"Can't you tell me anything about your task?" Christina asked for the third time since they'd left the castle, and this time Beatrice nodded.

"I think it isn't against the rules if I ask you a question about your province, so there's something you could really help me with."

Christina clapped her hands excitedly, and Beatrice had to smile at her friend's enthusiasm. It was all over her, from the bounce in her step to the curiosity in her eyes.

"Go ahead, I will gladly answer if I can."

"Right. So, do you happen to know where the fountain of truth is?"

"Oh."

Beatrice realized that it wasn't necessarily a good thing that Christina's emotions were so often obvious to anyone close to her. Her frown and her sudden silence didn't indicate good news.

"What is it?" she probed.

"I don't know if it still exists."

"What? What do you mean? Christina, please, don't make me worm it all out of you, you scare me."

"Since when are you this impatient?"

"Since when do you avoid telling me the truth?"

"I'm not avoiding it. You will get it out of me anyway, and I do want to help you. It's just... The fountain is very old, it already existed before the first people came to settle the area. I have only been there once, when I turned twelve. That's the age that we're supposed to go there with a jug to bring back some water to our house. Anyway, when I was there, it was pretty much frozen already. I remember that it took me a long time to fill my jug, and it wasn't a big one. I think it's possible that it has frozen completely over the last years. I've heard people say it's useless to go there any longer, and they stopped sending their children or anyone else to visit it. My sister never went there either."

"But sure the queen wouldn't give me a task that's impossible to fulfill, would she?"

"To be honest, I wouldn't put it past her."

"True."

They walked along the cobbled road that led the way to Candor, and Beatrice thought about what she had to do. She wasn't allowed to tell Christina about it. She wasn't sure how and if the queen would know if she broke that rule, but she didn't want to push her luck if she could avoid it. She had already bent the rules by leaving the parchment in the castle. She assumed it was safe, though, because there hadn't been a consequence for showing the Abnegation task to her mother either. After a while, when she had sorted her thoughts, she resumed the conversation.

"So, for argument's sake, let's pretend the fountain still exists. What else can you tell me about it? Where is it, and how do I get there?"

"We have a big lake in Candor, you surely have heard about it. It's called Crystal Lake because its waters once were so clear you could see deep down to the ground. It's frozen now, you can walk on it. I cross it regularly to get to the village on the other side from ours, it's the shortest way. There's a rivulet leading away from it. You can follow it all the way up to the fountain. The water there is the purest, and only that water will suffice."

"But then I know where to look for the fountain, and when I get there, I'll see what I can do about my task."

"Wait, it's not as easy as it sounds. First, you need permission to go there at all. For that, you have to go to the library. It's on the border to Erudite, we share it with them. You'll visit the Candor half of it and talk to Jack. His family has been guarding the place for generations. He has to give you his blessings and only then are you allowed to visit the fountain. It's a sacred place for us, you know? You go to the lake first and have to find the mouth of the rivulet there. When you follow the stream upwards, you're not allowed to talk. Do you understand? Absolute silence, or the water will disappear from view. You'll just see a path that leads you back down to the lake. Once you get to the fountain and it is not frozen, you can do whatever you need to do there, and when you're done you'll be back soon."

"That's a lot to think about..."

Beatrice tried to store the information in her head, so she wouldn't forget anything, and she wondered how anyone was supposed to complete this task without the help of a Candor friend. Perhaps that was the whole point. She should have known better than to think it was an easy undertaking. Amity had seemed easy, too, but only at first glance. She still had only managed to fulfill half of the task. And Abnegation hadn't been about what it had seemed it was. She'd have to be smarter from now on, and look for help if she could get any.

"I can tell you where to find the library, it's not exactly around the corner, though. You'll need almost a day to go there and back. Jack is a little strange, I guess living away from each and every one does things to you... But he's fair. Just don't lie to him."

"I'll keep that in mind. At least, the walking-in-silence part will be easier."

"For you! For me, it was very difficult. I had to constantly remind myself to keep my mouth shut."

"I can imagine," Beatrice laughed and bumped Christina's side amicably.

"Hey, we all struggle with something," her friend replied, smiling. "But I believe in you. If anyone's going to make it, it's you. By the way, you've learned those moves from Marlene fast, girl. You should think about changing your name into something more... combative."

"Christina," Beatrice shook her head in embarrassment about the compliment. "We're not at war."

"Are we not? Aren't you fighting for the heart of his Majesty Prince Tobias?" Christina teased.

"Alright, alright, I am. So, what do you suggest?"

"Something short and impressive."

"You called me Tris once, remember? In Abnegation, on our way to the Dark Forest."

"Oh, I thought you didn't hear that."

"I heard it. I was just distracted at that moment."

"That's why you later got your gemstone and I didn't."

"Are you angry about that?"

"No, not really. I mean, you did try to share your stone with me. What more could I have asked of you? And now I get to see Will again, probably tomorrow. I hope he still wants to talk to me."

"From what you've told me about him, he'll be willing to listen. It's the least he will do."

"You sure sound like more like a Tris than a Beatrice these days, you know?"

"So - Tris... I like the sound of it."

It was a perfect choice. It still held a connection to her given name, yet also sounded strong and confident, like the name of the person she wanted to become, and maybe it would help her embrace who she was apart from the Abnegation girl that she had tried, and often struggled, to be all her life.

Tobias couldn't believe how time slowed down when Beatrice wasn't around. He felt restless from the moment she had left, and he had a hard time trying to keep himself occupied. Since it was Sunday, there wasn't much to do. He walked up the stairs to the tower, again, after lunch, to see if he could still catch a glimpse of her, but the fog made it impossible to see far. He sighed as he leaned at the side of the window and looked to the West, were the sun was going to set in a few hours. Hours that seemed so long.

What did he usually do on Sundays? Or any other days? It was hard to believe that he spent most of his days doing nothing, wasting time that he hadn't asked for. But that was changing now, and it unsettled him. Why did he never question his way of life before? He had just taken it all for granted, the way he was forced to live, the way he had chosen to live because he hadn't wanted anything out of his life. It had just been an empty, meaningless existence.

Nervousness overcame him with the notion that he had gone about his life all wrong, and that he never wanted to go back to the indifference that had filled his heart before. But all those new emotions and yearnings were a lot to deal with. He had to do something, and now!

He went to look for Zeke, but he couldn't find him. It was his day off, and he remembered that he spent those with Shauna if he could, not with him. A dark thought occurred as he thought about it: Would Zeke ever care about him if he wasn't the prince, if he didn't get paid for being his guard?

With bitterness, Tobias realized that he didn't even know where Shauna's chamber was, although she'd been working at the castle for several years now. She had still been half a child when she had first begun. He had never bothered to ask her why she had to leave her family to look for work when she was barely older than him.

What was going on with him? Since when was he so self-critical? He had to turn off his thoughts. The castle suddenly felt like a prison to him that he hadn't left in years. What did he know about the kingdom he was supposed to rule soon?

He sneaked out of the castle that night, even out of the castle grounds, just to run. He ran until his legs started to shake from the effort and his lungs burnt from the cold, but the taste of freedom was worth every bit of pain. Why had he never done this?

Lying in his bed later, his mind finally found peace, at least for the moment.

After a night outside in their tent, Tris was glad when they finally reached Christina's home the following afternoon. She was nervous at first, intimidated by the conversation that was a rapid back and forth she wasn't used to. She cringed more than once, when Christina or her sister Rose said something that would be considered blunt in Abnegation, but turned it into a challenge to hide her discomfort with the displayed honesty. She had to get used to it, the sooner the better.

She was Tris now, so she had to behave like her.