“Normally, we don’t accept students this late after the ‘Novice Entrance Exam’, but exceptions can be made.” Faralda said, “I would normally ask you to perform your skill but I have already witnessed it.”

As we were climbing the steps to Winterhold, Faralda kept talking about the acceptance and all that stuff, in the game, the one who test the player is Faralda herself, but in reality, the college accepts many students every year and from what Nurina told me, there is a door test and a written test.

The door test is the test that the player has to do in the game, it’s just a performance of the magical skill. Believe it or not, there are fools who try to enter the college with no skill so the college can’t just accept anyone and turn them away at the door.

The written test is the one I know from my past life, nothing strange here as it is another piece of cake for this handsome young men.

“My beloved Nurina is your adoptive mother so I am not sure if I should make things more difficult for you or not, hmmm..” Faralda said.

Dammit! This woman started having scary ideas.

“You have my blessings, teacher.” I said with no hesitation.

Not exactly ‘no hesitation’. I already thought about this situation and decided to get on Faralda’s good side.

“Then we’ll have no problems, what school will you specialize in?” Faralda asked.

“I am a mystic.” I said.

“MYSTIC?!” That was Rusning and his gang, I didn’t reveal any of that before.

“Hmm, I thought as much.” Faralda said, “Your Magicka output is stronger than any Nord I know, but we closed the Mysticism major in the college many years, no talents or knowledge in that art appeared in the last hundred years, not after those people disappeared from the world.”

The last part was said in a low voice, “You’re talking about the Psijics, teacher?” I asked.

“Hmm?! You know of them, boy?” Faralda appeared to be surprised, “Nurina really did teach you a lot.”

“Psijics? What is that?” The chatterbox Svadall jumped into the conversation.

“Seriously? You don’t know of them?” I was taken aback myself, looking at the other four, they looked as ignorant as him, “You guys too?”

They shook their heads, I looked at Faralda but she just sighed and looked away.

“Ehem! This handsome young man will enlighten you then.” I said and cleared my throat.

“Just get over with it!” They became irritated.

“Well, you see, long long ago, the Aldmer (Elder Elves) worshipped their ancestors as gods, but due to changes in the world, gods had to change too. As the change of the pantheon was accepted by most, some elders refused the change and left the Isle of Summerset home of Elves to the Isle of Artaeum in the north of it and called themselves the ‘Psijic Order’.

Their main focus and study was the ‘Mysticism’ or what they preferred to call, ‘The Elder Way’ or ‘The Old Way’. That was even before the First Era.

The order has advised kings and monarchs since then yet had no interest in power themselves. You may not know this but two of the most famous mages in history, ‘Vanus Galerion’ founder of the ‘Mage’s Guild’ and ‘Mannimarco’ the dreadful necromancer, were raised by the order and grew up together from close friends to archenemies.” I said all of that yet the steps were not over yet.

“Impossible!” Svefna said, “Do you know how unbelievable what you said just now is? The Great Vanus Galerion and The King of Worms grew up under the same organization?”

“It’s true, as much as it pains you, a hero like Venus Galerion was once a close friend to Mannimarco.” Faralda said, “Continue boy.”

“Mannimarco, The King of Worms, The Mer* who sold the world. An Elf necromancer who was expelled from the Psijic Order and turned himself into a Lich and almost caused the end of the world we know, being the agent of Molag Bal the Daedric Prince whose sphere is the domination and enslavement of mortals.

[A/N: * Human is Man, Elf is Mer.]

Venus Galerion, on the other hand, was a great Arch-Mage and the founder of the old Mage’s Guild which he used to teach the world about the schools of magic (the categorization) that was established by Arch-Mage Shalidor, and also created the simplified tools of Enchanting and Alchemy we know today. Venus Galerion left the Psijic Order disappointed from his master who didn’t stop Mannimarco and just left him to do his evil in the world, Venus Galerion raised an army of mages to stop Mannimarco in a battle that both died in.

The Psijic Order is considered the strongest magic organization the specialized in Mysticism, and also brought up these two great mages who were students of Mysticism themselves.” I said as I finished my lesson.

