He looks back at her now, really looks, past the anger that's been a poor shield, past the topic of Kallian, and at Adelaide. There is no risk so dangerous as hope, nothing that has betrayed him as bitterly, and yet how is he to take that as anything but a tiny reason to hope? If she's asking this of him she's offering to take his word. To actually give it one more chance.

Clearly he is the very definition of stupid, because he wants that fragile hope more than he wants to protect himself from being hurt again.

"I would swear it." His voice is quiet. Again it is hers to decide if she'll accept that or not. This time the stakes are even greater, though, because the truth holds so much that can be used against him.