They shall.

When they get to the practical hall, they are greeted by an old human sitting cross-legged on the floor, reading a book. He looks up at them and makes his book vanish as he stands up. "Well, I take it you're the new Apprentices? Good, good. I am Tolfdir, Wizard of the College of Winterhold and Alteration Instructor. And I'll also be your group's mentor until you graduate to Scholars or leave. I understand you've already gotten acquainted with each other, so let's jump into it.

"Now, what's the most important thing one should learn about practising magic, before anything else?"

"...bit of a broad question."

"Concentration?" suggests Brelyna. "Calm?"

"Good answers! Anyone else?"

"Control?"

"Now that's better," Tolfdir says, smiling. "The first thing to understand is that magic is, by its very nature, volatile and dangerous. Unless you can control it, it can and will destroy you."

"Sir," starts Brelyna, "I think we all understand that fairly well. We wouldn't be here if we couldn't control magic!"

"Of course, my dear, of course! You all certainly possess some inherent natural ability, that is not being questioned. What I'm talking about is true control; mastery of magic. It takes years, if not decades, of practice and study to truly reach that goal, and some would say even that is not enough."

"Then what are we waiting for?" asks J'zargo. "Let's get started!"

"Please, please! This is exactly what I'm talking about. Eagerness must be tempered with caution, or else disaster is inevitable."

"But we've only just arrived here—you've no idea what any of us are capable of! Why not give us a chance to show you what we can do?"

Tolfdir turns to look at Ruby. "And your opinion on the matter, young man?"

Ruby... thinks for a second. An image flashes in his mind, and he reaches for his amulet and pulls it over his head, then offers it to Tolfdir. "What happened to the last group of Apprentices to come here?"

The man's eyes widen as he sees the amulet, and he looks up at Ruby's face again. "I daresay you might know more than I do about the subject. All I know is that they disappeared, all at the same time."

"...disappeared?" asks Brelyna. "How?"

"I don't know exactly how, especially at the same time, but... one of them was called Yisra. This is her amulet. I... found her charred corpse in the snow on my way here, along with a book in which she was writing research notes on the Flame Cloak spell."

Brelyna and J'zargo's eyes widen, and Onmund starts looking a bit queasy. "Charred? You... didn't mention that, yesterday."

Ruby shrugs and puts the amulet back on. "How long had they been Apprentices here?"

"A few months, perhaps a half year," says Tolfdir.

"And even then at least this one probably thought she could control more than she actually could."

"J'zargo would not make such a mistake."

"I would guess that everyone who gets burnt to a crisp by their own spell thinks the same, until they do."

None of the others have anything to say to that.

"Well, that's... a rather more gruesome tale than I had expected but it illustrates my point well, I think." Tolfdir turns to face all students. "You all know the very basics of control; feeling your magicka within you and shaping it into something that can do what you want it to do. But there's more to it than just that. Waste magicka can ignite; slight errors in shaping it can create wildly different effects, especially as spells get more advanced and complex; hostile disruption, or even a momentary distraction, can have catastrophic effects if you do not have enough mastery to make sure the spell merely fizzles out safely.

"Today's lecture with Master Faralda will touch upon this subject, and I highly recommend attending it. But until then, I would have you practise control. Does anyone here not know the basic flame spell?" Headshakes all around. "Excellent. Then this will be your exercise: start a flame," and here's a flame above Tolfdir's palm, "and change its colour." The flame goes from orange to red to blue to white to purple and back to orange. "There are two basic ways you can do it: with direct shaping of the effect, or with illusions. The latter is much more complex than the former, but also requires much more fine control, so I will accept either approach.

"Do not sit down while doing this; it will be easier to heal you as necessary if you do not accidentally set your clothes on fire, and it helps with focus." Tolfdir turns around and concentrates on a complex-looking spell that involves a lot of gesturing, and then a table appears in front of him with jugs full of water and empty cups. "But do take breaks as needed, and stay hydrated. This is not a test of endurance, and if you falter because you did not take a break when you needed to that is an indication that you need to work on your awareness."

"J'zargo will not need breaks."

"Is J'zargo willing to take a bet? Put his money where his mouth is?" wonders Ruby.