Chapter VII: Scorch

I find myself in a small park surrounded by concrete buildings, in front of me, on the branch of a tree there stands a large ash-colored hawk, immediately I get the impression it is not a simple bird as the tips of its feathers are constantly flickering with tiny flames. He, and somehow I am certain it is a he, is looking at me with what I feel is patience mixed with a childish curiosity.

"Hey there little guy, I hope you weren't too lonely waiting for me." I approach and offer my hand to carry him. He looks at me for a bit longer then chirps happily and jumps on my shoulder, thankfully somehow not cutting it up.

I start walking around what I now recognize as my old town, or at least the representation of it in my mind, the bird on my shoulder seems content to look around the unfamiliar place as I take my time reminiscing about my old life.

Some minutes pass in silence before I turn toward my new companion "You seem to want to see far more than this dreary place, would you like to come with me?" He is immediately excited and nods rapidly, suddenly sprouting a bit of fire around him and scorching my robe.

My eye twitches "Just for that I am naming you Scorch" The damn bird has the gall to huff, or well the closest bird approximation to huffing, oddly he seems to not mind the name, he is just annoyed that I am being pissy.

How do I know this? It seems that we have formed an empathic bond, we can't quite speak to each other but can understand each other's thoughts, which might even be better. He also seems to be as intelligent as a mortal child.

I look around one more time, burning the memory into my brain, and finally turn to my new friend "This place is making me depressed, let's get going." Scorch nods and pecks my shoulder drawing a bit of blood, soon he disappears in a cloud of ash and I feel another presence inside of my Magicka reserve, after a couple of seconds my thoughts become muddled and I lose consciousness.

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Soon I find myself sitting on the ground with a weight on my shoulder, Scorch apparently joined me while I was getting my bearings.

Phineas seems satisfied with my results and congratulates me before calling forth the next apprentice. The rituals take about half an hour before everyone is done, the presumed lich speaks up "Good, at least you aren't incompetent enough to muck up meeting your spirit guardian. Now, to reiterate, your familiar will grow alongside your own magical power, meaning the more Magicka you have the more the familiar can take for itself when you aren't using it. Familiars also have an added benefit of forcing your body to get used to constantly producing Magicka so it can keep up with the consumption, meaning it will speed up the growth of your reserves. As you can see it is a very symbiotic relationship which is why you will treat them with respect as they will never abandon you." We all nod, everyone already feels the bond with their familiar and would likely not be an ass regardless of what the professor said.

"Good, I recommend to all, if you haven't already that is, to get a copy of Arcane Ascension from the library. The added Magicka will be needed if you ever want to be even a slightly accomplished conjurer. For those of you who wish to touch upon the art of necromancy do remember to study soul manipulation from the mysticism school, and keep in mind that only adepts and up are allowed to even attempt to try playing with the dead." Most of the students seem disinterested, some are even offended, but oddly enough there is a glint of curiosity on Marwyn's face.

Not long after this speech the class ends and I head to the library to get back to learning the arcane script, I am joined by everyone except Tiberius who seems to be too taken with his first 'minion', a large sabre-cat, and is now rushing to buy her treats.

On the way I check my system notifications for the past couple of days, my reserves have grown alongside my mind, but the change is very gradual so any larger advancements will take time, there is however something interesting.

[Conjuration-apprentice: Bound weapon (Steel), Familiar bond (Scorch)]

[Summoning bonds:]

[Scorch]

[Ashen Hawk: A magical creature with an affinity for fire and ash, there is a great lifeforce within, waiting to be awakened.]

[abilities: Can detonate into flames and ash, burning and blinding all caught in it. Restores itself far faster than other familiars after being banished (an hour instead of a day)]

Apparently Scorch is no mere fire chicken! I better not ignore his progress, if my hunch is correct he holds ridiculous potential.

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[General pov]

The new apprentices of the college take their time walking towards the library, all of them talking about their new companions. The twins surprisingly, or not, both got identical looking wolves.

Morrigan got a raven that seems to be able to disappear into shadows, which seems to please her greatly.

Marwyn got a very large white owl, Reyvin jokingly recommended him the name Hedwig which he accepted, much to the elf's chagrin.

Edrasa got a rather resilient-looking nyx hound which seems to weird out the humans, but the Dunmer have no such issues and were immediately taken by the little insectoid doggo.

While the familiars are getting.... familiar with the place the group of apprentices, after procrastinating for a good hour finally get to studying the magic squiggly lines of doom, as named by our resident pyromancer.

Three hours later everyone seems to be done with life and ready to tear the books to pieces but one look from the old orc librarian is enough to spare the cursed piece of literature, for now.

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[Reyvin pov]

After finally liberating myself of the foul text I head toward the practice ground along with the rest of my colleagues for my daily 'totally-not-cultivation-session'.

Trying it out for a bit makes me notice that my Magicka has been greatly affected by its new resident, my aura now feels like a constant and gentle flame, there is also a soothing, revitalizing undertone to it, checking my stats it doesn't seem to have changed them in any quantity so it must be a trait.

[Ashen bond: Through your bond with Scorch you attain greater control over flames and restoration, you also seem to heal just a bit quicker]

I pop my mouth and say "Noice" making Edrasa, who was doing her own training nearby, look at me weirdly. She quickly shrugs and gets back to work though, growing up with Telvanni mages probably made her used to the utterly weird shit they tend to do.

Two hours later, being one step closer to becoming the young master of the ancient Dagoth clan, I start practicing my destruction spells in a nearby room.

I experiment with changing the intent of the spell, even managing to make the firebolt slightly curve its flight path and making my flames a much more concentrated line instead of a wave, but doing this takes far too much concentration to be useful in a fight.

I keep myself from trying to add runes into the spell since it could end up very badly, I will have to learn a tested method first, no need to burn myself both figuratively and literally. Finishing my pyromancy exercise I start studying the other elements of destruction.

Lightning sparks are rather easy to cast, being similar to fire just with a lot more friction involved in the initial casting, it does however eat through my Magicka far quicker.

Ice, on the other hand, is an absolute nightmare! My affinity is mostly fire focused and trying to turn my Magicka into ice is like trying to convince my grandfather that the Imperials are a good influence on Morrowind.

Two hours pass along with my futile efforts, the ice still beyond my grasp. I haven't felt this frustrated in a very long time, it is surprising how much this tiny failure angers me, so I choose to stop and cool down a bit.

Trying to heal my bruised ego I tell myself that I am still a student, and besides being good at everything would be boring! Yes, that is totally my excuse for not being able to cast a novice spell of my main school. Totally not sulking I head towards the dormitory to turn in for the day.

On the way Scorch rejoins me and starts transmitting how much he enjoys his new friends, having flown around town with the two other birds. He immediately makes my mood go up with his mental chattering, one of the rare things I liked doing in my old life is listening to my kids speaking about their discoveries, and his current behavior reminds me very much of that.

So instead of sulking like a teenager I put more pep into my step and chat away with my bird friend, motivated to try again harder tomorrow.

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A/n: I was thinking about condensing the timeline of the fourth era a bit, 200 years is too much for the events and changes that happened. I was thinking about compressing it all to about 80 years so that things can make more sense, thoughts?

If you have enjoyed reading this toss me a stone/review.