This time, Gellert's brows rose. Barman, indeed. This man had heard of Ulrike -- in itself, uncommon. But to have read Ulrike's theories on Agrippa's work, and to speak of Ulrike's speciality as if it was something cogent and potentially useful...that said something about the kind of man that stood before him. He was the kind of man intelligent enough not to let himself be bound in by guidelines and petty moralities, for one.
Finally, a smile began to spread across Gellert's lip, all the haughtiness of earlier seeping away. "You know Ulrike!" he said, sitting back in his chair, exposing the extent of his equations to this man's view. "I was actually working off of his premise just now. Are you an Arithmancer?"
A Dark Arithmancer, to be sure. The idea made something warm and pleased pool in the pit of Gellert's stomach.