“There are lots of different kinds of Elementals, not just Air, Earth, Fire, and Water. Vrondi are Air Elementals. Mostly—mostly we don’t have much to do with each other. But vrondi have a very peculiar affinity for the truth, so some mages have learned how to get their help in being able to tell truth from falsehood. Very inexperienced or weak mages can call one or more and ask them to reveal the truth. They do that by surrounding a person and glowing blue. If the person lies, they stop glowing. If the person is telling the truth, they keep glowing.”

“The truth is nourishment for us, my Lord,” said Star. “That is why.”

Huh. I had no idea.

“And a powerful mage can give them a sort of extra boost of energy, so they can actually compel the person the mage is questioning to tell the truth.” He looked to Star for confirmation.

The Doll nodded. “It pleases us to do that. The truth is important, and the more truth in the world, the more vrondi there are.”

He passed his hand over his eyes again and said bitterly, “Then this place must be like swimming in a sewer for you. Gods.”

Star answered, “The sewers serve a noble purpose. And, while the amount of deceit here is profound, there is also truth in abundance. Torturers are very sincere in their desire to harm.”

“But why vrondi?” he asked, almost desperately. “Surely there were some other Elementals they could have put in the Dolls—”

“We are imprisoned by an application of the same process by which the pellets are made, my Lord,” said Star. “As to why it was vrondi they chose, and not another Elemental, this one cannot say. Perhaps the others are too powerful to confine. Perhaps the process would not work on them. This one is not a mage, and no mages have ever confided the reason to a vrondi.”

“I can surmise why,” Beltran offered. “A vrondi cannot lie, which would make you ideal servants. None of you could be assassins, spies, traitors, or agents.”

Star nodded. “We do not kill. We do not even harm if we can help it. We cannot lie, but we can choose how to phrase things. We can choose to perform only the minimum commanded of us, but not to refuse entirely. And there is a trick that our jailors are unaware of: even if I, as an individual, am aware of something from another of my kind, I can still say ‘I do not know,’ because knowledge gained from another is technically hearsay. It is by that trick we can live by the truth yet not betray. My truth is that I make my decisions based upon knowledge from others, but that knowledge may be sourced from another’s misunderstanding. Thus, compelled by truth, that knowledge does not qualify as a complete truth. Just a possibility or probability.”