Lysore prompted: Tris took to heart Eric's "You chose us. Now we have to choose you" and waited until she had been chosen back by the Faction (= passing Initiation) to get a tattoo of the Dauntless symbol.
Acceptance
A thin rectangle sat in my pocket for the final week of Initiation. While waiting for my turn to run through Lauren's Fear Landscape, I ran my fingers over the edges. The corners warped first followed by a crease down the middle from when I switched to shorts with tiny pockets for one lingering hot day. The card flopped open along the worn line whenever I took it out of my pocket to stare at the quickly scrawled appointment time.
Sunday, 7pm. Tori had raised an eyebrow when I came in to schedule it. Her chair was open in the afternoon all week; why bother pushing off the appointment until after the final test? She hadn't said it aloud, but I knew that Tori had been thinking what I was. If I didn't make the final cut then I would only have my crows to keep me company with the other Factionless. If I wanted to seize every advantage of the faction I was trying to join, I should have been jumping at the chance.
Still, that wasn't the point. If I didn't make it then I didn't deserve to wear the mark of Dauntless. I knew from the start of stage two that I wanted the Dauntless flames on my body. Maybe it was cliche, maybe a hundred other men and women had the same design, but that was the point, wasn't it? To show that I was a part of the whole. But to get the ink I needed to have earned it with my blood, sweat, and tears.
I curled my fingers around the card, adding another flaw to the cardstock. Watching my friends and enemies leave me one by one, I knew that my destiny was inching closer minute by minute. I wouldn't let myself fail. I had an appointment tomorrow.
