Crossword Genius

One guaranteeing a key will be in a rusty state (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

surety

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'one guaranteeing a' is the definition.
The answer is a person as well as being a singular noun. This is suggested by the definition.

'key will be in a rusty state' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'key' could be 'e' (a musical key) and 'e' is located in the answer.
an anagram of 'rusty' is 'surty' which is located in the remaining letters.
This accounts for all the letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for surety that I've seen before include "Safeguard; certainty" , "Guarantor" , "Legal safeguard against loss" , "One who takes responsibility for another's debts" , "Semitic language" .)

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