Every question that can be answered,
must be answered, or at least engaged.
A logical thought processes must
be challenged when they arise.
Wrong answers must be corrected.
Correct answers must be affirmed.
From the Erudite Faction Manifesto.
Chapter one, Tris.
I pace in our cell in
Erudite headquarters.
Her words echoing in my mind.
My name will be Edith Prior, and
there is much I'm happy to forget.
So you've never seen her before?
Not even in pictures?
Christina says,
her wounded leg propped up on a pillow.
She was shot during our desperate attempt
to reveal the Edith Prior video to
our city.
At the time,
we had no idea what it would say or
that it would shatter the foundation we
stand on, the factions, our identities.
Is she a grandmother or
an aunt or something?
I told you, no, I say,
turning when I reach the wall.
Prior is,
was, my father's name, so it would
have to be on his side of the family.
But Edith is an abnegation name.
And my father's relatives
must have been Erudite.
So, so?
She must be older.
Cara says,
leaning her head against the wall.
From this angle,
she looks just like her brother Will.
My friend, the one I shot, then she
straightens and the ghost of him is gone.
A few generations back,
an ancestor, ancestor,
the word feels old inside me,
like crumbling brick.
I touch one wall of
the cell as I turn around.
The panel is cold and white.
My ancestor, and
this is the inheritance she passed to me.
Freedom from the factions and
the knowledge that my divergent identity
is more important than I could have known.
My existence is a signal that
we need to leave this city and
offer our help to whoever is outside it.
I want to know, Cara says,
running her hand over her face.
I need to know how long we've been here.
Would you stop pacing for one minute?
I stopped in the middle of the cell and
raised my eyebrows at her.
Sorry, she mumbles.
It's okay, Christina says,
we've been in here way too long.
It's been days since Evelyn
mastered the chaos in the lobby of
Erudite headquarters.
With a few short commands, and
had all the prisoners hustled
away to cells on the third floor.
A Factionless woman came
to doctor our wounds and
distribute pain killers and we've
eaten and showered several times, but
no one has told us what
is going on outside.
No matter how forcefully
I have asked them.
I thought Tobias would come by now.
I say, dropping to the edge of my cart.
Where is he?
Maybe he's still angry
that you lied to him and
went behind his back to work
with his father, Cara says.
I glare at her.
Four wouldn't be that petty.
Christina says, either to chastise Cara or
to reassure me, I'm not sure.
Something's probably going
on that's keeping him away.
He told you to trust him.
In the chaos,
when everyone was shouting and
the factionless were trying to
push us toward the staircase,
I curled my fingers in the hem of
his shirt so I wouldn't lose him.
He took my wrist in his hands and pushed
me away and those were the words he said.
Trust me, go where they tell you.
I'm trying, I say, and it's true.
I'm trying to trust him.
But every part of me, every fiber and
every nerve is straining toward freedom,
not just from this cell, but
from the prison of the city beyond it.
I need to see what's outside the fence.
>> Chapter Two, Tobias.
I can't walk these hallways without
remembering the days I spent as
a prisoner here.
Barefoot, pain pulsing inside
me every time I moved.
And with that memories, another one.
One of waiting for
Beatrice Prior to go to her death.
Of my fists against the door.
Of her legs slung across Peter's arms
when he told me she was just drugged.
I hate this place.
It isn't as clean as it was when
it was the Erudite compound.
Now it is ravaged by war,
bullet holes in the walls,
and the broken glass of shattered
light bulbs everywhere.
I walk over dirty footprints and
beneath flickering lights to our cell.
I'm admitted without question because
I bear the factionless symbol,
an empty circle on a black band around
my arm and Evelyn's features on my face.
Tobias Ethan was a shameful name.
And now, it is a powerful one.
Tris crouches on the ground inside.
Shoulder to shoulder with Christina and
diagonal from Cara.
My Tris should look pale and small.
She is pale and small after all.
But instead, the room is full of her.
Her round eyes find mine and
she is on her feet.
Our arms wound tightly around my waist and
her face against my chest.
I squeeze her shoulder with one hand and
run my other hand over her hair.
Still surprised when her hair stops
above her neck instead of below it.
I was happy when she cut it.
Because it was hair for
a warrior and not a girl.
And I knew that was what she would need.
