He shakes his head. "Haven't learned how, couldn't study it while I lived with my family because it'd scare them."

"Makes sense. So, the fundamentals of reality and access to other realities. That's a pretty cool set of interests."

"...you know, if anyone else said that I'd have thought they were making fun of me."

"I mean it!"

"I know."

They finish their food and make their way to Attainment. When they get there Ruby steps up really close to Onmund, almost touching—he's only half an inch taller than the Nord, if that—and says, "This was fun. I'll see you tomorrow?"

Onmund flushes a bit but doesn't break eye contact. He swallows and says, "Yeah. Tomorrow."

"Good night, then." And into his room for the night.

Onmund spends a moment there, staring after Ruby, then shakes himself out of it and goes to his own room.

There is a while still before Ruby should sleep, to wake up on time, but he chooses to sleep anyway. Better to wake up earlier, and use the early morning for whatever he'd want to spend the night doing instead. He writes about the evening in his journal and then to bed he goes.

What he decides to do in the morning is study some magic. But instead of trying to learn anything new, he'll grab a spell tome for one of the spells he already knows and try to get the theory behind his instincts, an explanation of what exactly it is he's doing. The Lesser Ward tome is a simple enough one for this.

At some point, while he's reading, the Tower of the Elements sounds seven bells, so he has another hour to kill. He finishes the thought he's on then closes his book and puts it away. Then he... decides he's going to check the basement floor, more specifically the communal washroom.

It turns out to be an actual bath, large enough for half a score people to comfortably use at the same time, enchanted for warmth and cleanliness, as well as individual cabins for other necessities.

Brelyna is in the bath as he walks in, eating sliced fruit from a plate she set next to her and reading a book. She looks up at him when he walks in. "Oh! Good morning."

"Morning. I confess I wasn't expecting something as fancy as this," he says, making a beeline for the bath and gingerly stepping in.

"Well, it's not really that expensive to keep enchantments like these up, especially when the best wizards in Tamriel can do maintenance to them with," and she flicks her right wrist, "a light wave."

"I suppose that makes sense." Wow this water is nice and he should, perhaps, do something about the fact that the elf is really really attractive and they are both naked in a bath. He really needs to get used to this, everyone's naked in this school.

Brelyna seems mostly unbothered, except for a light dark-grey flush to her cheeks which could well be just the heat of the bath. "The people of Skyrim really hate magic so I imagine this must be a lot rarer here than it is in Morrowind."

"Which... I assume is a country?"

"—right. To the east. You really don't know?"

"You can assume in general the answer to that question is 'yes'," he says with a smile.

"So if I say the word 'Telvanni' to you..."

An eloquent shrug is the answer.

"...that's very refreshing."

"Should I not ask?"

"Well, everyone knows already, it's just—everyone knows already. I keep being asked—and I don't want to be asked, I came here to escape them and their high expectations, I just want to learn magic for myself at my own pace."