His natural response is humility. To deny it or brush it off, but he pauses because he feels like a grieving person doesn't need to have anyone be false in the face of their pain. Even a stranger.

"I've been told that you get to know yourself better in your worst moment. Who you are stripped back to impulse." Istredd doesn't have the highest opinion of himself. He thinks he's fine. Smart, dependable, useful, kind. He often feels like a normal person being surrounded by the extraordinary, as a researcher mage who lived in libraries instead of courts. He used to get angry at the very implication he was weak because he believed, deep down, that he was.

But he survived his worst moments and did good while in the midst of it. Maybe he is better than he thought. Stronger, at the least.

"I'm a researcher, a scholar. Bravery was unexpected." But it was true. Istredd studies her, feverish but curious. "You're the ones who snuck into that cavern unsure if you'd get out. We were forced into that situation. You chose it."

They're both brave.