“This sure is a lot.” Jolma, the girl who avoided me the most was the first to comment.

“If Mysticism is that great, why doesn’t our college teach it seriously?” Holman asked.

“Simple!” Rusning replied, “If an art is that great, then how rare are the people talented in it, don’t you remember what Teacher Tolfdir always says, ‘The more precious, the rarer, and the opposite is correct’.”

As they all hummed at what Rusning said, Faralda nodded her head with a pleased face, what a rare occasion!

“I think testing your knowledge is of not necessary now.” She said, “You already know more than our so-called elites.”

Mwahahaha! Behold the power of the Wiki.

As she said that we finally finished climbing the steps.

*************************

I was not that out of breath but these steps are scary annoying, I am starting to worry about Jullanar now.

As I started to take a look around I saw the college’s bridge on my left.

The bridge of the college didn’t look any different than the game which made me scared, I hate that bridge so much.

The bridge is too narrow, and because of the ‘Great Collapse’, it lost some of its parts which made it looks like a bridge across the abyss, my only wish right now is the fear of heights which I had in my past life didn’t crossover with me, this is my first time on a place that high in this life.

The bridge can allow three men to walk side by side so it wasn’t bad but it felt like a walk through the clouds in that thick sea mist.

We turned to walk the bridge so we naturally got to climb it up because the college’s level was still higher than the land level, that time I remembered something and turned around to look behind me.

Ah! so it was like that?

The City of Winterhold, a story full of tears and pain, once a prosperous city, a capital of Skyrim, the only place that rivaled the beautiful Solitude, now in that appearance.

I thought that Winterhold would be bigger than this as it was the case with every city so far, there was always that large scale of size between the game world and the real world.

But this! This is sad.

The city it was, is now but a petty small town on ruins upon ruins of wood and rubble, frozen by the cold weather, the time seemed to be frozen as the image the place gave was a vivid one of how brutal the collapse was.

Not knowing the reason behind the ‘Great Collapse’, some Nords suspect the college as the cause of the tragedy, after all, it was barely hurt by that disaster.

The collapse itself was a massive tsunami that took Winterhold by surprise year 4E-122.

Winterhold which was originally isolated couldn’t receive help and was left to decline until today, after 74 years only a few buildings were rebuilt on the rubble.

The reason of this tsunami was unknown, some say that the eruption of the Red Mountain in Morrowind on 4E-5 and it had an effect, some say the college caused it, some say it was caused by a dragon that was seen over the sea in Morrowind.

I am not sure which reason it was but I’d rather say it was karma, there were many Dunmer refugees after the eruption of the Red Mountain and the Nords drove them out with no mercy.

“it’s sad but don’t let that get into your mind.” Rusning said, “These people could have helped themselves long ago but a certain jarl made his life goal to get rid of the college then rebuild his town.”

I followed behind Rusning but couldn’t help but ask, “What do you mean?”

“Jarl Korir of course.” Svadall said, “He declared many times that he would one day wait for the rise of the true sons and daughters of Skyrim to get rid of the mages that plagued his hold. like anyone knows what he means by that?”

Wait a minute! ‘True sons and daughters of Skyrim’ is it? I already guessed that reason but the Jarl of Winterhold would join the rebellion to get rid of the college. How stupid!

This Jarl wants to wage war at the college at some point then, this was predicted even though it didn’t happen in the game.

The upcoming rebellion that will cause the Civil War can’t be stopped as it seemed that it was already being powered by some strong parties.

This is depressing. I just feel that thinking about the tons of things I have to deal with is increasing like crazy.

Let’s just get over this bridge for now. Yes, one step at a time and everything shall be solvable.

The bridge is made of stone it’s pretty much solid even with all the damage that was dealt to it by the ‘Great Collapse’.

“Haven’t the college tried to fix the bridge?” I asked Faralda.

“Please, be our guest.” She said, “The way of building something like this college is beyond any knowledge we have.”

So it was like that, it must be tough to be in decline.

As we reached the end of the bridge, a metallic gate made from bars that were shaped into a circle that has an eye with the five edges coming from it, the symbol of the college.

