#but yeah lets put the rock collecting proto-lightweaver with a.... everything szeth is

[pocketramblr]

31. lies

"Tien? Can I see it?"

The young man doesn't ask what he means. He pulls it from his side, hidden under fabric with a few other pebbles, then hidden further.

His oathstone. The bit of quartz, the vein of iron. He hadn't seen them since he'd suggested Tien hide the stone with his life if he didn't want to lose both. He still knew exactly where they sat in the stone.

Everything else was less certain.

"The Radiants are back." He said. "They can't be back, but they are. I am Truthless, but I am not."

Tien pressed his lips together. The boy had only given up on protesting the title when he'd realized - or had it realized for him - that doing so made Szeth even less at ease.

"I know you're not. I know liars and lies, and you aren't like that." He looks down at the stone, then at Szeth. "So, do you take it back, then?"

He didn't do anything. You didn't stop being Truthless until you finally, mercifully, died.

Except, he'd never been Truthless. That had never been his oathstone.

"No." He held his hand out. Tien blinked, but gave it over.

Szeth breathes in, and out, and flings the stone out into the sea from the dock, lashing it further and further down.

Then he lets go.

"Szeth?"

"Tien-son-Lirin." He debates what to do. "I will help you find your brother, and then, go to search for what I need of the Radiants." Then, Shinovar...

He turns back toward the city and its bells and buildings. Tien moves to walk by him, eyes glancing between him and the shadows cast by Kharbranth.

Some of the shadows move wrong. Szeth watched the young man worry his lips, moving and mouthing without speaking. Yes. Szeth would find what he needed of the Radiants here, he suspected. At least, it was the best lead he had.