Ra'am tells him about those things. ((She doesn't come into his suite without an invitation. And he's been around long enough to know what to look for. It doesn't cross his mind Ulrich would have any silver, which he doesn't anyway...))
Ra'am continues the discussion on understanding the spell components of Range, Duration and Target, and quizzes Ulrich from time to time to see if he's listening and absorbing the information. After a while, Ra'am sits in what appears to be a Throne on a dais and he goes on describing spells. "For example, those skilled with Creo, such as myself can do many things that those skilled in a form can do, within that form. That flexibility comes at a cost, in that I'm not resistant to that form when a spell like that is cast at me. So while knowing the Techniques is useful for flexibility knowing the forms imparts protection, but I digress. The method of learning a spell is slightly different when one knows the form better or the technique better, but ultimately anyone can learn the spell if the combination of their technique and form are sufficiently great enough, just the particulars of casting change. Now, the Mercurians had a method of learning spells which allowed them to push a spell to its limits. Some spells are useful when cast more than one time, such as this. Ra'am fires two bolts of lightning out an open window. His daughter doesn't seem particularly phased. "Some are useful when cast without gestures, without the penalties associated it, as you're familiar with your Deft Form."
Suddenly Ra'am stops himself, "Do you wear shoes?"
Ulrich is surprised by the seeming non-sequitur. [color=green]"Normally, yes, I do."
"Good, because if you want to cast magic outdoors, you'll need to leave your shoes on. I'm teaching you my method for mastering spells, which has that drawback. Ordinarily this isn't a problem for me, as I don't work magic during Shabbat." He says the last part as if you understand what that means, and then proceeds on with the lecture..."It is possible, to replicate your Deftness of Form to any spell, by learning these spellcasting techniques and applying them to spells. You should have sufficient knowledge of Bonisagus's theory of Hermetic magic that spells may be cast without gestures or voice components, but the penalty is rather steep. The places where this is most useful is in cities and towns where you don't want to work magic conspicuously. Also, in those same places, the penalties from the divinity are strongest and inhibit magic. Some magi find themselves unable to overcome it, unless they learn these techniques.
The lesson goes on throughout the winter, Ulrich does adjust rather well to the routine, it's not something he's had much of these last few years. He finally figures out Elizabeth is distilling vis from the aura. The routine is up early, well before sunries, lectures and study, followed by a large lunch and a two or three hour break where almost everyone in the covenant seems to take a nap. Afterwards study and lecture resumes until a short break for a light meal at a traditional dinner hour, and another light meal a few hours before midnight. Everyone seems to stay up quite late. At the end of the season, because they've had little interruption, he gets about a week of free time, just as spring is beginning to blossom.
It takes a couple of weeks for Ulrich to adjust to the afternoon nap routine, especially once he realizes how tired he gets without his nap and that there's nobody around to talk to or flirt with.
He takes advantage of what free time he has (basically, while Ra'am's family celebrates Shabat on Saturday) exploring the covenant, getting to know some of the people (some, he's trying to get to know better than others 
). He does spend a fair amount of time trying to get back in the saddle, so to speak, after he was separated from Rose. Doubtful that he will find any girls as beautiful in his eyes as her, but he's looking for someone to take his mind off of her, if even for a few minutes. He practices his Guile with them (just little white lies, stuff like "No, I'm not seeing anyone," that shouldn't get him in too much trouble if it gets back to Ra'am somehow) and will try to pick up the local language.
Ulrich is shown how to cross the regio boundary and is warned to keep his exploration to the casa on the Phoenix side, but on the Cijara side he can explore out to the Aegis boundary.
The girls in the library are flirtatious in return, but they are odd, their dress is provocative, though. There are plenty of pretty girls to look at, of various ethnicities, and his Gift doesn't seem to be a problem until he pushes too far and they run off with some excuse that they have duties to attend to or have to get back to their families.
Ulrich tries to see how far he can get with the girls in the library (all of whom, iirc, are much older than he, unless they got some new ones), and tries to figure out why they're so odd. ((I'm assuming it has to do with their paid membership in the Gilderoy Lockhart Fan Club.))
