Fatefall - 13

Chapter 13 - Poppy

Her words reminded me of something that we’d all neglected---our Graces. If the Fates’ power led to their success, who was to say we couldn’t use their own strength against them?

“Welcome, competitors, to the first Trial of the Tournament of Fates,” exclaimed King Hector from his spot atop the podium at the center of the arena. He raised his arms as though he was expecting some sort of cheering, but the arena remained silent. 

Poppy couldn’t blame the other competitors for their lack of amusement. 

Koda had arrived midmorning to drop off their trial attire. They were to meet in the arena where the qualifiers had taken place at noon so the trial could commence. 

Trial attire consisted of a simple top, pants, boots, a jacket, and an optional mask. Some competitors---like Adrian---still wanted to keep their identities hidden but the masks were dark enough that Poppy hoped they would allow her to blend into the shadows. She’d encouraged her entire team to wear masks for that same reason. 

Not that any part of the uniform prepared her for what King Hector had set up in the arena. 

Ten blankets were arranged in a perfect circle around the podium. Each one was a different color with baskets that matched, as well as some plates of food and five bottles of mysterious liquid. 

A picnic. 

“This is ridiculous,” Nakoa mumbled under her breath at King Hector’s wide smile. Poppy stifled a chuckle.

“In your baskets, you should find five bandanas that match the color of your blanket,” King Hector continued awkwardly. Poppy could sense Adrian’s discomfort from across the blanket. If he wanted to be king one day, he needed to learn how to speak better than his father. “These bandanas will allow you to discern your teammates. I advise you to tie them somewhere visible on your bodies.”

Poppy flipped open the basket and pulled out a handful of maroon bandanas. She handed them out to her teammates and then tied hers around her right shoulder. At least it wasn’t vivid pink. 

“Now, for the rules of the Trial,” King Hector explained. “The Trial will take place in an abandoned temple rigged with traps and challenges designed to test your Graces. Your goal is to collect five sacred gems---one for each Fate. Only five gems for each Fate will be provided. The first five teams to arrive at the entrance to the temple with a gem for each of the Fates will move on to the next trial.”

“So a glorified game of capture-the-flag,” whispered Jett, a grin splitting his face. 

“Except everyone wants to kill you,” Poppy said. “And if you lose, they take your Grace.” And some of us without our Graces are practically worthless. 

King Hector cleared his throat at the low murmurs that spread across the arena. “Unfortunately, to ensure that no team has an advantage, you will be unconscious when you are delivered to the temple. Once you wake, you will have half an hour to come up with a strategy before the gates to your rooms open. As soon as the gates lift, the gems are free game.”

Unconscious. The word garnered several hisses of anger. 

“Relax,” King Hector called out and the arena fell silent once again. “On each blanket should be five bottles. They contain a sedative that will be counteracted once everyone is safely delivered to the temple.”

“You can’t drug us!”

“This is an outrage!”

“You’ll have to dump the sedative down my throat!”

The king held up his hands again, trying to appease the competitors, but it accomplished nothing. 

Poppy could feel her own heart pounding a frantic rhythm in her chest. A glance at Jett told her he was experiencing the same thing. His smile had slid away, leaving only a deep frown. Poppy reached for his hand, trying to calm her breathing. 

Sedative. Such an innocent word, and yet Poppy could smell the burning sugar scent, could feel her head growing light.

Jett squeezed her palm. “I…It’s not real…We’re going to be okay.” His voice wobbled and cracked. 

Poppy nodded, but she didn’t believe him. 

“What’s wrong?” Sage asked them, who seemed relatively calm for once. 

“We come from Aecheral,” Poppy answered, trying to keep her voice steady and failing miserably. Smoke clogging her throat. Her limbs are heavy like lead. “When…When they first started to persecute the Graced, they used drugs to weed us out. They used smoke and poured sedatives designed only to affect the Graced in our wells.” Visions swimming in her mind. Fever storming through her tiny body. “They had to stop when our crops started dying, but they didn’t care how many children they killed through overdoses. I…” She couldn’t bring herself to finish. 

