Disclaimer: I haven't written fanfic in a while so any assistance to make further chapters better would be appreciated...Why is the place for magic characters in the most boring place in all of Skyrim.
What is it that makes people attempt the inconceivable? Dreaming of the locations you'll never get to travel, adventures that you could only read about but wish you could have, the life you'll never get to live due to some unforeseen circumstances, life in itself is a journey, a journey of introspection.
Truth be told the college of Winterhold in Skyrim wasn't my first choice to further my studies. Rumor among the merchants is Skyrim isn't friendly to foreigners especially mages.
Sadly, this is where I ended up was it bad luck, or maybe fate? When I couldn't study at the Cyrodilic magical academy I decided to go to The College of Winterhold in Skyrim. I've been studying at Winterhold for four years before everything started. I thought this city was where I would be spending the rest of my life. I should have known things don't always go as planned.
Looking back there where so many things I should have done differently. A lot of things I regret, but you can't change the past. You just have to learn to accept that, you can't save everyone after all.
When did it all start? It's hard to remember the exact day, but it was Last Seed of the year 201….
The chilly air of Winterhold was strongly blowing that morning, to the young Breton the short walk through the courtyard to the Hall of Elements wasn't comfortable for her even while wearing a heavy fur cloak, and the falling snow was not helping. The wind blew her long red hair behind her as she ran towards the door, snow sticking to her locks.
Reaching her destination she swiftly opened the doors running inside, closing it behind her. She brushed the snow out of her hair, and cloak. Once she was done she placed her cloak on the set of hooks next to the door.
Before she could walk away the main door opened, letting the wind blow some snow in. A khajiit walked in, he looked towards the Breton and greeted her.
"Hello Athena, J'zargo is surprised to see you here today, with how cold it is today" J'zargo took out his own fur cloak to clean the snow off as well.
"Why did anyone tough settle a city this far north is beyond me" Athena spoke annoyed as she crossed her arms rubbing her arms in an attempt to warm herself up.
"The cold is not that bad, J'zargo has no problem with the cold" He declared rather proudly. Hanging his cloak. "J'zargo has his own fur to keep him warm.
Athena rolled her eyes at his statement, J'Zargo just had to always be better than anyone else, well he isn't as well adjusted to the cold weather as he thinks he is.
"I don't think fur doesn't seem to help as much, have you seen Onmund! The guy wears his robes with a short-sleeved undershirt. I see you wear a long-sleeved undershirt" Athena smirked pointing at him.
If J'zargo thinks he can deal with the cold as well as the Nords, he needed a reality check every once in a while.
Athena turned around walking towards the main hall where the Restoration instructor Collette was in the middle of her usual rants before the lecture. Athena walked towards Brelyna sitting down next to her.
"How many times does she have to keep repeating this" Brelyna rubbed her temples.
Every single time Colette started her lectures with the same thing it wasn't the students who kept leaving those notes, word around the college was that it was Nirya who keeps leaving those notes why? No one knows. But there starting to get out of hand.
Colette's lectures always felt longer than they actually were, she was a good restoration teacher and defends her area of expertise rather passionately a bit too much to the annoyance of all the teachers and students. But she was always patient with Athena's lack of abilities with restoration magic. Athena never took restoration magic seriously.
After Colletes lesson was done Athena had some time before she had to attend Faralda's lecture. Deciding to do some light reading Athena decided to head to the Arcanaeum.
walking in Athena gave a quiet hello and waved to Urag who acknowledged the young Breton with a glare. Athena shook her head and sighed, heading towards the bookshelves. Urag took his job way too seriously but the books were kept in pristine condition, due to his intimidation tactics.
Looking through the book collections, she decided to pick a book from the miscellaneous section and took The Wraith's Wedding Dowry to read, Athena let out a deep sigh it wasn't much of a choice at all the entire section was only a shelf worth of books, and it was only eight books, why didn't she bring her own collection from home, what would she give to read a proper romance novel.
'Maybe I'll ask mother to send me some on my next letter' Athena thought holding the book close to her she walked towards the benches she sat down and began to read.
The quiet atmosphere of the Arcanaeum was disturbed by the loud footsteps of the Archmage's advisor Ancano walking towards her. Looking up from her book, she could tell the Altemer was angry, angrier than normal.
"You all students are to leave the Hall of Elements, the adults need to talk" Ancano ordered the Breton in front of him.
