Éowyn is quiet for a moment, ascending the steps with a thoughtful expression drifting over her face. "Sometimes," she says quietly, with the air of one speaking from experience, "that is when we are most ourselves, and most worthy. When names and houses and family are stripped away." She's thinking, of course, of her time riding in the ranks as Dernhelm. But it doesn't go beyond notice that she's in much the same place here, where all that held meaning to her has been taken, and what she says is as much in reassurance to herself as to him.

Either way, she shakes it off quickly enough, pausing on one of the little landings. "It sounds as if hardship has dogged you. If I could, I would hope for you that it could end here."