"You are aware that Hircine will not give up so easily yes?" Phineas asked seriously once the woman was gone.
"I know. A shame that the spell is going to just sit there unused but I'd rather that than deal with any more of that nonsense." I said with a shrug.
"A wise choice, if one unlikely to work." he said shaking his head lightly.
"What do you mean?" I asked worriedly.
"The problem with the princes is they are patient and cunning. You might truly mean what you said but as time goes on you might eventually find yourself either unable to resist using that spell or forced to do so. It's the nature of us mortals to be changed with time after all." he said seriously.
"Perhaps but it's the nature of dragons to remain unchanged." I said holding the little monster up.
"So it is." he said with a chuckle.
After that the lesson went on fairly normally. By that I mean he handed me a bit of homework in the form of several spells at the adept level that I didn't have. [Summon flame atronach], [summon storm atronach] and [summon frost atronach] were the spells he told me to learn. -
According to him these three spells were the lifeblood of a conjurers craft, necromancers not included. Any conjurer worth the name learned at least one of these spells and the truly skilled learned them all. Phineas flat out told me that with the list of tomes Urag had given me my foundation was basically as solid as was possible for an adept to have, I just needed the spell repertoire to match now. I chose to accept that knowledge at face value. He was the master of the school after all so if he said I just needed more spells to really solidify my place then that's what I'd focus on.-
Unlike in the game learning a new spell wasn't as simple as just having a tome and then "poof!" spell acquired. That difference was starkly incorrect in fact. Learning a new spell was one part understanding, one part trial and two parts caution. You had to learn the spells shape and configuration, then you had to use it correctly and finally you had to give it the caution it deserves because even a slight mistake could cause VERY bad outcomes.-
Naturally I started with the [summon fire atronach] spell. The tome on it covered everything you'd technically need to know to summon one but was missing any personal experience with the spell. As a result I didn't know that you had to be gentle with the summon the first time or the atronach might not be very cooperative. Yeah turns out just ripping something through space and dimensions without any warning or stabilization makes for a VERY pissed summon. My fellow students snickered at me when I spent almost half an hour trying to soothe the irate fire elemental I pulled from whatever plane of Oblivion it was in.-
Considering atronachs express their displeasure with violence I was constantly holding up a ward while the angry elemental threw flames of all varieties at me. It was only through several repeated casts of [calm] that I eventually "persuaded" the atronach to stop. The fact that it was still actively flaring up it's flames made it clear it was still very unhappy with me but I could at least work with that. Thanks to the temporary connection I had with the thing I could understand the chimes it gave out as the "speech" it had.-
Technically I could have banished the atronach the moment I botched the summoning but Phineas had forbid it. "Good experience" he called it. I got it, really I did, but his amused smirk from nearby was making it hard not to hold a grudge. It was only once I calmed the atronach that I was allowed to send it back. I learned my lesson though and made sure the trip back was much more comfortable, and then I tried again. This time the atronach flat out didn't show up because I was TOO gentle this time. -
I could only sigh at the wasted magicka and make another attempt with a bit more insistence to it. It took me seven tries to eventually get that sweet spot figured out where I wasn't just yoinking the atronach aggressively but also not just letting it flat out refuse the summons. This ended up taking the entire class period but none of my fellow students looked amused anymore but in awe. Not because of my skill or anything like that but because of my ridiculously large magicka pool and regeneration rate for my age.-
"It's not fair!" Mina whined after the lesson ended and we were returning to the hall of attainment.
I shrugged "Life rarely is." I said uncaring.
"It's not even like you've darkened your mana either because it's the same color as mine! How in Oblivion do you even hold that much magicka!? Most mages would pop if they tried without years of tempering!" she demanded unhappily.
"Why would I question it? It's working in my favor after all." I pointed out smugly.
"I'm going to tell my dad your familiar bit me!" she threatened.
"And I'll let all those witnesses tell him you did that to yourself." I sent back calmly.
"I'll tell him you worship Hircine." she said and I chuckled.
"The Archmage summoned Mephala to the college, mere worship is nothing by comparison. Besides it's not even true so why should I care?" I asked before shutting my door in her face.
She stomped her foot before leaving after that and I chuckled as I tossed the little monster onto the bed. It was beyond cute how it tried to flap it's little wings to fly after being tossed only to fail and flop awkwardly onto the uber plush bed.-
I ignored the thing as it started bouncing on the bed excitedly trying to get the parts that rose up with each pounce it made. Obviously this was a doomed endeavor but I certainly wasn't going to spoil it's fun. While it was preoccupied with that I got to work on learning the [summon storm atronach] spell. Actually memorizing the spell wasn't difficult with my intelligence stat being what it was and having learned from the first atronach spell I did considerably better on my first attempt at this one.-
The summoned storm atronach might not have been hostile when it was summoned which was absolutely a good thing. But it was also not very interested in listening to my commands either which was less good. My second attempt was much more firm on the "control" aspect of the spell. I made a mental note that the different atronachs have different personality issues that needed to be accounted for when summoning them. So far it seemed the fire atronachs were easier to control and content to obey with little prodding. Storm atronachs on the other hand were more wild by nature and needed firmer hands to get obedience from.