How did you get in?
She says, in her low clear voice.
I'm Tobias Ethan, I say, and she laughs.
Right, I keep forgetting.
She pulls away just far
enough to look at me.
There is a wavering
expression in her eyes.
Like she's a heap of leaves about
to be scattered by the wind.
What's happening?
What took you so long?
She sounds desperate, pleading.
For all the horrible memories this place
carries for me, carries more for her.
The walk to her execution,
her brother's betrayal,
the fear serum, I have to get her out.
Cara looks up with interest.
I feel uncomfortable,
like I have shifted in my skin and
it doesn't quite fit anymore.
I hate having an audience.
Evelyn has the city under lockdown, I say.
No one goes a step in any
direction without her say so.
A few days ago, she gave a speech
about uniting against our oppressors.
The people outside.
Oppressors?
Christina says,
she takes a vial from our pocket and
dumps the contents into her mouth.
Painkillers for
the bullet wound in her leg, I assume.
I slide my hands in my pockets.
Evelyn and a lot of people actually, think
we shouldn't leave the city just to help
a bunch of people who shoved us in here so
they could use us later.
They want to try to heal the city and
solve our own problems instead of
leaving to solve other people's.
I'm paraphrasing of course, I say.
I suspect that opinion
is very convenient for
my mother because as long as we're
all contained, she's in charge.
Second, we leave, she loses her hold.
Great.
Tris rolls her eyes.
Of course, she would choose
the most selfish route possible.
She has a point.
Christina wraps her fingers around the
vile, I'm not saying I don't want to leave
the city and see what's out there,
but we've got enough going on here.
How are we supposed to help
a bunch of people we've never met?
Tris considers this,
chewing on the inside of her cheek.
I don't know, she admits.
My watch reads 3 o'clock.
I've been here too long,
long enough to make Evelyn suspicious.
I told her I came to break things off with
Tris, that it wouldn't take much time.
I'm not sure she believed me.
I say, listen, I mostly came to warn you.
They're starting the trials for
all the prisoners.
They're going to put you all under
truth serum, and if it works,
you'll be convicted as traitors.
I think we would all like to avoid that.
Convicted as traitors, Tris scowls,
how is revealing the truth to our
entire city an act of betrayal?
It was an act of defiance
against your leaders, I say.
Evelyn and her followers
don't want to leave the city.
They won't thank you for
showing that video.
They're just like Jeanine.
She makes a fitful gesture like
she wants to hit something but
there's nothing available.
Ready to do anything to stifle the truth,
and for what?
To be kings of their tiny little world,
it's ridiculous.
I don't wanna say so, but
part of me agrees with my mother.
I don't owe people outside the city
anything, whether I'm divergent or not.
I'm not sure I wanna offer myself to
them to solve humanity's problems,
whatever that means.
But I do want to leave in the desperate
way that an animal wants to
escape a trap, wild and rabid,
ready to gnaw through bone.
Be that as it may, I say carefully,
if the truth serum works on you,
you will be convicted.
If it works, says Cara,
narrowing her eyes.
Divergent, Tris says to her,
pointing at her own head, remember?
That's fascinating,
Karen tucks a stray hair back into the
knot just above her neck, but atypical.
In my experience, most divergent
can't resist the truth serum.
I wonder why you can.
You and every other Erudite who ever
stuck a needle in me, Tris snaps.
Can we focus, please?
I would like to avoid having to
break you out of prison, I say.
Suddenly desperate for comfort,
I reached for Tris' hand and
she brings her fingers up to meet mine.
We are not people who touch
each other carelessly.
Every point of contact between us feels
important, a rush of energy and relief.
All right, all right, she says gently now,
what did you have in mind?
I'll get Evelyn to let you testify
first of three of you, I say.
All you have to do is come up with a lie
that will exonerate both Christina and
Cara and then tell it under truth serum.
What kind of lie would do that?
I thought I would leave it to you,
I say, since you are the better liar.
I know as I'm saying the words that
they hit a sore spot in both of us.
She lied to me so many times.
She promised me she wouldn't go to her
death in the Erudite compound when Jeanine
demanded the sacrifice of a Divergent,
and then she did it anyway.
She told me she would stay home
during the Erudite attack and
then I found her in Erudite
headquarters working with my father.