“I’m sorry,” Adrian whispered, sounding sincere. 

“The drugs stole our Graces away,” Jett said. “It’s why my parents fled the country.” Poppy felt Jett’s pulse increasing rapidly beneath her touch. “We went to the only place that accepted the Graced---here. And do you know what the men on the docks said?”

“Jett,” Poppy breathed. 

“They said that Xegalla had no room for refugees like us. They turned us back. Told us to find some place that we were welcome.”

“I’m sorry,” Adrian repeated. “I didn’t know--”

“Of course you didn’t,” Poppy sighed. “No one cares about the refugees. But that’s not the point. Jett and I won’t take the sedatives, not willingly.”

“Are you forfeiting then?” Nakoa hissed, glancing around nervously at the other teams, who were beginning to settle down reluctantly. Poppy caught a few of the other competitors already passed out on the ground. The very thought of it twisted her stomach into knots. 

“No,” Jett said resolutely. “But I don’t see why they can’t just blindfold us or something.” 

“We can hit you over the head with one of the bottles,” Sage offered. 

Poppy opened her mouth to respond but suddenly there was someone beside their blanket, glaring down at them. Golden uniform. “Is there a problem here?”

“Is there an option other than the sedative?” Jett asked. 

The guard laughed. “You’re funny, kid. Why don’t you just take the drink and knock yourself out. We don’t have time for jokes.”

“Please,” Poppy begged. “Anything except the sedative.” 

“A blindfold?” Jett suggested, half-joking.

The guard thought for a moment. “Now that you say something, we did get something else to deal with problems--”

He didn’t bother finishing his statement before Poppy felt a pinch in the back of her neck. Her fingers flew to the skin, trembling as she felt the guard removing a syringe. Someone lunged for the guard, knocking Poppy over in the process. She was sent sprawling into Adrian, though one hand still gripped Jett’s. The world swirled in a blur of colors and shapes and--

Darkness wrapped its tendrils around her and pulled her downwards. 

Rough hands shook her awake and suddenly Poppy was back in Aecheral, lying on the cot hidden in the cellar where none of the soldiers would think to check for the Graced. She bit back a scream, fear boiling her blood. Someone cradled her to their chest. One of her sisters, probably. Sent to silence her cries or the soldiers would find her. 

“Poppy.” The whisper didn’t sound like either of her sisters. 

Because your sisters are in Aecheral with your parents, she reminded herself. The Tournament! 

Poppy jerked away from whoever had been holding her and scrambled across the floor. Her back grazed a stone wall and reality slowly dawned on her. She’d been drugged, but she wasn’t in Aecheral. No one would come looking for her. Safe. 

“Poppy?” The voice from before must’ve been Adrian’s. He continued to repeat her name, his voice hoarse from the sedative. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” 

In the dim lighting of the room, she could just barely make out Adrian’s frown, as well as the blurry shapes of her other teammates, gathered in a rough circle in the center of the room. On the far side of the room stood a large door with no handle. Torches were placed sporadically along the walls, allowing for at least some light. A sharp scent lingered in the air and Poppy noticed the metal grate on the floor beside her. Gas to reverse the sedative, she realized. 

“Are you sure?” Jett asked. His red rimmed eyes and racing heart told Poppy that he was experiencing the same difficulties she was. 

“If I said no, would it really make any difference,” she countered, daring to scoot closer to the circle again. Sage and Adrian parted so she could squeeze between them, something Poppy was infinitely grateful for. Despite her initial reaction, she didn’t trust herself to be alone for the time being. “All right, we need a plan to get five of the gems. Any ideas?”

“The obvious solution would be to split up,” Nakoa said. “Everyone gets the gem that belongs to their Fate. Simple.”

