He is glad to give her a dream instead of a nightmare. And he intends to keep it that way if he possibly can. Until the final moment, maybe, when Byerly and Duv and him are sure that history is already too far off rails for it to matter ...

The thought doesn't dim his smile; he's too busy laughing mentally at Ivan. "Middling, which is just the way he likes it," he says with a grin. "He works very hard to be average." A beat. That's not actually a great answer for Sonia, as deeply accurate as it is for him. "But yes, he is a good man. Despite my influence."