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Gerald's smile widened slightly at Jillian's confession that she really had thought him selfish enough to be willing to sacrfice anything to save himself. Of course she had thought that; that was part of the plan, after all, that anyone uninitiated in the change of whereabouts of the Demon Prison would simply think that the obviously sinister outsider and necromancer was just trying to save his own skin. Ah, and an excellent plan it had been; with Hazzergash's foul energy having seeped from the crystal over the millennia and tainted the heart of the forest to the point of total corruption, that area would radiate Hazzergash's evil much more strongly than the actual prison itself, which by its very nature contained the demon's essence as much as possible. Combine that with the fact that the Anaxim Forest was so thoroughly permeated with ambient magical energy that it was difficult to sense much of anything, and Hazzergash could have been standing mere feet from Gerald without ever realizing that the thing he sought was within easy reach. There had been more to the plan, of course, but the way things turned out it had never become relevant.
It was not that the warlock was not a selfish man; he was, and he was aware of the fact. How could he be otherwise, when his personal goals involved immortality and supreme power? All beings were selfish at their core, but there were things in the Planes important enough that even the self had to take lower priority. What was the point of surviving, after all, if the world one inhabited became a living nightmare? Why live if life became impossible? Preserving Reniam itself was Gerald's foremost objective, since failing that would remove the value from all others. It was simple logic.

Pleased as he was with having been able to predict Jillian's actions and reactions thus far, however, he was slightly surprised at her first question after the revelation of this secret he had carried against his chest. Her immediate thought at this was to question why he had not told her? He was a little disappointed at that. This woman really was a prideful one, to prioritize the degree of trust she held with him over more obviously interesting things, such as how he had come into possession of Hazzergash's Demon Prison in the first place. That was what [I]he[/I] would have asked, but then again, he was by far the more rational of the two.
He did pause a moment upon her asking, thinking, before he decided on an answer. "I do trust you," he finally stated. "That is why I show you now. Before the battle I had no reason to, and during it, mentioning the subject was too dangerous. As for my intentions, I did tell you about them; if it looked like we were losing, we'd flee. Whatever happened I had to stay alive. We had to reach Kevalorn. I told you all these things; I only abstained from specifying the reason for them."
He met her viridian gaze with his amber one, a gleam in his eye and a light smirk on his lip. "Can you not believe in the credibility of my intentions without knowing the reason for them? Do you not trust me, Veldaine?"