"That's sort of how we feel about making and following through on deals with the Enemy."

"Then it's a good thing Cam's not vying for the approval of your populace, isn't it. Look, if half of what you told us last time was true, you're doing a good job. I want to help you stay in power. But I literally cannot describe how far you're handicapping me with the sex slave thing."

"I swear everything I told you was true and that there were no omissions I'd expect to change your assessment on that front."

"Thank you. Cam wanted to verify it by asking Bar for your conscription records and internal documentation and so forth, too, can you help us find that?"

"If my word's not enough you can suggest another phrasing, but sure -" and he names the people who'd be in charge of those records and the general structure of the record-keeping system - "and my notes on our conversations, too, if Bar has those..." and some dates and descriptions. 

"Thanks. If you have other admirable humanitarian projects in the works it'd be good to know about them too, same reason, but I am really not going to get anywhere as long as you're keeping him."

"Was this meeting to discuss a safer set of oaths, or to try to talk me out of it?"

"Safer set of oaths. But I want to be honest with you about the end state, I don't want you to think that if we find a safe, airtight, stable wording then I'll be able to eventually talk my people around, because I won't. Eventually you're going to have to figure out how to hold onto him without any coercion."

"The thing is that 'airtight' and 'not torturous for him' trade off pretty strongly, if I'm not handicapping or altering him."

"What about light constraints conditional on you being, to his knowledge, alive and free and able to accurately represent what you want, and then something sufficiently deterring in place otherwise -"

"Can I have an oath for you that -"

"I swear that I like you and want to find a way to fix this without hurting you. I swear that as far as I know you're safe here and there are no efforts in place to change the situation except by convincing you to stop doing it. I swear that I'm making suggestions with the intent of finding a solution that has Findekáno in one piece and not miserable, that I'm not deliberately introducing loopholes that'll let him go, and that the avenue by which I intend to make you let him go is 'giving you the information I have such that it seems like the obvious best thing to do, and then helping you figure out how to do it and get as much as you can of what you want'."

"Okay. Problem with that approach is that if I die of or am incapacitated by something unrelated to this mess, he's stuck forever."

"Is there anyone you'd trust to determine whether your death was undeterrable by any conceivable set of oaths and if so to let Nechar clear his up and let him go?"

"My brothers, but you could feed them information very selectively."

"What happens to him right now if you die of some exotic world's flu?"

"Swears to take my ends as his own."

"Can you at least make it 'swears to conduct a sincere and very careful examination of the death and to take your ends as his own if he and anyone he enlists in the investigation is not wholly satisfied that it was undeterrable -"

"Too many clever people with rules I don't know, here. The only safe thing is deterring a result. I don't like it either. I didn't use it at home."

"So if you went for light orders except in the case of your death and that if you die he'd still be better off."

"Yes. I'll consider it."

"Thanks. Let me know if you need anything."

"I will."

And he comes downstairs. "Hey," he says to Cam. "All out loud, you have the transcript."

Cam catches up. Almost doesn't flinch, recovers promptly. "Such a creep," he mutters.