Welcome to the third chapter of the rise I don't really know what to put here so let's begin shall we?

Me and Valarion where neck and neck in our race to the college, but the entryway was only one person wide. We were scrambling over each other and Faralda, the high elf guarding the gate, was visibly alarmed and was preparing a fireball attack. To prevent us being singed I let Valarion go and he won the 'race', he told Faralda that he wanted to join the college and she told him that a test was necessary; he had to cast a fireball on the seal that was on the floor. He did so with ease and began to walk forward before turning around and sticking his tongue out at me, if Faralda wasn't in front of us he'd get to see our middle finger, I told Faralda that I also wanted to join; she asked that I conjure a wolf on the seal. I didn't know that spell. I told her that I couldn't and she said I could buy it for thirty septims; I quickly agreed and cast the spell on the seal. A haunting howl filled the air as a spectral wolf appeared from the seal, he's kinda cool, let's name him Reginald. Faralda told us to follow her, but I had a question for her.

"I believe I may have some sort of talent with learning spells, a while back I had an arrow in my leg, just above the knee, and I managed to use a healing spell even though I had never seen a healing book, is that weird?"

"No, I'm sorry to remove any trace of being special but anyone and everyone has the ability to call upon basic healing and fire magic at least, although most don't know it. What you did was perfectly normal." I was saddened but I perked up quickly, I had a new friend and I'm probably dragonborn so it's all good. We carried on walking to the entrance over the long path. Valarion looked over the walkway and whitened visibly, I guess he didn't have much of a stomach for heights, he kept chanting 'Don't look down. Don't look down' yeah, definitely afraid of heights.

We reached the gate to the college grounds quickly enough and it opened on its own, Valarion looked fascinated while Faralda seemed to be, giggling? I guess it must be funny to see the wonder in people's eyes at this. For me it was nothing new, we had automatic doors everywhere back home. I carried on walking to where Mirabelle would be but Valarion was talking to Faralda, I could only catch the last of the conversation but I could hear her say "if you need anything don't hesitate to ask" she followed that up with a wink, looks like Valarion is making friends. He jogged a bit to catch up with me and I asked what that was about, he said it was nothing to concern myself with, definitely made a friend.

When we reached Mirabelle, she was still talking to the Thalmor, Ancano, but she ended the conversation quickly with no room for Ancano to continue talking, well played, Mirabelle, well played. We approached Mirabelle and I introduced us. "Hello, Mirabelle, is assume? My name is Aidan and my friend here is Valarion, we're the new students and would be honoured if you would show us the facilities here at your college." I made myself sound polite but I never cared much for niceties "However there is one thing I must quickly take care of first." I walked over to Ancano. "Hi, Ancano, you don't know me but I know you and I know what you're up to, and I'd like to personally warn you that if you make a move against me, my friend or this college I will personally see you ripped apart by my own hands, are we clear?" I said that in the cheeriest voice I could muster to irritate him further than the speech alone would have. Ancano's brow furrowed and he began to raise his arms "Now, now Ancano you shouldn't take me for a novice, raising your fists towards me would be a very, very bad idea, you have no idea what I'm capable of," I moved in close to his ear "And you should be afraid, Ancano, very afraid." He lowered his arms slowly and I removed the malice from my words and finished with "Glad we straightened that out." I smiled and walked away. I expected what would happen next and prepared accordingly. Ancano launched an ice spear towards me, I saw Valarion's facial expression turn from a smirk, he had obviously heard my little chat with Ancano, to shock. That was all the warning I needed. I dropped into a crouch, allowing the spear to fly over me; I stuck out my leg and spun. I caught Ancano by surprise and tripped him over, my knee was on his chest and my hand was around his throat before he could blink. "What did I just say Ancano?" I slowly tightened my grip. Fear was evident in his eyes as my grip got tighter and tighter. I stopped tightening just before I would have stopped him breathing. "I warned you Ancano, and I made a promise. But I'd rather not have my first day at the college tainted with a murder and I suppose neither would you." He nodded as best he could and I slowly got off of him, I pulled him up and he quickly scurried away.

"You were going to take us on a tour, correct?"

"Yes I am, and between us he really deserved to be put in his place." I smiled and we started to take a tour. It was relatively straightforward and afterwards Mirabelle told us to go the hall of the elements to begin our teaching. We walked into the hall; it was enormous but sparsely decorated, the hall managed to keep out the cold, for which I was grateful. We entered the main classroom area and saw Tolfdir beginning the lesson.

