Business first. Always, business first. "I saw you, actually. Horrifically, branding me a failure and worse. A walking nightmare. Then it faded and that lovely harridan called me ruined. Wouldn't be the first. I didn't hear much else, but I saw them react to it. Unfortunately, I don't hear many voices in my head anymore," which might be ironic considering how many people thought he might be mad. "Speak to Gloria. I'd be very surprised if she wasn't one of them, run away though. She could be someone's daughter too, I suppose. There are ways these things go."
Then, an exhale. That was the pleasant bit. "They knew me to begin with." He shifted the conversation now that the necessities were out of the way. "Now all they know is that I'm someone they can talk to if they need to talk to someone without blades necessarily entering into the picture. One can negotiate with one's..." but his voice faded off which she knew well was a rare thing from him. Was she in such a state that she could analyze it? Likely not. Were she in that state, he wouldn't have decided to do it in the first place. Instead, quietly. "People were at risk, Egris. My people and yours. I'm going to step in between a blade and them whenever I can. Would you be spending such time with me if you thought I'd do anything less?"
He had a tendency to argue whenever he had a point. Maybe that was tempered somewhat by all of his experienced, but it was a slight tempering at best, a belt that was loosened through lack of use. They'd not had many talks like this since he had been stripped of his power.
"I will do it again, Egris, again and again, and you wouldn't want me to do anything else. I'll do it again and you'll be all the fonder of me for it. You've spent much of your life with people trying to coddle and constraint you and look what you've done in return. You're not allowed to fault me for being like you."