As soon as they've grabbed their food and have found a table to eat, J'zargo starts showering Ruby with questions.

He answers some of them, but: "I think some of it is just straight-up practice. I can walk you through some of the stuff going on in my head when I do it, after dinner, but I expect it won't immediately make sense."

    The khajiit adopts a calculating expression (or so Ruby assumes) then nods. "Acceptable."

        "Are others welcome in this lesson?" asks Brelyna. J'zargo bares his teeth a bit and she sighs. "No one else here cares about becoming the most powerful wizard, you don't need to worry about competition."

"Sure," says Ruby. "We could go back to the arena and I'll try to show you guys how I did it."

Everyone nods and then the conversation turns to a mostly-theoretical discussion of alchemical principles. J'zargo gamely attempts to participate in it in a more social fashion but Onmund mostly abstains.

After the topic dies down, Onmund finally ventures: "So was that... in the lecture hall... normal?"

    "'That'?" wonders Brelyna.

He blushes a bit. "The way the, uh, orc and the human were... you know. In plain sight."

        "Mating is not a shameful activity," says J'zargo. "This one thought you understood, given that you did it, too."

Now he's blushing very much, and doesn't really have a counter to that.

"Wherever my mysterious intuitions come from, I had one that this was surprising," says Ruby.

    "Maybe in Skyrim?" suggests Brelyna, uncertainly. "I suppose if Skyrim has cultural taboos around nudity it stands to reason that it would about sex, too, though I don't understand why."

Onmund tries and fails to come up with an explanation. On the one hand it seems self-evident; on the other, as he tries to examine the thought he can't pin down any actual reasons for it. "Maybe something cultural about the cold," he suggests. It seems as likely as anything.

    "J'zargo often finds himself confused by humans. He does not understand, either."

J'zargo is participating in a conversation that is not about magic! Amazing.

    "About your... mysterious intuitions," asks Brelyna, looking at Ruby. Then she pauses and can't seem to come up with anything more specific to ask.

"I don't know," he answers anyway. "I assume I wasn't literally created from scratch three days ago. There were things I had to be reminded of—I didn't know what it meant, to die, until I was reminded of it by Yisra's corpse—" She grimaces a bit. "—but I seem to have a lot of, uh... Background knowledge? I know the language, is the most obvious."

    "And magic."

"And magic," he agrees. "But given everything else I kind of think that I'm... from some particular place, I seem to have specific intuitions that seem to me to be the kind of thing you'd only get from being raised somewhere and getting them ingrained in my mind."

    "I guess that makes sense."

        "Have you asked any of the Wizards about whether they can restore memories?" asks J'zargo.

"...no. I assumed they'd offer but there's no harm in asking anyway."

He doesn't do that immediately, though. After dinner the four Apprentices go to the practical arena and Ruby tries to explain his magic intuitions to the other three. When he wonders aloud whether an Instructor wouldn't be better at this, Brelyna explains that while they might, Instructors of the College take a very hands off approach and mostly don't go into that much depth to teach students individual things; magic is a very broad subject, and it would be infeasible to teach everything one knows especially when the areas of interest of individual mages are very unlikely to perfectly overlap.

Plus, of course, as Ruby himself observed, a lot of it requires individual development. Magic, being an expression of the soul, has many indelible aspects that need to be worked out by each mage on their own.

Their practical on the next morning is an introduction to Restoration with Colette Marence. The lesson proper is reasonably short, and after Ruby has determined that he seems to already know the basic exercise for this class too (a trait shared with Brelyna) he excuses himself and goes to find Tolfdir.

    The Master Wizard is in his office, and once Ruby gets there he waves him in. "How may I help you, young man?"

"To go straight to the point... I was talking to the other Apprentices yesterday and Brelyna brought up the possibility that one of the Wizards of the College might be able to help me with my memory issues." He does the fire colour illusion demonstration again. "It seems like I already know a bunch of things but they're sort of... I don't have a handle on them, I don't know what I know and what I don't, and it's getting to be pretty frustrating."

    "Ah," says the old man, leaning back on his chair and adopting a thoughtful expression with a glint in his eye. "It's... perhaps possible. However... it is very dangerous."

"Ah?"

    "Assuming the memories are still within you, etched in your soul or your mind, the fact that you cannot access them would mean that either some enchantment is preventing you from doing so or something more... complicated is going on. Given how you seem to be able to recall some things I would guess we are in this last situation."

"More complicated like how?"

    He shakes his head. "Hard to say, and part of the danger. If your memories aren't just blocked, then they are buried somehow—overwhelmed by other, more superficial memories, or perhaps having their natural connection to each other and their associative structure destroyed."

"And the danger?"

    "Damaging or outright destroying your mind. An external actor trying to restore your memories would need to tread extremely carefully, and have enough control that stray magic would not accidentally escape into your psyche and injure it. And they would be doing much of the process in the dark, having to feel for the shape of your thoughts. Yes, 'tis possible in principle, but in practice..." He sighs and shakes his head, as if reluctantly giving up on a fascinating puzzle. "Your best hope would be to learn the relevant magic, yourself. It would still be a very, very difficult, involved, complex, and time-consuming process, but a lot less so than having someone else do it."

"That's that, then," says Onmund in response to Ruby recounting that at lunch. "It's unfortunate."

    "Are you going to try to do it?" asks Brelyna. "Learn that?"

