"It was easy to brush away the Capitol's contribution to Panem. They were said to export entertainment - in the grand scheme of life, what use was an endless parade of pretty faces? However, the schedule proved that they took it seriously. He was impressed. For a moment, he almost wanted to sit and see what Capitol Idol was. It would be more entertaining than lunch with his stylist."
The Verse of a Victor: https://archiveofourown.org/works/53899390/chapters/136429174
Embers is a fic written by the creators of this blog, @aihodineverlark and @fleim6696. It has, since first posting last year, gone through revision and rewrite—meaning that while there is a new image to see, there are also new chapters to read! The content has been completely revamped, so if you’ve been following the fic on AO3 or elsewhere, you’ll want to dive into the new stuff!
Right now the revision is only posted on AO3. You can read the first 2 chapters here. As far as updating goes, we have the first 11 written, and will be posting weekly until we’re caught up.
Summary: It's been ten years since the war that ended the reign of President Snow and the Hunger Games—ten years that Katniss and Peeta have spent living a peaceful, happy life with their two children in District Twelve. That all changes the moment a mysterious girl with a link to their past shows up on their doorstep, forcing Katniss to call in some favors and stop a new threat before it grows to something that can't be controlled.
Join Katniss, Peeta, and a whole new cast of characters on their journey to secure Panem's future for the better, and for good. Book One of The Embers Series.
The first chapter is also be available under the cut if you’re interested.
Chapter 1: The Visitor
As Katniss walks past the damaged bird statue leading into the Victor’s Village, she spots her husband, Peeta, leaned over the primrose bushes in their front yard. His back is turned while he works the roots, but he looks up at a shout from across the grass. A light, girly giggle follows, and Katniss shifts her gaze, too. There she sees her two children, Elsey and Trev—the dark-haired, blue-eyed girl and the blond, grey-eyed boy.
A smile lifts the corners of her mouth as she watches her son try to keep up with his sister.
Katniss had always told herself that she would never have kids. Between Snow’s iron leadership and the Games, the fear of losing anyone that she might bring into the world was too much to bear, and something she didn’t want to risk. That hadn’t changed even two years after the war, when she was still fresh from burns and losing her sister.
Then, something did. With the help of Peeta, she’d started to heal; and in that regard, they helped each other. They grew back together. And, even in light of everything that had happened, he found a way to still have hope.
She couldn’t help but be optimistic about the future, too. When he pulled her out of nightmares and still had cause to laugh about something she said the next morning… How could she not?
She knew he wanted kids someday. He always had, but he never pushed her, especially not then, so early in their relationship.
It was one summer morning that she spent out in the woods that made her rethink her position on the idea.
She’d seen a doe—one that, usually, she wouldn’t hesitate to shoot.
But there was one difference from all the others.
This one had a fawn. And the sight softened Katniss’s heart.
Suddenly, the reasons that she didn’t want a family didn’t hold weight anymore. The war had long since ended; Snow had been replaced with a better president in Paylor; and the Games were out the door as soon as Coin had fallen with an arrow in her chest. As far as she was concerned, they didn’t know what would happen, but it shouldn’t hold her back from being happy.
And Prim would have wanted her to be happy.
Elsey was born when she was twenty-one. Trev came (sort of as a surprise, but a blessing all the same) three years later.
The memory fades as she walks past Haymitch’s house in the neighborhood of victors’ mansions. A majority of them still sit empty, with the only occupied being those awarded to herself, Peeta, and their mentor.
It sometimes feels empty, but Katniss secretly relishes in the privacy of it all. She and Peeta were able to raise their children in peace, away from prying eyes, and Haymitch was free to… well, drink, though he’d lessened from the binges of his old days. He’d taken up raising geese, which was good.
As she reaches the edge of her yard, Katniss wonders where the snippy man she’s known to see has been in the last few days. She doesn’t remember seeing him on his porch. And she doesn’t remember hearing the geese up at all hours of the night, squawking, either.
It strikes her as odd.
“Mama!”
The thought leaves as quickly as it came with the arrival of her seven-year-old daughter, who latches onto her waist. Elsey’s smile is as wide and energetic as always. It’s easy to forget whatever worry Katniss has when she sees it.
“Hey, sweetheart,” she says, bending down to drop her game bag to the ground and pick her little girl up. “You having fun?”
“Yeah!” Elsey says, loud in her ear. “We played tag and hide and seek and a really cool, new kind of tag called freeze tag… which was kind of hard with only three people…”
“Oh, did you? That sounds great!”
