Brelyna:

The Alteration Mage led the students down into the tomb being excavated by the College, lecturing them as they went. "As some of you may know, Saarthal was one of the earliest Nord settlements in Skyrim. It was also one of, if not the largest. Sacked by the Elves in the infamous 'Night of Tears,' not much is known about what happened to Saarthal."

Brelyna shook her head. Her ancestors had attacked Onmund's ancestors here. It was strange and sad to think about.

"This is such an exciting opportunity for us! To be able to study the magics used by an ancient civilization..." He turned back to his students. "Now, what shall we have you all do?"

He looked around. "Alright. Minerva, why don't you assist Arnel Gane? He's been searching for enchanted artifacts. Brelyna, why don't you search for warding magics? Anything that's meant to keep people out. Don't interact with them, just try to identify them. Onmund, see if you can find any residual energies. Alive or undead. And J'zargo...why don't you verify that we're the first ones here? See if anything's been tampered with." He clapped his hands. "Alright, let's be careful. But have fun!"

Onmund:

Onmund wondered if anyone else would be so happy to rifle through the bones of their ancestors. Tolfdir had promised that the college was only interested in the magic, not the bodies, but Onmund wasn't going to say everyone at the college was so discerning.

Especially not J'zargo. It wasn't because he was a Khajit, honest! It was just that he'd been talking all the way down about how he was hoping to find an artifact to increase his magic power. Well, Onmund wasn't going to let that happen so easily.

And sure enough, after searching for a few minutes, he found J'zargo elbow deep in an urn. "What in Oblivion do you think you're doing?" Onmund snapped.

J'zargo yelped and fell back, scattering greasy ashes around the urn. "Ack! Onmund!" He had the decency to look a bit sheepish. "J'zargo was merely...inspecting these urns. To see how old they were. Yes, that's it."

Onmund glared at him. "You can keep your dirty paws out of those ashes. Nobody puts anything magical in them anyways." J'zargo tilted his head. "I dunno, something about it interfering with the spirit's journey to Sovngarde."

J'zargo dusted off his hands. "Good to know." He walked off to another room. Onmund followed him quietly. When he saw what J'zargo was doing there, he felt a sharp feeling of rage pass through him. Before his mind caught up to his body, he sprinted across the hall and tackled J'zargo away from the wall he was damaging.

"You can't just go around damaging tombs for your own greed you utter ba-" There was a loud thunking as a wall of spears shot up in the doorway, trapping the two apprentices. "...astard"

"Good job," snarked J'zargo.

"Shut up," Onmund grumbled. He got up and shook the spears to test them. "No good." For such an old trap, the spears were really strong. No sign of rust or any other weakening.

Luckily, the sound of the spears must've echoed through the tomb. It didn't take long before Tolfdir came running over. "What's all this noise? What happened?"

J'zargo scowled and held up what looked like a fancy amulet. "J'zargo was trying to get this amulet off the wall without activating a trap, but this stupid one," he nodded towards Onmund, "decided to tackle J'zargo and make him rip the amulet off."

"I thought you were desecrating the tomb! You already sifted through the ashes!"

"So? These ones are dead. They won't care. Why put these things with the dead when the living can use them more effectively?"

"Yeah? How would you like it if I dug up your ancestors?"

"Enough!" snapped Tolfdir. "Look, arguing won't get you out of there any faster. These traps tend to have a trick to them. Try using that amulet and see if that helps any."

J'zargo and Onmund looked at each other. Onmund sighed in resignation as J'zargo looped the amulet over his head. Immediately, the amulet began to emit a faint orange trail, leading to the wall behind them where the amulet had been. "How curious," Tolfdir observed. "I wonder what effect your spells might have?"

J'zargo grinned. "One way to find out." Without waiting for anyone else to say anything, he charged up a ball of lightning and fired it at the wall.

BOOM!

The wall flew apart, revealing a long tunnel behind it. Onmund heard the "shunk" of the spears retracting. Tolfdir walked past him and examined the tunnel. "Well would you look at that," he murmured in awe. "Why would this be sealed off?"

Onmund had no answer for that, and followed Tolfdir down the tunnel, J'zargo close behind. "What is this place?" Onmund asked. It looked different from the Nord tombs he had heard about.

"I'm not sure," Tolfdir admitted as they walked into. "I don't know what to expect here. We need to be on our-"

Tolfdir was cut off by a shimmer appearing in front of the group. It became more and more visible, taking the shape of a figure in long robes. It looked at the group and spoke in a calm but firm voice.

"Hold mages. Know that you have set in motion a chain of events that cannot be stopped. Judgement has not been passed, as you had no way of knowing."

Onmund stepped forward a bit. "Um, hello? Who are you?"

The apparition ignored him. "Judgment will be passed on your actions to come, and how you deal with the dangers ahead of you. This warning is passed to you because the Psijic Order believes in you. You have the potential to prevent disaster. Take great care, and know that the Order is watching."

With that, the apparition faded. "What was that?" wondered J'zargo, sounding genuinely confused.

Tolfdir put his hand to his head. "The Psijic Order? But they don't have any connection to these ruins...and why show up now after disappearing for so long?"

They didn't have time to wonder for long. Portions of the walls on all sides of the group burst outwards. Stumbling out of holes behind these walls came humanoid figures. Rail-thin, pale, with glowing eyes and wielding weapons.

Those weren't walls. They were coffins. Onmund felt his heart freeze. He'd heard of these things. "Draugr!" he gasped.

One of the undead pointed its axe at him. "Dir volaan!" And then they charged.

Minerva:

Minerva sighed as she searched the corridors. How tedious. All she had found so far were some enchanted rings, and none of them seemed to satisfy Gane. Minerva got the same feeling from him that she did from some of her grandfather's guests: nothing would please them save their own work.

