Hardly an ignoble cause. Hmm. [ Gaunt smiles briefly at her, and says, ] Magos Tayber is a good woman, a good techpriest, and a good friend. I shall speak to you on her behalf and reassure her that you're not... what she fears. I've spent my entire life fighting it, and you're nothing like them, at all.
[ He looks away, unconsciously touching his face. Rather clearly touching the suture-scars near his eyes, and the area where it looks like the flesh way cut away from his face, and somehow later reattached. ]