"You didn't?" The idea of someone learning magic outside a college.... Is that even possible? Everything he knows of magic says no; It requires ritual, discipline, practice, knowledge. Training that takes years before even the simplest spell can be cast. Not things that can be stumbled upon.
But then, someone must have. The first primitive sorcerers, who founded the basis upon which the grand colleges now stand. Is it not conceivable that maybe, maybe cruder traditions still persevere in these foreign lands?
"Uh, yes. Yes I did. Spent most of my life in the Royal Academy for Etheric Arts. And you?"