"Your room should have a couple of blank journals and if you run out you can always come to the Arcanaeum and request more supplies from Urag."

"Oh, thank you. I'm good, then."

"You're welcome." She stands up and starts walking out of the room. "I'll see you this evening."

    "And I have some research to get back to," says Enthir. "With your leave."

Ruby goes downstairs too, then, and to the Hall of Attainment and his room—which turns out to be the one right next to the entrance, to the right. The door does indeed yield to his hand, and as soon as he's inside he makes a beeline for the journal on the desk by his bed.

He writes about everything that's happened since yesterday in short form while it's freshest, then once he's satisfied he's got everything he starts a new page in long form to add any details that he's missed the first time around. But the most important parts are the mysteries and questions:

Who are the four missing students? Yisra might be the one I found, she was working on a flame cloak spell and this book is meant to be about that spell. I need to speak to Phinis Gestor—why? Why is he point person instead of Mirabelle?

How frequently do things like these happen? Everyone seemed somewhat too nonchalant.

Why was Nelacar expelled? What's his relationship with everyone else here?

What's the relationship between Nords and magic?

Why is the College important? Why would anyone want to spy on it? Who's Ancano? (Probably the Altmer from earlier.) Why are Mirabelle and Enthir mistrustful of him?

Why is the College so willing to part with this much money for a random amnesiac?

What's Skyrim? What's Tamriel?

Who am I? Why am I here? Why am I here now? How do I know magic? Why do I not remember anything?

That done, he relaxes and finally gives the room a proper look. It's not very big, but it's cosy and comfortable, and he certainly has more than enough space to store anything he wants, or he will whenever he has anything to store. In addition to all Mirabelle told him about and the desk there's an enchanted water basin, which Ruby guesses can be used as a chamber pot? There isn't one otherwise, but he should probably ask later.

The available books include a few spell tomes—Summon Familiar (which makes Ruby realise he already has that one), Soothe, Foxskin, Oakflesh, Conjure Lesser Cloak, Firebolt, Healing—and a student's handbook. He'll certainly have enough to help while away his time.

And garments: a fine, warm-looking tunic that is somewhat more upscale than what the people in the tavern were wearing, with similarly-made breeches and boots, and... that pile of fabric and leather and string with those gloves and boots are probably the "uniform".

Let's see:

• One long rectangular strip of fabric attached at both ends with strings to a shorter strip. The way the others were wearing that, the smaller strip goes on his lower back, then the longer strip goes around his waist, up the front and sides of his torso covering some of his pecs, and it disappears into the shoulder leathers. It probably wraps around the back of his neck? Except the fabric won't stay in position that way...
• The shoulder leathers solve the mystery: there are straps under it that hold the fabric in place, so he sticks his head up into the hole for it and attaches the strip appropriately.
• A hood to be worn over the shoulder leathers.
• The gloves, leather hands and white-and-blue fabric up his arms and to his biceps.
• The boots are fur and leather up to his thighs.
• The waistcloth and leather belt to hold it to his body, with a small leather pouch attached to the back of it, the end of the fabric strip long enough that he lets some of it hang down by his right leg.
• A pair of briefs... which neither Nelacar nor Enthir were wearing. So he's not gonna, either. It's hot, okay, sue him.

The "uniform"

The magical effects are felt immediately: he can feel a lot more room to store magicka, and his natural regeneration of it also feels a lot faster than it was before. Plus the warmth enchantments, this definitely feels like extra gear would be superfluous.

So now he's got a while to kill until the evening. He could spend it studying the spells in the books, but... his head is kind of not really in a space to stop and concentrate. And maybe what he really needs is something restful to distract from his travails thus far.

...let's be honest, he's still kind of exhausted.

And he has an actual room now, so nothing's stopping him from just... taking a nap.

He wakes up from a nightmare with a start. Memories of the dream quickly fade away, though, leaving him only with the uneasy sensation of something bad having happened.

...also the uneasy sensation of realising he does not have a timepiece and has no idea how long he's slept for. Shit.

Well, he's unlikely to be exactly two minutes early, so he'll just step out into the main hall of the floor and see if he can find anyone who'd know the time. And probably grab some food, too, he's hungry.

He puts his hood back on then steps into his boots and out of his room.

In the little banquet area he finds a person with the features of a panther or some other great cat, white striped fur covering all of his body, a long fluffy tail curled around his waist, and the face of a cat—a khajiit. Ruby is not sure he'd normally be able to recognise the sex of a khajiit just from looking but this one is entirely nude, not even the College garb on.

Khajiit

And Ruby is surprised by how he's not surprised that the khajiit's dick is also feline. He wonders whether the currently-sheathed shaft has actual barbs.

    The khajiit looks up at him from where he's sitting while reading a book and eating meat and says, "J'zargo is pleased to meet another apprentice."

"Uh, nice to meet you too. I'm Ruby." He makes his way to the table and grabs some things himself. "Do you by any chance have the time?"

    "J'zargo believes it is six and three-quarters bells past high noon."

Okay that was cutting it much closer than he'd expected. "Are you going on the tour, too?"

    "Yes. The Master Wizard should be along shortly."

Two other people walk into the small room: an elf and a human. The elf is wearing the school garb but the human is wearing a warm-looking tunic.

The Elf

The Human

"The other apprentices, I assume? I'm Onmund," says the human.

