"So that's how it works. Yes, that's it."
Lies tapped the Detonator. It no longer responded.
He rubbed his chin and pondered for a while, then clapped his hands in realization.
"All you had to do was cut off the signal. Haha, you've really outdone yourself..."
"Your noble majesty."
Lies turned his vacant eyes toward his surroundings. Within the endlessly shifting, kaleidoscopic Mirror Dimension, the streets were deserted.
"Magic from Kamar-Taj?"
"A kind of magic that lets you escape into a space outside reality."
Everything flipped over again and again. The buildings moved like steamrollers, and the ground split into individual squares.
John stood on one square as it drifted toward the opposite side and said casually, "Stubbornly shutting yourself away won't help you improve."
"I see," Lies said in realization. "As expected of our wise and merciful king."
"Merciful?" John raised an eyebrow. "You seem to think too highly of me."
"No, absolutely not." Lies waved his hands repeatedly, looking utterly apprehensive. "This humble Lies is overwhelmed by the king's personal presence."
"You say one thing and mean another. Your mind is more convoluted than that of the most accomplished Occlumency practitioner I've ever met."
John narrowed his eyes. "You could have a lot of people dancing in the palm of your hand."
"Even the purest Veritaserum couldn't make you speak a single word of truth."
Lies grinned, placed his right hand over his heart, and bowed as though taking a curtain call. "Thank you for the compliment, great Wizard King."
"I really don't understand why you people keep coming here, one after another." John stopped twirling his wand between his fingers. "What's so attractive about this place?"
"Love, of course," Lies said solemnly.
Just as his name suggested, not a single word was true.
John reasoned aloud, "The