From the Ashes

Chapter 1: Drawing of the Names

I spat into the grey basin. When I looked up, the mirror was too greasy to look into. I drew a smiley face in it and tried to mimic it with my own face. It was a little hard, knowing I was going in to a battle to the death.

I wasn't supposed to be chosen.

I had it all worked out. I could read and write, unlike most of the people in the academy, where the main focus was physical education. I had a scholarship at one of the only universities in the area. I was due to start in five weeks.

When King Edgar IX announced a month ago that in a month's time, the eight best fighters would be sent into an arena with eight powerful Undead to fight until only one was left standing, I got The Talk.

It was from my parents, and they had it worked out. I would perform badly, and not get selected. Fly under the radar, because who wanted to be sent into the arena anyway? King Edgar talked about the honour it would bring and the rich prizes that would be awarded, which didn't convince anyone. I agreed to my parents' plan. It was one that had a 100% chance of survival.

At the Academy, everyone was either performing very poorly or very well. Some of them had had the Talk with their parents and openly talked about how they were presenting themselves as bad on purpose. I didn't say anything, because even though those people didn't get repercussions, I didn't want to get caught.

Today was my birthday.

I knew exactly what was supposed to happen today. Nico, Henry, Dominic and Amelia were supposed to come over. My parents had scraped together enough money to buy an actual bakery cake, the kind with frosting. There weren't any decorations, but that didn't matter. Nico told me about how he had saved up money he had earned by cleaning windows and trimming lawns to buy me a birthday present. I said he didn't have to, but he insisted.

Nico, Amelia, Henry, Dominic and I lived in a small camp- Camp Faex, one of the minor Living camps. It generally went unnoticed by King Edgar and Hades, because it was far apart from other camps and didn't fight any other camps since the First Battle nine generations ago. There were five schools- Faex Primary, one secondary school- the Academy, a private university, Locuples, a community college, named Faex College, and the university I wanted to go to, that accepted scholarships. It didn't really have a name. We called it the University. The other schools had names, at least, which avoided confusion.

I had performed badly in physical education, throughout the three weeks in which we were scrutinised carefully. Before that, I was one of the best. We called the people who came in to examine us 'Inspectors', even though they weren't detectives and they weren't school inspectors. We were all called in for assembly to discuss the winners. I remembered Henry and Amelia gripping my hands- Henry's grip firm and unrelenting, Amelia's warm and reassuring. I remembered the look on the Inspectors' faces as they read out the names. I remembered the pounding fear, despite the fact that I had been indescribably bad in practices. In the end, eight people were chosen- the only eight people to really try- three girls, Justice, Addison and Avery, and five boys- Aahan, Reo, Mason, Zack and Edgar.

Edgar was where the problem arose.

Edgar was Edgar X. Edgar was the king's son. Edgar couldn't possibly be sent into an arena.

I liked Edgar. He was popular but always nice. He hadn't tried to be chosen, but he hadn't tried to be bad at the tasks assigned. I saw the look on his face- shock, disbelief, then utter fear.

I thought that was the end of it. We were invited to attend the Battle of Sixteen at the coliseum next week.

Then we were called to another assembly, three days later.