Ray
"Hm. I will take your warning to heart, as you have mine. Thankfully, I have no interest in the West, aside from High Rock. There are a few Telvanni in High Rock, studying the magic of the Forsworn and their pagan rites. As for summoning in Hammerfell," He shrugged. "I imagine it is borne from their history with these, *Left Handed Elves*," He rolled his eyes, as if the name was preposterous to him. "Sinistral Mer, the Redguards called them. I've read as much as I could on the subject, but until Yokuda resurfaces, Skyrim is likely the furthest West I will bother to go."

He took a sip from his tea and added, "This mage you studied under, I wonder, what was his name? If he has been alive for some time, he might have published some material I am familiar with. Being in Hammerfell, I imagine he might have even studied some of the lore behind, what was it...*Sword-Singers*? Perhaps the Face-Dancers of the Alikr Desert?" He shrugged. "I know there to be secrets in the sands, but, to have a mage in a den of vipers... There must be something he was looking into."
Virgil
Luhn nodded. "Interesting, I remember being taught about old Yokuda by some of my tutors as a child. But history was never my strong suit, I will admit I forgot everything but the basics." She looked down at her drink for a moment. "I'm not sure if you have heard about that Old Mer. His full name was Lovrinnon Ehnolen. He was an Altmer, one of the few that lived in Belkarth. His main focus was collecting and dealing artifacts, but he had a history with studying Aetherius, and enchanting. He used to be my tutor, helped me track out and map the stars. Eventually he needed a shop hand to help with the store as his years were finally catching up to him."

Luhn took a sip and leaned back slightly. "He didn't write many books, or well not many that I had knowledge of, the few I saw were very, very old. Many of the names elude me but, I think there was one entitled 'Finding the Firmament, The Secrets Of Stars'. Luhn rubbed her chin. "Oh and 'Voyager techniques Of The Abecean'. Any others I don't know about. He probably just didn't want them attributed to him, or they were from a painful period of his life. He was always protective about some parts of his past. He was pushing six hundred when he died, quite a lot of life, lotta time to do stuff that he regretted."
Ray
Varis put a hand to his chin as he pondered the names of those tomes, and realized that he had not read them. "Hm. A shame, I don't believe I have ever owned a copy of such tomes. Though, an Astronomer High Elf Wizard... Who is also an Enchanter? Now, six hundred years of life definitely would have garnered him some exciting techniques for enchanting. I imagine that one about the stars could have incorporated Aylied Techniques of understanding the cosmos. I would not be surprised if he possibly utilized Aylied Starlight techniques for his enchanting."

He did not comment on the Voyager Techniques, since, that did not interest him. But, "Though, a name such as Lovrinnon Ehnolen... An impressive name, that one. Of the Mer I have met, High Elves tend to boast the most obligatorily gratituitous names. Even for whelps."

Varis shrugged as he sipped his tea, and said, "Now, you say he helped you track and map the stars. I know you said you have little magical experience, but, have you ever looked into alchemical practice? Merging the mixture of certain reagents at specific times of celestial alignment can produce significant effects and boosts to otherwise mundane concoctions. Such knowledge could be very useful, if explored thoroughly by someone who is not blinded by metamath."
Virgil
"If he did have other books floating around, I think they might be in Alinor." Luhn took a moment to stretch her arms behind her, before leaning forward and resting her forearms on the wood of the bar. "He mentioned giving lectures at schools in the Isles. But Ol' Lovrinnon didn't like to stay put in one location when he was younger. He told me he traveled around on research trips and as a guest speaker."

Luhn raised an eyebrow as Varis mentioned alchemy. "Wasn't aware alchemy could be influenced by the movements in Aetherius? But my knowledge goes as far as how to make a simple health potion. Bringing the stars and the moons into it, well, I've never heard of that before. How does that work?"
Ray
He nodded. "It is an eclectic field, and hardly experimented with, but the calculations provide some measure of clarity. You see, when the cosmos of Aetherius align in specific ways, it can have an influence on the material world. For instance, consider our bodies, and the school of alchemy itself. According to leading experts, magic flows down from the stars onto us. Hence, the power acquirable through Aylied rites and spellcraft. The way Alchemy works, is that though reagents and ingredients in the world have their chemical components, there is a certain magic to them, acquired by their absorbing of Aetherial magic. Think of it as a sort of... Radiation? Power flows down from the sky, clings to material things, and the more magic that material thing can cling and hold onto, the more powerful it is."

"Though, just like some people are born with more power than others, magically speaking, so too is true about plants and rocks. Some are more permeable than others, but all the same, they possess what we call magic inside of them. Thus, when the Stars align in specific ways, just like how with some specific people that are granted strength, or some rituals are granted strength under the power of constellations and specific moons, so too do some ingredients provide greater effects."

"For instance, let us take, a health potion, hm? If you were to mix the ingredients together in just the right way, under the right constellation, in the right location, you could possibly create a mutagen that, upon consumption, allows your body to become blessed with great strength and vitality, or even a volatile mixture that could kill instantly. It is a very difficult thing to get right, because you are using the fundamentals of nature to change nature to a different thing. Its almost like alteration, but instead of using your mind to contort reality, you are using reality to contort reality."

Varis smiled a little. "And yet, it is all reality, and nothing is actually working against anything. Merely our own presumptions about how ingredients must mix together to produce a result."

He crossed his legs and took a sip of tea. "Yes?"