“Except I don’t have a Grace,” Sage pointed out. “Which means I most likely will not be able to access the room where the gems are even held in the first place.”

“We’re allowed to ambush other teams,” Jett said. “We find the exit to the temple and ambush the first team to walk by.”

“And if we fail? We won’t have time to return to the inside of the temple and recover the rest of the gems?” Adrian protested. 

Poppy watched as the room erupted into complaints and arguments. She had to admit that Sage’s lack of a Grace changed the game entirely. Could he be trusted to recover a gem on his own? And if he couldn’t, would he be a liability to everyone else? Her mind wrestled with a dozen different plans, turning each one down. Planning had never been her strong suit. She much preferred jumping into action and hoping for the best to spending hours meticulously plotting how every moment would play out. 

“Look, we don’t have much time,” Nakoa finally interrupted, her voice echoing in the small space. “We need to decide if we trust Sage to get his own gem, and we can figure things out from there.”

“He can’t,” Adrian said. “Without a Grace, it’ll be impossible.”

Sage seemed offended. “I’ve been faking a Grace since I was a child. Surely it can’t be that different--”

“Adrian’s right,” Jett sighed. “I don’t care if you can make up some soul reading or something, Sage, but it’s not going to help you pass the Trial. These things are designed to test the limits of the Graced. Imagine how hard it’ll be for someone who doesn’t even have a Grace.” 

Sage ducked his head, humiliation obvious. And as much as Poppy pitied him, she knew Adrian and Jett were right. There was no way Sage would be gaining easy access to the gems. 

“Just trust me,” Sage pleaded. “I can wait outside and beat up the first Graced that walks out with a gem.” He sounded so desperate but… 

“Yeah, yeah, that’s just asking to get yourself killed,” Jett said. 

“Oh, but I’m sure the rest of you would be fine. Admit it---the only reason you don’t think I can handle myself is because I don’t have a Grace,” Sage spat. The anger in his words surprised Poppy. 

“You’re going up against people who have trained for their whole lives for this competition, and you have nothing to fight back with,” Adrian said.

“Fine,” Sage said at last, crossing his arms. “I won’t fight them.” He glanced at Jett. “I’ll steal the gem off them and they won’t even realize it until it’s too late.”

Poppy snorted. Sage the pickpocket? The kid obviously didn’t have a bad bone in his body. With the luck their team had, he’d end up caught with his hand down someone’s pants and they’d slit his throat. 

“It takes years of practice to pickpocket successfully,” Jett said. 

Sage raised a pale brow. “Well obviously you still have some learning to do then, seeing as I caught you.”

Jett frowned. “Listen here you little--”

“I’ve been watching pickpockets at the market for years,” Sage admitted. Poppy’s Grace couldn’t sense his heart racing or any rise in body temperature. He was telling the truth. “I debated turning them in, but that’s not the point. If I hide in the shadows---which Fates know there are plenty of in this stupid temple---I can wait for a Graced of Soul and then switch out the gem with something else.” 

“A button?” Nakoa suggested, gesturing to her jacket. 

“Exactly,” Sage agreed. 

Poppy wanted to trust Sage---she really did. He’d been willing to reveal that he was Graceless and that he joined the Tournament despite that proved that he had the motivation to win. Sure, he was the same age as the rest of the team was but Poppy had a feeling he’d never experienced anything quite like the Graced Games before. 

She looked to Adrian and Jett, who both looked deep in thought. 

“Time is ticking away,” Sage reminded them, not so subtly. 

“All right.” Adrian threw his hands up in the air, exasperated. “You can go off on your own and steal a gem. Every man for himself. Should we meet back here and then make a run for the exit?”

“Traveling as a group seems risky,” Poppy said. “The other competitors will assume we’ve already gathered our gems and they’ll target us more than they’d target an individual. But meeting at the exit won’t work either, since we don’t know where it is?”

