Chapter 46: Welcome To The College

[A/N: I was making some research here and there in the Wiki lately, I noticed some mistakes I made and I am thinking of rewriting some old chapters, I will put <R> in the title, Also the magical effects and theories have some upgrades so I'll include them in a later chapter as Jon upgrading his theory. Enjoy!]

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"Well, that sure sounds like her." Faralda said as if she foresaw it.

"She can't just leave for fifteen years then pop up like nothing happened and demand whatever she wants." Mirabelle was still depressed.

"By the way what are the primary and secondary objectives?" I asked as I remembered something they talked about.

"When we decided to enlist a team from the college into the tournament we had a goal." Mirabelle said as she gestured for us to follow her, "The main objective was to show the people of Skyrim how magic can be wielded and it is no dangerous power that would cause the horrors they accuse magic with. To do so, we picked a select elite of Nord students from our college and enlisted them."

"That was the main goal but we mostly thought it was impossible as no one would change their opinion from just a show of power." Faralda took the explanation from Mirabelle, "Still, it actually worked thanks to you."

"To him/me?" Mirabelle and I questioned in unison.

"Correct, a simple show of power wouldn't make us look any good, but when you challenged us, things turned from that into a competition of talents in the same field, people got interested into it by the time." Faralda said. "Not just that, but the other opponents from the different teams who knew how to use magic actually became not shy and some used it."

"Hmmm! Well done! At least we can be thankful to you in that regard." Mirabelle said, "Still, we need to stop Nurina before it's too late, I don't want to deal with one more department, you guys help me out."

"I am not interested." Faralda said, "My beloved Nurina can do whatever she wants."

"I am a mystic so I am getting benefited from it." I bailed out too.

"I heard how amazing Mysticism can be, I want to learn about it." Svadall jumped in.

"Don't you know that Venus Galerion was a mystic? how can I let down such an opportunity." Svefna who was a fanatic of Vanus made her opinion too.

Even the other guys had some opinion about Mysticism.

"No no no no, you guys can't do this! You just can't, this is cruel." Mirabelle looked like she was about two cry.

Most Nords are tall and an Altmer like Faralda is ridiculously tall like her people, the pitiful Mirabelle was a Breton, who are short people. Looking at the scene from the side, it looked like a child was being bullied by a bunch of adults, it was just that pitiful.

"Humph! Fine!" Mirabelle stomped on the ground and walked ahead alone, we still followed behind her.

The circular corridor was actually vast and had a lot of stuff here and there, one notable thing was the vendors on the outer side of the corridor standing in some stalls, they appeared to be students that deal with all sort of stuff; Soul Gems, Clothes, Alchemy and more, some were even selling food or small animals.

One more thing was noted, it was cats! Cats here, cats there, cats everywhere! There were tons of cats that my soul was having a hard time staying in its flesh vessel, it wanted to go out and pat all these cats.

Ojiski! Deep breath! that's right, everything will be Daijubu!

"The corridor serves as our marketplace. As students come to the college from everywhere, most find a hard time earning money. For that, the college arranged a market idea for them." Rusning said, "This was also an aftermath of the 'Great Collapse' as Winterhold started cutting ties with us."

"Where can these guys bring supplies from?" I asked as I knew how Winterhold itself didn't have much to offer.

"Why do you think the college has its personal ships?" Holman said, "Captain Geldof is the one who does the supplying, his ships travel from Winterhold to Solitude, Dawnstar and Windhelm just to get us supplies, he, of course, benefits the most."

"Then what about the city? Why don't they work with the captain?" I asked.

"Do you think the Jarl will let them? This bastard is like a 'Leech' spell, if you don't get rid of it, it will devour you slowly." Svadall who was strangely silent started speaking with a heavy voice.

"He bullies anyone that make deals with the College or Capitan Geldof, he even made a prison in a frozen cave on some island." The mood turned heavy as he spoke, "No one can touch him. Even the college can't do anything to him. Not even Solitude can have news about the hold. He is the Jarl, the Jarl is the law, and in an isolated hold like Winterhold, what do you think people can do? Even if we ran away, we'll either die in the sea or never return."

Svadall's voice was sad, so sad! I think I stepped on a landmine here.

What was even more unexpected was Faralda, she patted his back for some reason. For an Altmer lady to get off her high horse and pat a Nord boy!

What kind of past did this guy have?

I can't really ask about that so I remained silent.

Still, what is really going on in Winterhold? From what I remember, Riften was the most corrupted and Markarth was the most violent.

And from what he said, this town has a high level of corruption!

People oppressed by a ruler, progress in living is not allowed, people can barely leave or die trying.

