When I slept, I did not dream, and that was a relief.

I must have been asleep for hours, because when I woke the house was filled with late afternoon sunlight, and the only other person in the house was Peeta. He sat on the ground beside my bed, leaning against the wall, and the instant my eyes rested on him, he smiled.

"You're awake," Peeta said.

"Yes," I said. I did not feel exhausted anymore, but I still felt the grief pulling at me. "I slept the whole morning?"

"The rest of the night and the morning. It's near evening," Peeta replied.

"Where is everyone?"

"At Woof's funeral, watching his pyre burn."

"You stayed?"

"I have no care for Woof."

That was said peculiarly, and I raised my eyes to his. Looking into them, I remembered when I had run from him. I remembered the fires I had touched. I remembered running toward Twill in vain, and how helpless I'd been to help her.

Just the thought brought me pain, and Peeta read it in my face. He came to me and sat beside me, and, after hesitating a moment, he placed a hand on mine.

"What happened?" he asked, lowly.

I shook my head.

"How can I help you, if you won't let me?" he whispered.

"How can you help me," I countered, "when there are so many things troubling me?"

"Tell me your troubles. I will take them away."

I shook my head again.

"What happened last night?" Peeta asked. "What happened to Seeder?"

"What do you know?" I asked, not sure what I should tell him.

"That she's dead. Clove knows, too. She was confused, as I am, by how you are still alive, while Seeder is dead. You were her power source. By all rights, one way to kill Seeder was to kill you... and yet, here you are. Do you have any idea what has happened?"

"I saw it."

"You saw? You were there… when she died?"

"In part," I admitted. "I could witness but could not intervene. I saw the knife..."

Peeta was troubled by the truth. "A knife?"

I shook away his question and spoke instead of something else that was concerning me. "Does fire hurt you? Like... can you touch it?"

He looked perplexed at the topic change. "I can touch it, but it does hurt me. I am powerful and fast-healing, but I can still feel pain."

I frowned. Twill had called me 'girl on fire' last night, and it was no coincidence. She'd called me Seeder's opposite. Seeder had named me Chaff's successor.

I stood and walked over to the hearth where a fire burned.

Peeta followed. "Why do you ask?"

I leaned forward, then hesitated. Perhaps it was only last night that it worked, and I was about to shove my hand into actual burning agony.

Then I shook away my doubt and placed my hand into the flames.

"Katniss!" Peeta grabbed at my shoulder and ripped me back, clearly thinking I had lost my mind.

"No wait," I said. "Look." I displayed my hand to him, and he took it, hurriedly, thinking I was hurt.

When he realized the skin remained unburnt, he frowned. "I don't understand."

I placed my hand in the fire again.

"I still don't understand. Katniss?"

I shook my head. I marveled at the fire twisting around my fingers. "I have no idea. It started last night."

Peeta was speechless, staring at my hand in the flames.

I glanced at him out the corner of my eye, wondering if he would be unnerved by me.

He caught my eye with wonder and asked, "Who are you?"

I was brought up short by the question. It was question I had asked him so many times before, and I had always seen him hesitate to answer. Now I could understand why. I had no answer. I wanted to say that I was just Prim's sister, or that I was a mere mortal, but I could not say that anymore.

"What are you?" Peeta said next.

He reached for my hand and though I saw him grimace at the feel of the fire, and I saw the red angry marks the flames left on his skin – it was burning and healing at nearly the same rate – he still rested his fingers on the back of my hand.

"I am your wife," I said then, whisper quiet.

I could not tell him I was Chaff. What was I to do? Peeta needed the land for his godwell and there I was, suddenly obligated to oppose him. If only I knew who Seeder's replacement was…

Peeta said nothing, but instead pulled me close and held me.

"Everything will be alright," he told me, and I wished I could believe that.

Clove bent her head back and let the late autumn sunshine wash over her face. Winter was rushing upon them. The nights were heavily frosted now and two days out of the week were bitter with northerly winds and miserable flurries of icy rain. The two or three hours of sunshine that they still received were treasured, even by her.

