[He tenses initially, but it isn't something he can truly be guarded about for long. Not with him, anyway.]

He was a man to which I compared all others. [He admits, briefly tearing his gaze away from the man to glance towards By.] He and his wife sought apprentices while their son studied mathematics. She took on half a dozen promising youths, and... he just took me, after I'd made a fool of myself in a brothel.