The more Athos hears of Tris’ story, the story of her people and their lives, the more grim the world they inhabited becomes in his eyes. He is far from naive himself, he knows that honorable men are rare and those in power rarely wield it well, and that mankind is an easily corruptible race. But the dark tale Christina spins is enough to make him appreciate the banal evil of France’s careless nobility, and the pettiness of court intrigue.

What Christina now tells him is monstrous.

“But you have now both escaped the clutches of your cruel masters.” It seems worth remembering at a time like this.