When he gets the letter from Rose, he is heartbroken at first to see that it looks like they will never be together as he was starting to hope, and wonders why he couldn't still be in Normandy or one of the British tribunals so that he would at least be able to see her on occasion. He's mopey for a couple of days. Then he rereads it, and gets a new ray of hope when he sees that she she signed it "Love, Rose" and called him "my darling Ulrich," and does mention meetings (although few and far between).
He gets the distinct impression that they're saving their maidenhood for him. It's rather creepy. And from what he can find out is that Ra'am thinks he's a fraud, despite him being in the same House. He thinks Tektonius, that poor dear fellow who couldn't cast his way out of a cloth sack, is 10 times the magus that Gilderoy is. Ra'am then proceeds to tell him the story of Tektonius, how his pater was so pathetic that he inflicted two horrible flaws on the poor apprentice, he can't use vis during spell casting, and all his known spells must be cast as rituals, and therefore can only work spontaneous magic and do research. Ra'am speculates that it was Methuselah's own selfish desire to retain Tektonius as an 'apprentice' for life that caused him to do these things.
Ulrich considers that chasing any of these girls are truly an exercise in empty activity. He does finally manage to kiss a girl around his own age, but the taste and feeling was never like he shared with Rose and soon after the kiss she runs off and avoids him thereafter.
Ulrich definitely isn't looking to be anybody's "one and only" like it sounds like the library staff is wanting; he's looking for more of a no-strings-attached relationship.
But this repeated occurrence of his Gift not bothering girls at first, and then suddenly freaking them out, probably strikes him as a bit odd. Correct me if I'm wrong, but his experience has been that the Gift generally freaks them out from the get-go.
After the experience with the girl he got to snog, he will ask Ra'am if there's something about the place that somehow changes how people react to the Gift.
He also mulls over his reaction to the girl's kiss, and starts to realize that 
Rose:heart: might be The One, and wonders if that's something that he should discuss with Ra'am. His dominus strikes him as being very pious, and what he's thought and done is far from pious.
They only want it from Gilderoy. Everyone else can go pound sand.
Ever watch the girl go out with the total loser only to avoid disaster at the last minute? It's kinda like that. They lie to themselves for other reasons, eventually the Gift overcomes what they are telling themselves is how this is playing out.
"Not particularly. One thing you must understand is we are a melting pot of different faiths, and so our covenfolk tend to show a measure of tolerance that one wouldn't see elsewhere. Many of them try and look past the Gift as much as they may, but it eventually overpowers whatever they tell themselves. The least little thing can cause it, so I wouldn't take it personally. People are polite at first and change later, but it is their reaction to the Gift, not so much anything you did.
"You look as if you have something on your mind, do you wish to talk about it?" Ra'am puts down the book he's been perusing and adopts a friendly, almost fatherly demeanor. He extends his Parma around Ulrich, to put him at ease, something he hadn't done since he was in the lab.
Ulrich feels more at ease now, at least in general. He's still not quite sure how to handle this, but Tria made him promise not to lie to Ra'am.
[color=green]"Well, there's this girl I met at Le Maison de Levrier, who's also an apprentice, but I didn't know that when we first met. We got along really well, and she felt really bad about having to lie to me about who she was when we first met. We talked about it next time we saw each other, right before I came here, and we made up. We've written...well, I wrote her when I got here to let her know I made it okay, and she wrote back.
"Since we met, though, I just can't stop thinking about her. Even when I'm talking to other girls, she's right there in the back of my mind. I even...erm...kissed another girl a few days ago, but it just wasn't the same. It was just..." He shrugs his shoulders, since he can't think of the right word to describe the meh-ness of the kiss.
[color=green]"Then I got her letter a couple of days ago, and even though with her training and her house duties and mine, she doesn't think we'll be able to see very much of each other, she called me 'my darling Ulrich' and signed it 'love Rose.'
"I'm thinking, maybe, I know we're still young, relatively speaking, but it feels like she might be the one, but I don't know."