        "Brelyna," nods the elf.

    "This one is J'zargo."

"Ruby." The two other apprentices are incredibly hot, so that's nice. Or, well, he supposes Onmund is very pretty but hotness is to be decided once he gets naked.

...Ruby should perhaps stop thinking about this.

"I'm starting to feel overdressed," he says, a soft flush colouring his cheeks after a small glance in Ruby's direction.

"Nothing is stopping you from joining us," grins Ruby. "I'm sure no one here would complain." That boy is absolutely into boys. And so is the girl, who also flushes a little bit at the comment. And Ruby is bisexual and should really not be flirting naked.

    "J'zargo does not understand these human interactions," observes the khajiit after looking between said two humans for a few seconds.

"At least here in Skyrim most people... cover up more."

    "J'zargo supposes you have no fur to protect you and have much weaker magic than elves to fight the environment," he says, nodding to himself in satisfaction.

        "It's probably just cultural," offers Brelyna.

"Right... I mean it's not illegal or anything... just..." He looks at Ruby and sighs. "I suppose I'm being very prudish here, aren't I?"

"Don't ask me, I was born two days ago."

        "What?" asks Brelyna, startled.

"I woke up two days ago in frigid waters with no memory of my life," he shrugs. "But I guess I don't think I'm a Nord..."

    "J'zargo does not understand."

"Oh, I heard that Nords don't like magic so that'd explain why they wouldn't use it so much."

"Most of us don't," Onmund sighs again. "My parents didn't want me to come here at all. They wanted me to be a farmer or something more normal. It took years of convincing them that this is where I'm meant to be."

    "Good to see you are getting to know each other already," says a suddenly-appearing Mirabelle. Both humans and the elf startle but the khajiit seems unfazed. "Are you all ready to go?"

    "Yes," says J'zargo, shutting his book and sending it to his room, telekinetically.

"You don't have Deep Storage?"

    J'zargo looks at him with... some kind of cat facial expression. "If J'zargo were knowledgeable and powerful enough to cast it J'zargo would not need to be here."

Oh so it's a powerful spell. Okay. Good to know. And annoying.

"Well, shall we?"

    "We shall," says Mirabelle with some amusement.

(Okay so Onmund is only into men, judging from... body language and such. Ruby's fantasies with him and Brelyna will need to be adjusted.)

(...he wonders what a barbed cock would feel like...)

(His brain should shut up, he doesn't even have the memories of what a non-barbed cock feels like.)

"So, the school has five towers, as you all know: the Hall of Attainment, the Hall of Countenance, the Hall of Acumen, the Hall of Diligence, and the Hall of the Elements. This tower, the Hall of Attainment, is where new students and guests are housed. The four of you are here, as well as," the barest hint of a pause, "Ancano, local representative of the Thalmor." She nods in the direction of the room taken by none of the apprentices. "The last group of Apprentices used to room upstairs." But she doesn't elaborate, and nods in the direction of the wall opposite to the entrance. "Two floors up gets you to the parapets, and the lower floor has your communal washroom—which is not entirely necessary, the enchanted basins in your rooms can be used both as a chamberpot and for washing, they are heavily enchanted—as well as some areas for personal study and research. The door at the bottom of the stairs will lead you to the Subterrarium, of which I will speak later, but the door at the bottom of the stairs in the Hall of Countenance will instead get you to the Midden, the foundations and tunnels and catacombs of the structure."

(Why the fuck does a school have catacombs.)

    "Let's go visit the rest of the school, then," she says, and through the door.

J'zargo casts the warmth spells on himself and follows after, while Onmund and Brelyna just rely on their clothes' properties, physical or magical.

The enchantments Enthir placed on Ruby have long since expired so he's also relying just on the inherent enchantments of the apprentice garbs. But it turns out that's all mostly unnecessary, for the courtyard itself seems enchanted with that. Mirabelle first walks near to the entrance of the whole school to gesture at the map that's attached to a wooden board there.

Map of the College Grounds

    "The Hall of Countenance has more student and researcher lodgings while the school's permanent staff, with the exception of the Archmage, is housed in Acumen and Diligence, teachers in the latter and other staff in the former, although this rule is not strict. Acumen also houses a cantina with tables and chairs for a meeting and socialisation point, while Diligence has a few extra laboratories and experiment rooms."

She is walking them to the Hall of the Elements as she speaks. "These two semicircular buildings to either side of us here in the courtyard are the Lustratoriums, the one with tropical flora to the left and the one with alpine flora to the right. Both of them have stairs down into the area I mentioned earlier, the Subterrarium, which houses more exotic specimens including some animals. You may collect parts of the more common plants for alchemy at will, within reason, and you can place requests for the others with Thelsa Andalas, our herbologist and Alchemy instructor, or myself."

After she finishes the explanation she steps into Elements. "The large room up ahead is our lecture hall," she says, stopping and turning around to face the students. "These gates will nearly never be shut, and anyone can join ongoing lectures, but sometimes the Archmage or I might be hosting official diplomatic meetings which are not to be disturbed."

Onmund leans in the direction of the other three and whispers, "I don't know about you guys but this all is making me kind of excited."

    "J'zargo shares your feelings," says the khajiit, but Brelyna doesn't say anything to it and chews on her lower lip a bit.

"This is all making me want to go exploring all over," admits Ruby. "Especially these catacombs, that sounds cool."