“Well someone had too.” His return salvo of banter came with a smile as he watched the woman. “Though if you’ll oblige I’m happy to be a target.” The back-and-forth was easy from him to supply. It was how he had always acted. He never had tried to take anything all too seriously. His smile faded by degrees when he caught her looking towards him. Though the banter came easily, anything more serious was difficult. Part of him didn’t know what to say, she survived and he was more grateful for that than he could put into words. Instead of saying anything he just smiled once towards her before he stepped aside to let her enter.
As she approached he fell silent to let her slip past him. He followed quickly after, and the door shut quietly behind him. The room was familiar, quite similar to any of a dozen smaller rooms. He crossed to an armor stand in one corner that held his formal armor as he removed the sword from his back and set it against the wall next to it. Near to the bed was a second suit of armor, this one not near as formal. Plate and chain that were battered but well cared for, with the only marking that of a black wolf etched into the metal of a the shoulder piece. The pieces lay separated, the lines of brighter metal picking out where rents in the armor had been repaired recently. “I was just in town, getting a few things before we all had to leave.” He explained as he put the package on the bed and then turned to look towards the woman.
It was difficult to say if he had been avoiding her. He had been keeping himself busy with his own duties even as she had with hers. He had caught up with old friends and made new ones, prepared for the coming trip. Maddock had kept him busy with trivial-seeming duties up until the time when the venerable Templar hadn’t returned from the Joining. They both had their lives to lead, and their duties to perform. Neither could afford to be distracted from that for too long. For a moment he cursed himself for a fool, he didn’t need to add to the problems that were no doubt building in the mage’s mind. It was selfish, and it was the last thing that he wanted to do. Here they were though, and now that he had asked her in he couldn’t just throw her back out again.
“I hadn’t been looking for long. I saw Alderic last night,” he finally said before the silence became uncomfortable. Closer inspection of the Templar would reveal that he looked as if he got little sleep. Regardless of that, the relief in seeing that his two oldest friends were alive was evident in the lines of his face and the depths of his gaze. He seemed to relax further now that they weren’t standing in the hallway.