“Yeah,” the quiet voice of her brother pipes in. Being the shy type, it’s not uncommon for him to speak in short phrases. He walks next to his father as he comes to greet her. When he reaches her, the blond boy fists his chubby hands in Katniss’s shirt.
“Hey, Trev.” Katniss runs her hand lightly through her son’s unruly blond curls.
“Hi...”
In her arms, Elsey continues to talk.
Katniss grins at Peeta amidst all the noise.
He steps closer to peck her cheek.
“Good hunt?” he asks.
“Yeah, it went pretty well.”
“That’s good.” He leans down to pick up Trev. “Come on, guys. Let’s go inside. It’s pretty hot out here.” Before he turns toward the house, he grabs Katniss’s game bag by the strap.
“Thanks,” Katniss mouths at him through Elsey’s chatter. She’s talking about everything else she did that day, and what she’d like to do tomorrow, and how she’s hungry and hopes mommy caught the “bestest” dinner ever…
“We could have rabbit stew tonight,” Katniss suggests as they reach the door. “I caught a few in my snares this morning.” She sets Elsey down, and the little girl begins jumping up and down.
“Rabbit stew!” she echoes back excitedly.
When Peeta lets Trev go, he does much the same, only more subdued and with a few claps added.
“Sounds like it’s a hit,” Peeta says, ruffling his son’s hair. The four of them walk inside, and the kids immediately make their way up the stairs to where their toys are.
Once left alone, Katniss turns to her husband. He wraps the arm that doesn’t hold her bag around her waist to pull her closer. They meet in a short, chaste kiss.
Katniss sighs, and when she pulls away, her gaze goes to where their children went.
“I feel like they’re growing up a lot faster than I’d like,” she says.
“That’s because they are,” Peeta replies. “It feels like just yesterday that we decided to start trying…”
Katniss elbows him, even though he’s right. It doesn’t feel like ten years have passed since the war. It doesn’t even feel like two. Some days, she feels as if she’s still in the thick of it, and others, it’s like she’s in a completely separate world altogether.
The constant is Peeta, her little girl and little boy. That’s what makes all the difference.
“I know what you mean,” Katniss muses, and goes to take the game from him when he side-steps her.
“Ah-ah.” There’s teasing in Peeta’s voice. “I’m going to handle the stew. Why don’t you go relax for a bit? You were out a long time today.”
A smile spreads over Katniss’s face. She is easy to persuade on that point—at least today. It was warm once the sun came out, and she could go for cleaning up. She decides to head to the bathroom and grab a quick shower.
When she comes out, hair dripping in a loose braid, Peeta is at the stove and the kids are still in their room.
As she passes by him, she inhales a whiff of the spices and cooking vegetables and meat. It smells delicious.
She tells him as much.
“Did you have a good shower?” Peeta asks.
Katniss nods, reaching around him for a chunk of carrot from the cutting board.
Peeta pokes her nose. “Hey, you have to wait for dinner like everybody else…”
“Like you haven’t been ‘taste testing’ this entire time…” Katniss actually uses air quotes when she says this.
“Okay, true.”
“Is it almost ready?” Katniss asks.
Peeta checks the timer. “In about twenty minutes or so, yes.”
Katniss puts her hand on her husband’s shoulder, rubbing into the muscles at the base of his neck. Then she leans her head on him for a minute. Eventually she leaves with little words and wanders over into the living room to flip through the stations on TV.
She doesn’t watch it all that much, so when she does, it’s mostly for a general update. Most of the shows are political, anyway, which is not interesting to either she or Peeta. They’ve both seen enough propaganda to last a lifetime. There’s also Plutarch’s singing show, but that got old after its fifth season; it’s on its tenth now.
After quickly becoming bored, Katniss settles on an old interview with President Paylor. She doesn’t remember seeing it.
On-screen, footage plays of her inauguration. It pauses when Paylor raises her right hand.
The camera cuts to a man in a tightly-pressed suit.
“Now, how did that feel?” he prompts.
Katniss isn’t able to hear the president’s answer, because Peeta’s voice brings her back to reality.
“Elsey! Trev!” he calls. “Dinner’s ready!”
Katniss shuts the television off and goes to help her family settle down at the table.
______
Like most nights, dinner is pretty quiet while everyone eats. Only the sound of spoons on bowls is heard until everyone finishes their first serving of stew. Elsey sits across from Peeta, with Trev across from Katniss.
Reaching for another roll, Katniss asks, “So, Elsey, what did you learn in school today?”
