Love Is Weakness

Stay With Me

Lexa's POV

I stared thoughtfully down at the map in front of me, contemplating where next to search when a voice called for permission to enter. They came in at my instruction and the warrior bowed his head slightly out of respect.

'What do you have to report?' Indra asked him from where she had been stood quietly at the other end of the table, not having wanted to disturb my concentration.

'We scoured the area twice and found nothing, are we to be relocated?' the warrior replied somewhat nervously, having heard from others what reception they had gotten from their commander after returning once again empty handed.

'You say you retraced your path a second time?' I asked him, turning away from the table to fix my gaze on the bowed head. My warriors rarely seemed to catch my eye recently, clearly fearful of bringing my wrath down upon them.

'Sha heda' he confirmed, lowering his head even further as a moment of silence passed by. His news was not what I wanted to hear, this was the third patrol to return in a single day with little to report. 

'Then go back and look a third time, a fourth if you must' I snapped, feeling Indra's gaze turn to me at the sharp tone.

'Heda..I am certain that-'

'Are you questioning my commands?' I said softly, this apparently far more intimidating to the warrior then any amount of shouting. Possibly it had something to do with the way my grip tightened on my sword when my orders weren't carried out immediately. 

'No Heda, I will set off at once' he hastily corrected, backing out of the tent with his head remaining as low as possible rather than risk my wrath. I turned back to the map once more, casting my gaze over the black marks that indicated no further sightings had been made.

'What is it Indra?' I inquired, feeling the warriors steady gaze resting on me even as she remained silent. Clearly she did not agree with my methods, she rarely did.

'They would not have missed anything Heda, sending them out again is pointless' she stated, never afraid to question my judgement.

'There is always the possibility, that was the most promising place to find any clues so they will search again until they find something' I replied, not taking my eyes from the map as I located the area that I had just sent my warriors to look over once again. Tracking the most likely path that the Reapers had taken would've lead them straight through that area of the forest, I had to be certain.

'And if they don't?' Indra asked, barely flinching when my hand struck the table with such force that an audible crack was heard throughout the tent.

'That isn't an option' I growled, retracting my hand from the table to find it fortunately still standing. It seemed I had been more prone to outbursts recently, mostly due to my frustration at our fruitless search.

'Heda, it has been over a week now...' Indra began hesitantly, knowing that even she wasn't exempt from my fury.

I was fully aware how much time had passed, everyday had been spent sending out groups of warriors to search the forest with varying success. A few tracks had been picked up but they were quickly lost and it felt like we were repeatedly starting from scratch.

'The girl could be anywhere by now, she may not even be within our territory' Indra said, waiting for some semblance of a reply though none came as I stared down silently at the map. 'I can keep the search groups running smoothly, I believe it's best that you return to Polis.'

Indra lapsed into silence once she had said her piece, standing straight as I swiveled to face her.

'You want me to leave this camp and go to Polis...' I began softly as I took a small step towards her, '...whilst Clarke is out there in the wild, most likely fighting for her life?'