But, most importantly, finally, finally, things were under way.

She was going to get her godwell. Everything was going according to plan.

Thresh would not bother her, as she'd known the whole time. Darius was still holed up in Mount Olympus, helpless like the cripple he was and always will be. Katniss was still annoying, by rights, and Clove still greatly disliked her, but because she now knew that she was Peeta's power source, nothing could be done about that.

Even better, Seeder was dead. With Seeder gone, and Chaff, (in addition to Woof and Twill) the natives had even more readily devoted themselves to the godwell and New Troy.

Soon, she would build a citadel of power, to ensure that she would never again be thwarted and that her and Peeta would be immortal.

After all those long years with Peeta, through his youth. After all those years Peeta had spent in exile and they had clawed their way through the Enlightened rebellion, somehow managing to stay on top. After all the months enduring Katniss, leading Peeta to Panem, hunting Chaff and Seeder...

Clove tipped her head forward again and looked about her.

She stood on Chaff's Hill, the Pan and Panbank spread before her, Pen hill and Cor hill at her back. Peeta was conferring with Finnick and Deimas a few paces away, talking of walls and foundations and water levels. Their faces were animated, their voices excited; now raised in frustration at the complications of an errant stream across the proposed line of the city wall, now energized with purpose as they discussed the local rock, a gray sandstone, and whether it would be strong enough to carry not only the weight of the proposed walls, but the weight of the years and expectations it would of necessity have to bear.

Clove smiled, content. Whatever Brutus had rambled about at his father's deathbed, Chaff and Seeder were gone, and all other threats were so enfeebled that they were of no concern whatsoever.

Soon no one would remember Chaff and Seeder's names; all would celebrate hers and Peeta's.

As if her thoughts had communicated themselves to him, Peeta looked up, and smiled at her.

Ah, but how he annoyed her! He had been everything she needed; he'd been her clay to mold for so long, until Katniss came along, and now she could not even convince him to sire her daughter-heir! Peeta was the only one that could help her turn her dreams and hopes into a reality. She needed him and she had once thought to love him – as he had once thought to love her – but she found that part to play more difficult lately.

Annoying or no, she liked him fine enough, and he was desirable enough, and eventually she would get that heir off him, whether by force (she still had the gold bands!) or if she indeed had to seduce him.

"We will enclose the three mounds of the city center on all sides with equal distance," Peeta said, his eyes falling from Clove's to Finnick and Deimas' once more. "The southern wall of the city will run along the Pan, making full use of the cliff faces of its northern bank. Then" – his eyes moved away, to the north, and he gestured with his hand – "the wall will curve in a flattened semicircle above the Pan, enclosing the White Mount, and Seeder's and Chaff's Hills, all the way around to Pen hill where the gate will be." There, in the cave of Pen hill, will sit the godwell. "This will be a good city, easily defended, and sitting atop these mounds, it will command the entire Pan River's Valley."

Clove walked down to join the men in their talk. "Will it have grand bastions and walkways? Tall arches and towers that gleam? Will the wall shine in the sun, dazzling all who gaze upon it?"

Finnick laughed. "If we can make the foundations strong and deep enough, then, yes, Great Mother, it will be a dazzling city, surrounded by the mightiest wall in the world."

"We can entirely enclose the wall," Deimas said enthusiastically, pointing to the wide stream that flowed between Chaff's Hill and Seeder's Hill into the Pan river. "New Troy will have a permanent and secure water supply. No one shall ever be able to lay successful siege to it."

"Panem will be strong," said Clove, pleased.

"Indeed," said Deimas, then forgot what else he was going to say as his eyes shifted. "Ah, here comes Katniss. You have not yet shown her the site, have you, Peeta? Perhaps you can point out where you shall build you and her a palace."

Katniss was indeed making her way up the slope, a somewhat forced smile on her face and a grace to her steps that Clove found infinitely annoying.

Then, stunningly, Clove felt a moment's queasiness in her stomach, as if a darkened fate walked up that slope rather than Katniss, and she managed to keep her face expressionless only with great effort.

