Kendrick rubs the back of his head as he watches Cole scramble to catch up with the other joggers running around the gym. Cole doesn't look back, keeping his head up and his back straight like he knows Kendrick is watching. Kendrick sighs and turns to me. His eyes are hard, but like the last time we talked, I see some uncertainty in them.

"I won't hurt Cole," I say with my arms crossed. "Unlike Outsiders, I don't manipulate children."

"'Outsiders'?" Kendrick draws his eyebrows in a confused frown.

"People who live in the Outercity."

"Last time I checked you live here too."

"I will never be an Outsider," I spit. Even thinking of being associated with these savages makes me want to jump in a shower and scrub until my skin's red and sore. "I don't train children to take from others or become murders." I flick my wrest to Cole, who runs behind young men wearing knifes in their calves.

Kendrick grits his teeth but doesn't say anything. I hold his stare until I see Rayn running up to us from across the room. She stares down at me like she could set me on fire with her eyes, but when she turns to Kendrick, the hate vanishes.

She stops with her hands on her back and sweat circling her collar. Her breath is heavy, and her ponytail swings when she looks up at Kendrick. "I can take her back to my room."

My heart sinks while my legs tease to run away before she can stuff me back in that hell hole. Kendrick looks me over once again, and I try to keep my face blank, although I can't relax the tension in my muscles. For a moment I think he will wave me off, but he shakes his head.

"She can stay until training is over," he says it like I shoved a frog down his throat. He doesn't look at me as he stomps off to the sparing couples, but my eyes stay glued to him with my mouth slightly gaped. In his own twisted way, it seems like he's trying to be kind.

Rayn whips to me and whispers, "Sit over there and try to stay quiet." She motions to a bench against a wall. Before anyone changes their minds, I rush to the seat and sit down. Rayn runs back to the targets and continues her attack on the defenseless body board, each thrust of her dagger harder than the last. I flinch as the last dagger's impact echoes around the gym.

Cole runs around the gym for the third time, his little body getting lost in the others. No one seems to be disturbed by him, and surprisingly, he is able to keep up with the older people. But one older guy does slow down for Cole to chat with him. When they pass me, I realize it is the guy who stood by me during my trial. Colby whispers something to Cole, and Cole bursts out laughing. Watching them relaxed and laughing gives me chills. Looks are deceiving, and with their comfort with each other, I have to keep reminding myself who they are and where I am. And how I got here.

But still, something like jealously wiggles inside me as I watch the two. Cole was the closest thing to normal, even if he was annoying with his prodding questions, but he promised his mentor he wouldn't see me again. How long will I last in those rooms without Cole coming to help my sanity?

I banish the thoughts of Cole and the Outsiders and look, instead, at the bench. I trace the words carved into the stone. Why should I care about him anyway? I only just met Cole, and I have never been good with kids. My finger moves over an I then a N. I've never had a brother before and all my cousins were older than me. I wish I could just show Cole that there's more to life than being a part of a gang. He can study and take the Test. He seems smart, he can at least be placed in the Middlecity. I trace another N and an E, R, thinking about how Cole's eyes grew large when I talked about the Middlecity. If I give Cole a few pointers, I bet I could get him to pass, but then again, I didn't pass. I shake the idea of tutoring Cole out of my head as my fingers move to the CIT in the bench. I don't plan on sticking around long enough for that anyway. My fingers stop at the Y.

"What are you doing?" Cole whispers.

Cole and Colby hover to the side of me, watching my fingers. I lift my hand off the bench, "Nothing."

Colby points to the bench, "Do you know what that says?"

I look between Cole and Colby and back again. "Did I do something wrong?".

Cole shakes his head. Before I can answer them, I spot Kendrick spying on our little group. I swallow the words I was going to say and just turn to Cole and tilt my head at Kendrick, "I don't think your mentor wants you talking with me."

Cole doesn't even look over his shoulder, but his head drops a little. He gives me a sorrowful look before re-joining the group of runners. Colby lingers behind, looking at the bench and then me. "What does that say?" He points.

