People were always supposed to tell the truth. That was what Dirk had always tried to teach him, and what he tried to live life assuming was always true. It wasn't true, though, and he knew that. People lied all the time, sometimes for good reasons, sometimes for bad. Colette had lied, the Desians had lied, Genis and Raine had lied. Even he'd lied, though his lies didn't usually last very long before someone caught him out.

But even though he knew that people lied sometimes, he just couldn't bring himself to look at everything they said to see if they were telling the truth. He'd rather assume the best and be wrong than to assume the worst when they weren't lying at all.

Even so, he stared at Kratos for a very long, hard moment. He wasn't fine. The bandages made that a plain and blatant lie. The rest, though...

He didn't know. He didn't know if he trusted Kratos enough to believe he was telling the truth, and he didn't know if he wanted to have so little faith in someone. The silence stretched for another unhappy moment. Then he took a breath, and let it back out.

"All right." Dwarven vow number eighteen: It's better to be deceived that to deceive. The vows were there for times when he was in doubt, and he took refuge in them now. His Dad wouldn't have steered him wrong. "So, you're fine. What does that mean for you tonight? Do you want to try again?"