The Fourth Eaton

Chapter 7 🔪 Worth It

A/N: Yes, I'm late again, but I'm still here, don't worry. I really need to stop giving deadlines in the authors' notes, because I never meet them. Fine, I'll stop blabbering now. Chapter 7!

Darkness. For some reason, the Dauntless seem to embrace darkness. The halls we are walking down are only lit by occasional blue lanterns. In the areas of darkness between them, it's easier to lose your balance, so we have to be extra careful. I walk just in front of Lavender and Ethan, who are walking side by side.

We are being led down a series of hallways by Tobias. He isn't telling us where we're going, but I assume it's to where we'll be sleeping. That, or they'll have us do another crazy Dauntless stunt. We've already jumped off a train and a rooftop, I wouldn't be surprised if they asked us to jump into the Chasm next, despite Tobias' speech about it.

Right before Tobias got up from our table in the dining room, he had pressed a small piece of paper into my hand. I'm clutching it in my right hand right now, eager to see what he wanted me to know. But that's going to have to wait for a while, until everyone is sound asleep. By not acknowledging me at the net, Tobias made it clear that people can't know about our relation to each other, for whatever reason.

All the initiates are walking in silence. Tobias didn't say we had to be quiet, but I suppose that he is so intimidating, none of us want to speak around him. Nobody wants to set him off. If he wasn't my brother, I probably would be intimidated by him too.

Tobias stops in front of a wooden door, and we all gather around him.

"As you all know, my name is Four. I will be your initiation instructor. Initiation is something we all take very seriously here in Dauntless. So seriously, in fact, that one of the Dauntless leaders will be overseeing your training. I'm sure you all saw Eric in the dining hall tonight."

A leader will be overseeing our training. Just the thought of it makes my stomach flip-flop. Out of all the Dauntless leaders, did it have to be Eric?

From Tobias' tone, I can tell he isn't too happy about it either.

"There are some ground rules for initiation." Tobias continues. "You must be in the training room by eight o'clock every day. If you're late, there are consequences. Training is from eight to six every day, with a break for lunch. After six, you can do whatever you want. You will get some time off between each initiation stage."

I'm not even a member of Dauntless yet, and I'm already going to have more freedom in initiation than I ever would in Abnegation. Even excluding the punishment we would get from our father if we even remotely enjoyed ourselves, Abnegation is all about serving others. Enjoyment is selfish. Every free moment is spent bettering the lives of others.

It's strangely binding to hear we can do whatever we want, although it's also freeing. Freeing, because we get to actually think of ourselves for once, and binding, because doing whatever you want relies on you knowing what you want to do, which I don't.

"You can only leave the compound if you are with a full member of Dauntless." Tobias' speech echoes in my ears. "Behind these doors is the room you will be sleeping in during initiation."

"All of us?" Ethan calls out.

Tobias nods. "Girls and boys. Oh, and you'll love the bathrooms." He cracks a slight grin.

All the initiates groan.

"Anyway, in the first stage of initiation, transfers and Dauntless-borns are kept separately, but you aren't evaluated separately. At the end of initiation, your ranking will be determined in comparison with the Dauntless-born initiates. And growing up in Dauntless has given them an advantage. So, I suggest-"