His broad shoulders put my whole body in a shadow. I remember his snarky comments to Rayn and his kind eyes when he told me to stay quiet in my trail. Cole also seems to look up to him, but I still hesitate to talk to him. He is still a jailer, a prison guard keeping me here. But his question seems innocent enough.

I take a second look at the bench before meeting his open face. "It says 'Property of the Innercity'," I speak each word while following the words on the bench.

Colby slowly nods his head, and then he nods his head a little faster as a smile spreads across his face. I just stare at him. Rayn's room doesn't look so bad compared to Colby staring at me like an idiot. Colby rubs a hand over his face, trying to suppress the smile, but it doesn't help. Colby snaps out of his trance, and he jogs over to Kendrick. He leans over and whispers something under his breath to Kendrick. Kendrick holds my stare as he listens. His eyes widen.

When Colby jogs away from Kendrick, Kendrick doesn't move. He pinches his eyebrows like he is trying to solve a very hard puzzle. His stingray makes me squirm, and I shift my body away from him, suddenly very interested in how many knives Rayn can fit in a cardboard head.

The training lasts until the fog in the sky takes on a golden hue. Cole didn't dare try to escort me out of the gym. He only gave me an apologizing look over his shoulder before following Kendrick into a back room with Colby and a handful of other guards. Rayn watches the others disappear behind the doors, her body tight like she is about to throw another dagger. Once the last door swings shut, she stomps over to me and grabs the back of my bicep, leading me back to my soft prison.

The courtyard fills with more bodies, some of them eating their early suppers outside of what Cole said was the cafeteria. She does let me stop by the cafeteria, I think she just doesn't want to do anymore errands for me. When we walk into the cafeteria, the Outsiders chatting and eating in their clusters stop and look up at Rayn then at me. Some of them stare like they smell something terrible, while others just give me curious looks like I'm a zoo animal. I try to meet as many stares as I can, try to be as intimidating as possible, but the eyes and faces are endless and their looks bare into me, burning my skin. I hustle through the line of food, grabbing jerky and a roll, and escape the searing gazes.

Rayn doesn't eat with me. Her eagerness makes her eyes switch from me to her room as she unlocks her room. Any patience she held with me evaporates when she ushers me through and slams her door behind me. I don't complain this time, I can still see curious stares on the inside of my eye lids.

***

The bread and jerky sit better in my stomach, and I do the only thing that can pass the time, sleeping. If I'm not sleeping, the walls come closer and rotate, teasing me. Time plays with my mind, trying to get me to guess how many minutes have gone by. But most of the time I can't keep Andrew out of my head.

I relax into my cot when Rayn's door opens and shuts. I don't bother to look at her as I roll away from the door.

"Still not talking to me?" I mumble.

"On the contrary, I would love to sit down and talk." Kendrick's deep voice rumbles sincerity. "I feel like we have gotten off on the wrong foot."

I sit up and twist in my blankets and gap up at him. "What was your first clue? When you sent Rayn to fetch me, or when you decided to lock me up?"

Kendrick ignores my snip and instead does something unexpected, he shifts from one foot to the other with his eyes down. It's like he feels uncomfortable, and what's more surprising is that he is letting me see that.

"What's that about?" I point at his feet.

"What?" His shuffling stops.

I narrow my eyes, and my walls I have built the moment I came into the Outercity grow two more stories. I could see through his façade as the ruthless Chief, but this side of him is more unsettling. I can't see what he is thinking, can't guess his motives.

"What do you want?"

"To talk," he answers, his voice clear and open.

But why?

"Then talk."

"Not here," he answers, "I need to explain a few things, things I should have clued you into when you first got here, but I couldn't trust you then."

"And you can now?" I stand and cross my arms. "You just told Cole that I was dangerous an hour ago, and now you want to be friends?"

"Just come with me, and I'll explain." When I don't move, he raises his brow. "Or I can leave you here, but I thought you would enjoy a change of scenery."

"I think I have had enough field trips for today, thank you."

