"I would advise against that," says Mirabelle, not turning around as she leads them downstairs. "The Midden has been infested with draugar lately and you will want to be very sure of yourself before venturing in."

"'Draugar'?"

"Unholy abominations. Dead risen through dread rituals that trap their souls within their bodies. If you don't destroy the vessels completely they'll just keep coming back, trapped forever."

    "The practice of soul-affecting necromancy is strictly forbidden by the College and grounds for immediate expulsion as well as the involvement of authorities," Mirabelle says promptly.

And presumably they're dangerous, alright.

"Here is where you will have your practical lessons," she says when they reach the basement floor. The center room is very similar to the lecture hall above except it doesn't have the seats. Surrounding it is a magical forcefield that keeps it contained from the semicircular alchemy lab to one side and enchantment lab to the other. There are two people in that room right now: an argonian—lizardlike face studded with horns and bone protrusions, a long crocodile tail, claws, scales covering all of her body—and an orc, or Orsimer—the most recognisable elf subspecies, with typically-green skin and a huge underbite with protruding tusks. They're sparring, and the magical barrier is good enough that the apprentices are completely insulated from the sounds. "The arena is open to free use on evenings and weekends. If any group of people enters it while other groups are already in there, the arena will be split radially to house up to five separate groups.

"On weekdays the arena is reserved for lessons, and usually no more than two groups tend to use it at the same time, but it depends on teachers' availabilities and willingness. Every teacher is required to teach at least one lesson a week but some may do more at their pleasure.

"The College is mostly dedicated to self-study and personal improvement of one's abilities. As an Apprentice, you do not need to attend any given class, be it practical or a lecture, so long as you are not deemed to just be using the College as free housing with no intent to progress in your skills. You may choose to make use of the arena or libraries or experimental areas as your sole resources of study if you wish, or you may exclusively attend lessons on the specific areas you wish to improve on, or you could go to all lessons if you desire. The College is here to be used by you in your own quest for excellence." Brelyna raises a hand. "Yes?"

    "Where is the topic for each class posted, and how do we tell if we're good enough to take them?"

"Most of the teachers will attempt to match the level of their audience for their mandatory lessons but the specific subjects and scheduling are posted to that board there," Mirabelle replies, nodding at the wall behind them where several pieces of parchment hang attached to a wooden board, "as well as any prerequisites for them."

Ruby and the other apprentices walk over to it to peer at the listings. There is indeed a schedule for this and next week, as well as various other things, including a note from one Phinis Gestor about the missing students.

    "Most of those can also be found on the board by the College entrance," says Mirabelle.

"Anyway," she continues after waiting a beat for more questions, "that door over there leads to the Midden—it's the other main entrance besides the one in the Hall of Countenance."

Then she starts leading the way upstairs again. "Your teachers will be Faralda, Drevis Neloren, Phinis Gestor, Tolfdir, Colette Marence, Sergius Turrianus, and Thelsa Andalas. Tolfdir will be your personal mentor—every new group of Apprentices gets a teacher to pay special attention to them—and any general questions about magic or the College should go to him first of all, but you will get to know all of them eventually.

"Each of the teachers specialises in one area of magic—Faralda is the best Destruction specialist in Skyrim, and Tolfdir might be the unsurpassed master of Alteration in all of Tamriel. Use their expertise well, they will be invaluable assets and the College is committed to a philosophy of free exchange of knowledge."

Rather than continuing up the stairs past the ground floor she walks across the Elements entry hall to the eastern sets of stairs. "The stairs we came from lead up to more private offices and personal research laboratories for the teachers, but up this set gets us to the Arcanaeum." They get to a landing that has a map of the continent on a wall, a couple of book cases, an orrery, two doors that presumably lead to the parapets of the walls, but most importantly a large desk behind which sits an aged orc. "This is Urag gro-Shub, our librarian."

     The orc looks up at the kids then at Mirabelle. "This the new group?" At Mirabelle's nod he looks at them again and says, "Welcome to the Wizard College of Winterhold, then. If you need help with anything related to the library, or the search for any tomes or scholarly resources, don't hesitate to come to me."

Further upstairs is the library proper, a circular room with tall bookshelves on the walls and tables in the center, both on and around a lowered circular area in the middle, and then the next floor has a closed iron gate leading to "The Private Collection. Our more advanced or perilous tomes are held here. This is not a forbidden part of the library, to be clear; it is only outsiders and Apprentices that are not cleared for full access to it, and Apprentices may ask Urag for tomes that might be here and he will grant access on a case-by-case basis. The school has ranks for its members—Apprentice, Erudite, Scholar, Wizard, Master Wizard, and Archmage, in ascending order of power and responsibility—and any who achieve Erudite rank will be able to open these gates."

