"Does he require any sort of payment in trade for his teaching?"

"In tokens?  No.  That's not supposed to be a thing, around here.  But there's always an exchange, anywhere that demand exceeds supply.  Some of his students, like me, get there by being incredibly good fucks.  The students who aren't incredibly good fucks get there by doing favors for the pets of his who are."

"And what about you? Do you enjoy it? Does it feel like a fair trade to you?"

"Why no, it's terribly unfair.  It used to be that I could command wizards of great stature to kneel before me.  Now here I am in this awful prison, having to spread my legs and bare my tender nipples just to get a few scraps of knowledge out of some bastard.  Are you asking that just to tease me?"

From this, Opalyn infers that Tibbleding is quite enjoying being dominated in her math classes.

"I see! How terrible for you! I'm so sorry to hear that!"

Well, that's one data point, then. She can't completely trust it, but maybe she'll learn more as she asks around.

And she'll go back into the twisty passages in search of Morbledainen or his secretary.

When Opalyn goes through to the study hall, on her way back from Tibbleding, she'll find a woman there who claims to be Nait's student.

This woman will testify that her body count sample size is over a hundred, and Nait was better than any other sex she's had, by, like, a factor of three.

Can this woman say more about her sex scoring rubric?

(If she can't, that's not a good sign that this is a truthful report.)

She's never really thought to have rigorous measures for that sort of thing--she's not the Lady of Surveys--but "time spent coming vs. time not spent coming" is one obvious metric that she's pretty sure supports this assertion, or "how long it took to string together a coherent thought afterwards".

Fascinating. The woman's ability to give detail suggests that the report might actually be true.

Could talent at wizardry possibly translate into talent at sex? Opalyn wonders if Nait is using mathematically powered magic to induce this state of continuous state of brain-melting ecstasy.

The obvious thing to check is whether other clever wizards can also do this or if it's just Nait.

Onward to Morbeldainen, then!

That woman had lain with other wizards before.  It is about putting any serious optimization whatsoever into sex.

(Though, even then, only 1 out of 6 subjects report an unprecedently incredible experience.)

When Opalyn finds Morbledainen's office/tower/whatever, the first room visible on entry will prove to contain one possibly vaguely secretarial dominatrix-type person, surrounded on either side by two skeptical-looking blondes in matching white dresses and tight bondage.

"Welcome to Morbledainen's domain," says the one who seems to be in charge.

"Welcome," the other two echo in unison.

As of the moment of stepping across the invisible border between the Facility and this area, there is an ongoing light tingling in Opalyn's nipples.

Why is this place LIKE THIS

Why is this a WAY a place would STABLY BE

(whatever, tingly nipples are fun)

"Hello! I'm here to inquire about wizardry lessons with Morbledainen?"

Stable?  The Facility is insulted.

She'd ask if the newcomer knows what she's getting herself into, but questions like that have been forbidden by Facility administration as part of their teaching agreement.

"Our lord is willing to try his hand at teaching any pretty wizardess of age, but he only persists in teaching those who keep his interest, and he is easily bored by all aspects of reality except for intelligence and masochism."

Opalyn has those things! Best not to boast about them, though. Better to underpromise and overdeliver than the other way around.

"All right. How do I get started?"

"What teachings do you seek of our lord?"

"I'm a newly awakened sorceress with no experience of wizardry and I would like to learn. I have reason to believe I have mathematical aptitude."

Opalyn is going to be a bit more coy rather than bold claims of mathematical prowess. She didn't like how it went down when she explained it to Nait.

"As in, you successfully learned to solve equations of a single unknown subjected to arithmetical transformations, the first time that task was presented to you?"

Opalyn tries to remember the very first time she saw a problem like that. It was decades ago. She dimly remembers a story problem involving the weight of a partial pallet of bricks; she solved it rather intuitively, surprising her grade-school teacher. None of these specifics are going to help her explain herself; she'll try not to leak information.

"Yes."

"Did you get any further than that, in whatever maths you were taught?  What sort of person was your teacher?"

"Yes, I did get further than that, though I'm not sure that will matter for introductory wizardry lessons?"

What can she possibly say about the literally dozens of different people from whom she learned math, much less all the authors of math books? She doesn't even want to give away that she had more than one teacher.

"My math teacher loved math for its own sake and did not explain how it connected to magic."

There, that's probably true of all of them.

"Is there a reason you're playing coy?  Of course it matters for a wizardess's first lessons what mathematics she can already understand spoken to her.  If you're trying to pose as intelligent, by seeming to quickly learn math you pretended not to have been taught, be warned that is ill-advised."

     "Actually, I don't know that couldn't work on--on Morbledainen?" says one of the side-blondes.

  "I think he'd be upset when he found out," says the other side-blonde.

     "Right, but, spanking her upset, or spanking us upset?"

  "Spanking us upset."

"There's no 'of course' about it, I don't know how any of this works!"

"If I will be joining an established class, maybe you could describe the available options to me and I'll choose the one that seems most appropriate."

"Our lord does not teach to a schedule, but as the whim takes him.  Lessons he has announced in the near future include..."

She reaches sideways through another dimension and takes out a piece of paper.

"'Forcing Curvy Entities To Not Be Straight', 'Twisting Things Until They Complain', 'Solving Magical Problems With Cleverness Instead of Math', 'I Hate Category Theory And So Should You', 'Elementary Mathematics For Masochists', 'How To Defeat a Smarter, More Powerful, and Better-Prepared Enemy', and 'Highly Advanced Wizardry 101 For Beginners'."

Oh dear. These titles are less than perfectly helpful.

"Does 'Elementary Mathematics for Masochists' actually have any wizardry in it, or is it just straight math with no magical applications?"

The math in that one will be too easy, but maybe this is where Opalyn can find out literally anything she can apply to wizardry!

She really wants to take 'How to Defeat a Smarter, More Powerful, and Better-Prepared Enemy' but honestly that sounds like it's probably going to involve seduction and Opalyn already knows how to do that.