She's The Commander

[Aden]

Not too long ago Aden had been in his own village with his parents, everything was familiar and safe and then warriors had arrived at his village and taken him and his parents had just allowed him to be taken. His parents had briefly tried to explain what was going on to him and why he had to leave but still he didn't understand. All he knew was that he'd been forced to leave the only place he'd ever called home and he'd been taken to a place that was unfamiliar to him. He'd been introduced to a bald headed man who introduced himself as Titus, he called himself the Flamekeeper, spoke harshly to him and accused him of being weak because of the tears that leaked from his eyes. Aden couldn't stop the tears from falling, even after Titus had told him to stop, apparently it would not be appropriate for him to meet the commander when he was in such a state, but Aden didn't want to meet the commander, he just wanted to go home.

The child didn't have a choice in the matter however, as shortly after arriving in Polis, Titus told him that he would be taking him to meet the commander. He listened as Titus explained that he should show their leader the utmost respect. Aden didn't want to find out what would happen if he showed disrespect to the commander, the punishment would surely be extreme for anyone who didn't show the proper respect. He'd seen people punished in his village for minor crimes, he didn't want to think about what sort of punishment the commander could dish out. Aden allowed the Flamekeeper to lead him through the many complicated passages of the tower, every so often he'd hear him mutter words like 'don't slouch' and 'stop crying' and Aden really did try to follow orders but every time he wiped his tears away, more slid down his cheeks. Maybe if he cried in front of the commander they would somehow be offensive and they’d chop off his head, that thought terrified the boy and he chewed on the inside of his cheek in a stronger attempt to stop his tears.

Titus stopped in front of a large set of doors and knocked loudly but made no attempt to enter the room beyond just yet. Aden realised that the commander must be on the other side of those doors and not for the first time he found himself wondering what was so special about his blood that made him important to the commander, if he hadn’t cut himself then he wouldn’t have even been brought to Polis in the first place. Before he had much time to dwell on the reasoning behind his apparent kidnapping, the doors opened and Titus nudged him forwards, prompting him to walk into the room first, even if he would’ve preferred for the man to lead the way. The boy’s attention went straight to the woman who was sat on the throne at the head of the room, he figured that she must be the commander and he lowered his gaze to the floor, too nervous to actually look at her for more than a moment or two at a time. “You should kneel before your commander” he heard Titus’ voice in his ear when he stopped in front of the throne and too scared of disrespecting his superior, he dropped to his knees, keeping his head bowed so that he could stare at the floor without looking at her in case she found some reason to fault his entrance and punished him anyway.

Derrick

[Derrick]

Lexa could remember when she was first brough to Polis and into the throne room where she met the former Heda. It was a rather terrifying experience, not knowing what to expect and fearing any repercussions of accidentally doing the wrong thing. Just as Titus was to bring the new novitiates to see her, he had been the one to bring her to the capital all those years ago and sitting in the throne room to wait brought back memories she thought were long buried. As custom for her, Lexa knew the names of her new novitiates and the one being brought before her today was named Aden. A young boy, frightened. She could see it in his eyes, the way he moved. She knew Titus - the man was not one for being gentle and she could only imagine the words spoken before he came here.

The doors had opened to let Titus and the boy in after he had knocked. It didn't take the Flamekeeper long before he was telling the kid to kneel. She remained seated, her expression betraying no emotion as she studied him. Age didn't matter when it came to a Nightblood. He was small but then so was she when she arrived in Polis for the first time. The small were often more mighty than their bigger counterparts. "Thank you Titus." Lexa lifted up her hand and Titus did as he was told though this was more habit now rather than anything else. After a few moments, Lexa pulled herself to her feet, striding towards Aden in all her full decked out glory except without the warpaint around her eyes. But she was clothed in the commanders outfit.

Not the first time she had been called intimidating and her plan was not to scare him any further. Her expression softened a little as she reached for his face, to lift his chin up so she could see his eyes. "I know how frightening this must be. But you have nothing to fear from me." Lexa spoke softly, resuming to her full height and waiting for him to stand up as well. He had knelt but that was no longer needed of him. "Tell me Aden. Do you know why you were brought here?" She asked, waiting to see how much she knew and what she would need to tell him. Titus was the teacher but so was the Heda and both of them together would be training the Nightbloods for becoming the next Commander. As the previous Heda had done with her, she would do for the next 'generation.'

[Aden]

Aden wasn’t afraid to admit that the commander scared him, she was obviously a person with a great amount of power and from everything that he’d heard about her, he was right to be scared. Polis was a big change from the small village that he came from and to be then confronted by the leader of the twelve clans, a figure that he’d only heard stories about, it was a little overwhelming. She was a person that commanded respect and could make the flamekeeper step away from him with just a hand gesture but even as the man moved away from him, the boy still didn’t move from his place on the floor. As long as he did nothing to anger or upset the woman who was seated on the throne, then he could continue to tell himself that nothing bad would happen to him and the best way to avoid angering her at that moment was for him to remain bowing until he was given permission to stand again.

When he noticed the commander get to her feet, Aden tried to remain perfectly still, lowering his head so that he was staring at the ground instead of directly at her. He could still hear her approach, her footsteps growing closer to him with each passing second and he tried to ignore the slight shaking in his hands. If his parents had been there, he was sure that they would protect him or at least reassure him about the situation and would act as a barrier between him and this fearsome warrior that was now showing an interest in him. The boy first saw her shadow on the ground in front of him that indicated that she was now stood just before him and he sucked in a breath when he heard movement and felt more than saw that she had crouched down beside him.

He felt her hand on his chin and held his breath as she forced him to meet her gaze, he didn’t know what he had been expecting her to do when she’d first taken his chin in her hand but her words surprised him. He hadn’t expected such gentleness to come from the commander but it was reassuring to know that she didn’t want him to fear her, he took that as an indication that she had no intentions of harming him. When she stood back up, Aden followed her lead and got back to his feet, more relaxed than he had been just a moment ago. At her question, Aden laced his hands together in front of him and tried to think back to what his parents had told him “they tried to explain, they told me that I had to come here because of the colour of my blood and that they couldn’t come with me” he muttered thinking back to one of the last conversations he’d had with his parents “apparently, only people who have black blood can become the commander… Or something like that…” he didn’t know if he’d misheard when his parents had tried to explain everything to him in the short amount of time that they’d had. He’d been pretty upset when he’d been told that he would have to leave them and that he didn’t even have the option to stay, the choice had been taken away from him but he hoped that now that he was in Polis, things would become clearer and they’d be able to explain everything to him.

Derrick