"Have you found anything yet?" came a voice. Minerva jumped and spun around, lightning spell at the ready. Standing behind Minerva was Brelyna, hands in the air in a gesture of surrender. "Brelyna! You scared the crap out of me!"

Brelyna smiled apologetically. "Sorry. I didn't mean to startle you. Have you found anything yet?"

Minerva shrugged. "Nothing interesting, at least not according to Gane. But he doesn't seem like the kind of person who'd be satisfied with anything I find. You?"

Brelyna shook her head. "Just a bunch of dust." She sneezed. "Pretty much no sign of any magic, warding or otherwise."

Minerva sighed. "That's a shame. I'd hoped a trip to a Nord ruin would be more exciting."

That's when the sound of an explosion came from one of the other tunnels. Minerva and Brelyna looked at each other. "Me and my big mouth," muttered Minerva as the two ran to find the source.

The two found the tunnel a minute later. "This is where...that sound came from...right?" asked Minerva. Her mouth felt weird, like she had been chewing on caramels. It was hard to move it. Brelyna didn't reply. "Right?"

Minerva slowly turned around. She didn't move slowly of her own volition. It felt like she was trying to swim through syrup. And when she finally turned around, she saw Brelyna wasn't moving at all. "Bre...lyna?"

Minerva took one step forward, then another. Brelyna still didn't move. She didn't blink. She just stood there, still as a statue. It was an effort for Minerva to even breathe. She felt cold, a deep cold in her bones.

And then the spell broke. Minerva stumbled forward and slammed into Brelyna before she could stop herself. "What the-?" Brelyna yelped and pushed Minerva back. Minerva landed on her butt with an "oof!"

Brelyna crossed her arms. "Didn't take you for the skittish type. Or the touchy feely type. Warn me next time, okay?"

Minerva jumped up and brushed herself off. "Th...that's not what happened!" Minerva explained what had just happened. "I know it sounds insane but-"

"I believe you."

Brelyna's matter-of-fact tone took Minerva by surprise. "You...you do?"

Brelyna shrugged. "Yes. Precisely because your story is so insane and specific. Does anyone in your family specialize in rare and obscure magic?"

Minerva thought, then shook her head. "My mom's a Restoration specialist, and my cousin works with the Synod...no, I don't think so." She looked at Brelyna. "Why? Do you know what that was?"

Brelyna frowned and crossed her arms. "Well, I've heard rumors about powerful magic that can control time and warp the fabric of reality. Something like what the Dwemer had. I've never seen it used myself, though."

"Control time and warp the fabric of reality? Yikes," Minerva shuddered. That idea didn't sit right with her. "Well, whatever happened, let's find the others before it happens again, yeah?"

"Good idea," Brelyna nodded.

The two jogged down the passageway, and it wasn't long before they heard the sounds of clanging steel and zapping spells. Both apprentices readied spells, but the fight was over by the time they got there. Standing in the room were Tolfdir, J'zargo, and Onmund, all heavily panting and surrounded by withered dead bodies.

Minerva looked around, eyes wide. "Whoa! What in Oblivion happened here?"

Tolfdir sighed and explained what had happened with the amulet and the appearance of the Psijic mage. "The Psijic Order?" gasped Brelyna.

"You've heard of them?" asked Onmund.

Brelyna nodded. "My whole house is pretty...well, really obsessed with magic. It's kind of our thing. My mother and older sister have been trying to research the Order, but apparently sources have been frustrating to find."

Tolfdir nodded. "The Psijic Order was known to hoard secret magical knowledge, for lack of a better term."

Brelyna looked thoughtful. "If anyone could pull off that trap that Minerva and I walked into, it would be them."

"A trap? Are you alright?" asked Onmund, his brow furrowed.

"We're fine, I think," said Minerva. "But I wouldn't mind looking for another way out so we can avoid it."

Brelyna shook her head. "I still don't know why it didn't affect you as much as me."

Minerva shrugged. "Well, Bretons do have some innate magic resistance, or so I've heard. Or maybe I was just kind of standing outside the area of effect? I dunno."

Brelyna nodded. "I suppose both would make some sense. Although, I don't like how you're implying that it was me who triggered it."

"Well, you were the one who got frozen."

"Frozen?" put in J'zargo. "So it was a frost rune? J'zargo sees nothing strange about that."

"Not frozen in ice. It's a bit of a long story," explained Minerva.

"Then why don't you explain as we go?" said J'zargo.

Tolfdir nodded. "I'd like to stay and examine these a bit further, but you should press on. See if you can find whatever danger that apparition mentioned."

J'zargo nodded and started heading down the tunnel. Onmund looked at the others. "Shall we?"

Minerva smirked. "Better than disappointing Gane again. Let's go." She reached down and picked up an axe from one of the fallen draugr.

"Wait, what are you doing?" yelped Onmund.

Minerva stared at him. "You can't be serious."

"Look, I know we're searching around, but could you please, for the love of Shor, keep the rifling through ancestral bones to a minimum?"

Minerva twirled the axe. It looked rustic, the handle carved to look like a bone. Or maybe it was an actual bone. Cool. "How about this? I'll stop taking stuff off your ancestors when they stop trying to murder us. Fair?"

Onmund didn't seem to have a response for that. Minerva took that as agreement and headed down the tunnel. Distantly she heard Onmund yell "You weren't even here for that!"

So yes, I did bend canon for this one a bit. I don't know how far that time-stop spell the Psijics cast extends, but I'd bet it would cover most of Saarthal at least.

As to why Minerva was only partially affected...that will be explained later (sort of) but most people reading this have probably already figured out why.