I know.

[ He might not be able to smell a mage, but he can certainly smell nobility. ]

But it's much the same sort of thing. Bastien's birth, much like your...I presume you were late-apprenticed, and to a master of lesser renown, because someone mismanaged their social connections? Didn't exploit them properly? Or was some other misfortune involved? - Regardless, you're both undervalued because people have paid attention to circumstances instead of talents.