[...the abject dread Jasper feels at actually going into the king’s rationale is overtaken by the warm, fuzzy feeling that comes with the more explicit confirmation that yes, Hendrik does think he got screwed over... it’s so much easier to face when he actually feels a certain level of solidarity here. He... he probably won’t agree with the king’s apparent judgment, right?]

I... well...

[He shifts a bit to sit up instead of lounging, though he unconsciously ends up in a bit of a slouch. it’s still hard to talk about it because it hurts.

and because even as he rails against it and thinks it’s unfair, some part of him thinks that the king’s judgment was correct.]

...

The king seemed to consider my inability to save the princess from the forces of the Darkspawn a mark against me. That is what he told me at the time.

[He sounds a bit uncertain about it, because he... thought it wasn’t even a secret? He thought everyone knew and agreed but were too polite to say anything, and...]

I do not think it was rational, but...

[...if it wasn’t, would he even have had time to apologize for lashing out? He doesn’t even know. Perhaps that’s the true reason for the discrepancy. He doesn’t know when it was that the king was overtaken, after all...]

It made it somewhat difficult for me to approach him afterwards.