He very much has not given an answer, it's true. And he is quite aware of it - as he has been every time he has chosen not to over the long years of his life. Just as he knows, too, that Elidibus will note the lack of a proper answer. Especially since he has not often been in the habit of being evasive with the Emissary.

Still, he has paused for a moment. And here and now, that will have to suffice. Even if that pause alone does not make him any less a threat. It just means that he is not being an active threat.

(And to be quite honest, he has never much cared for more direct methods anyway.)

"It is." There's a nod at the words, slow and steady and absent the cruelty that had previously laced Emet-Selch's words. As if the pause has given him some room to push further past the compulsion that drives him. "And I would spare you the need to consider it."

It's not a promise, not quite. But it is an offer. A flickering gleam of hope in the darkness; a whisper of potential safety in the wake of the fear that has Elidibus' so helpless in it's grab and one that speaks to who and what they are. If Emet-Selch is the only one who could truly be a threat, than so too would he easily be the equal of any who sought to challenge him over Elidibus.