Because you are forty-four? [ He grins, watching the ferry slowly make its way toward them from across the bay. ] That does seem like a wise age.

[ He's quiet, and then he's honest. ]

I was bare-faced until I was nearly thirty—I think. [ He drops his voice, like audible parenthesis. ] I am not sure when I was born, so I am always guessing a little. [ End parenthesis. ] I was a bard until then. And I did not like who I was anymore, so I quit, and I grew a mustache.

[ He pets that part of his beard with some affection. ]

It is a little superstitious, to be so attached to it. But I don't want to go back, you know?