“Why were you healing Merks’ head?” Aithne squeezed a wriggling Chonji to her chest. The child (who barely fit on her lap anymore – he had grown so much in five months!) was clearly long over the thrill of seeing his mother again and wanted down, but Aithne wasn’t about to let him go. Not yet. “I would have thought Colette would be doing that.”

 

“Professor Colette is generally only called in when there is something major going on. Most of the time…” Brelyna paused, grinned, shrugged, “…most of the time it’s students assigned to practice their Restoration magic. Just my lucky break that this happened on my turn, I guess! It took me awhile to remember how to cast a simple cauterization spell because I was laughing too hard.”

 

Aithne joined in the laughter as she shifted in her chair and looked at her four saviors. Urag stood at her side, his comforting hand on her shoulder, while Onmund, J’zargo, and Brelyna sat around the table.

 

“Thank you for watching Chonji while I was…away. I’m sure it was a lot of help for Urag.” She smiled up at the orc and he squeezed her shoulder.

 

“Of course! Someone had to and he’s so adorable!” A pause. "Chonji, that is. I mean..." Brelyna began to redden and words began to spill out. "Not that Ura...er, Professor Urag isn't adorable! Or maybe he isn't? It is impolite to say an orc is adorable? Not that I'm interested in him! Um! I mean, not that I'm not interested, Ur...er...sir...I..." She turned redder with each word and finally stumbled to a halt as the room burst into laughter.

 

"It's okay. He is adorable." Aithne lifted a hand to squeeze Urag's.

 

Brelyna stared at the floor, her skin an impressive shade of deep red. "If you'll pardon me, I'm going to go jump off the cliff into the ocean now.."

 

Aithne shook her head, still chuckling. “I'm sure…”

 

She was interrupted by the chime of the door and she felt a sudden sense of panicked déjà vu. This was only reinforced when she looked over her shoulder as Urag opened the door and the Archmage stepped in. She felt herself blanch as tears bunched in her eyes. Surely he was not here to…

 

“Ah, here she is. My apologies, Urag, I had no idea you were in the process of freeing her or I would never have taken her from you. I was not told the entire story.”

 

Urag made a low angry growling sound that sent a familiar spark of lust down Aithne’s spine but the Archmage did not seem to notice.

 

“However, as I’m sure you’re aware, visitors are not allowed to stay in the college for extended periods. If she is not a direct relative, a staff member, or a student, she will need to leave by the end of next week.”

 

A fresh wave of panic swept over Aithne. Leave?! She couldn’t leave! Where would she go? What about Chonji? And Urag? She couldn’t leave hi…

 

“I am aware, Archmage.” Aithne froze as Urag’s steps came closer, then relaxed a bit when he put his hand back on her shoulder as he glowered at the elf. “I have already sent in an application on her behalf.”

 

“You did?” The four students – well, three students and one prospective one – said in unison.

 

Soren, of course, seemed unflapped. “It is good to hear that you were more proactive this time. She’ll be living here with you, I take it? I see. A clever ploy to keep her with you, Urag. I’ll be honest, I had not thought you so cunning. She is a bit old to be starting out but I imagine she will be able to use simple spells eventually.”

 

The Archmage cast a perfunctory nod to the group and stepped to the door. Before opening it, he turned and added, “Just remember, if she is not able to demonstrate affinity for magic after the first semester, she will be sent away.” And then he opened the door and stepped through, letting it close slowly behind him.

 

“I do not like that man,” Aithne muttered, then quickly covered her mouth. She should not say such things about…

 

…wait. She could say such things now. Soren wasn’t her master. No one was.

 

As her brain began to process this thought, Brelyna responded, “I don’t either. Did you see how he only talked to Professor Urag? Divines!”

 

“J’zargo agrees. The Archmage is far ruder that J’zargo imagined.”

 

“He talked down to Professor Urag as well.” Onmund shook his head. “That seems dangerous.”

 

Then Urag did the unexpected (which, of course he did – even outside of slavery, he still surprised Aithne at every turn) – he laughed. Everyone stared at him as he guffawed. Chonji took advantage of Aithne’s surprise to finally wrest free from her grasp; once on his feet, he dashed away.

