Bastien doesn't look at the toast, interrupted; he only nods with slightly-sleepy-eyed enthusiasm and begins recounting his favorite parts. This amounts in practice to an abbreviated retelling of the entire story, with a few Orlesian mispronunciations of Fereldan names and places along the way.

"—and I am glad Angus came out of it with the gold," he says at the end. "When the other two tried to trade him to the pirates behind his back? Poor fellow, not even knowing how terrible his friends are."

He's been gesturing, in a subdued sort of way, with a spoonful of porridge. When he touches it to his mouth, the waving-around has made that lump predictably cold, so he recoils a little and drops it back into the bowl.

"Do you know if it is an old story someone copied down? Or something new?"