Athena looked up and opened her mouth to protest but was not given the chance to speak.
"You will not speak, just listen. You, students, should be considered lucky that I even spoke to you per the request of the Archmage" Ancano crossed his arms glaring at the young Breton still sitting down.
That explained the irritating behavior. Ancano always saw himself above everyone in the college to the Altmer speaking to the apprentices is beneath him.
Athena closed her book and stood up. She didn't say anything just glared back at him, she was not fond of Ancano no one is, well Nirya is a little fond of him. This was not the time to remember the conversation she had with her Athena just walked away, whatever conversation the Archmage wanted to have with the other instructors must have been important.
The wind had died down by this time, at the courtyard Brelyna, Onmund and J'zargo were standing by the statue of Shalidor it wasn't unusual for the three of them to meet there every day after the days lessons. They all stood there complaining about Ancano.
"Who does he think he is, interrupting Drevis' lesson, walking around like he owns the place," Onmund complained leaning against the base of the statue.
"J'zargo is outraged, how is J'zargo supposed to become a powerful wizard if J'zargo cannot learn." J'Zargo hissed shaking his head.
"You're not the only one here to learn," Brelyna added irritated. "I can't wait for the day he leaves."
"Do you think he'll ever leave?" Onmund questioned stepping away from the statue's base he was leaning against frowning as took two steps forward getting closer to Brelyna and J'zargo.
"Well not in your lifetimes" The Dumner pointed to the Nord and Khajiit in front of her giving a slight shrug.
"Who knew you could be rude when angry Brelyna" Onmund spoke with a chuckle, "That must mean you're more comfortable speaking to us."
"J'zargo agrees when we all meet you barely spoke to us." J'Zargo closed his eyes remembering the year they all began their studies at Winterhold.
All of them started to laugh at how things have changed in the years they have known each other, they went from barely speaking to each other to spend their free time hanging out. As close friends.
"Hey, guys, what's going on?" Athena asked running towards them. "What's so funny?" Athena tilted her head confused.
"Well, we started complaining about Ancano, but we changed the subject." Onmund told Athena in between laughs.
"I see..."Athena said swinging back and forth trying to come up with something to say. "So...since there seems to be a meeting among the teachers with the Archmage I'm thinking of heading to the Frozen Heart anyone wants to join me?" Athena pointed towards the main gate leading into the small town.
"I don't see why not." Onmund said "It's not like we have anything better to do"
"Sounds good to me" Brelyna spoke walking towards the gate.
"J'zargo is getting hungry." J'Zargo quickly added walking towards the group ahead of him.
Winterhold was a quiet place, you could hear the noises of Assur and Eirid the only two children in the town playing they're made-up "Hunt the Elf" game, the young girl was visibly uncomfortable running away from Assur as he chased her with a wooden sword. Quickly Eirid managed to evade Assur by hiding behind the bushes by an abandoned home.
Eirid hid there waiting for her opportunity to run when she spotted the small group of apprentices walking from the college bridge, seeing her chance she ran towards them If she walked with them Assur wouldn't chase her near them like his father Assur wasn't fond of mages..
"Hello," Eirid said meekly, subtly looking around
"Let me guess," Athena said resting her head on her hand. "Assur is chasing you again"
She didn't get a reply but Erid gave a small nod. The redhead then turned to her friends"You guys go ahead I'll be right there"
J'zargo, Ounmund, and Brelyna went on while Athena stayed with Eirid. The Breton bent down to the young Nord's eye level.
"Is he making play the elf again?" Athena asked the young girl.
"Yea," Eirid replied looking down. "I don't want to play with him, but he's the only other kid here."
"Well then, how about we make him want to stop playing" Athena patted Erid on the head, the poor girl was clearly tired of Assur's little game.
"How?" Eirid asked confused.
"By fighting back" Athena grabbed a small amount of snow and formed it into a ball, she urged Eirid to make her own while on the look out for Assur. "If you don't stand up for yourself he'll never listen to you when you don't want to play his game anymore, besides there are plenty of things you could be playing"
Son of the Jarl or not that boy needed to learn a few things that his parents clearly didn't intend to teach him, due to their own biases. That dumb game he forced Eirid to play was one example Athena decided to help Erid change their little game.
Soon the young boy came around Brina's home still looking for Eirid, Athena pointed towards the young boy yelling "GET HIM" Athena signaled Eirid and the young girl started throwing snowballs at Assur.
