand. He forced it into Jinny's mouth and moved her jaw to make her chew before swallowing. She had no idea what it even tasted like, her tastebuds were coated with the bitter metallic tinge of the poison.
"Lay her down," Lincoln instructed and Bellamy quickly complied, carefully lowering her head onto his lap.
"You're gonna be okay, okay?" Bellamy said soothingly, caressing her face gently as she clenched his other hand.
"Drink this," Octavia told her coaxingly, dripping some other liquid through her lips. Another excruciating minute passed as her chest continued to constrict with an inferno blazing through her veins. It felt like her condition was only getting worse by the second and her heart was on the verge of exploding. Fear ran rampant in her eyes and she squeezed them shut, feeling heat flood her face as her body started to convulse.
"Asphyxiation and seizure," Clarke said in her clinical voice. "What kind of poison does that?"
"I only know of two," Lincoln said. "Belladonna and hemlock."
"You're a doctor, do something!" Raven yelled at Abby.
"We need to keep her passageway open," the doctor said. She tilted Jinny's head back, placing a hand on her forehead and fingers underneath the bony part of her chin to lift it upwards and keep her mouth open. Her muscles became rigid and she could barely move anymore as if rigor mortis had prematurely set in.
"It's not working!" Bellamy cried in panic.
"Charcoal!" Clarke exclaimed, rushing towards a candle. "We need to purge her system."
But before she could set anything on fire, the door to the cell opened with a loud clang and they turned to find Raulf running inside. He fell to his knees in front of them and held up a vial of the antidote between his fingers, pouring the entirety of its contents into Jinny's mouth. She forced herself to swallow when he locked her jaw in place, chest heaving with every unbearable action she took. When he finally let go of her, she threw herself to the side and retched into a nearby pot. Her breaths became steadier, though she continued to gasp sharply.
"Thank god," Bellamy exhaled, grabbing her and burying his face in the crook of her neck which still felt stiff.
She grasped the back of his jacket with weakened fingertips. "Thank you, Raulf," she said in a hoarse whisper over Bellamy's shoulder to the boy.
He nodded with concern and relief in his eyes. "Let me talk to Lexa." With another parting nod to Lincoln, he left them once more, but locked the barred door behind him.
"Come on, over here," Bellamy said, picking Jinny up and setting her against the wall to lean on. Octavia and Raven drew closer, sitting on the floor next to her to provide comfort.
"What happened while I almost died?" she asked drily.
Bellamy frowned, glancing briefly to the girl with the red jacket. "They found the poison on Raven."
"What?!" Jinny exclaimed as Raven lowered her gaze. "That's impossible, Raven wouldn't—" She coughed again from how dry her throat was.
Octavia seemed to read her mind and went to fetch a cup of water for her, which she drank gratefully. "We'll figure something out," she said. They always did.
Abby and Clarke started to argue, but Jinny paid no heed to them. She turned her empty cup in her hand with a frown as her thoughts stormed with dissent. Who would try to poison the Commander? The people with them were supposedly all people that she could trust not to screw things up with the Grounders. Raven couldn't possible have done it because she was grieving over Finn... could she?
"We have no weapons, no way to fight our way out," Bellamy said. "We're surrounded in enemy territory."
"They're not our enemies yet," Kane said with a semblance of hope.
"I'm not giving Raven up to them," Jinny declared. "I'll fight them with my teeth if I have to."
"Don't be crazy," the girl told her. "I'm not letting you do that for me!"
"Jin—" Bellamy stopped short when they heard the metal clinking of the door opening and Indra stomped down the stairs to the cellar with Nyko and three guards behind her. She unlocked the bars and stepped inside just as Jinny pushed herself to a stand in front of Raven.
"How's Gustus?" Lincoln quickly asked.
"Gustus will live," Nyko replied simply.
"Teik em we," Indra ordered menacingly and the warriors with her moved forwards.
"Wait, wait! What are you doing?" Kane exclaimed.
Bellamy held his hand out to stop the first Grounder that reached them. "She didn't poison anyone!" he shouted angrily.
"I argued for all of you to die," Indra told them, her voice filled with resentment. "But the Commander is merciful. She wants only one."
"No," Jinny asserted, throwing her arms to the sides to protect Raven. "I'm not letting you take her! Take me instead."
"Jinny, no!" Raven cried behind her. "You just recovered from the poison!"
"Don't worry," she said lowly. "I'll buy you time to figure this mess out. It couldn't have been one of us."
Bellamy grabbed her away from the warriors. "You are not doing this!" he said fiercely. "They are not doing this, it wasn't us!"
"The girl is innocent!" Lincoln added.
"I don't care!" Indra barked. "If she wants to pay the price for her friend then so be it. Take her! They move, they bleed!"
The Grounders advanced to pull Jinny away from Bellamy, edging their swords to his throat when he tried to fight them off her. Octavia and Raven attempted to stop them, but the seasoned war veterans merely ploughed through their slighter frames. Jinny was dragged out of the cellar, Bellamy's yells following her up the broken tiled stairs.
"The rest of you are free." She could hear Indra say, "When the Fake Commander is dead, so is the alliance. You should run."
━━━━━━━━━━━
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © KAYE CEE
DO NOT STEAL, COPY OR TAKE ANY PART OF THIS WORK.
Translations:
"Sou nou teik em wan op!" - Don't let him die!
"Gon yo we! Pad emo daun!" - Everyone out! Search them!
"Teik em we." - Take her away.
[ author's note ]
hahaha what have i done? i think i might have mentioned before that jinny won't get hurt much this season?? i humbly retract my statement lmao.
and look who has a new nickname!