"You lie through your teeth like you are breathing."
Silas said it without looking back. He just stated it to the corridor ahead of them like a weather observation.
Salvar was three steps behind because his ankle had opinions about the pace and was enforcing them regardless of what Salvar wanted.
"They were trying to blame me for something that wasn't my fault," he said. "I corrected the narrative."
"That is one way to describe it."
"It's the accurate way."
Silas glanced back at him. Not at his face. At the limp. Something moved in his expression and then didn't.
He did not slow down.
Salvar did not ask him to.
"It makes me wonder," Silas said, facing forward again, "whether you are actually who you say you are or something else entirely."
The corridor felt slightly shorter than it had on the way in.
"I am not a professional liar," Salvar said. "I don't do it for a living."
He said it with complete sincerity, which was its own specific achievement.