“If this truly is a temple with five separate chambers, then we already have a basic layout,” Nakoa interjected. She began tracing a crude square in the dirt of the floor. “I grew up worshiping the Fates, and assuming this temple was once used for worship too, there should be one main corridor with six points coming off---an entrance and five chambers for worship of the Fates. If we can find the main corridor, we can find the exit.”

“They probably have it closed off,” Jett noted. 

“My guess is that we’re below the temple,” Nakoa explained. “Once this gate unlocks, I think it’ll open to a maze created for the Tournament alone. My guess is there are five larger paths that’ll lead to the chambers, but they’ll be easy to identify. After you get to the chambers and grab the gems, there should be another doorway that’ll empty into the main corridor.”

“Then we’ll meet in the main corridor,” Adrian decided. 

“Anything else anyone would like to mention before we all risk our necks for some prize money?” Jett asked, trying to lighten the mood. 

Adrian nodded. “You all better stay alive.”

Poppy raced down the dark, stone hallway, her chest heaving with the effort it took to stay ahead of the others. Their footsteps haunted her and their pulses sang in her ears. A sudden pain split her side. Cramps. She thought her nightly adventures had given her immunity to tiny inconveniences like that, but apparently not. 

She slowed to a stop as she came across another intersection in the corridors. They were both identical at a first glance, but Nakoa had been right. 

Poppy closed her eyes, wishing her breathing didn’t sound so pathetically loud. 

There, to her right. A tiny pulse. A flicker of life that Poppy associated with plants. Only someone with a Grace of Life would be able to sense it. 

Her muscles screamed at her to rest but Poppy knew that to stop for longer than a few seconds would allow her opponents to catch up. With a sharp breath, she continued down the hallway to the right. 

The darkness grew thicker with each intersection. Poppy pushed her fear to the back of her mind. She knew she was going the right way---why else would there be plants at the intersections? Still, the sedative from earlier still lurked in her system, tugging at her mind when she turned a corner too fast or causing her to stumble over flat ground. 

Was it just her imagination, or were the footsteps growing louder? She couldn’t use her Grace and focus on running at the same time. Not easily, at least. 

“She went this way!” Hunter’s voice. Now she knew what Grace he had. 

So it hadn’t been her imagination then. Poppy increased her speed, flames dancing in her muscles. 

“Hurry, she can’t be too far ahead!” There was no wheezing. No sign of exhaustion at all. Maybe there had been some other kind of drug in the syringe, because Poppy seemed to be the only one struggling against the darkness. 

With a final burst of energy, she managed to pull ahead and the voices faded to echoing whispers again. 

Poppy stumbled to a stop as she arrived at a pair of wooden doors, engraved with blood red runes that she couldn’t read. She debated waiting for Hunter and her other pursuers to catch up. They might be able to spring any traps and she would be able to slip through unnoticed. Possibly, of course. But what if there weren’t traps or they caught her and forced her to test the doors? It wasn’t worth the risk. 

She grabbed one of the door handles. Pain shot up her arm like lightning, accompanied by bolts of white light. Poppy stumbled backward as the sparks flew across her body and sank into her skin. 

Something warm trickled from her nose and her tongue tasted like metal. A sob escaped her throat and she fell to her knees, gasping for breath. 

Fates. Some sort of a beast tore through her veins and ripped her to shreds. Blood leaked from her nose and ears. Red rimmed her vision and she stifled another cry with one hand. It felt like every cut she’d ever sustained had reopened--

Blood poured from a gash on her neck and Poppy pressed her hands to the wound, tears streaming from her eyes as fire and ice raged in her bones. Not again. You can’t take me. I won’t go back. She was in Aecheral again, her life surging out of her like a river with a breached dam. 

Dark masks. A bloody sword. Screams. Ghosts grabbing for her arms. 