Clove actually laughed at herself. Jealousy is getting the best of you, she thought with scorn, and she shook away any dark feeling Katniss brought with her. It is just the annoying mortal wife.

"You know soon is the night of the Dance of the Torches," Clove said to Katniss, and she almost smiled. "I'd invite you to be a part of the ceremony, but we require virgins..."

Katniss threw Clove a glance, but with no offense taken at Clove's words, – Gods, I hate her! Clove seethed – and then she walked over to Peeta's side.

"You wanted me to meet you here?" Katniss asked him.

"Aye. What do you think?" He gestured around them.

Katniss spent a moment studying the view, apparently riveted by its beauty.

"Are you planning out your city?" she asked. "Will you show me?"

Clove rolled her eyes, knowing Katniss could see her, and turned away, hoping that Peeta would dismiss Katniss from plans that were supposed to be Clove and Peeta's alone. But he did not.

He seemed enthused. "I had not thought you to be interested," he said. "Will you not be bored with talk of masonry and footings?"

"I have not come all this way to be bored," she said. "I want to know. Please, will you show me?"

"Well," he said, "I would have shown you before if I'd known of your interest." He put a hand on Katniss' waist, hesitated, then drew her in close to his body, and began to point out the course of the walls.

Clove watched, unbelieving.

"That's a large city," Katniss said, as Peeta finished.

"Five times the size of your home," Peeta said, his voice rich with good humor and soft, too, as if it were intimate. "But it will not all be built over. There shall be gardens and orchards, light and shade."

"Space enough the Panem people will be happy," Katniss said, clearly understanding. Then she titled her head a little and said softly, "Space enough for Achates and Aurora to play. Prim will like it."

"Enough space for all our children to play and grow," Peeta replied.

Clove had endured enough. "Children?" she said, arching one of her eyebrows, and walking closer. "I thought you only had one." She made that "one" sound like a desperate failing, looking Katniss square in the face as she did so. "Not all women are as blessed as I in their fertility."

She rested one of her hands on Peeta's shoulder, and leaned close… too close, if the sudden scowl in Katniss' face were any indication.

Clove smiled, but Katniss kept composure, and said with a quiet dignity, "Not every woman has had the numerous opportunities you have taken to catch with child."

Clove flushed, and her hand tightened on Peeta's shoulder.

"Katniss," Peeta said with some remonstration, but his eyes sparkled, and he moved away from Clove.

"Ahem," Finnick put in, and Deimas shifted about, looking at his feet, almost as red and flushed as Clove was. "Perhaps you can show Katniss where the main buildings will be, Peeta? I confess some curiosity myself, lest this dazzling city of yours is to be all wall and no buildings."

Clove made a dismissive sound and turned away.

Peeta bit the inside of his lip, trying to keep the grin from his face. "There," he said, pointing to the White Mount. "I have a great desire to build a palace atop that hill, Katniss." Then he leaned closer into her, and spoke low in her ear, and she shuddered. "Shall you enjoy the view, do you think?"

"It will be most agreeable," Katniss said, pushing his face away with a look.

"And there" – he pointed to the top of Seeder's Hill – "a great market, commanded by a civic hall."

"And on this hill?" said Katniss, ignoring his grin. "On Chaff's Hill?"

"Here?" Peeta looked at Clove, and his smile dimmed some. "Here we will dance the two ceremonies to make our godwell and trap. Here we will construct the labyrinth, and there" – he pointed to Pen Hill, and where the crystal cave resided — "will be the main gate of the city, and the entrance to all."

"This labyrinth," Katniss began, "I have heard of it. A trap, for evil and darkness. How does it work?"

"A labyrinth —" he began to say, but was interrupted by Clove, staring with baleful iciness at Katniss.

"We will make this city between us," she said, making no effort to hide the triumph in her voice, "Peeta and I. We will weave the godwell, and we will build the trapping labyrinth. You do not need to know of it."

Katniss stared at Clove for a heartbeat, and Peeta looked ready to argue, but then Katniss smiled.

"Well, then," she said, and turned to Peeta. "I suppose you should just tell me more of these 'children'."