Approaching the gate, it opened itself, now that’s what I call magic.

Beyond was a whole different scenery, not quite like the college I knew.

The one I knew was a circular courtyard with a round wall surrounding it and linking the three towers and that wall had many large empty windows and a roof-bridge on top of it linking the higher floors of the towers too.

Mostly that was in front of me but that was not the case.

The round wall I used to know was turned into round corridor linking all towers and its windows were sealed with glass.

The round corridor itself was well closed from all sides and was warmed by magic.

The usually empty courtyard can be accessed but it seemed that there are two facilities there, a short glass structure on each side, from what I was told, these are greenhouses that provide suitable conditions to grow alchemy ingredients.

At the end of the courtyard and opposite to the entrance lies a statue of a mage posed as if he was casting a spell, this is the statue of Shalidor, the founder of the college. Front of the statue was a fountain of magical energy known as the ‘Focus Points’, this is one of four and one of the things I am really interested in but not for now.

Behind the statue is a gate that returns one back to the circular corridor and directly behind it is another gate to the biggest tower in the college, the Hall of the Elements.

On the left side to the entrance of the college I am standing at is the Hall of Attainment and on the right is the Hall of Countenance.

This is how the college looked from the outside, it kinda looked like the one from ‘Immersive College of Winterhold’ mod but it was much larger and everything was wider and taller. I actually didn’t use the mod, there is a certain disturbing quest that comes along with it even though it was an excellent mod.

“Impressive, isn’t it?” Holman said, “Four years ago when I arrived here I had the same look on my face.”

Holman was the oldest one in the team, he is 18 and one of the students that are specialized in both Destruction and Restoration.

“Of course it’s impressive.” Faralda said, “Even though the place hasn’t changed since the last fifty years, it still is one of the best magical schools in Tamriel.”

As I was chatting with the group at the entrance, a woman in a college robes came from the side.

“Welcome back, Faralda.” She said, “I trust we can hear some good news about the tournament.”

“Oh! Mirabelle dear, I can say we achieved the primary objective of our journey.” Faralda said with her cold usual tone.

That was Mirabelle Ervine, an NPC I know, she is the one who deals with the college management affairs, she is also a Master Wizard Elemental Mage.

“The primary? I thought it was impossible but well done, well done indeed, Arch-Mage Savos can have some good news for a change.” She said, “What about the secondary objective?”

“We faced some complications.” Faralda said, “An opponent that was too tricky to handle.”

“Wasn’t the secondary objective supposed to be the easy one?” Mirabelle looked annoyed.

“A complication I said!” Faralda said and turned to me, “I brought the culprit along.”

“Huh?” Mirabelle looked at not understanding what was going.

“Hello, my name is Jon, and people call me Jon Dare.” I said and stretched my hand for a shake

“You are Nurina’s son?” Mirabelle jumped back in a fright, “So you won the tournament?”

Oh! She knew about me! Nurina seems to have been chatting about this handsome young man.

“Something wrong?” Faralda noticed something and asked Mirabelle.

“Ah! It became a headache now, why did he win? My workload will get overloaded now.” Mirabelle made a pained face and held her head, something must have happened.

“Get yourself together! What is going on?” Faralda’s patience was running short, I also wanted to understand.

“Sigh! You see, when Nurina Aren returned to the college over a month ago, she headed directly to the Hall of the Elements and registered a new student with the name of Jon Dare. She declared in front of everyone that she adopted that boy and he became her legacy apprentice. Arch-Mage Savos was frightened but all he received was more of the crazy demands of hers. They started fighting and shouting over it every day and night, normally when two Arch-Wizards fight no one from the lower ranks can interfere but it reached the point where it became unbearable. Tolfdir came with a good idea to end the fight and all agreed to it, it was a bet, about who would when the tournament, if it is our team then Savos word will go, and if it is Jon Dare then Nurina will get what she wants.” Mirabelle said all that with the face of someone who wants to cry.

“What did Nurina want?” Faralda asked.

“Nurina wants to quit the position of the head of the Conjunction major.” Mirabelle said, “She wants to reopen the Mysticism major.”