"Love is always confusing. I can tell you my story, and maybe you can draw from that. My wife and I were matched by our parents, and we married barely knowing each other. For the first few years ours was a loveless marriage, or at least I didn't love her as I do now. I was dutiful towards her, to be sure. It took several years before love between us grew. It was only after being separated from her for nearly a year when I was with Tria that I really began to understand how I loved her and feel it."
Ra'am pauses, "My circumstances are nothing like yours, but what I think you should take away from this is love is a discipline and a feeling. Does that help at all? I cannot advise you on what to do, but I can suggest that that you discipline yourself. If you love her discipline yourself so that the things you do bring her back into her life. If you chase other girls you create a world where she cannot exist. This does not assure you that she will come back into your life, but it creates the possibility, which as an apprentice magus you should be especially familiar with. And if there is the possibility for her to come back into your life you have the chance to work the greatest magic you'll ever work."
Ulrich nods, thinking he understands. [color=green]"If I want to have her in my life, I have to keep her in my heart and nobody else. If I truly love her and she loves me, it will all work out. It won't be easy, but it will be worth it." He sits, mulling this over for a couple of minutes. I only have ten more years, he thinks. After that, my life will be my own, to live as I will. If we at least live in the same tribunal, we will be able to see each other a lot more often. And no other girl I've met is as pretty as she is. He smiles as he pictures her face in his mind, imagines holding her in his arms. He tries to imagine anyone else he's seen so far, tries to imagine them in his arms, or even in his bed, but can't...it keeps coming up Rose, and that makes his decision for him.
[color=green]"Thank you, dominus," he says before he asks to leave and goes back to wandering the grounds, wishing that Rose were there to see everything with him.
Note that these Templars are a subsect known as The Knights of the True Cross, and are most notably unusual in their willingness to work alongside The Order in order to fight Infernal forces. They are led by The Lady of the Cross, whose sword is one of the most powerful relics of faith that Ra'am has ever heard of.
The girls in the library all appear to be teenagers (OOC: yes, despite having been teenagers nearly a decade ago when the Phoenix campaign was running). They seem to be interested in doing very little except talking about the Gilderoy Lockhart books. Maybe if he was to read one of them...?
Hmmm...Ra'am seems to think that Lockhart is a charlatan. But these cute (if somewhat psycho) chicks seem to think he's all that and a bag of chips. And maybe if he seemed interested in their obsession, he might get to at least make out with them.
Let's give it a go, if he has a season to read on his own.
Let me know if that happens. Will need to double-check with JL before letting you get too far in Lockhart Lore.
What are Ulrich's Independent study choices?
Also, after Winter 1222, Ulrich has Flawless Magic and Ra'am's Restriction.
If I remember right, he gets one season of teaching, two seasons of lab assisting, and one season of independent study a year?
You are correct, sir!
((I'm glad I'm not the only one who does that.))
- 1223: Travel with Trolls: Magic Theory (Regiones) Q11/L6; Lockhart Lore (Q6/L3)by Gilderoy Lockhart. Excellent illuminations. A strangely compelling read.
- 1224: Herbam summa Q11/L20.
- 1225: Herbam summa Q11/L20.
- 1226: Herbam summa Q11/L20.
- 1227: To Rule over the Mortal Realm: Rego Q10/L20 by Herman ex Tremere.
He would also like to be taught Magic Theory, Finesse (to make better/more accurate/more realistic things with Magic), maybe some Vim, and some Social Skills such as Charm or Etiquette (which are sorely lacking, especially due to his Sheltered Upbringing).
Meanwhile, he continues to write to Rose quite often (every redcap, hopefully, brings a letter from Rose to Ulrich or a letter from Ulrich to Rose). And with every letter, Ulrich includes a hand-carved rose (probably using the No Botch situation on p. 7, second paragraph, since he has time to redo it and won't dare send a substandard rose to his Rose).
He also spends time with the Vintners, as they seem to be right up his alley, so to speak. Getting to know them, trying to learn about them and how they came to be and so on.