I understand why she did all those things,
but
that doesn't mean we aren't still broken.
Yeah, she looks at her shoes,
okay, I'll think of something.
I set my hand on her arm.
I'll talk to Evelyn about your trial.
I'll try to make it soon.
Thank you.
I feel the urge, familiar now,
to wrench myself from my body and
speak directly into her mind.
It is the same urge, I realized, that
makes me want to kiss her every time I see
her, because even a sliver of
distance between us is infuriating.
Our fingers, loosely woven a moment ago,
now clutch together.
Her palm tacky with moisture.
Mine rough in places where I've grabbed
too many handles on too many moving
trains.
Now she looks pale and small, but
her eyes makes me think of wide
open skies that I've never actually seen,
only dreamed of.
If you're going to kiss do me a favor and
tell me so I can look away,
says Christina.
We are, Tris says, and we do.
I touch her cheek to slow the kiss down,
holding our mouth on mine so I can feel
every place where our lips touch and
every place where they pull away.
I savor the air we share in
the second afterward, and
the slip of her nose across mine.
I think of something to say, but
it is too intimate, so I swallow it.
A moment later I decide I don't care.
I wish we were alone,
I say as I back out of the cell.
She smiles, I almost always wish that.
As I shut the door,
I see Christina pretending to vomit and
Cara laughing and
Tris' hands hanging at her sides.
>> Chapter Three, Tris.
I think you're all idiots, my hands are
curled in my lap like a sleeping child.
My body is heavy with truth serum.
Sweat collects on my eyelids.
You should be thanking me,
not questioning me.
We should thank you for defying
the instructions of your faction leaders.
Thank you for
trying to prevent one of your faction
leaders from killing Jeanine Matthews.
You behave like a traitor.
Evelyn Johnson spits
the word like a snake.
We are in the conference room
in Erudite headquarters,
where the trials have been taking place.
I've now been a prisoner for
at least a week.
I see Tobias half-hidden in
the shadows behind his mother.
He has kept his eyes averted
since I sat in the chair and
they cut the strip of plastic
binding my wrists together.
For just for a moment, his eyes touch
mine, and I know it's time to start lying.
It's easier now that I know I can do it,
as easy as pushing the weight of
the truth serum aside in my mind.
I am not a traitor, I say.
At the time,
I believed that Marcus was working
under dauntless factionless orders.
Since I couldn't join
the fight as a soldier,
I was happy to help with something else.
Why couldn't you be a soldier?
Flourescent light glows
behind Evelyn's hair.
I can't see your face, and
I can't focus on anything for
more than a second before the truth
serum threatens to pull me down again.
Because, I bite my lip, as if trying
to stop the words from rushing out.
I don't know when I became so
good at acting, but I guess it's not that
different from lying,
which I have always had a talent for.
Because I couldn't hold a gun, okay?
Not after shooting him, my friend, Will.
I couldn't hold a gun without panicking.
Evelyn's eyes pinch tighter.
I suspect that even in the softest parts
of her, there was no sympathy for me.
So Marcus told you he was working
under my orders, she says, and
even knowing what you do about his
rather tense relationship with
both the dauntless and
the factionless, you believed him?
Yes, I can see why you didn't
choose Erudite, she laughs.
My cheeks tingle.
I would like to slap her, as I'm sure
many of the people in this room would,
though they wouldn't dare to admit it.
Evelyn has us all trapped in the city,
controlled by armed factionless
patrolling the streets.
She knows that whoever holds
the guns holds the power, and
with Jeanine Matthews dead, there was
no one left to challenge her for it.
From one tyrant to another,
that is the world we know now.
Why didn't you tell anyone about this?
She says, I didn't want to
have to admit to any weakness.
I say, and I didn't want Four to
know I was working with his father,
I knew he wouldn't like it.
I feel new words rising in my throat,
prompted by the truth serum.
I brought you the truth about our city and
the reason we are in it.
If you aren’t thanking me for it,
you should at least do something about it
instead of sitting here on this mess
you made, pretending it’s a throne!
Evelyn’s mocking smile twists like she
has just tasted something unpleasant.
She leans in close to my face, and
I see for the first time, how old she is.
I see the lines that frame her eyes and
mouth and
the unhealthy paler she wears from
years of eating far too little.