The patience in his face wavers. His eyebrow brunch in worry, not so confident in himself as he was when he decided to bother me. But it's the least I can do after what he said to Cole, and how he treated me.

"Don't you want answers? Aren't you wondering why everyone is so interested in you, a girl from the OTF? If you come with me I promise I will tell you."

His offer hangs between us, and I am tempted to say no and watch him mope out of Rayn's room. I don't think he will make me go if I didn't want to. I like the feeling of the control he has given me, the ability to choose, even if I am the one backed in the corner.

But answers could help me get out.

"Fine but make it quick, I don't like being the side show for your Outsider friends." I say

Kendrick leads me, to my relief, down another hallway completely avoiding the courtyard. The hallway is empty, expect for a few rooms, but it is not as full as the hallway where Rayn's room is. There are only four doors. This hallway is cleaner, with a wood trim and semi-polished plank walls, though there are some spots where age as dug its teeth into the wood. This hallway was once very handsome, I muse. I can almost see back through the years when the hallway had glimmering wood and marble floors with chandeliers made from a type of horned animal. But now the hall is a faded breath of its history.

Kendrick stops at the door closest to our right and opens it for me. I brush pass him, not liking the how his arms stretch around me to close the door behind us. I expect to see a room like Rayn's, a clean, emotionally detached setting with a bed, but the first thought that pops in my head when my eyes race over the room is full.

There is a bed, but it's unmade and drowning under piles of clothes and weapons. There are daggers, switch blades, swords, arrows, and a poor gun that has been disassembled in a thousand pieces. Next to the daggers are sharpening tools. The walls are camouflaged in maps and targets. Some of the maps have bright red stars on them, while others sit in the middle of the walls untouched. Lines of twine or wire race from one map to another, connecting and twisting into a jumble of unreadable confusion. I recognize some of the places on the walls. I can make out the Northwestern part of the Outercity, its coastline hugging the Pacific Ocean. The Southeast peninsula of the Outercity is hung on the far side of the wall, far away from the Northwestern coast. Before my eyes cross trying to keep up with the chaos in the walls, I notice the dresser in the corner of the room and it's spilling contents. Shirts, pants, vests, and other stuff leather-like armor. The clothes come out of the drawers and spread over the floors, and mountain in the corners and dark places.

I wrinkle my nose.

"Sorry for the mess. I don't really get around to the washing stations very often." He bobs his head and kicks the clothes away to make a path to a desk and two chairs.

"I thought you were the Chief, don't you have servants or someone to clean your room?" I ask.

He looks at me with a puzzled pull in his forehead, "Why would I have servants?"

I think back to the trial and how the guards watched the ambassador and the drunk like snakes ready to strike at any sign of danger. "You have guards, an armada, and a throne, I don't think it's a ridiculous to think you'd have servants."

Kendrick tosses a shirt out of a chair and waves me to sit. I do, sitting on the edge of the seat, hating the way the chair touches the bottom of my thighs. "Do you have servants where you are from?" He asks, taking a seat across from me at his desk.

I think about the help my mother hires to come cook our meals, and I think about the cleaning women I bump into very once in a while for the weekly cleaning of our house. Lower jobs that the lowest Intercity citizens must take. But they rather clean then be sent to the Middlecity or Outercity. "No, we don't have those in the Middlecity."

"Not even in the plantations?" Kendrick leans back in his chair.

My blood freezes when I realize my mistake, but I can only hope that my face doesn't show it. Kendrick watches for my reaction, but not in a predatory way. His expression hasn't wavered from the openness he showed me in Rayn's room.

"Why are you being so nice to me?" I ask genuinely curious about his answer.

"Has Rayn or Cole told you why you're here?" I think about making another snarky comment, but only shake my head, not having any more energy to make this harder and not wanting him to change his mind about answers.

"Well, you were right about one thing, it really didn't have anything to do with you. The Stingrays and the Swordfish, we haven't been getting along lately, especially after..." Kendrick's expression darkens, and he quickly shakes it off. "The Stingrays wanted to have an accuse to go to war with us for years, but this would be the best time to do it."

