Traveler's Blessing

Chapter 15: Ambassadors Meeting

Lexa always has four guards with her, and there are three shifts during the day and three at night. During meetings, Titus and Gustus will stand next to the throne. Nya will stand with the personal guards flanked on both sides of the throne, close enough to jump into action and protect Lexa at any given moment. It is Costia's day shift, and this afternoon's throne room meeting is especially grueling. Adding a seventh clan has made the often endless discussions of ambassadors arguing for the interest of their clans even longer and even more unbearable. Costia is exhausted; not only did she worked her regular night shift last night, but she also spent the rest of the night talking to Lincoln. Not to mention she just recovered from being poisoned a couple of weeks ago.

Unlike Costia, who looks like Clarke, Lincoln does not mirror Levitt. There are some features they share but not by much. Costia is unsure why that is the case, except that perhaps Levitt and Lincoln are from a different timeline, and Costia and Clarke are within the same timeline, which affected their physic. This is why Costia was surprised when Lincoln told her who he was. Then again, she shouldn't be shocked. Lincoln defected from Trikru, and Levitt betrayed the Disciples for his love for Octavia. That both, or should she say the same soul recognizes Octavia's strength right away is another giveaway. There are also many parallels, and the two do somewhat resemble each other now that Costia thinks about it. Octavia is going to freak! When she finds out the two greatest loves of her life are actually the same soul. She can't wait to tell her.

Levitt being a Level 11 Disciples also means he is one level away from being a total badass, as Hope would describe. Reincarnating as Lincoln, her friend literally possesses both brawn and brain. Costia misses Hope. It will be at least three decades before they meet again, another few years as Costia, and another twenty-plus year as Clarke. Costia is feeling nostalgic after reuniting and talking to Lincoln all night.

Do you have all we need? Did you find the transmitter and the controller from the bunker?

Yes, I found it.

Can you build the radio ahead of time? If we can radio in early, Raven may not need to come down in an escape pod to confirm that the 100 survived.

That won't be a problem. Remember the first dropship I mentioned last time? I took a detour; there is another radio on it. It is a bit damaged, but it is fixable. I salvaged some equipment from that site as well. I can put together a radio with frequency hopping built-in to stop Mount Weather from eavesdropping with the parts found. It will also have jamming resistance to countermeasure their jamming technology.

The first dropship landed about 7 years ago when Lincoln was about 10, 11 years old. Costia's eyes hollow; her thoughts distance. She hates that the man onboard still died, that Lincoln told her that he didn't try to save the injured man. Instead, he killed the man and put him out of his misery. He killed the man because Lincoln was afraid that news of a survivable Earth would go back to the Ark, leading to the premature entry of Skaikru. An early entry would destroy Clarke's soul and jeopardize all the other soul travelers. He had learned about Costia from Indra when she returned from escorting Lexa to Polis when the Commander was just a novitiate, and he couldn't take the risk.

Costia can't help but feel responsible for Lincoln's first kill. She didn't bother to tell Lincoln that this was the second time he murdered the same person. Lincoln, like Costia, has no memory of being himself in this life. But he had the advantage of seeing those memories during Octavia's M-Cap sessions, even if it was only a few months. Still, details like these are not something he would have known because they are not part of Octavia's memories. Clarke had learned about Lincoln's early life from Bellamy and Octavia and why Lincoln wanted to help them in his first life. The crime committed in this life was for Clarke's survival, and it makes her feel like a monster again. She knows Lincoln hates unnecessary killing and can only imagine the guilt he carries and how he must have debated against it. So she has chosen to withhold this information from Lincoln. They have done this so often, the morally grey in the name of survival.