He's certainly been trying to be more hopeful, but he's also been one to abide by what evidence has been presented. There's a benefit to that, to thinking based on what you experience and not what you already feel, but it's also much harder to power through a situation that seems to be throwing them no bones at all. Blind faith is not something he's ever had, no matter how zealous his people had a reputation for being.

Yet, it frustrates him that the only things he has on his tongue are worries and doubts. Jaskier is clearly putting in some emotional labour here, and honestly, Estinien hates feeling as if he needs to be consoled. There's value in honestly, of course, and he would rarely hold his tongue when the truth could be at all constructive, but right now... what good does it do, to lament the inescapable?

He refuses to be needlessly burdensome.

"Jaskier," he says after a length of silence, listening to the bard's rambling tunes. The word is savoured on his tongue for a moment, having remembered it correctly the first time. "Would you tell me of yourself? It seems only fair."

An incredibly broad question that he had asked of himself not long ago. Karmically, he feels less shame in pawning it onto someone else. Especially someone who seems more willing to talk.