 

After a long few minutes of his laughter, Aithne poked him in the arm. “Why is this funny?”

 

Urag shook his head as he wiped away tears. “Did you hear what he said?" His voice took on a pinched but recognizable facsimile of the Archmage's. "‘I imagine she will be able to use simple spells eventually’? ‘If she is not able to demonstrate affinity for magic’?” Another chortle. “He is going to be in for the surprise of his life at your entry trials.”

 

“Entry trials?”

 

He nodded even as a look of understanding passed among the other students.

 

“Yes,” J’zargo interjected. “J’zargo had to do that as well. They asked questions and had J’zargo demonstrate spells.”

 

The other two nodded and Brelyna added, “That’s right! It’s been a while so I forgot all about that. They test to see how proficient you are. You can even test out of some of the early classes or even skip years.”

 

Onmund nodded with increasing enthusiasm. “With how much you know, I bet you’ll pass that easily! Maybe even all the way to year ten, like us!”

 

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.” Brelyna shook her head, then laughed as Chonji ran past holding a stuffed dragon and making fire noises. “The highest I’ve ever heard about is one student who got to skip to year four. And that was Mirabelle.”

 

The other two looked suitably impressed but it was an unfamiliar name to Aithne. “Who is Mirabelle?” This garnered a fresh look of surprise.

 

“You haven’t heard of Mirabelle?” Onmund squinted. “I thought everyone had heard of her.”

“She runs the College.” Brelyna waved a hand around. “She’s in charge of everything. It’s confusing because technically the Archmage is the leader of the College, but he doesn’t really do anything. Well, other than make your life a living Coldharbour. Mirabelle is really the one in charge.”

 

“Even J’zargo knows Mirabelle.” The Khajiit twitched his ears. “J’zargo was impressed, and J’zargo is not impressed easily.”

 

“All right.” Omnund plucked his lower lip with his fingers as he thought. “So Aithne can hope to be set to year four. That still gets her past Basic and Premedial Equations.”

 

“Not to mention Shelinng.” Everyone at the table shuddered at the name, including, Aithne noted with wry amusement, Urag.

 

 Aithne smiled as Chonji charged by again, his stuffed dragon swooping through the air abetted by his chubby green arm, then looked up at Urag. “When is this trial?”

 

 “In three days.”

 

 “Then I suppose I should get back to studying.” She stood, then faced her friends again and bowed her head. “I cannot thank you all enough for everything you’ve done for me. I’ll…” she paused as tears formed and began to rain down. “I’ll…sniff…never forget this.”

 

She smiled as they dissembled, then turned toward the door, her mind already choosing books to refresh herself on. Whatever this trial was, she would meet it head on.

 

*******************************************

 

Three days later, a stunned Aithne made her way out of the silent amphitheater toward her equally stunned-looking friends. There had been a sizeable audience at her trials along with the panel of professors that included Archmage Soren and the infamous Mirabelle. The silence seemed to reflect off the stone floor and back into the stands. The results of her trial seemed…impossible.

 

It was only after she reached her friends that she was able to see Urag, arms wrapped around their son. His wide smile showed that he had never had any doubt and her tension melted when she saw it. Her last steps quickened to a run and she launched herself into his arms almost as fervently as the day she had been freed.

 

“Congratulations, student of the College of Winterhold.” He wrapped the arm that wasn’t supporting their son around her and held her tight. “You know this won’t be easy, right? There is a lot expected of a student when they reach year seventeen.”

 

“I know,” she responded as her friends yelled their excitement as they gathered around. She felt their hands on her shoulders and back as they joined together into a group hug around her. “I won’t let you down.”

 

 Urag chuckled as he tightened his grip on her. “Let me down? Impossible.”

 

Aithne sighed as a host of unfamiliar emotions that she chose to label as “relief,” “pride,” and, most elusive of all, “joy” paraded through her head. Whatever else happened in her life, it would be hard to top this moment.

 

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