"Oh, she's fiiine," Alistair says, on reflex, because just answering the question—he'll get to it, but he can't change who he is, and who he is is a person who is absolutely going to take this opening for more mockery. "Humans attacking elves in Orlais isn't really an event. You were the fifth one to try to kill her that week. I'm sure it all bleeds together after a time."

There. That instinct sated, what Cade said before can actually sink in, and he can catch himself and frown a little, voice sinking back into deeper, subdued tones.

"She's afraid and she's angry. But she'll be all right, I think," he says, and is quick to add, "because she's tough. Not because you're not that big an asshole."

An asshole he's still standing next to, though.