Elsey pauses mid-bite, her mouth turning into a scowl that Peeta would say matches her mother’s. “Mostly boring stuff,” she answers, putting the spoon in her mouth.
She doesn’t like school very much.
“Oh, come on,” Peeta says. “There has to be something interesting.”
Elsey sighs dramatically. “Okay.” She sets her spoon down next to her bowl. “They started talking about something called the ‘Dark Days’ today.” It’s clear she isn’t interested in the subject as she explains. “Some new history thing, I guess. Some war that started because a bunch of guys disagreed over… something, I don’t remember.”
“History is cool,” Katniss supplies, tearing off a piece of roll and popping it into her mouth. She exchanges a look with Peeta, who gives her a reassuring nod.
“Eh.” Elsey waves her hand in a so-so motion. “It’s not my favorite. I don’t really see why we had to have a war. What’s fighting going to solve? And guns are scaaaary.”
“I agree,” Peeta says. “But sadly, some conflicts can’t always be solved with words.”
“I wish they could.” Elsey picks up her spoon again. She continues to finish her stew, and, after, Katniss sends the kids to their room so she and Peeta can talk.
As Elsey and Trev go down the hall to do their homework, she says, “That was a close one.”
Katniss grabs her bowl along with the others and walks over to the kitchen sink. She begins washing them out, and Peeta comes up behind her moments later.
“I know,” he replies. He kneads his hands into her shoulder blades for a few moments, and Katniss lets the tension melt away from her spine. “Are you okay?”
"Yeah.” She continues to work on the dishes. “I'm just glad she hasn't gotten to us yet. I'm nowhere near ready to have that conversation…”
“I don't think I am, either,” Peeta admits. “But, at least her views on the whole thing are logical.”
“I guess.”
It’ll still be a year or two before Elsey will get to the unit that begins with President Snow. It’ll be another year before she learns about the 74th Hunger Games.
Two years. Then, the truth comes out—the ugly, bloody truth.
Katniss’s thoughts are interrupted by the insistent knocking on the front door. It sounds frantic.
“I’ll get it,” she says, rinsing the soap from her hands. She dries them, and Peeta turns the water off as she makes her way over to the front door. She opens it and sees an unfamiliar young woman standing on the porch, all green eyes and perfect skin, her dirty blonde hair pulled up into a ponytail. She wears a fancy blue blouse, though the sleeves are ripped and Katniss thinks she sees dirt on the torso.
She’s never seen her around here before.
“Hello?” Katniss asks. “How may I help you?”
"You're Katniss Everdeen, right?" the woman asks.
“Um, yes.” Katniss opens the door wider as she senses Peeta behind her. “But it’s Mellark, now. Who are you?"
"My name is Taylor Bernstein,” the woman introduces herself. “Can I come in? I need to talk to you about President Paylor. She's not as nice as you think she might be.”
“Um…”
“Yes, of course,” Peeta answers for her.
Katniss looks towards him in surprise.
“We may as well hear her out,” he mouths.
“Thank you,” Taylor sighs in relief.
Katniss awkwardly steps back to let the blonde in. All the while, the hairs on the back of her neck tingle.
This doesn’t feel right.
Peeta leads the three of them to the living room, then takes his seat beside his wife on the couch. Taylor takes the recliner near the television.
Before Taylor can say another word, Katniss cuts in.
“Why should we trust you?” Her incredulous tone is sharp even to her own ears.
Taylor sighs. She grips her knees.
“You knew my sister,” she begins quietly, her eyes darting around the room with suspicion.
“What?” Katniss asks, and squints to see if there’s any recollect. “If I did, it must have been a very long time. I’ve no idea who.”
“Well, that’s because it’s been about… twelve years. And I’m not from around here.”
Twelve years?
“Where are you from?”
“District One,” Taylor answers.
“That’s pretty far away,” Katniss says.
“Who was your sister?” Peeta asks from beside her.
Taylor takes another deep breath, hesitation in her eyes, before:
Per the current schedule, chapter 3 is now posted!
Now that Katniss and Peeta have decided to believe Taylor, the question is: What now?
Here’s a little teaser of the first few lines:
The phone rings.
Katniss answers it, thinking it might be Beetee calling her back; or, in some strange psychic way, her friend from the station.
“Hello?”
It isn’t.
“Mockingjay,” an all-too-familiar lilt, lower-district in its twang, greets, “you’re smarter than I thought. It seems that my little ruse didn’t fool you for too long.” The voice is decidedly female, the voice that she heard just over an hour ago in an interview praising her.