"You love her."

Clove's voice was harsh, her stance stiff and unyielding. They were walking along the northern line of the walls, inspecting the trenches and foundations, the others long gone and the sun setting behind them.

"She is my wife."

Clove was silent.

"You have no need to be jealous of her," Peeta said. "You are my partner in immortality."

"You'll give her more than one child, but not even give me one?" said Clove.

"That?" said Peeta, laughing at the thunder on Clove's face. "I teased her, and she was merely taunting me in return. I am not even allowed to lay with her, let alone get a child on her. There are no 'children'."

They walked in silence a few more paces.

"Perhaps you should live with me in my house," Clove said. "There is space enough for you."

"In your bed?"

Clove almost cried in frustration. "If you are so repulsed, no! Any bed you wish!"

"I shall stay where I am." He stopped, and looked over her, seeing her power in her anger. "Gods, Clove, there is nothing for you to fear. I can be her husband, and your partner in the godwell. We will be together, bound, tied, and conjoined as few men and women ever are. Why this jealousy?"

"Because you give her children. Because you love her. These you do not give me."

Greedy, so greedy, Peeta thought.

"And I don't give Katniss immortality and power beyond everything, do I?"

Clove relaxed. Those were words he'd never spoken, nor would ever speak, to Katniss.

"Imagine it, my love," she said then. "The Night of the Torches, the process begun, you and I, the dance."

"I can picture it."

"Good! So, tell me, will there be enough warriors and virgins among your Trojans to use as dancers?"

"Yes, warriors certainly, and virgins, too."

Clove's mood sobered.

"She is so bothersome, though," Clove grumbled out loud.

"Clove…"

"Would it be so bad if Katniss were to be sent away, my prince? It cannot do any harm."

"She's –"

"Your wife," Clove cut in. "I know. And she's your power source, but distance doesn't matter there."

"I'm not sending my wife and child away just because you wish it so."

"Well if you did everything I wish, then you'd have to be wearing those bands."

The veiled threat did not go over Peeta's head and he narrowed his eyes at Clove. Her own mouth hardened into a thin line, but vanished almost instantly as she laughed, and drew Peeta against her.

"I have waited for you forever," she said, and kissed him.

He pushed her back. "Don't bring up those bands, ever again."

"Why? Do they scare you?"

"Do you want me to leave? Do you wish me to fight you?"

"You wouldn't fight me in the bands."

"I would fight you before I was in the bands, Clove."

"This is silly, I didn't mean it." She pecked his lips swiftly and stepped back. "No bands. Ever again."

"Swear?"

"On our immortal eternity."

Katniss sat back against the familiar ash tree, cradling Achates and watching as Prim went blundering about in the long grass.

"Like that?" Katniss asked doubtfully.

"It's what he showed me," Prim replied, straightening. She was breathless, cheeks pinched with both the cold and the exertion of her body's movements, and the spill of golden hair on the top of her head was lopsided and half-loose from its pins. "Darius did it so much better though. Graceful, even."

"Show me again," Katniss said. She sat up to get a better view, setting Achates on the blanket beside Aurora. "Like he did."

Smiling, Prim went about the motions. This time Katniss calculated the arch of Prim spine, the way she twisted right, while her left foot slid left, and there was a definite turn of the head that was important. It all seemed beautiful when Prim did it, but Katniss did not doubt her little sister's words: that even with his crippled leg Darius had managed to look even more graceful and competent in his movements.

Once Prim finished, she turned to Katniss expectantly. It had not been hard to convince Prim to show her what Darius had been teaching her. She seemed eager to, and Katniss found it all intriguing.

The motions Prim was showing Katniss were a part of the dance that could weave a god their godwell. Prim did not know all of the dance, since Darius had not had that much time with her – before he left the night of the Slaughter Festival and had not returned – and so what she showed was barely enough to make a dent.

Katniss took what she could.

"Did he show you how to make a power source?" Katniss asked Prim.

