Illusion and Plans

Yuri woke up eight hours later, laying on his side while Tonilia was nuzzling into his chest and pressing every inch of her to him underneath the covers, their legs intertwined. She was still asleep, breathing deeply.

Yuri stroked her bare back with his fingertips, tracing down to the small of her back and up to her shoulders. Her eyelids eventually fluttered awake and she looked up to him. She let him continue petting her back as she returned to her previous position with a groan.

"Not a morning person, I see," Yuri pinched her curvy waist to get her up with a gentle smile.

"Not in my profession," Tonilia groggily responded. She didn't want to move.

Yuri let the silence settle before trying his best to get up and untangle himself. Tonilia finally gave up and sprawled back onto the bed, realizing she was being a bit more clingy than she had a right to be and regretting it before reapplying her poker face.

Yuri started dressing, "Would you like to finish our earlier transaction or do you want to postpone?"

Tonilia got up. An Akaviri blade for 2,000 Septims? Sooner is good.

"Let's finish it now, and-" Tonilia got up and immediately started aching, then limping to her dress. "You could've gone easier, bastard" She jeered lightheartedly.

"Oh, you didn't seem to mind at that moment, haha" He shot back.

"Hmph" Was all he got back. Yuri approached the bitter lass and helped her dress herself before assisting her exit from the inn like he was the butler of a 90-year-old widow.

Locals gave them confused looks along the way, some mistakenly backing away as if she was stricken with something and others sending knowing or unknowing looks of pity. Tonilia tried her best to stand up straight when she noticed this, but would honestly wish she could be carried right now.

Yuri finally realized that he was a mage and cast Healing hands to soothe her while also using subtle light magic underneath it to cleanse her of all evidence of the night's workout.

They made their way through to the Cistern at a much better pace, Tonilia wished he had done that earlier. She made her way to her booth and sat down in her usual pose.

"2,000?"

"2,000," Yuri affirmed. Even if someone found out later on that it wasn't actually Akaviri, it was an extremely sharp, light, and durable blade that had yet to be enchanted. 2,000 was lowballing it.

Tonilia opened her chest and pulled out two prepared pouches of 1,000 septims each before placing them on the table, then took the blade and put it in her chest. Yuri counted it with ESP while pretending he trusted her implicitly, even if he knew she wouldn't skim him on purpose.

Yuri took the pouches and pretended to pocket them while they vanished behind his coat.

"Yuri, thank you." She locked eyes with him and flashed a small and tender smile. "That was the best night I had in a long time."

Yuri performed incredibly, the date, the sex, the sword he practically gave her, it was overwhelming for a woman who had spent her nights fencing for a dying Thieves Guild. Were she a hapless lass without a backbone, she would be throwing herself at him.

"And thank you, Tonilia. I will be back plenty of times, I hope you will be ready to receive me," He reciprocated the smile. Yuri knew what kind of woman she was thanks to the dinner, and didn't hold high hopes for making such a well-grounded and headstrong woman follow him in his secret adventures. He didn't want to reveal himself to anyone yet. But he also wanted to keep in touch, perhaps something more would spring from their physical/professional relationship unless she didn't want to.

After a beat, Yuri got up and his coat fluttered while he took to the Ratways, but took a sharp turn and made a portal to his personal hallway before disappearing behind it and closing it.

Yuri wanted a shower. He could purify himself with Light magic to achieve an odorless clean but he still wanted to take a shower. He went to the door and opened it without resistance before making his way to the attached bathroom and undressing, taking a long shower in the marbled stand-up shower.

{A/N: Forgot to mention the attached bathroom last chapter...teehee?}

There was no tub, only this, and a toilet and sink like any other bathroom. While the water drained into what was probably the ocean, he thought to himself out loud.

"Maybe I can get Tonilia here to sell my enchanting anonymously and Enthir can take a hike. Wait, does Enthir still fence here? I imagine the extra security doesn't help those sorts of deals."

After half an hour, Yuri stopped and dried himself off before dressing in his black mage robes and using ESP to look for Mirabelle to start their exchange.

He quickly found her, warded himself, and TP'd to her location in the middle of a hallway while Yuri kept stride beside her fast-paced walk. Mirabelle hardly reacted, unlike the other students.

"Are you ready?" She asked.

"Ready when you are"

"Then let's meet at the Arch Practice grounds. I'll be there after I drop these off," She motioned to the stack of papers in her clutches.

'I should teach a clone spell to this poor woman'

Yuri nodded before taking off in the opposite direction and waiting. Mirabelle appeared before long, then took the initiative to lecture her part first.

"Illusion spells can be cast on oneself to affect appearance with light or presence with sound. These are applications that stem from Alteration, or more historically Mysticism, yet their use earns them a place in the school of Illusion. What most people associate with Illusion, however, is spells cast on another. The most widely known use of Illusions is casting spells to confuse or agitate a single or a group of adversaries or to encourage and calm a single or group of allies. Spells that deal with emotions, those are always Illusion spells.

