[Hakkai-shei strikes him sharply, more sharply than he had anticipated, and Hakkai draws an unsteady breath as his hand tightens on Jedao's for a long moment. It feels as if a piece of himself had dropped into place and proven, shockingly, to fit.

He closes his eyes for a moment.]

Actually--

[There's a thread of wry humor in his voice, thin but there--]

I think I might just be insulted because I went to so much effort to offer kindness to him and I'm not sure he ever even noticed.

'How dare he think all that work was worthless--' [and then, letting the humor slip away] '--how dare he judge everything about me less important than scoring a symbolic little revenge for a slight that only ever existed in his own head.'

[Including Hakkai's actual life. He doesn't care what Arthur says about Nathaniel's views on the non-personhood of nonhuman life in particular: he's willing to believe Nathaniel when the boy says he'd have done the same thing to a human he thought was keeping a secret from him.]