[Astarion huffs. It's not nonsense if it's true!

But he tends to the question, instead, his little bat-face sobering, ears... not drooping, but lowering slightly.]

No. I never had the chance, darling. Never had... the will to, either, I think. [Some days, he was simply given to accepting his circumstances. For long stretches of time, he was driven only by apathy.] But now I'm free. And I hope to explore that freedom to its fullest.