"I... don't think so. Not as a priority, anyway. I'm not, particularly, hurting for the lack of memories. There... may be people who miss me, I guess? But given how, from Tolfdir's description, this seems like it would be a project of perhaps years, it doesn't seem worth it to worry about it."

    "You limit yourself. A powerful mage should do anything they set their minds to," says J'zargo.

"I'm not saying I won't do it at all. I'm just not going to make it a priority. I'm going to learn magic the normal way and find out what I like and what I'm good with, and I might work towards recovering these memories but as a long-term project."

        "Learn any magic you don't already know, that is," says Brelyna, wryly.

"I don't know Foxskin nor Soothe," he replies, smiling.

        "—huh. Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

        "You must be from somewhere with a temperate climate, then. I wonder how you ended up here..."

"That's the mystery."

There isn't a class scheduled this afternoon for them so Ruby decides to go visit the library and catch up on some stuff not related to magic that others take for granted: who are the Thalmor, how is Skyrim organised, what's the name of the continent, etc etc etc.

And there's... a lot.

The continent of Tamriel is divided into nine provinces, the northernmost of which is Skyrim. Its neighbours are High Rock to the west, Hammerfell to the southwest, Cyrodiil to the south, and Morrowind to the east, and it is divided into nine holds: Haafingar, The Reach, Hjaalmarch, The Pale, Winterhold, Whiterun Hold, Falkreath Hold, Eastmarch, and The Rift. Their capital cities are, respectively, Solitude, Markarth, Morthal, Dawnstar, Winterhold, Whiterun, Falkreath, Windhelm, and Riften. Winterhold is the northeasternmost hold, and its capital city is by the northernmost shore.

Each of the holds is led by a jarl, a hereditary position that is passed on to the firstborn child of the previous jarl upon their death or abdication. In the case where a jarl dies and has no living descendants, their spouse becomes jarl if they had one, their oldest living sibling if they don't, their oldest living nibling if they have no living siblings, and so on in a complicated line. Jarls tend to have many children in order to avoid that much confusion when it comes to succession. Jarls do not have absolute power, but given that they are the ones who select the people who have all the power they don't themselves hold this tends to be mostly a technicality.

Furthermore, one of the jarls also holds the title of High King or High Queen of Skyrim, which is also typically a hereditary position. However, unlike jarls, if the High Monarch dies and leaves no living descendants, their spouse or other family relations do not inherit the title; instead, something called a "Moot" is called, in which all of the jarls of Skyrim meet to decide who amongst them will become the next High Monarch.

For the past several generations, the High Monarch has been the jarl of Solitude, and cross-referencing other recent history books reveals the main reason for this: Skyrim is part of the Cyrodilic Empire, and for historical reasons Haafingar is the hold where the Empire holds the most sway in Skyrim.

Map of Skyrim

The most up-to-date book available on recent Skyrim history only chronicles it up to fifty years ago, however, and makes no mention of these "Thalmor", so Ruby will need to consult Urag gro-Shub if he wants to understand that.

The answer to that question paints a much messier picture of recent history.

For a long time, the Cyrodilic Empire held all of Tamriel. Its founder, a Breton human called Tiber Septim, was the one who unified the Tamrielic provinces under his banner, and there exists an influential cult that believes that upon his death he ascended and became Talos, god of manking—though the evidence for this claim is mixed and many scholars dispute it.

Two hundred years ago, however, an incursion by Daedra from the Plane of Oblivion into the material plane ended with the foundation of the Third Aldmeri Dominion—a racist empire that believes in the supremacy of mer (elves) over men (humans)—and the death of Martin Septim, the last living scion of Tiber Septim. This marked the end of the Septim Dynasty, and though that did not in itself end the empire, coupled with the Oblivion Crisis (as that event came to be called) it marked a period of great decline in its power.

The Dominion was instrumental to the end of the Crisis, and with the loyalty it gained from the people it helped save it pivoted into expansion into Tamriel. With the Empire weakened, a number of Tamrielic provinces seceded and joined the Dominion, and for the next several generations the Dominion entrenched itself in Tamriel and grew in power. 171 years after the Crisis, it declared war on the Empire, but after four years—a bit over a quarter of a century ago—they declared a truce and signed a treaty known as the White-Gold Concordat. Its terms were very favourable to the Dominion, and one in particular is a source of constant conflict within the Empire: the ban on Talos worship. It is, technically, illegal to claim Talos exists as a god at all anywhere in Tamriel.

As for the "Thalmor": that is the name of the Dominion's governing body.

The Wizard College of Winterhold is, it turns out, an independent polity: it does not answer to the Empire, but neither does it answer to the Dominion. The only land it holds is the school grounds, though, and given its neutrality in political matters, its magical protections, and the fact that it staffs some of the most powerful mages in Tamriel—yes, even when you count the wizarding clans from Morrowind—it's no wonder it's been mostly left alone.

(And technically, this means that actually the College is the only place in Tamriel that permits the worship of Talos.)

So it's actually pretty curious, then, that a representative of the Thalmor is taking an interest in it. The College wouldn't want to snub them and give them cause to turn their attention to it—even if it is in fact the case that the College could hold its own against a concentrated assault by the Dominion, it would still be costly and wasteful—but that does, actually, explain why Mirabelle and Enthir seemed to be unhappy about Ancano's presence.

Yes. Pretty curious.

And when the third bell sounds Ruby realises he's been in this library for several hours and it is past midnight.

Uh. Whoops.

He returns the books to their shelves then checks that the morning practical is Illusion, deems this irrelevant, and sleeps in instead.