G'lin honour-oath
An archaic, Mól-derived vow sworn in G'lin against the swearer's own honor, and not the same kind of thing as a promise
The G’lin honour-oath is an old form, Mól-derived and sworn in G’lin, and it is not a promise. What the swearer stakes is their own honor, and the distinction between the two is one of kind rather than of degree. It is archaic enough that Mikhail, who knows its full history out of books, had only ever met it in stories.
Khudan would not accept a promise. He had been engaged to carry Councilor Sarro Rashid’s kidnapped son onward, and had agreed instead to bring the boy home in exchange for guaranteed passage to Deadport, which Asiya Azrak undertook to secure for him at a cost in favors called in and favors owed. He waited hours outside the councilors’ meeting for it, and what he asked for at the end of the wait was the oath. She gave it, and he went peacefully on the strength of it: “It will take time. I will return.” Neither of them knew what they were handling.
They did not even speak the same G’lin. Khudan’s is the rural, proper-goblin form; Asiya’s is a trained and formal register, the one a commander learns.