"Why do they want to fight?"

"The Stingray territory has—" He scratches the back of his neck and huffs, "—a long history, but we were able to control a smaller portion of the Outercity, and although we are small, we have always had the backing of other Territories that border us, but not out of the kindness of their hearts. They didn't want the Swordfish to get trigger happy after conquering us—"

"How does that involve me?"

"Things have changed these past few months, and the support from those territories aren't as clear as it used to be. The only reason we have been able to last this long was because the Stingrays haven't had a good enough reason to attack us. But then you happened." He leans forward and rests his elbows on the desk. "You killed a Swordfish and claimed that you were a Stingray. You gave them an excuse to go to war with us, and if they can convince our allies that the war is justified, then we will be on our own."

I blink at his words. Part of me wants to dissect his words and find some lie he is trying to sell me, but I can't. Instead, I think of Cole who is walking these halls with a smile on his face and a fierce belief in his gang.

"I told them that I wasn't a Stingray. They know I'm not, and besides they attacked me first, if anything, they started all this." I argue.

"I wish it was that simple. We just don't know what the Swordfish are telling them, we don't know if they already have territories on their side or not. We don't know if the other territories are still on our side."

"Can't you just ask them?"

"I can't leave the Stingray Capitol." His excuse is quick, like he already thought about it many times.

I squirm in my chair. "I didn't mean to start anything," I reiterate. "I'm sorry that this happened, but I was just defending myself. I was only trying to get to the OTF that night." His dark stare bares into my skin, slithering other my face and into my chest. Your fault, it seems to say, We were okay before you. "You said you'd give me answers, but this doesn't explain why you are keeping me here."

"The only way you could get to the OTF is if you went through the Swordfish Territory, and there is no way you could do that without getting killed. You'd need an escort, and I can't give you one."

"So, you think you are keeping me here as a favor?" I raise my eyebrow.

"I'm saving your life."

"I'm losing my mind in that room." My voice builds thinking about him sitting in this room and patting his back about what a good person he is while I count the seconds, minutes, hours until I get to feel fresh air again.

Kendrick sits back, his eyes snapping away from me. "We can fix that, make it more comfortable."

"For how long?"

He doesn't answer.

"You don't know." I sit back, my mouth gaping and mind racing. I can be here for months, years. When the Intercity works out my case and comes for me at the OTF, I won't be there. I will be trapped here.

"Colby told me you were reading the bench during our training," his voice is soft. "We have to know what the Swordfish are saying to the other territories, and we need to get in contact with them, to reassure ourselves of their support. We need a Messenger."

"A Messenger?"

"It's someone who reads messages and writes to other Territories' Messengers."

Leaning back in my chair, I narrow my eyes, "And?"

"We haven't had a Messenger in years, the last one died after serving for fifty years, but we haven't found anyone who could read since. The only way we've survived this long is because I or my dad would travel around the Outercity to our ambassadors."

His half smile dimples his stingray tattoo. Hope lights his face, but I can't get over one detail. "None of you can read?"

Kendrick is taken back, his smile sinking into confusion. "No."

"Then what do you do in school?"

"School?"

"The place you go to learn to prepare for the Test."

Kendrick shakes his head, "We only learn to fight, work in factories, take care of our children. We don't have schools."

"So no one taught you how to read?" I ask again, trying to understand, to wrap my head around these people. How can they live without reading? My mind flashes back to the OTF and the students sitting in empty desks, not taking notes. I thought it was because they were lazy, but it was because they can't write. But what about the factories, their ports, their documentations? How can a city function without the ability to read?

They can't.

"But why now, if you knew I can't leave? What's the point of being nice to me? Why are you telling me this?" I ask.

Kendrick scoots any from his desk and pulls out a drawer, his hand disappears, but a moment later he pulls out a slip of paper. He places the paper between us, being carful not to bend the edges. He acts like the sheet is as thin as tissue paper.

"Because I want you to be our Messenger."