Emerson

A few hours after we return to polis, I go to Lexa's room. I see her sleeping on her couch. She looks so peaceful and beautiful. I sit down on the chair across from her. I take out my sketch pad and decide to draw her. I start with an outline and then I move onto the details. I see her move. She must be dreaming. Then she launches up into a sitting position. I quickly go over to her and sit down next to her. My hand automatically goes to her knee. "It's ok. You're ok." Lexa looks at me, her breathing is heavy. She puts her head in her hands. She's shaking. "What were you dreaming about?" I ask her softly. "The commanders before me, they speak to me in my sleep. I saw their deaths at war in the hands of an assassin." She says. Her breathing slows. "It was just a nightmare." I say. "No. It was a warning. They think I'm betraying their legacy. Jus drein jus daun has always, always been the way of our people." She says. "Listen to me." I say. She looks up at me, staring into my eyes. "What you did stopped a war. Your legacy will be peace." She looks away from me, and gets up to put a book she has on her lap away. I see something in her hands. It's my drawing of her. I quickly go over to her. "It's not finished yet." I say nervously. Why am I so nervous? She looks up at me, and she seems shocked but happy. It looks like she's about to say something before theres a knock on the doors. "Enter." Lexa says, and I can hear slight annoyance in her voice. Titus walks in. Two guards follow him In with a box. Lexa puts the drawing down and walks over to them, and I follow. "Pardon me Heda. I didn't know you were busy." Titus says. "Are you going to tell me what's in the box or not?" She asks. "Forgive me. This is a gift from King Roan if Azgeda for  Wanheda. The messenger said this is proof of Azgedas loyalty to the coalition and an answer to an unanswered question. Open it." He says to the guards. I step closer to the box. When it opens, I see someone inside. I recognize him. It's Emerson from Mount Weather. His hands are tied together and there's a gag in his mouth. As soon as he sees me he quickly gets out of the box and jumps on me before I have time to react. He gets a punch in before I feel the guards pull him off me. "Get him out of here! Put him in a cage!" I hear Lexa yell to the guards. I feel her warm touch on me, and I brush her off and get up. Lexa looks at me worriedly and I answer her silent question. "I'm fine." I say.

A few hours later,  I'm in my room when a guard tells me that Lexa wants to see me in the throne room. When I arrive I see Lexa and Titus. "You wanted to see me?" I ask her. "Yes.  We need to discuss the fate of the last mountain man." She says. "I believe he deserves death." Titus adds. "She can speak for herself Titus." Lexa says. "Titus is right." I say. I can see the shock on Lexa's face. "You see? It is human nature to need vengeance. Only once satiated can there be peace, that is our way." Titus says. "That was our way." Lexa says angrily. Lexa looks into my eyes. "Clarke? So blood must not have blood applies only when it is my people who bleed?" She asks.  "That was about stopping a war. This is about finishing one." I say. "I'm sorry, but if you want my advice, I agree with Titus. He deserves to die for what he did." "I'm not looking for advice. I'm looking for a decision." Lexa says. "So what will it be Clarke? Banishment from our lands forever, or death by 49 cuts from your hand? You have sundown to decide."

Later, the guards escort me back to the throne room. I see Emerson tied up in the middle of the room. "Leave us." I say. I walk up to him. "Carl Emerson. Mount weather security detail." I say to him. "I've heard what they call you now. Wanheda, Commander of death." He says. "I should've known if was you who told them how to destroy the mountain." I say. "I didn't destroy Mount Weather. You did. You killed 381 people. You killed my friends, and my children." He says angrily. "Your president left me no choice." I say. He yells. As I walk out I hear him yelling even more. "If I die today my pain will end! But yours has just begun!"

I go back to my room to find Titus there. "What are you doing in my room Titus?" I ask him. "You spend so much time talking about peace. I think it's time we made peace with each other, don't you?" He asks. "All right." I say. I sit down in a chair across from his. "I appreciate the predicament you're in Clarke. I do. After convincing Lexa not to avenge the massacre of our army, it must be hard for you to chose to take your own revenge. Perhaps now you realize how difficult it will be for our people to accept this new policy." He says. "This has nothing to do with what happened to your army. Emerson is guilty. Wiping out my people for the crimes of a few is not justice." "Did you not wipe out his people for what a few of them did to yours? You're a leader Clarke. Lexa listens to you. Help me protect her. Our people will not accept blood must not have blood, and I fear it will get her killed." "I can't help you do something that leads to war against my people." I say. "Then we are at an impasse." He says. With that, he leaves.

Soon, I get escorted to the throne room. Everyone is already there, and Lexa is standing in front of her throne. I stand near everyone else. "We are here tonight, as we have been countless times before, to watch a man die." Lexa says. "Wanheda. Vengeance is yours," she says as a guard holds out a knife to me. I look at it, and back at Emerson. "No." I say. I hear people talking. "I don't know if your death would bring me peace. I just know I don't deserve it." I say to Emerson. "This man must die. If you will not take his life then Heda will!" Titus yells. "I will speak for myself. Enough Titus." Lexa says. "What is this?" Emerson asks me. "I wouldn't be killing you for what you've done, I'd be killing you for what I've done." I tell him. "I give this man his life." I tell everyone. "Jus no drein jus daun." Emerson yells and I hear people talking louder. "Silence!" Lexa yells. "The crimes of the mountain cannot be answered by one man. Wanheda knows this." Lexa looks at me, and I see happiness in her eyes. "Her actions show us a promise for a new future. A world in which violence dose not always answer violence. A world in which our children can flourish without the shadow of death. This prisoner is banished from my lands. He will live, but he will live with the ghosts of lose he has lost. Haunted until the end of his days by the knowledge that he is the last of his kind." Lexa says to everyone. "May you live forever." I say to Emerson.

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