“Hence your exemplary tact,” Athos deadpans. He still knows little about Tris’ strange and unsettling world, but the nature of candor is simple enough to surmise.

“I suppose this train was another one of those foolhardy tests.” The more he learns about these dauntless, the less he respects them. It is one thing to try the mettle of one’s soldiers; it is another to drive them to foolish actions on the battlefield because they have learned that acts of daring are of the greatest import. Such a strategy can only end in death.