Chapter 3: Victor


For the Games recap and Victory Ceremony, Eve's stylist put her in the beautiful crimson gown with black accents that had been intended for her pre-Games interview. Her Victor's crown ended up sitting atop dark hair braided up intricately, interwoven with red ribbons studded with tiny rubies. Her makeup, though kept simple, emphasized her large eyes and pretty lips.

She wished they had let her wear her four-leafed clover pendant, her token from home, but her outfit came with a much more ornate ruby and diamond necklace.

"It's a cute token, but it's so plain!" her stylist said. "It's hardly fitting for a Victor at her Victory Ceremony!"

Having it got me through the worst nights in the Arena. Especially the last one. "My brother gave it to me," was all she said aloud. When I went away to the Academy, he gave it to me for luck.

She did get to wear it during her final interview; it went well with her periwinkle-gray dress, or so her prep team said.


Afterward, on the train home, Eve realized that she didn't actually remember much of the Games recap, or the coronation, or the party after, or her interview.

All she could remember clearly was right after she got out of her recovery room, when Clytemnestra gave her a perfunctory hug and said, "You did well. I knew I chose a good one."

Similarly, when the train pulled into the station in District Two and Eve prepared to face the crowd, Clytemnestra came up to her and said, "Your entire district is proud of you. As am I."

I don't know my entire district.

Her parents did seem proud despite their tears. Again, like with the farewells, she and her brother didn't cry. But their hug was extra long nonetheless.

Elias doesn't seem proud, though.


She, her parents, and her brother all moved into a house in Victor's Village. Because she now had more money than she knew what to do with, her parents were able to hire more help for their shoe store and take more time off. Her mother spent quite a bit of that time helping Eve with with her Victor's talent: growing and "training" miniature trees.

Elias's malformed hip was operated on by a Capitol-trained doctor while Eve was on her Victory Tour. When she returned, trying to hold on to memories of warm welcomes in One, Four, and the Capitol instead of the cold silence of the other districts, the first thing she noticed was that her recovering brother didn't seem happy.

Wasn't this what he always wanted? What we all wanted?


A few weeks later, she came home from a party at another Victor's house to find her parents gone to a friends house for the night and her brother packing.

"What is going on?"

"I'm leaving."

"Why? I was hoping…" I was hoping we could spend time together like when we were young, before the Academy. I hoped we could be closer. I hoped I could get to know you better. "Where will you go?"

"I have a friend I'll stay with until I can get my own place. Don't offer me your money. I don't want it."

"Why? I have more than I need, you could…"

He cut her off. "Eve, you're my sister and I love you. I'm glad you're alive. But I don't approve of how you got that money."

As he met her gaze with eyes so much like her own, she found that she couldn't form an answer.

I don't know you at all.

After a few seconds of silence, he spoke again. "I'll pay you back for my surgery when I can."

She managed a response to that. "That will take you years."

"Doesn't matter. I have to do it, for my conscience."

"So...you don't...approve of the Games."

He looked almost sad. "No, Eve, I do not."

Isn't that treason? "...I don't understand."

"I know." Slinging his pack over his shoulder, he said, "I'll be back tomorrow for the rest of my things. Also, I left a note for Mom and Dad, so don't worry about that."

As he reached the doorway of his bedroom, she said, helplessly, "But Elias…"

He paused and faced her again. "How much are the children of Panem worth to the Capitol, Eve? How much are they worth?"

She didn't have an answer, and he knew it.

He turned and walked out with less of a limp than he'd ever had before.

Other than sporadic family gatherings, Eve didn't see him much after that.


Eventually, as she grew older and wanted more privacy, she would buy her parents a house and would have the Victor's home to herself. She had a lot to do in the Capitol during every Games season, and in Two she still found things to occupy her time. She lived the life of a Victor well.

Yet, in quiet moments, often just as she drifted off to sleep at night, a tiny voice in the back of her mind would say, How much are the children of Panem worth?

It would be about nine years after her victory before an answer emerged that she...and the rest of Panem...could not ignore.