Still, she is handsome like her son.
Near starvation could not take that,
I am doing something about it.
I am making a new world, she says, and
her voice gets even quieter so
that I can barely hear her.
I was abnegation, I have known the truth
far longer than you have, Beatrice Prior.
I don't know how you're getting
away with this, but I promise you,
you will not have a place in my new world,
especially not with my son.
I smile a little.
I shouldn't, but it's harder to suppress
gestures and expressions than words.
With this weight in my veins, she
believes that Tobias belongs to her now.
She doesn't know the truth,
that he belongs to himself.
Evelyn straightens, folding her arms.
The truth serum has revealed that while
you may be a fool, you are no traitor.
This interrogation is over, you may leave.
What about my friends?
I say sluggishly, Christina, Kara,
they didn't do anything wrong either.
We will deal with them soon, Evelyn says.
I stand, though I'm weak and
dizzy from the serum.
The room is packed with people,
shoulder to shoulder and
I can't find the exit for a few long
seconds, until someone takes my arm.
A boy with warm brown skin and
a wide smile, Uriah.
He guides me to the door.
Everyone starts talking.
Uriah leads me down the hallway
to the elevator bank.
The elevator doors spring open when he
touches the button and I follow him in.
Still not steady on my feet.
When the doors close, I say,
you don't think the part about
the mess and the throne was too much?
No, she expects you to be hot headed.
She might have been suspicious
if you hadn't been.
I feel like everything inside me is
vibrating with energy in anticipation of
what is to come.
I am free,
we're going to find a way out of the city.
No more waiting, pacing a cell, demanding
answers that I won't get from the guards.
The guards did tell me a few things about
the new Factionless order this morning.
Former faction members
are required to move closer to
Ariadite headquarters and mix.
No more than four members of
a particular faction in each dwelling.
We have to mix up clothing, too.
I was given a yellow Amity shirt and
black Candor pants earlier as
a result of that particular edict.
All right, we're this way.
Uriah leads me out of the elevator.
This floor of Ariadite headquarters
is all glass, even the walls.
Sunlight refracts through it and casts
slivers of rainbows across the floor.
I shield my eyes with one hand and
follow Uriah to a long,
narrow room, with beds on either side.
Next to each bed is a glass cabinet for
clothes and books, and a small table.
It used to be the Ariodite
initiate dormitory, Uriah says.
I reserved beds for
Christine and Kara already.
Sitting on a bed near the door
are three girls in red shirts.
Amity girls, I would guess.
And on the left side of the room,
an older woman lies on one of the beds,
her spectacles dangling from one ear.
Possibly one of the Ariodite.
I know I should try to stop putting
people in factions when I see them,
but it's an old habit.
Hard to break.
Uriah falls on one of
the beds in the back corner.
I sit on the one next to his,
glad to be free and at rest, finally.
Zeke says it sometimes
takes a little while for
the Factionless to process exonerations.
So they should be out later, Uriah says.
For a moment,
I feel relieved that everyone I care
about will be out of prison by tonight.
But then I remember that Caleb is still
there, because he was a well-known
lackey of Jeanine Matthews and
the Factionless will never exonerate him.
But just how far will they go to destroy
the Mark Janine Matthews left on
this city?
I don't know.
I don't care, I think.
But even as I think it, I know it's a lie.
He's still my brother.
Good, I say, thanks Uriah.
He nods and leans his head
against the wall to prop it up.
How are you?
I say, I mean Lynn.
Uriah had been friends with Lynn and
Marlene as long as I've known them.
And now both of them are dead.
I feel like I might be able to understand.
After all, I've lost two friends, too.
Al to the pressures of initiation.
And Will to the attack simulation and
my own hasty actions.
But I don't want to pretend
that our suffering is the same.
For one thing,
Uriah knew his friends better than I did.
I don't wanna talk about it,
Uriah shakes his head, or think about it.
I just wanna keep moving.
Okay, I understand.
Just let me know if you need.
Yeah, he smiles at me and gets up.
You're okay here, right?
I told my mom I'd visit tonight,
so I have to go soon.
Almost forgot to tell you.
Four said he wants to meet you later.
I pull up straighter.
Really, when, where?
A little after ten,
at Millennium Park, on the lawn.
He smirks, don't get too excited,
your head will explode.