Prim shook her head and walked over to the tree. She sank gratefully onto the blanket, touched Aurora's cheek in affection, and then took up an apple from their platter of food, and bit it. "He said I won't make one."

"Why not?"

"Pointless. Power sources are for those who don't know how to make a godwell, or for a god who is desperate for power. Power sources are considered... weaker. They're a liability most of the time."

"He didn't want you to have any weak spots."

"Nope." Prim chewed for a moment, then added, "Also, if I made one, it would make my gift from Hera very obvious, and even the bracelet Darius gave me would not be able to suppress the initial spike in power. Clove would be able to know who and what I am. He decided I wasn't desperate enough for power to need a power source and risk that. He jumped right to teaching me how to make a godwell. That way, once I make one, I can just go to my realm and be safe. Like Rue."

"You know who Rue is?" Katniss asked, surprised.

"I've never met her. Darius told me about her. He told me about all of the Enlightened."

"Really? He never told me."

"He said it's important I know my brother and sisters in this pact."

"Tell me about them."

Prim did not hesitate. She smiled shyly at Katniss; excited to have her attention and to show her how well she was learning. "Well he told me about Thresh, and I knew Annie from before. Then there's Peeta and Clove. That covers Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, and Artemis. I bet you knew all those before, though. You knew Rue?"

"I do," Katniss admitted. "What goddess' power does she wield?"

"A god, actually."

Katniss raised an eyebrow.

"Power isn't gender inclined," Prim said. "She's a replacement – or 'Enlightened' – Apollo."

"God of light, music, arts, knowledge, plague, darkness... and healing...?"

"It is a skill of hers. Healing, that is."

"Tell me about the others. Who is Delly?"

"You know Delly, too?" Prim laughed. "Maybe you should be telling me instead."

"No... I don't know that much. Only that Peeta knows her. What goddess did she topple?"

"A god, again. She's what Hermes was."

God of boundaries, travel, communication, trade, thievery, and animal husbandry.

"Tell me, who took over Dionysus?"

"Oh, his name's Haymitch. Darius says he's a 'real piece of work'. One of Annie's recruits."

"Well to be Dionysus" – god of drunkenness, ecstasy, and festivities – "you'd have to be."

"I suppose. Who else is there? Umm…"

"Aphrodite? I do hope the goddess of love and beauty is a woman."

"Your hope is not in vain. Aphrodite was taken over by a woman named Cashmere."

"Interesting name."

"Darius says not all of the Enlightened are from Greece."

Katniss leaned closer. She ran her fingers teasingly over Achates' forehead and he wrinkled his nose at her. She laughed and looked up at Prim. "That's nearly all of them. Who are we missing?"

Prim finished her apple and tossed the core out into the field. "Ares. A man named Gloss... the brother of Cashmere." God of war, bloodshed, and violence. "Darius says Cashmere and Gloss are nearly inseparable."

A coincidence? The true Aphrodite had many a love affair with Ares.

"Three more," Katniss reminded Prim.

"Athena," Prim began and Katniss visibly tensed. "A man took her down."

"What's his name?"

"Annie recruited him. Darius says her recruits are always odd. Like Haymitch. His name is Beetee."

Goddess of intelligence and skill, warfare, battle strategy, handicrafts, and wisdom – now a god.

"Vixen, she's Hestia, goddess of chastity and the hearth. Darius says she's got hair redder than his."

"That's impossible," Katniss said.

"Apparently not." Prim smiled at the reminder of his unfeasibly red hair. "Last of all, there's Demeter."

Katniss sighed. Demeter was a goddess of agriculture, harvest, and grain, to be sure, but she was also for growth and nourishment, and it made her think of the motherly Seeder. "Who took over her?"

"A woman named Wiress."

For a minute, the stillness of the cold breeze blew around the two sisters. Katniss rolled onto her back, plucked Achates up in her arms and lifted him up above her, and he gave a delighted giggle.

Prim asked, "When will Darius come back?"

Katniss, who'd been grinning up at her son, fought off a worried frown. She could not know why Darius had been missing for days. "I do not know," she told her sister. "But I am sure he will be back soon enough. He would not forget about us."