"How do you advance ranks?" asks Onmund.

    "It varies per rank. The Erudite rank is given based on teacher consensus, and may involve specific testing of skills and knowledge. They may also withhold this rank if an Apprentice appears to be a bad fit for the College. After that, you are granted the title of Scholar once you have either advanced the boundaries of our knowledge with something new or the discovery of something that had been lost. Scholars are one of our main means of contact with the outside world, the people who connect to non-mages; most Court Mages you might hear of accompanying the jarls of Skyrim are Scholars.

    "Many outsiders may use the title of Wizard lightly to refer to all versed in the arcane arts, but the College title refers specifically to members who are dedicated to the College and actually working with us. Wizards are those who are looked up to for guidance, instruction, and leadership, and attaining this rank marks you as a specialist. Compared to that, the Master Wizard title is merely a bureaucratic formality; most teachers are Wizards, and the ones of us who are Master Wizards are the one responsible for the day-to-day operation of the College, administrative duties, and so on. Faralda would typically be the one in charge of this tour and general admissions, but today is her day off.

    "And finally, the Archmage is the leader and the symbol of the College. It is a title somewhat skew from the others, in that the Archmage may well not be as powerful or knowledgeable about any given thing as other Wizards in the College—our current Archmage, Savos Aren, is certainly no match for Tolfdir, for instance, when it comes to anything related to the Alteration school of magic. But the Archmage tends to have a wide breadth of arcane knowledge and, most importantly, be loyal to the College and its principles as an ideal. They set the vision for any future changes, they represent the College in matters of state in relations to all other holdings and nations of Tamriel, and they could be seen as nearly identical with the College itself—anything they do is something the College does, and vice-versa, for good or ill. As such, the Archmage will often if not always be someone who has wide understanding of other cultures, who has travelled far and wide and created a relationship with all kinds of people."

And on to the next floor: "These are the Archmage's quarters," she says, gesturing at the tall wooden gates that dominate the wall that separates the hall they're in from where the lecture hall and libraries would have been in the lower floors. "Archmage Savos is an incredibly busy man, and not always here in the College, so you should refrain from trying to bring matters to his attention. If you need anything that you believe the Archmage should have a say in, you bring it to me, and if I'm not available either then Faralda, Phinis, or Tolfdir can hear you.

"If despite this warning you still wish to speak to the Archmage, you may come here to knock on his door, but he will be very cross if you interrupt him for something he does not consider sufficiently important."

Then up another two flights of stairs there's a door. Mirabelle casts a spell on the group, then opens the door to the roof of the tower. "And this is it," she says, stepping out into the biting wind and bitter cold, made harmless by her spell. "This is the Wizard College of Winterhold," she says, opening her arms wide looking southwards. She turns back to the Apprentices and says, "Welcome, new students."

They all go back downstairs, then, and are dismissed by Mirabelle after she tells them that tomorrow at four bells before midday Tolfdir will give them their introductory lesson and she strongly recommends that all of them would attend.

"Do you guys want to have dinner together at the cantina?" Onmund asks.

        "Um, I think I'll pass, I need to unpack and stuff."

    "J'zargo will study this evening."

"Sounds good, I'm down," says Ruby.

Onmund was starting to look a bit disappointed but perks right up at Ruby's words. "Cool. Let's go?"

"Yeah, let's."

They say goodbye to the other students and make their way to Acumen. "So, what school of magic are you most interested in learning about?"

"I don't even know what all the schools are," he says, grinning. "Born two days ago, remember?"

He pushes the door to the tower open but gestures for Onmund to enter before him.

"Right, that..."

The cantina is pretty empty except for two elves drinking together in one corner. One of them lifts her head when they walk in and says, "Hey, new blood. Make yourselves at home, here, the banquet tables are free and if you want anything in particular just let me know." The other elf turns to look over her shoulder at them too but doesn't say anything.

"Will do, thanks!"

They make their way to the banquet table, then, and start picking from a pretty wide selection of options. "So... how exactly does that work, the whole... no memory thing?"

"Dunno," he says cheerfully. "I just woke up in the water then..." And he tells Onmund the whole story, eliding a bit over the part related to the missing students.

"...that's... kind of scary."

"You tell me. But yeah apparently I know half a dozen spells and have no idea how or why and certainly not a smidge of theory, not even what the schools of magic are. I'll have a time catching up."

"I could help?"

"If that means I get to see your pretty face more often than otherwise I'm down."

He blushes terribly and decides his food looks very interesting. "...most people in Skyrim would... not be okay with you saying things like that."