His mouth opened for a second, as if one of his protests was about to come off his lips. But that didn't happen. Instead, his lips pressed together a tiny amount before tugging off to one side. Maybe not so unusual, but there was something about that seemed tired, more weary than usual. It was a match for the look in his eyes as some of the facade he'd tried to present faded away.

"Look, don't you think I know that? Don't ye think I've seen the way this place is affecting ye? I want to help ye. I've been trying to help ye, but I can't, and after I- after the battle I couldn't do that to ye, not on top of everything else.

He broke off, taking a breath before turning away for a moment to set down the hammer he'd been using a few minutes before. When he turned back, there was still something tired in his expression, but there was something serious there as well.

"I wasn't hiding. I was trying not to make things worse for ye because of something ye couldn't have stopped anyway."