Seemed like a country I used to live in once!

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We kept walking in the big round corridor. Unlike any other marketplace, this one was a quiet and clean one, unless for those whose jobs require some noise. I could see an Orc boy making some metalwork with magic, this my first time seeing an Orc!

It seemed that the college made some laws for its grounds and enforced it with its own guards.

College Guards seems to be students with a duty of law enforcement, I guess this is necessary after all.

Walking past all that gave me the idea of how big this college can be, I am really looking forward to what it has to offer.

As we finally reached the big gate of the 'Hall of the Elements', it was wide open for the students that were coming and going, the atmosphere of that tower is similar to what a college should feel.

Beyond that gate is a wide entranceway that led to a very vast circular hall with a high roof, it is as vast as a basketball stadium with a large 'Magicka Focus Point' fountain in the middle of it. This is the first a floor of the tower, and the hall of practicing and teaching, all the big exams happen here too.

In the entranceway, there used to be two doors on the left and right and behind them were the stairs but that was in the game. In reality, however, there were no doors, the stairs were directly open and were much wider, now it felt more like a college.

"You guys wait here, I'll inform the Arch-Mage of your arrival." Mirabelle said and walked to the stairs.

"I am going to look for Nurina." Faralda declared her purpose and turned around, "Where can I find her?"

"The Arcanaeum." Mirabelle said without looking back.

I started looking around in the hall on the first floor, the guys told me what are the 'Magicka Focus Points'. Apparently, there are four of them, one in the circular courtyard outside and one on each tower. They are used to make the 'Magicka Regeneration' much faster to those who are around them, also they power up the enchantments that protect the college and serve in many other purposes.

These are one of the big things that were made by the founder, Arch-Mage Shalidor.

After that, they told me about the ranks of the college.

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The ranks in the college were pretty interesting, when you join the college you become a 'Student'. Students are the lowest rank but you get to stay in the 'Hall of Attainment' dormitory, the one where many students live in the same room, also you can access its library and become allowed to learn most of the 'Novice' spells. You can't open a stall to do business but you can be someone's helper. 'Students' get to stay in the college for one year, if they didn't rank up they will get expelled.

The next rank is the 'Apprentice'. This rank has more privileges, you get to move from the dorms and have your own room on a higher floor. You will have to choose a school to get specialized in but you also can learn from all schools as you wish, you can access the library of the Apprentices where you get to learn the 'Apprentice' level spells, you can have your own stall and do your business. The time limit of that rank is two years, if you don't rank up you get expelled.

The rank after it is the 'Evoker', this rank is very sensitive for a mage because you can access the 'Adept' level spells and finally access the legendary 'Arcanaeum', this is the official graduation rank and after it, you get to call yourself a 'Mage'. It is also time-limited as one can to stay as an 'Evoker' for five years. After it, you get to graduate or be expelled.

By the way, the college's team of five in the tournament are Evokers.

Graduation opens all sorts of careers suitable for a mage. Jarls have more than just one court-mage, unlike the game, even though Nords don't like mages, magic is the force of this world, the only jarl who doesn't employ mages is probably Korir, Jarl of Winterhold.

The other path after graduation is another ranking up and here where things get interesting, the next rank up is the 'Scholar' rank, to rank up you need to submit a research of a spell you created or a discovery in the field of Magic, this is one of the reasons why mages bite each other's asses all the time.

The rank 'Scholar' means you are an official of the college, you get to access anything unless it was marked as 'Classified', you also get to move to the 'Hall of Countenance' with the other staff and have a chamber for yourself, you'll get a handsome monthly payment too, basically this is the dream. But there are duties too, jobs around the college are either in the Teaching, the Alchemy Lab, the Enchanting Hall or the Healing Services. There are also requests that are available for all ranks and the college gets a fee from them.

The rank 'Scholar' rank is a job and has no time limit, yet some practices are limited under no clear permission or excuse.

There are no tradeable spells after 'Adept' level spells, one either create his own, acquire it by a 'mean', or from a personal mentor if he/she is under one. In my case I am Nurina's evil minion and I was promised to see her big spells, up until now I haven't seen any spell beyond 'Adept' spells, this was also depressing but I guess I'll have to recreate the 'Expert' and 'Master' level spells from the game or think of cooler ones.

After a long time of study and a big contributions, one can rank up to the 'Wizard' rank, this is the beginning of powerhouse career, you can be a respectable member of the college and a high official, you also can access the big tomes of knowledge and give lectures to students in the big hall, you also get to represent the college in the official business.

