I dodge a knife flying toward my face, the guards around me and my opponent cheering at our admittedly low-level fight. Thorfinn clicks his tongue and goes to strike me with his sword, but I am getting better and better at the subtle art of dodge.
We dance around each other for another minute until I grow bored and decide to cheat a bit, I thrust my spear one-handed to distract him, and with my other hand I stealthily cast the empowering oak flesh spell Tolfdir taught me, he seems to notice it but it is already too late, as I explode towards him and ram my full weight, which is admittedly not all that much, into him.
He falls to the ground and I place my spear's tip next to his head and go to help him get up.
"You cheated!" He seems more irritated at the fact he lost instead of at my use of magic.
"Is it really cheating to use all your skills in battle?" I say teasingly as I hold out my hand.
He shakes his head and grabs it.
The guards disperse and the captain approaches us and gives us a subdued clap "Good fight lads, Thorfinn you need to be more decisive, I know you don't want to take too many risks but if you don't press your enemy you won't be able to use any opportunity you make, as you have seen." The young man nods.
"As for you Reyvin, I get that you are a mage and all but you are here for combat training, and you also seem a bit too passive for my liking."
I shrug my shoulders "True, but it's not like I am wearing armor and I would have to cast that spell anyways if I ever wanted to get close to anyone in a straight fight"
He snorts "And the fact that the 'defensive spell' also boosts your strength has nothing to do with it?"
Ah of course he would know.
He shakes his head "In any case, it is good to get experience fighting mages, besides bandits crazy necromancers and the like are the usual pests we have to deal with. One has to wonder if they are coming out of the woodworks these days."
I scratch my chin for a bit and say "Well there are those necromancer cults that seem to be literally everywhere except the east of Tamriel."
Thorfinn interrupts "And why not the east?"
I hum and say "The Hist that the Argonians worship, or are a part of depending on your sources, is very controlling. To the point that they counter-invaded the Daedra during the oblivion crisis, so any necromancers would probably get slaughtered quickly." They both nod at this as it is widely known that Black Marsh kicked massive amounts of daedric ass during the invasion. "When it comes to Morrowind, we practice ancestral worship quite literally, so raising the dead is quite sacrilegious, there are s'wits that do it still, but they are usually visited by a rather well-equipped lynch mob."
The young Nord still seems a bit confused "Don't most peoples worship their ancestors in some ways?"
"They do, but not at the same level as the Dunmer, we all have shrines in our homes from which we can summon our ancestors for guidance, they can't stay long or they go mad but still we hold our dead in the greatest regards."
"Isn't that just necromancy though?" He asks in a careful voice.
I wave him off "Not really since the ancestors are willing, and it is a religious practice of honoring the dead instead of abusing them."
Hjolmir interrupts our conversation "While listening about our neighbor's traditions is riveting and all, I do have a job to do, see you lads tomorrow." and walks away.
The two of us sit in silence for a bit until I speak up "You should learn some low level spells you know, might save your life in the future"
He clicks his tongue and says sarcastically "Oh yea, with all the money I have saved up"
I roll my eyes "I was just going to show you a couple and give you the instructions, but if you are going to be a little bitch about it sure, ill just keep my wizardly secrets"
He gets up abruptly and gives me a light glare "Who are you calling a little bitch huh!?"
I also get my ass off the ground and summon my saber and grin while saying challengingly "What are you going to do about it little bitch?"
He gets pissed and we start another spar.
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Since we have enchantment in the evening I chose to do my daily mana grind, as I started calling it, earlier this time. The channeling of Magicka through my body is becoming easier and easier, this does help with using it more efficiently but it is also slowing down my progress, I feel like I can boost my reserves quite a bit still, but there will come a point when using this technique will become pointless, my third eye seems to be sucking up more and more, I really hope that there will be a benefit to this later. Urag did say that everyone modifies the process as they practice it, I will have to do some reading later.
A bit later as I meditated on the word of power for fire, my thoughts drifted to a recent change I seem to have developed. Since I first started practicing the thu'um I have started enjoying open spaces and the feeling of the wind against my skin more and more. My guess is that the blessing of Kyne is more literal than what I originally thought... might help me with aeromancy when I start it out so I don't mind it one bit.
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As we all funnel into the hall of lecturing, we are greeted by a bald imperial man of average height. He looks us over and notes something down on a parchment.
He talks in a very gravely old voice, like you would imagine a life-long heavy smoker having "Good evening apprentices, I am Sergius Turrianus the master of the art of enchantment."
He then asks if anyone present has experience in enchanting and we all answer one by one. Me and most of the others are capable of identifying modern enchantments but only Edrasa and Marwyn have actually enchanted something.
The master nods slowly and says "The two of you will help your colleagues out for this lesson. What I am going to be teaching you today is the basics of the enchantment process, I have found that the best way to get the first lesson through into the thick head of youngsters is some practical experiance"
"The main two ways in which enchanting has been done for the past millennia are the more basic rune carving, carving runes onto objects allows the user of said object to channel Magicka into it to produce an effect, like say a warrior's sword launching an arc of fire. The more powerful way of enchanting is through the use of soul gems alongside rune-carving or stitching runes in the case of clothing. By using a soul gem the artefact produces it's own power, and can even be used to boost the wearer instead of the other way around."
"What you will learn today is how to enchant a basic Magicka absorption power onto a necklace. What you need to do is carve the provided matrix onto the round surface of the jewelry and then crush the soul gem provided while channeling it's power into the item."
And almost as if on demand a silver necklace, some carving tools, and a common soul gem appear on our tables, alongside a diagram drawn very precisely on a parchment.
As we all get to work I take some time to look at the diagram and it's design. It seems to be written in the general arcane script and is made of the words essentially explaining how the absorption process works organized in a circular fashion, some of them repeating at multiple points.
I take my time slowly and carefully chiseling away at the necklace, coming to the realization that this is actually quite relaxing. The others seem to disagree as I see people straight up break the necklace by swinging too hard, poor Bor seems to panic but the master reassures him that they are easily replaced, and does exactly that by summoning a new one.
It takes nearly an entire hour for it but I finally get it done. Sergius notices this and nods in approval "Good, there are some minor misalignments but the enchantment will still work, now use the soul gem"
I nod and slowly crush the surprisingly soft gem above the necklace, grabbing the energy it releases with my Magicka is hard at first, but my unique perception helps me keep most of it contained as I channel it into the necklace. Sergius once more notices this "Good, excellent! You kept most of the gem's power and your channeling is very precise, keep going it will finish soon."
I do as I am instructed and focus on pushing the rest of the soul's power into the now glowing necklace, soon an ethereal sound is heard and the enchantment settles.
The master seems happy at my success "Most promising indeed, you may keep this necklace, I would hate for such a good seed to die to a random spell"
Magic shield get! I smile as I thank the old man and he goes to look at the other student's work.
Most of them are still stuck at the carving bit, and I do notice Morrigan giving me an annoyed pout while sitting in front of a butchered pile of silver. I chuckle as I go to help her out.
This enchantment business might actually be quite fun.
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A/n: I know I said I would be finishing the 'school arc' in a couple of chapters last week, but I felt like writing about it a bit more so I did.
Gib stone!