"Sure am." Fondle fondle.

"Are you trying to horn me up?"

"I've missed my boyfriend and his unreasonably large cock."

...he blushes again. "It's not that big..."

"Have you seen anyone in the College with a bigger cock, excluding Phinis Gestor? Was anyone bigger than you back at your village?"

"Well, no, but..."

"Even Sanguine commented on the size of your dick."

"—seriously?"

"Yeah, she said, what was it, that he guessed I was into big dicks because of how much I enjoyed getting fucked by a giant but also because of my boyfriend."

"I—okay."

He does not know what to think with respect to the god of hedonism talking about the size of his dick.

"You find that hot, too," Ruby observe, giving Onmund's growing erection a squeeze.

Okay he guesses he knows one of the things he's thinking with respect to etc.

"Weren't you just at an orgy yesterday? Or, uh, today?"

"I'm an inherently horny person, what can I say. Also fuck me, I do in fact greatly enjoy your massive dick and want it inside me again."

"You're so romantic."

"You're incredibly smart and driven and opinionated, you blush adorably, I have a lot of fun with you and I enjoy being your boyfriend."

"...'opinionated'?" he asks, because that's the only part of that he can deal with.

"I like it!"

"Alright, if you say so."

"Oh and by the way, I figured out a nifty lubrication spell when I was afraid for my life while being held like a doll by a giant..."

He brings the topic of Sanguine up with Tolfdir, who thinks it's very interesting but doesn't express any opinions on how safe it is. Ruby is really getting the impression that that topic just does not interest Tolfdir at all. Sometimes dangerous things happen and people die, that's just life. What he's a lot more interested in is that crystal Ruby found near the hagraven's shack, the "beacon". After a bit of librarying they determine that Mount Kilkreath is where a big shrine to the Daedra Lord Meridia can be found. She's the Daedric Prince of Life and Lady of Infinite Energies, which paradoxically makes her one of the more obscure Princes. Seems like most people inclined to worship Daedra Lords tend to go for the evil ones, go figure.

Her main thing seems to be that she really really hates undead. Mostly the ones that have souls trapped within, but really she has issues even with minor animation of corpses; she holds life itself as sacred and sees anything that corrupts or distorts its cycle as an abomination unto her name that must be smitten in her holy light (the books talking about her are written in very flowery language). It seems likely that the "foul darkness" that must've "seeped into her temple" is a necromancer or a vampire or something along those lines, for her to be so annoyed by it.

(Also, that's two separate Daedric Princes taking an interest in Ruby. He does not understand, he's just some guy.)

(Maybe he was more than "just some guy" before he lost his memories.)

Next he goes to Urag gro-Shub to share his haul of books, from Morvunskar.

The library already has copies of the majority of them, especially the Spell Tomes, but a handful are new. In particular, one of the books seems to be an internal book by the Order of the Black Worm, a cult of necromancers formed by an elf called Mannimarco in the Second Era and which survives to this day despite his death at the end of the Third Era*.

"Ah, now this is an interesting one," says gro-Shub when they reach a certain book with a brown cover, a bas-relief engraving, and no name. "The Monomyth. You have no memories, yes? This might be a useful book for you. It's one of the most well-known academic treatises on the creation of the universe and the nature of the Divine. If you have not yet read it, I would urge you to. It is, in my view, fundamental to the understanding of Tamrielic culture and in particular the sociological divide between human and elf cultures."

(* The Tamrielic Calendar is divided into several eras, with varying lengths, marked by significant events. The First Era lasted nearly three thousand years, the Second Era approximately nine hundred, the Third Era a bit over four hundred, and this story takes place in the year 201 of the Fourth Era.)

"...the religious aspect is that important?"

"Yes, of course. You will understand the world much better once you make sense of it, and of the pervasive fact that human culture is based around the idea that being alive is good and elf culture surrounds the notion that being alive means being separated from the Divine. Ironic, given how long-lived elves are, compared to men."

"Shouldn't that philosophy drive all elves to commit suicide, then, if taken seriously?"