tarin appeared a strapping , if not somewhat homely lad of no more than eighteen , but korsten had been informed that the stable masteralso a mage-adept with a particularly strong talent for empathy , linked to brown on the spectrumwas some four hundred and thirty years korstens senior , and when he brought those numbers against what he thought he knew of ashwin , he was let know that he had missed the mark by several centuries with him also .