No, she wouldn’t let them have her. Poppy could feel her Grace swirling beneath her skin and she withdrew her barriers. Her Grace exploded inside of her, rushing to heal the injuries that were never there to begin with. Power clanged in her bones. 

Poppy was on her feet a moment later, her fists raised for a fight. Her fingers emitted a soft, silvery glow. 

When Hunter and the other competitors turned the corner, it was Poppy who had the element of surprise. Hunter held out his hand to hold the other competitors back, his eyes widening as he took in Poppy’s glowing hands. 

“What is wrong with her?” the woman at Hunter’s side asked warily. 

Hunter took a step back. “I don’t know, but it’s not natural. Maybe we shouldn’t approach…” 

He said it like she wasn’t standing there. Like she was a feral creature that he’d yet to tame. Her Grace crackled in the air. A warning. The competitors shifted uneasily, their discomfort obvious. 

“I won’t hurt you if you don’t hurt me,” Poppy assured them. 

Hunter scoffed. He wasn’t wearing a mask so Poppy could see the fear in his eyes. “You’re standing in our way, little healer, so I’d suggest you get out of the way.”

“I got here first,” Poppy said. “Fair is fair.” She took a step backwards so that she could feel the wooden doors at her back. 

Hunter lunged for her but hesitated when Poppy raised her hands. 

“I’m getting one of the gems,” she stated. “You all can fight over the other four, but I get one or I kill you where you stand. Trust me, I won’t be losing sleep over it.”

They were fighters. Poppy had to admire that about the other competitors. But as Adrian had said, every man for himself. 

When her opponents rushed forward, a tidal wave of waving fists and flaring Graces, Poppy simply stepped aside. The mass of people collided against the door and, just as Poppy had hoped, it enacted whatever curse was meant to be a challenge. They collapsed to the ground like a writhing nest of deadly vipers. 

“Care to join them?” she asked, not bothering to look up at Hunter, who’d been smart enough to avoid the crowd of other Graced. “It’s the only way in.”

“Not the only way,” Hunter corrected, and leapt for her. 

Poppy ducked, but Hunter caught her hair and pinned her wrists together. Her Grace darted from her skin to Hunter’s and he cried out in shock and pain but didn’t relinquish his grip. 

“I know plenty of ways to kill you without a knife,” he hissed into her ear. “But seeing as we don’t have much other competition right now, I think I’ll let you live. Besides, I have a little something I’ve been wanting to test out.” 

He dropped her hair and punched her in the face. 

Hunter must’ve been wearing a ring of some sort because Poppy felt something puncture skin and blood leaked down her cheek. 

It wasn’t until the light of her fists flickered out that she realized something was wrong. 

Poppy grasped for her Grace but it was gone. Fates, what had Hunter created? She thrashed against his grip until he was forced to relent. The world was spinning and the ground was rushing up to meet her--

She managed to catch her balance at the last possible moment, leaning against the door for support. 

“Better hurry,” Hunter said, offering a twisted smirk as he kicked one of the unconscious competitors in the gut. “My friends will be waking up any minute now, and I don’t think you want to fight us while Graceless.”

Poppy had heard all that she needed to. She flung the doors opened and slipped inside, slamming them shut before Hunter could join her. Fates, her Grace was gone. 

She forced her emotions away, hiding them in the back of her mind to deal with later. Tears threatened to spill from the corners of her eyes and her throat ached from holding back sobs, but she was alive. Alive. And she had the gems. Poppy could see them glinting on a pedestal just ahead. She’d made it, but at what cost? What if her Grace had permanently abandoned her?

You don’t need a Grace to kill Hunter, Poppy told herself. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. 

She would paint the streets with his blood.

Author's Note

Sorry if this chapter is really long, I realized that hadn't touched on Poppy's backstory yet (I thought I'd mentioned it in a previous chapter but apparently I'd cut the scene and forgotten to add some stuff back in). The final scene in this chapter also went differently than I'd planned, so it ended up being longer than anticipated.