And if it had been literally anyone else, he might've brushed off the question by insisting he was fine, really. (Whether or not anyone would have believed him, on an island full of people who liked to insist they were 'fine, really', was not the point.) But this was Verity, who knew him better than anyone else, who had literally seen into his soul, the essence of who he was, those times they'd Joined with each other.

"Not really."