He doesn't leave off his dinner. It could be calculated, some attempt to put her at ease or to throw off any external impression of a serious conversation being held in the dining hall, or some opposite thing, designed to unsettle. Or he was getting dinner and saw her and decided there is nothing like the present. Either way—

A few bites down, a hand back to his tankard. "I see no reason for you to declare yourself to the company," he says. Apparently, her claim has been accepted as fact. She is a mage. He has his biases. "And I have no desire to endanger you by asking it."

He tips the tankard slightly, a gesture. "But I'll need a measure of assurance from you. After dinner, will you come by my office so that we can speak frankly?"