My Immortal

Chapt 21: Who is Wanheda & What is Bonding?

Clarke:

I could tell by the looks I was getting around the camp and around Ton DC that something had changed in the eyes of the grounders. They had begun to whisper something I couldn't understand. After nearly a week of these whispers, I finally had had enough. Late one afternoon, I cornered Lexa in her tent.

"What are they calling me?" I demanded, my hands on my hips.

She froze in her pacing and stared at me. Holding my gaze for only a moment, before holding up a hand. She poked her head out of the tent and asked for Kiran and Mako to be summoned to her tent. As she came to stand in front of me, she took a breath.

"It is a conversation I had been putting it off, and yet I know we need to have it. If you will allow it, we can wait for Kiran and Mako to arrive to have it. I feel it would be better to have them here..." Her next comments were cut off as Kiran and Mako arrived.

"Heda, you called?" Mako spoke up, as she looked between Lexa and I.

"We walked in on something..." Kiran whispered, her face frozen in an indescribable look.

"What are they calling me?" I repeated.

"Oh... it's that conversation." Kiran fell silent, wrapping her arm around Mako's shoulders.

Lexa motioned for us all to sit down around the central table. Once we had settled, Lexa looked to Mako to speak first.

"You know that Kiran and I created the Trigeda language. I taught the Trikru the language when Kiran was up in the Ark with you." She went on to explain that in her years of being considered a goddess that lore had been created to go with the language. The story of Heda and Wanheda being the strongest of these stories. "Heda, Lexa as you know her, is the strongest warrior, the leader of the army. Her counter, most of the time seen as her perfect soul match, is Wanheda. The definition is rather dark, but she is seen more as a shield, a protector. Where as Heda is the Warrior, Wanheda is the Protector, most of the time a Healer."

Lexa nodded once more, shifting in her chair. "The clans believe you are Wanheda, Clarke. They respect you intensely."

"What does it mean?" I asked once more.

"Commander of Death." Kiran spoke up looking at the floor. "But Like Hades in Greek culture, you are more of a protector of the dead, a guide to paradise rather than an omen of death."

"Commander of Death?" I echoed, the words not feeling real. "They praise me for ordering the two of you to kill the mountain."

"They praise you for having the strength to fight and conquer their greatest enemy, Clarke. You have also given them something that no other Heda has had..." Lexa spoke up, gathering my attention to her. "It has been foretold, even before I was born, that when Heda meets Wanheda again, the clans will enter what they call The Long Peace."

"So I am some prophesied being in your culture?"

"To me? You are far more than that." Lexa whispered, looking at Mako and Kiran for a brief moment. "With Mako and Kiran as witnesses, Clarke, I have something to ask. I, Leska Kom Trikru en Kongeda, wish to bind myself for life to you, Clarke Griffin Kom Skaikru. Would you allow this bond?"

My face and neck started to feel flush and my knees almost buckled as I asked. "Did... did you just ask me to marry you?"

Lexa looked confused and looked to Mako for an answer.

"Clarke marriage to you and those from the Ark is the old way. You are welcome to it, but it is not what the Trikru do. The Trikru, and all grounders, bond for life. The Fall Equinox is approaching quickly. On this day, our people bond for eternity with their soul mate, their Bonded. It is the day of magic for our people. The bonded pair always come back from this journey changed. A matching mark the two share. I've seen some of them. They are rather beautiful." Mako said, explaining it to me and by the look of it, Kiran as well.

"The Proposition is real. One's own soul accepts or declines based on compatibility. I could propose Mako, for example, but it would fail, as we are not compatible. She is a goddess and I am Heda. We do not match." Lexa explained softly. "If the propositioned one is unbound and compatible, their soul automatically accepts. On the night of the Equinox, the propositioned one will be drawn into the Woods, to a place they've never been before. There, they will wait. For only their true soul mate can find them. If they are found, the two would need to be intimate and share a blood letting bite. Once that blood has been shed, the two are bound and the mark appears."

Mako turned to Kiran and spoke softly. "With Lexa and Clarke as witnesses, it's my turn to ask. I, Mako Via Kom Trikru, wish to bind myself for life to you, Kiran Snyder Kom Skaikru. Would you allow this bond?"

Kiran looked at Mako with a smile and a light blush. "I accept."

"I accept." I answered without thinking. I felt a warmth in my chest and for the first time in a long time I felt like everything was going to be ok. "When is the Equinox?"

"Tomorrow Night. We will no doubt not be the only couples to make this commitment. I have seen your Raven speaking quietly with Anya. Lincoln will no doubt ask Octavia. That is not even taking the Trikru couples that have been waiting since last year. The bond can only be completed on the Fall Equinox."

"No one knows why." Mako answered before anyone could ask. "That is just how it is."

Kiran and I nodded. I stepped up to Lexa and opened my arms. I wondered if she would welcome my touch. Lexa looked at me for a moment, before pulling me into her arms and pressing a soft kiss to my forehead. I melted against her and sighed softly. This is where I was meant to be. I looked at Kiran and found her doing the same thing with Mako.

Maybe the ground would turn out to be close to the paradise we were taught it would be back on the Ark.

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