"...about that."

He extends his hand out, palm up, and makes a flame. Then turns it blue. Then red. Then purple. Then green. Then various colours in sequence, then a rainbow. He makes the flame grow and then get reshaped into a bird, then a fish, then the silhouette of a person.

"...you already knew how to do it, then?"

"Apparently!" He puts the flame out. "I have no idea who I am but there's apparently stuff I didn't know I knew. I'm probably not the most powerful wizard in the world but I have no idea how powerful I am."

"...probably not as powerful as the Conjuration Instructor. And anyway that doesn't matter. You should—maybe tell Mirabelle about it?"

"...I don't want to make it all a huge deal. I've barely joined."

"Fine. But it wasn't your fault. Come here."

He walks over to Onmund and leans down closer when he gestures.

"Stop me if you don't like this," he says, then puts a hand behind Ruby's head and pulls him in for a kiss.

!!!!!

Oh yeah this is. Nice. Much nicer than before.

Then he pulls away and says, "Wanted to do that yesterday. And now I want to wipe out the memory of that creep with this. You're okay?"

"...yeah. I, um, I'm still not..."

"Yeah, yeah, we've only just met, it's nothing serious, I know. But you are the first boy to show interest in me in that way and I wanted to kiss you. Nothing more than that."

"Nothing more than that, huh?" he says, looking down between Onmund's legs.

"Nothing more than that," he repeats, rolling his eyes. "Now shoo, I am not a prodigy and do want to get purple fire."

"Yes, sir."

The next morning's practical is... Conjuration with Phinis Gestor.

Eugh.

Brelyna mentions she wants to go to at least one class per teacher but she's probably not going to keep going to these because she's not very interested in Conjuration. J'zargo says he is going to go to all classes until they stop being useful because he is going to be the most powerful wizard. Ruby doesn't say anything and Onmund gives him a sort of concerned look but also doesn't.

Gestor does not act like anything remarkable happened, though. He walks into the practice hall five minutes late and does not comment on this either.

"Good morning, Apprentices, I am Phinis Gestor and will be your Conjuration Instructor. Should you have any questions or requests about the subject or, really, anything else, I will be at your disposal. Does anyone want to talk about anything or ask any questions before we begin, today?"

Headshakes all around.

(Ruby feels... less bad than he would've expected? Mostly kind of awkward. Also the monster dong has stopped being as mesmerising as it was before.)

    "Very well. Now, let's see, the khajiit, what's your name?"

"This one is called J'zargo."

    "J'zargo, can you tell me what the three main subdisciplines of Conjuration are?"

"Necromancy, summoning, and aetherial construction," he says with the airs of someone who is being asked a question too basic to be worth his time.

    "Excellent! What's different between them? You, your name is...?"

        "Brelyna Maryon, sir. They are completely different types of magic; Necromancy involves animating an existing corpse, summoning is about pulling beings that already exist but are elsewhere to you, and aetherial construction involves creating temporary objects out of magicka that will dissipate and disappear later."

    "Also correct. So why are they all lumped into a single school of magic, mr....?"

"Onmund. Uh, my guess is it's because they all involve a similar technique of causing something to exist and act in the physical world that didn't, before? Sort of going against their nature which would have them be elsewhere, or not exist at all?"

    "Indeed. 'Conjuration' is a bit of a misnomer. This school of magic is more about imposing your will on things that are resisting you by their very nature. In this way it is similar to what other school of magic, Ruby?"

How is he so blasé.

"Illusion, I'd guess?"

    "Correct! Really, all of magic is about imposing your will on things that would be otherwise, but some schools do this more blatantly than others. Illusion focuses on pitting your will against others' wills; Conjuration focuses on pitting your will against the irresistible pull of nature itself."

"Sir, I do have a question now, actually," says Brelyna. "I thought human kingdoms didn't permit necromancy? I was surprised by you bringing it up."

    "Ah, yes, a common misconception. The Mages Guild applied political pressure to ban all types of necromancy wherever it could, but those policies died with it, and were never applied in the College anyway. The College does prohibit the types of necromancy that involve trapping sapient souls into their corpses, as well as the general practice of, shall we say, creating our own materials for necromancy; those things are also illegal, although the latter is merely illegal for being murder. And, culturally, humans and especially Nords in Skyrim tend to abhor both summoning and necromancy even more than they do magic in general, for common sense reasons. It does not help public perception that many of the most notorious and destructive rogue mages out there are necromancers. As such, I recommend care when practising the Art; most people will not use Conjuration in public, for fear of reprisal, and even if it is not illegal anywhere in Skyrim the keepers of the law have historically been rather loose about this fact.

    "Aetherial constructs do not have this stigma, however, so should you be fighting with a bound sword or anything like that people will only react negatively to the fact that you are performing any magic at all.

    "So, out of the three schools, summoning is by far the simplest one to start with. And we will start simple." He walks over in the direction of the alchemy lab, grabs four potions from a cabinet, then places them on the floor across the hall from the Apprentices. "Stay where you are, and summon these to you. Do not move them, they should not go through space to get to you, they should sidestep space instead.

    "Once you are done with this, I have a book on introductory summoning for each of you that I would recommend that you read so you can get the basics of summoning entities rather than just inanimate objects, as that is a more complex matter.

    "You may begin."

Ruby pokes at the inside of his head a bit and concludes that yep he can definitely do it and so once again elects not to until someone else—Onmund, in this case—gets it first. He's not really sure why he's hesitating about this, they already know that he's an amnesiac and there's no reason why he'd be exactly at the same level of knowledge as the average Apprentice, but still.

Maybe he should mention it to Tolfdir.

They all get their copies of the introductory summoning book—including Brelyna, who says that having a basic understanding of dealing with Daedra and spirits is useful even if she's not going to go into Conjuration—then retire for lunch.

Their afternoon lecture is herbology with Thelsa Andalas, and the group is early to class once again. The instructor isn't in the room yet, but two other people they don't recognise are: a female orc and a male human, both on the cushioned bench next to the wall across the room from the entrance.

Also the human is eating the orc out and jerking off.

Both Ruby and Onmund freeze when they notice, but the couple doesn't so much as glance up at their arrival and Brelyna and J'zargo both keep walking like it's unremarkable and take their seats.

Eventually the humans resume walking and take their own seats. Onmund leans over to Ruby and whispers, "I'm a Nord, what's your excuse?"