“I don’t want to miss something. You hear more nuances of truth than I even knew existed. Plus, I really want to see a few colors in particular, but have no idea if any of these statements will work. I assume you will be better at coming up with what I missed if that proves to be the case.”
“Gold and flattery. This is turning out to be quite the morning for me.”
Felix snorted. “That was hardly flattery.”
“Oh? What would you call it?”
“The truth.”
This time I snorted. “All right, you’ve convinced me that I need to teach you the difference between truth andtruth. Let’s get started.”
I stood up, gripping the papers tightly. I read the top one and raised a brow. “You are really working hard to get on my good side today, aren’t you? You realize this could backfire?”
Felix licked a paw and ran it over his whiskers. “It won’t.”
I held the first paper to the flames, hearing the harmonious yet complex chimes of an opinion masquerading as a truth. “See? The node doesn’t agree that I am beautiful.”
Felix continued to groom himself. “It didn’t disagree either. I saw a periwinkle shade. That is a shade of blue, not orange.”
“It is a shade of purple.”
“It is closer to blue. Therefore, it was closer to the truth. Or are my instincts about the color wrong? You said I should trust my instincts, didn’t you? Did you change your mind already?”
I rolled my eyes. “There’s a reason it wasn’t an actual shade of blue. An opinion, by nature, cannot be true or false. But because you wrote this, it is read as closer to truth than a lie.” Which meant that Felix believed it to be true, which surprised me, though he had said something similar before.
I knew what I looked like. I had an identical twin whom I had seen nearly every day of my life before coming to Rose Castle. We were, at best, cute. Though no one was foolish enough to call me that. Thank all the gods. But no one called me beautiful, either. I didn’t have the height or slender curves to pull off beautiful.
Perhaps from the vantage point of a cat, I looked different? I pushed the thought away. What did it matter if Felix thought I wasbeautiful? Knowing he did shouldn’t send a gentle warmth through my entire body.
Shaking my head, I plucked the next paper from the stack. I read the statement and frowned.
Isabel Cardh didn’t drink wine at breakfast.
I waved the paper at Felix. “Are you trying to determine if I’m a drunkard? Why, in Tsy’s name, is this one of your test statements?”
“Please, just hold it to the node. I need to see something specific.”
I shoved the paper into the flames, still glaring at Felix. “What could make you need to see the truth of this?”
Gold-green eyes focused on the flames, then he slumped.
I crossed my arms. The node rang out that he believed the statement to be true, and it upset him? “Explain.”
He sighed. “I needed a statement about someone else that I knew would be false even without witnessing it happen. But it was the same color as the last one.”
“Since you signed it, the node can only read it as an opinion. Here, I’ll show you the difference.” I tore the bottom of the paper and rewrote the statement, adding the words “I believe” in front. I let Felix sign it and held it to the flames.
This time I heard the trio of bells that signaled a pure truth. “See? Now the statement itself is about what you believe. It is true that this is your opinion, whether or not it is true that I didn’t drink wine at breakfast.”
“Damn it. That doesn’t help. I need to see the truth of a statement that isn’t an opinion, but also is a misdirection. Like when you wrote out that your father is amazing, but didn’t mean it as a compliment. Except the color was slightly different.”
“Misdirections are harder to sense in isolation. You could say the exact same thing at different times and I would hear different bells—if I could read you, that is. If you want to hear misdirections, it is easiest to do in response to questions.”
“Then I’ll ask you questions.”
I shook my head. “I don’t think that will work with the charm on the node. Each paper would still be read in isolation.”
“I won’t use the charm. I’ll truth-read your verbal responses.”
