Xixzith stared at the smoothskin and waited for her to say something.

“Well, clearly you’re skilled at Conjuration,” she said. Faralda regarded the Flame Atronach as it did a lazy summersault. “The new Archmage is requiring everyone to take a concentration upon entry to the College; apparently we had apprentices dabbling in magics that were beyond them and there were…difficulties. So, I assume Conjuration?”

“Yes, with a focus on Anuic procession.”

Faralda looked up from her scroll. “This isn’t a temple.”

“You misunderstand; my interest is purely practical.”

“You’ll have to explain.”

Xixzith blinked with both sets of eyelids. “You’re familiar with Cirufin’s thesis?”

“Yes, yes,” Faralda frowned. “All is Anu, good and evil are constructs, blah blah blah.”

The Argonian’s brow ridges flexed in a way a marsh-sibling would have recognized as annoyance. “No, that’s one of the cults in the Imperial City. Cirufin posited that Anuic thought-energy proceeded through Aetheric light; he was building on Ayleidic principles. I understand he was trying to convince the Emperor to resume research into trans-Mundic colonization when he was assassinated by the Thalmor.”

“Yes, I think I recall now. Didn’t he suggest limitless magicka by…?”

“…mythopoeic re-gradience via sub-harmonic meditation, yes. But it never worked; something about sub-gradient distortions or some such. That was his later work. Most of my interest lies in his work with Sellus Marcusius’.”

“Never heard of him.”

“A Synod scholar; he’s never been widely published. His work focuses not on re-gradience but tracing Anuic thought-energies via Daedric emanations, especially via necromancy. His interest lay in unifying the Schools of Magic.”

“That's ridiculous. The different schools require entirely different approaches."

"But all emanate from Anuic self-reflection. By tracing them through Daedric patterns..."

"Dadric energies are Padomaic."

"Padomay is an enantiomorphic mirror of Anuic self-reflection. ‘All is Anu,’ after all.”

Faralda regarded him skeptically. “Well if nothing else you should see Phinis, our Master of Conjuration. He’ll be interested in what this Synod scholar is saying, at least. But you might also look up Colette, our Master of Restoration. I seem to recall an Anuic here at the turn of last century. Wrote a monograph on Cirufin and Restoration or some-such.”

“I look forward to reading it.”

Faralda handed him his entrance scroll. “Welcome to the College of Winterhold. You’ll want to see Tolfdir in the Hall of the Elements.”

As she returned to her post at the base of the bridge, Xixzith raised his cowl and began the ascent. Behind him the atronach crackled with energy and faded back into Oblivion.