He should probably ask. He's not sure if he's allowed.

(If she talks, he doesn't have to. And there's only one other way these family inquiries can go, if the focus stays on him, and Cullen would much prefer not to dwell upon how ashamed his dead parents would be of the man he's become, or how they might blame themselves for his failures.)

"You've mentioned Zevran before," he ventures.

There. A gambit that Ysalwen can take or abandon, as she likes.