"I can't speak to any mage. I used to be nobility. I'm accustomed to a certain standard of education. And since it costs precisely as much to speak with a learned scholar as it costs to speak to an apprentice, I found a scholar. And already, you've proven why. You clearly have the ability to distinguish between known fact and unproven rumor, something I would risk losing by walking into the tavern and asking the first person in robes I see."