We will begin with theory, then I will give you a few tomes to practice on your own"

Rout, Calm, Courage, Fear, Frenzy, Mayhem, Pacify, Rally, Harmony. They were all too easy. Make the target feel a spell you had felt before using a targeted spell. The spell bolt itself looked a bit like destruction, but it had no physical form and was only light and mana. Affecting the mind was new. The formations in the tomes were easy to memorize for practice but the fact that a few of the runic configurations dealt with actual mental access was new to him. When he asked about mental interference, Mirabelle stated that Conjuration was the school most known for telepathy. Apparently, they call and communicate with their summons telepathically. Mages can even do this between themselves if they were skilled enough. Yuri gained more motivation to move on to Conjuration.

He next learned a few other spells like night vision, blindness, paralysis, muffling, and even gave himself fake feathered angel wings using illusion magic. Something he couldn't get the hang of was the spell Clairvoyance.

'How on earth is that an Illusion spell? Am I illuding myself into believing I know something I don't? This isn't Illusion, it's asking heaven where you need to go and getting a perfect answer. This is worse than Jack Sparrow's compass, how in the FUCK'

Yuri continued complaining about the logistics of such a spell, while Mirabelle was confused on how he tore every spell he came across asunder and paused so long on this one. Yuri eventually dropped his pretenses on the possibilities and remembered that it's his responsibility to make the impossible possible. To make spells out of something that shouldn't be a spell.

'You want me to be clairvoyant? I'll be clairvoyant. Mana is the energy that binds all laws in this omniverse, and I am its minister. I am the Akashic Assimilator. I am CLAIRVOYANT'

Yuri's eyes pupils shone a ghostly pale blue and the whites grew cloudy. He started seeing through walls and continued moving his vision beyond the College into the Hold above them. He looked around and attempted to focus on individual halls with varying success, gaining at times a perfect view and at others simply strange outlines. He felt like he was watching a house structure view on HGTV.

Yuri kept doing this while tilting his head up, and Mirabelle was watching him with rapt attention. She hadn't introduced Vision of the Tenth Eye and he had already started using it. It seems he wasn't struggling with Clairvoyance after all... 'I should've known' she thought.

The more Yuri looked, the more a certain set of outlines stuck out to him. Strings... red strings crossed his vision at a chaotic and seemingly nonsensical pattern and went to and fro. He tried following one of these strings only to lose track of that specific one or watch it fade from his vision like he wasn't allowed to see it. He grew agitated, at one point trying to focus as hard as he could on one.

"Agh!" A short yell, and he closed his eyes while covering them with his hands. It didn't sting, but the ache became unbearable. He started rubbing them out of habit.

"Are you okay?" Mirabelle approached with concern and looked at him strangely.

Yuri uncovered his face and blinked a few times. "Yeah, I think so"

Mirabelle's own eyes widened. "Yuri, you're bleeding," She pulled out a handkerchief and started rubbing around his eyes. There was blood below them as if he bled tears and then rubbed them around his face.

Yuri was confused but let her tend to him, he liked the feeling of closeness from her concern even if it wasn't the time or place. "Bleeding?"

"What did you see? What did you cast? I thought you cast Vision of the Tenth Eye but it wouldn't give this kind of backlash," She questioned.

"Clairvoyance?"

"That wasn't clairvoyance. Whatever, I'll give you the tome for the real Tenth Eye spell and you can fix whatever you did with Restoration."

They continued practicing, and after a full 3 hours Yuri had already knocked out most of the spells she gave him. Even Charm. She shouldn't of given that to him, he didn't need it, she almost leapt at him like a predator.

"But how did you trick my ESP?" Yuri asked.

"I used the effects from Illusion to project a light image copy and move with invisibility while I used the telepathy from Conjuration to convince you the clone was also an original. It wasn't just the work of one branch"

"So I still have to learn Conjuration, huh," Yuri thought.

'If Mercer had learned Conjuration he could have done the same. I need to apply myself to practice mental power through Conjuration and come up with an all-seeing ability. Maybe I can fuse the Tenth Eye I just apparently used with my ESP?'

Yuri then taught her the basics of Light magic he could give her, being very patient since she had no experience with Shadow. Her Grandmastery of Restoration helped immensely, with healing, purifying, and sunlight spells. She took two hours to try and combine the effects and generate an orb of the stuff, and it was one of her proudest moments from then on. Yuri had to give plenty of examples.

"Thank you, Yuri! This will most certainly bring a new 'light' to the college!" The short brunette quipped while still holding the orb with both hands as if it was her newborn.

"Savos has already planned the date for your Light Class. It's in two days, all the masters, grandmasters, and a few select experts will be attending." She continued.

'She doesn't call him Arch-Mage with me around. A sign of trust?'

"And I will be looking forward to it. The College will go great distances with this, I hope. I'm glad to be a part of that." Yuri gave his official statement.

Eventually, the pair parted having achieved what they came for. Yuri had two days to do whatever he wanted before he had to present to the College. He could spend it on Enchanting and his next body Ritual, and perhaps search or create some curses. He couldn't wait!