He noticed us and beckoned us over, saying the lesson only just started. He continued his lesson after we took our places, he started saying that magic was dangerous and would take years to control, I stood there, complacent, while the others were in uproar about Tolfdir questioning their respective skills in magic. Tolfdir began calming them and asked me what I thought of the situation. "I feel that we should do something practical, however it should continue with the theme of safety, wards perhaps?" Tolfdir seemed to think it over for a moment before agreeing that it was a good course of action that would placate both parties. He asked me if I would help give the demonstration for the ward and I thanked him but declined, "Perhaps one of the others would be a better choice, they seem eager to prove themselves, as a matter of fact they could all set up wards and we could use a spell on them to see how well they hold up." Tolfdir thanked me for the assistance and said that it was a good idea, Valarion and the dark elf, Brelnya, were told to stand in front of me so that I could cast the spell on their wards while the khajiit and the nord stood opposite Tolfdir. They were told to set up wards and they did so after a few seconds. Now comes the fun part. I prepared two firebolts and launched them towards Valarion and Brelnya. Their wards held up and while the nord's held the khajiit's faltered slightly and singed his whiskers, the nord, Onmund, nearly fell over laughing and the khajiit, J'zargo, attacked him. It took all of us to pull them off each other. We all had a good laugh before we noticed it was getting late. Tolfdir told us to get some rest and that we would learn more tomorrow.

My room was ok and I was glad that I finally had a place of my own that I didn't have to pay for, I unpacked my bag into the drawers and wardrobes and left It on a spare chair before laying in my bed and falling asleep. The next day I was awoken by a ringing noise, I walked outside and so did all the other students before the majority of us realised we weren't dressed. After getting dressed the noise stopped, must be some sort of alarm, I repeated that to the others and they all just stood there, confused, I corrected myself and said it was meant to wake us up, I heard Onmund say he would never get used to it, oh he will, it was daily back home and I'm guessing it's going to be daily here. We all began to make our way to the hall of elements.

Our first lesson that day was more on wards and involved some more talking and some practice, I even had some firebolts flung at me, Valarion seemed way too pleased to be getting revenge for me throwing them at him yesterday. Our second lesson was taught by Faralda, which seemed to please Valarion, she began by asking us how proficient we were in destruction magic, there were varied answers and so she had some of us working on firebolt spells while others were laying runes and triggering them with a spell. The lessons lasted a few hours and lunch soon approached. We sat down in the dormitory and ate at a large table with food already on it. After lunch Tolfdir suggested we take a trip to some ancient nord ruins known as saarthal to examine ancient uses of magic, great we'll have to fight draugr.

The path to saarthal was cold, very cold, don't forget steep as well, yeah and that. The stones of the path were rough underfoot and my cloth boots weren't doing much to keep the pain out and my robes weren't doing much in the way of heat conservation, lucky I have a fire spell, eh? The path was relatively straight and the walking was tedious with nothing but idle chat to tide us over until we made it to saarthal. There was a bear on the road but with a master wizard and five apprentices the bear didn't last long. We soon turned right off the path and up a hill to lead us to the ruins, we passed under and ancient nord arch and I knew we were on the right track. After about half an hour we made it to the entrance and Tolfdir unlocked it and ushered us in.

The smell. That was the first thing I noticed, it was… unpleasant to say the least but I guessed I'd have to get used to it. the next thing I noticed was that the Nords weren't much for health and safety, the paths were high, thin, and had no railings, Valarion is going to hate this, but I was thankful that this place had some heat to it. We made our way to the ground floor and Valarion seemed more at ease than a few minutes ago. Tolfdir asked us if we had any questions before we were to go off on our own to conduct experiments, after answering some questions he sent me and Valarion off to find enchanted items. We made our way to one of the teachers, whose name I forgot to ask, and asked him where he'd have us search. The teacher said that there was an entire section he had yet to search, we began immediately. I knew there was the amulet but I couldn't find it, I only managed to find a couple of rings before I heard Valarion cry out for help.

I ran as quickly as I could through the twisting maze, I found Valarion trapped behind a gate, clutching an amulet in his hand. Tolfdir looked baffled and honestly so was I, this wasn't how it was supposed to happen, I needed to be behind there, maybe he could be, no not Dragonborn, he wasn't at Helgen it can't be him, but perhaps he would be the Arch-mage only time would tell. "Valarion, this is gonna sound weird but you have to put the amulet on and cast a spell at the wall that held the amulet."

"What? Why? This doesn't make sense and I'm starting to panic."

"Trust me Valarion; there are some things that you'd be better off not knowing."

My answer stopped Valarion questioning me but he was definitely not content and I would have to answer more questions later. Valarion but the amulet on, cautiously, and then the wall resonated with the amulet and Valarion and began emitting a red aura. "It's now or never I guess." Were Valarion's last words before casting his spell, a fireball, towards the wall. Valarion nearly had a heart attack when the wall caved in under the force of the spell, the gate separating us fell into the floor and me and Tolfdir walked in before continuing on through the tunnel. We came to a closed off area with a few coffins, they smelled like there was definitely something dead in there, but the question was, were they going to stay dead?