The boy attempted to block the upcoming barrage of snowballs dropping his wooden sword and running for cover he grabbed some snow in an attempt to retaliate. The kids have currently given up on their old game and seemed to be enjoying the snowball fight.
"Well, my work here is done," Athena stretched as she turned and walked toward the inn. Hopefully now they'll take a little break from their old game for a while.
Reaching The Frozen Hearth Athena walked in and towards her fellow mages, they were speaking with the owner Dagur who was rather friendly towards them.
Athena made it to the table where her friends were sitting and placed herself in the open spot between Ounmund and Brelyna, the food was already on the table and it seemed they were in the middle of a conversation. The time she spent with the kids took longer than expected.
"What do you think they're talking about?" Ounmund asked while placing food on his plate.
"Who knows, but it must be important," Brelyna commented pouring some ale o her mug.
"J'zargo overheard Arniel is planning an excavation in the ruins of Saarthal." He added.
"That shouldn't cause such a stir," Athena blurred contemplating on the situation. She reached for an empty plate to get herself some food.
"Of course it would. Saarthal was at one point the capital city of Skyrim, a lot of Nords will get angry if they hear the college has been excavating it," Ounmund added rather hostile. He wasn't in favor of the idea. "Nords already hate the College, let's not give them any more ammunition to hate it."
Magic wasn't well liked by Nords Onmund himself had problems with his family when he chose to attend the College of Winterhold instead of becoming a mercenary or becoming a soldier.
"So Nords would prefer bandits to go though and pillage their ancient cities than letting the college that would preserve any found items, bias as it's finest" Athena spoke with a huff, it was rather annoying.
"That's not what I meant-" Onmund looked slightly embarrassed.
"Then what did you mean?" The younger Breton glared at him narrowing her green eyes.
"It's just, they don't understand it, us" Ounmund paused, "They'll think of anything to blame us, look at the Jarl he blames us for everything even the fucking snow! Snow for Akatosh sake we're in the coldest part of Skyrim!"
Jarl Korir hated the mages, and yes he does blame images for everything bad that happens in the city, but blaming the weather might be too much, although he tends to show up to the tavern from time to time, Athena hoped he didn't show up while they were there.
"You kids can't just cower all your lives" A Breton man spoke from between Ounmund and Athena, placing his arms around the shoulders of the apprentices."You need to loosen up a little..."He spoke looking from Ounmund to Athena.
"Are you old enough to drink that?"The older man pointed a mug in her hand.
"Yes Sam, I'm old enough I'm 19 now" Athena rolled her eyes taking a drink of her ale.
"19, how time passes when you travel through Skyrim" Sam chuckled."We have to celebrate I know this great little place where the wine flows like water we should head there." Sam pulled up a chair from the side and sat next to Onmund.
"J'zargo doesn't think it's a good idea" The Khajiit spoke. Leaving without permission or letting Maribelle know could get them in a lot of trouble.
"I agree, we shouldn't leave Winterhold yet, "Brelyna added taking a bite of her food.
"Alright, alright I get it, you're not ready. Too stuck in your studies. Once all of you kids are done you must join me" Sam got up.
"I guess that won't hurt, once we're no longer considered apprentices" Athena shrugged."But right it's not the time" Her fellow apprentices agreed.
"It's a deal then, once you're done we will celebrate" Sam let out a laugh and walked towards the bar.
It wasn't that they didn't like Sam Guevenne he was the most entertaining person there whenever he showed up, he can even put Ranmir in a good mood. A miracle in itself. Sam must have been gifted with charm by ether an Aedra or maybe a Daedra.
Why did he tough it be a good idea to stop all the way out here in his "tavern hopping" as he called it was beyond anyone, there wasn't even a bard here. This was the most boring place in all of Skyrim.
Thank the divines the city isn't bankrupt, that could be due to the College the Jarl hates so much due to it's enchanting and alchemical services available to the rest of Skyrim or the visitors to the college that stay at The Frozen Hearth.
Instead of staying a few hours as it was originally planned, the mage apprentices stayed for the rest of the night. A small private party began, after a few drinks who needed a bard that night, everyone seemed to be taking turns entertaining each other. Somewhere not as good, but still had fun. Brelyna sang some old song about Red Mountain, she probably got half of it wrong as it took a long time and ale to convince her to join their drunken merriment, the rest attempted to sing some tunes as well some of them came out as drunken slurs. What else was left to do in a place like this?