Liar Toads

Overview

In the Silent Court a lie has weight, and the Liar Toads take some of it. They swell when a lie is spoken near them, as a speaker grows heavy, and a toad that has sat through a long night of liars can no longer move.

Appearance

A Liar Toad at rest is the size of a child's fist, flat and warty, black as the Court's floor, with a throat of dull red and gold-ringed eyes. As it takes on lies it swells: first the throat, then the whole body, until a bloated toad is as round as a loaf and its skin is stretched shiny and grey, with the warts standing apart like rivets. It is silent. A swollen toad gives one low, heavy croak when it finally empties, a sound like a stone dropped into a well.

Habitat and Range

They sit on the polished black floor near the dais and in the shadow under the empty benches, where speech is thickest. They are few, a handful to a chamber.

Behaviour and Temperament

They are still and patient, and they eat the Court's small flies when any come near. They take no notice of truths. A lie spoken within a few paces makes a toad's throat bulge, and a toad sits and swells through a lying speaker's whole speech. When the speaking is over and the room is quiet, the toad crawls slowly into a corner, croaks once, and empties, and is small again.

Abilities

A Liar Toad takes on a little of a lie's weight; it does not lift it from the speaker. Its swelling is a fair measure of how much was said falsely within its hearing, though not of who said it. It cannot be deceived by a careful liar, because the Court cannot.

Life Cycle

Nothing is known of their breeding; no one has seen spawn or young in the Court. Visitors report the same toads in the same places over many years.

Uses and Dangers

They are harmless, and those who come to the Court to swear or confess watch them as closely as the Judges. A party that has brought a liar among it learns of it from the toads before the Court's gravity tells them. Some carry one out, in the belief that it will tell lies outside; outside it is only a toad, and soon dies.

Lore and Belief

Visitors say the toads are the Court's clerks, keeping count for the Judges, and that a toad that bursts marks a lie the Court will not forgive. No one has seen one burst. Those who have stood in the Court bring home a saying for a practised liar: "he'd swell a toad".

Where It Appears

• Overview: Natives of the Zones