Valarion seemed disappointed that there was only this room at the end of the secret tunnel, oh how wrong he is in thinking that, Tolfdir started wondering out loud, why was this here and why was it hidden? Things like that. That's when it happened, a slight jump, barely noticeable but certainly was there. Valarion was the first to speak "Did you guys see him?" so he noticed the jump to… wait did he say him? The Psijic monk? The one that the future Arch-mage is supposed to see? Well that spices things up a bit, doesn't it?

Right, think carefully about this, I can't just say, oh you mean the Psijic monk that only you saw indicating that you are to be the next Arch-mage, now can I? Right I guess, as with most strange situations like this, I'll just have to play dumb. "See what Valarion?" ok I guess that wasn't so bad, lying to one of my few friends in this world.

"You mean I only saw it? The monk, Psijic, he said he was." It would be so much easier if I could just tell him, no you dumbass you'll mess with the world if you reveal the future, you may have said too much as it is, fine, calm yourself brain. Tolfdir questioned him about the Psijic, apparently he said something about something being hidden in saarthal and that only Valarion and his closest friend could save the college. Valarion seemed like he was holding something back, something the Psijic said most likely, I'll have to try and get it out of him later if possible.

Tolfdir said we'll have to search deeper into saarthal to find this hidden thing but he said he had no clue where to search; there weren't any other places in saarthal to explore. That's when the coffins opened. Three draugr, three people, a bit unfair, they'd need more draugr. Tolfdir dispatched one draugr easily with a firebolt while Valarion did the same. I guess I like to mix it up a bit I used my steel sword, that I'd made a while back in Riverwood, mixed with a firebolt but there's more, my sword is enchanted, my blade pierced his stomach and left as quickly as it had entered and the draugr was set ablaze before my firebolt finished him. Over the months of making swords you get used to using them, I was quitter proficient and the enchantment came from the time I visited Whiterun.

With the fight over we saw that one of the coffins had a passage behind it, me and Valarion followed it eagerly while Tolfdir followed slowly, admiring the nord craftsmanship. A few more draugr later and me and Valarion were in a circular room with many coffins around the walls, Tolfdir was still far behind so when the gate closed and sealed us in Tolfdir was left out, shit, "Valarion back-to-back now!" he did so without hesitation and the first few draugr emerged from their stone tombs. Valarion unleashed firebolts at any and all draugr in his range and made sure that once they hit the floor they would stay there, while I used a firebolt spell but kept my sword ready for any that came too close. The draugr were speaking in the dragon tongue, I knew one of their phrases 'dir volaan' I think and it means die quickly, pleasant huh? After ten minutes of fighting off more and more draugr they finally stopped and by stopped I mean we killed them all.

The gate blocking Tolfdir rose into its housing and allowed him to enter the room we were in. Tolfdir commented upon our fighting skills and said he would like to stay here and study while we go on ahead, we felt confident in our abilities, why shouldn't we be? and carried on after lowering the two spike barriers with pull chains. The way ahead was infested with draugr but we made quick work of those. There were a few close calls, I almost stepped on a rune and Valarion almost triggered a dart trap. We came upon a pillar puzzle with six different pillars. "There's got to be billions of combinations, we'll never figure it out" Valarion slumped over and looked like he had given up

"Well, the nords weren't exactly good at hiding there combinations, look above the pillars, I'll take the right side and you take the left." Valarion looked up and saw the correct face to be shown, he smiled, we quickly set puzzle and carried on.

What was past that gate was the strongest draugr I had faced so far, a Wight if I'm not mistaken, he was tough but with Valarion's firebolts and my slashing he fell to his knee where I ended him with a sword thrust into his skull. He had a few gold on him which was pretty cool, a lot more that the regular draugr that's for sure. We came upon another pillar puzzle soon after and Valarion went to work straight away, but when he reached for the lever I tackled him to the ground. "Hey! What's wrong with you?" I pointed to all the pillars that were facing the wrong way "But I set all of them right, what happened?" I picked him up before explaining

"Not all the pillars are that easy, these ones spin others, see?" I demonstrated, Valarion looked shocked but determination came across his face "Let's do this." Right we have to work this out methodically, I told Valarion to turn each pillar and I would number them in the order that he'd have to turn them. The first he turned moved two other pillars, number two I told him, the next turned none, number four, the next turned three, number one, the last turned one, number three. Valarion used that to set the pillars in the correct order and allowed him to open the gate.

As we were walking through Tolfdir caught up with us and we walked forward together, spells at the ready, just in case, we're gonna need it. We opened some doors and made our way through a hall. That was when we saw it, the eye of Magnus. Well it was just a fascinating orb to them but I knew, and I couldn't let them know I knew. Then there was the draugr, Jyrik Gauldurson, very powerful and invulnerable until the ward around the eye is taken down, if I remember correctly. "Tolfdir, that draugr is very powerful, and until the ward around the eye, er orb is taken down we can't defeat him, so you need to work on that while me and Valarion distract him."