After another long ages of study you can finally rank to be a 'Master Wizard', don't think of anything funny, the ranking to the word 'Master' is enough to make you a celebrity in Tamriel and all things move from your way when you walk around, the college may leave you to your business but if you decided to stay, you can be the head of a department or the manager of a certain task.

Names like Tolfdir, Collette Marence, Phinis Gestor, Drevis Neloren and Mirabelle Ervine are the heads of each department and the big dogs around the college.

It also seemed that Faralda is not the head of the Destruction department yet, Mirabelle Ervine is the head and also the manager of the affairs.

After the rank of a 'Master Wizard' there is the rank of the 'Arch-Mage', this is the rank that they put just there to say 'no one is better than us so f**k off', these guys are crazy strong, Dragons level strong, there is no rank behind it as no one cares about any ranking at that point, of course, there is a scary difference between the Arch-Mages themselves, you can't compare our friendly neighborhood Arch-Mage Savos Aren to someone like Arch-Mage Shalidor or Arch-Mage Vanus Galerion, this guy got his ass kicked in the game in an unsightly manner.

[A/N: I said before I will use the ranks of Oblivion but I found that the college has its own ranks that were cut from the game, I will use that useful cut content here.]

Speaking of the devil, Mirabelle came down with a Dunmer behind her, his robes looked really grand and clean, he also walked in a proud manner and looked at us with lazy eyes.

"I suppose your tournament idea went well Mirabelle, even though we can't brag about winning as I was planning to, we still got ourselves some good reputation." He said in a slow and a lazy voice.

"Yes, Arch-Mage." Mirabelle said, "That is our team here."

"Hmmm! Well done everyone, even though it wasn't a win, I am still going to reward each of you with an 'Adept' tome of your liking." He said then looked at me, "And I suppose you are the new source of our headache."

WTF! You say that to Nurina if you have the marbles! And what's with this manner of talking? Are you really her relative?

I remember Nurina not agreeing with him in every piece of news she got from the college, she always said that he loves appearances and coveted the position of the Arch-Mage not caring about how much it would affect the political view if he became one.

"Jon Dare." I introduced myself.

"Quite the arrogant name." He said.

"Girls love it!" I replied.

"Haha! I suppose they do." He laughed and said, "Congratulations on your win and welcome to the college. Remember what you learn here will last you a lifetime. Several, if you're talented."

"Thank you Arch-Mage." I said.

He is surprisingly nice, I know some of his background, but Nurina's opinion of him may have affected his image to me a bit.

He left back to the stairs and Mirabelle dismissed the rest, I was helplessly alone.

"I'll show you to the dorms." She said and headed out so I followed.

"Nurina has informed me of your talent as a mystic, I am not surprised. Many Nords has the talent but it is wasted by their Magic phobia. The big and hidden clans always associated themselves with the talent. I just hope my work doesn't get overloaded with this new department again." She said with a broken soul.

"What is teacher's job?" I asked.

"Sigh! I manage the Destruction department but my most important work is planning for the college's future, deal with applications and the public affairs." She said.

"So, there is no one to take the Destruction department burden from you?" I asked.

"Only Faralda but that would take time for her to become a 'Master Wizard'." She said.

"That hard?" I was taken aback, Faralda is supposed to be a Master when the game starts.

"Do you think the Master Rituals are easy?" She said in an annoyed tone, "The Destruction school may seem the most popular school on the outside but every research we do is life-threatening. Faralda is an excellent mage but a single mistake in magic is a disaster. In the rituals, no one can predict the frequency of the magical waves at that time and no one is stupid enough to stand beside a master spell researcher and sense it for them." That was a lot of nagging she just said.

I still think I can solve that problem but it will take some time for me to finish the idea, I'll contribute it to the college afterward.

After saying this and that, a figure in a black robe and a hood approached, it came to me and raised a part of the hood.

"Nurina? What ar...." I was about to say something but she put her hand on my mouth.

"Shush! You idiot." She said in a low voice, "I am going to my chambers. You find me there. If a stupidly tall High Elf girl asked about me don't tell her where I went."

The situation seemed weird but I nodded as Nurina started running away. Mirabelle looked at me and I shrugged my shoulders to her.

Not long after another person stopped us, a stupidly tall High Elf indeed. I mean Faralda!

"Where did she go? I smell her around here!" She was looking around.

Scary! Stalkers are scary!

"She sneaked to her chambers." I said.

Sorry, Nurina! I am a bad minion.

"I knew it!" Faralda said and ran towards the 'Hall of Countenance' with vigor.

My laughter leaked out and my shoulders started shaking.

Mirabelle was looking at me and sighed for the thousand time this day.

"Sigh! Looks like our peaceful days are over."

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