Wuunerth held out the open letter before him, offering it to Ulfric as he sat on his throne. He took it and briefly scanned the contents while he listened to Wuunferth. "It says that we need to come immediately to the College. Arch-mage Aren has information for us that he feels is too private for a messenger."

Ulfric read over the letter, then back to Wuunferth, meeting his eyes with a calculating glare. "And I'm to assume that you are going as well?"

"I have needed to go back to the College for some time, and this presents the perfect opportunity."

Handing the letter back to the mage, Ulfric nodded and stood, then waved over a servant. "Get to the stables and ready two horses." The servant nodded and ran out of the hold. Ulfric turned to Wuunferth. "Ready yourself. I will alert her to your departure."

The mage bowed to his Jarl respectively before walking off, leaving Ulfric alone. When Wuunferth disappeared around a corner, he spoke. "Come here, Azita."

Coming out from around a doorway, Azita sheepishly left the shadows and approached the throne. "How long did you know I was standing there?"

Ulfric turned to the girl and raised an eyebrow. "You've have a habit of listening in to private conversations since you came here. And, since it had to deal with you, I rightly figured you'd be listening."

She bit her lip and avoided his eyes. He put a hand on her shoulder and used a finger to lift her chin, forcing her to meet his gaze. Ulfric smiled lightly at her.

"Make Windhelm proud."

"I will go get the Arch-Mage, so please stay here until I come back." Wuunferth stated as he left the courtyard, leaving Azita sitting next to the central manna pool. As he left, she threw her hood back, closing her eyes and warming her face in the sun. She brushed a hand over the fur on her face, smoothing it down.

A rustling in a bush made her snap her eyes open, making her jump to her feet into a battle stance while rolling her shoulders, activating and launching a fire spell in one fluid motion.

An elderly Dunmer man fitted in blue furred robes was standing before her, looking amused as he held his hand before him, deactivating a ward as she watched.

Azita withdrew her fire and grinned sheepishly. "Sorry about that."

The man waved his hand. "Perfectly fine. Are the one Wuunferth told me to meet here?"

She hesitantly nodded. The man nodded, and then clapped a hand on her shoulder. "I am Arch-Mage Aren, and I've got someone who wants to meet you in my office. But," he said, looking over the young khajiit's shoulder with a raised eyebrow, "I believe that they are busy at the moment. Would you like to have a small lesson while we wait?"

Azita blinked. What? "Ok…"

"Excellent! Follow me then." Aren said, motioning her to follow as he walked away.

She hesitated. Remembering that he had looked behind her, she turned-

-and saw a small, orange... thing? What.

She blinked

And it was gone.

The Arch-Mage held out his hand as he focused his magic. Feeling the collection of manna buzzing in his palm, his first clenched, and purple mist started swirling in circles on the ground, revealing the ghostly form of a simple frost atronach in the middle of his office.

"Arcane Fragmentary Disruption is an extremely hazardous, but thankfully rare, occurrence that usually happens to mages with very little control of their manna output. This," he said, gesturing to the still-see-through atronach he had partially summoned, "is an example of such an occurrence."

"However," Aren said seriously as he re-absorbed the magic, making the atronach disappear completely. "A partial summon or spell would destroy an entire town if the spell caster failed to either absorb or finish the spell completely." His eyes darkened. "Let's just say we had a close encounter with such a mage that nearly destroyed Winterhold completely a few years ago. We had barely managed to contain it in time and if we hadn't..."

He cleared his throat aquardly. "Any questions?"

Azita shook her head and fiddled with her hands nervously, feeling the need to disappear from the pitch chair she was sitting in. She knew that she could cause damage to anything (and anyone) if given the right opportunity, but to be without control over her own magic on a spell like that? From what Aren has said, it would mean death to an entire city, with thousands of unexpected and unwanted casualties...

"This magic inconsistency," He continued, either ignoring or not noticing Azita staring at her hands with a mildly horrified expression, "is also the reason rituals have such repercussions if performed incorrectly." Aren tossed a book onto a table besides her, making Azita jump and hiss slightly at the scare. "Or if it is not completed."

As Aren turned and walked over to another book case on the opposite side of the room, Azita cautiously picked up the Arch-Mage's book. It was bound in red leather and had a black symbol on the front that made her pause, turning the book to read the spine. "'Tamriel's Dimensional Destabilization'?" She read aloud. That sounded a lot like what he had been talking about. She looked over to Aren as he studied her face, standing against a bookcase with a solemn look on his face. "But why is there an Oblivion gate on the front of it?"

"Two hundred years ago," Aren said. "An organization called the Mythic Dawn attempted to join two dimensions." He held out a hand flat, "Ours." He held out his second hand, curled into a fist, "and the realm of Oblivion. This plan had obviously failed.

"However, what no one was prepared for was the aftermath. The Mythic Dawn had pierced our dimensional wall, making it entire world unstable. Since these two dimensions," he said, shaking his hands lightly to draw attention to them. "Were not compatible, we separated, leading to the closing of the Oblivion gates, which was good. However, like I had said, we were now unstable. But," he said lightly, approaching the shocked khajiit girl carefully. "That is where your letter comes in."

"With the help of another dimension, ours stabilized while connecting with this other world, making a permanent connection between us. Like a doorway. And it was with this world that we discovered why we became linked."

He crouched down on the ground in front of her, lifting a hand and summoning a snow flake which danced upon his fingertips. He smiled lightly as he saw her face light up in awe. "Can you guess what connected us?"

She stayed silent, still watching dumbstruck as the snow danced across above his fingers. It was like nothing she had ever seen before. It was almost like-

"Magic."

Authors note:

Hey guys! Sorry I'm late. I plan to update every other week unless with prior announcement.

So, I had originally a sequence involving Snape (since this is on the time of the boy-who-lived), but then I realized "HA HA HA he would just be frustrated to all hell with her, and would go insane with her defiance (you will understand later.).

So if you liked this chapter, please give me a comment and share with your friends!

See you next time!