"Wait, I'm gonna be bait! Oh you're gonna pay for that Aidan." I smiled before running off the higher platform and landing, with a roll, in front of Jyrik I slashed my blade across his throat but it seemed to not even make contact, bugger, then he woke up. His glowing blue eyes shone fiercely at me and he grabbed me by the throat, he stood and I was lifted off the ground, and we're six foot so he's pretty tall. He started to constrict and that was when a quick punch to my gut sucked all the air out of my lungs, everything started fading but luckily Valarion launched a few firebolts at him which distracted him long enough to make him drop me.

I fell to the ground, coughing and spluttering, gasping for breath. I finally got to my feet just as Tolfdir disabled the ward, I walked up to Jyrik as he began to corner Valarion, "Payback's a bitch, Jyrik." I slashed my blade with more force than I had thought possible and separated his head from his shoulders, his head fell to the floor with a satisfying thud, his body soon followed. Valarion was breathing heavily and thanked me but said he was just about to get the upper hand, sure you were.

Tolfdir was staring at the eye with fascination plastered across his face, "Valarion, can you go back to the college and inform the Arch-mage of our finding, I'd go myself but I couldn't leave this alone." Valarion nodded and started jogging towards the exit. "These markings are unlike anything I've ever seen before they aren't dwemer, falmer, ayleid, not even daedric." Tolfdir was puzzled, well here goes nothing

"That's because these markings, at least I believe them to be, are Aedric in origin, what we're looking at is the eye of Magnus, and while I believe that the people of this world are not ready for it I doubt I could stop you or anyone else from taking it, I know that the college would merely study it, it is Ancano that I am truly worried about, I fear that he will try to abuse its raw magical power." Tolfdir was speechless at this revelation, he seemed to try and find the words to speak as they had clearly left him. He managed to say "for someone so young, you know so much; I will have many questions for you when we return." I nodded and beckoned him over to the exit that Valarion took, to find the word wall, "Dragon language, and if I'm right in my assumptions then…" I stepped forward and the energy shot into me, I smiled, I am Dragonborn. The word IIZ, or ice as I now understood it, engraved itself into my mind, my potential will be limitless one day, that I promise, and I always keep my promises.

Valarion P.O.V

I was running, fast, the cold wind was like a slap in the face but I didn't care, what we found was big and the Arch-mage needed to know about it as soon as possible. I readied a spell of my own, one that could enhance my muscles, I used it on my legs and I began to run faster and faster. The landscape passed by as a blur, and that was no doubt how the world saw me. Those who knew me would say I was childish and immature, but I just needed the right thing to focus on and magic was my true calling. I intend to be Arch-mage someday and I'm gonna beat Aidan to that title, speaking of him, what did that Psijic say? Something about a secret, a big one the way he was going on about it, and a potential in him, something big that I had to confront him about, when he gets back to the college, definitely.

I slowed down as I neared the city, don't want to spook the locals, ok maybe I do but I can't. I ran up to the bridge where Faralda was, ah Faralda, so beautiful but I could never approach her, she'd just reject me, like they always did. "I'd love to chat Faralda" I mean I'd really love to "But we found something big in saarthal and the Arch-mage needs to be informed" she nodded and stepped aside, was she blushing? No she couldn't be. I made my way inside and climbed the stairs to my left; I was out of breath at the top and had to rest for a moment.

"Arch-mage, sir, we found… something in saarthal, a big glowing orb that practically radiated magicka, I was told to inform you right away."

"Thank you for informing me Valarion was it?" I nodded "Right well you should go rest, it's late and you have to be up early tomorrow." I nodded and made my way to the rooms and laid down, I fell asleep instantly, that's the downside to the spell I used earlier, as soon as you stop, you're so tired that you just collapse.

Aidan P.O.V

"Are you sure we shouldn't help him?" Brelnya asked for the billionth time

"I'm sure, he said he could transport it with magic, he'd be back before us so just calm down and enjoy the night sky." And wasn't it beautiful the aurora was magnificent, words fail to capture its true splendour, the night sky was lit up like a thousand fireworks went off, it was much more beautiful than being back home, if I could even call that place home again, I've been here for just over half a year now and I feel much more at peace here than on earth.

It was late and we were glad when we got back to the college we fell asleep soon after, it had been a tough day, and it's gonna be weird tomorrow.

Well, that was the longest chapter I've made so far and I'm really pleased with it, I hope you guys, or girls, enjoy it. please review and tell me what you liked and what you didn't like so I can make it better for you and everyone else who reads this. Thanks

- Aidan