Forced tolerance.
The idea was tyrannical but made sense. If all the voices of malcontent were silenced naturally the only sound left was the one of harmony. This didn't meant that internal bias didn't remain but it was blunted or buried in fear of getting kicked out. Thankfully I wasn't going to have to worry about that myself, I treated people based on how they acted. Anyways Faralda led me into the main building of the college and I had to admit it was a massive place.-
The hall of elements wasn't empty like it was for most the game but had masters of their schools of magic teaching classes of students. I saw Tolfdir, old Nord he was, teaching his students about the [transmute ore] spell. Then there was Colette who was a Breton woman of roughly mid thirties who was teaching the [sun light] spell. We didn't stick around the hall to watch though and I was led up the stairs after Faralda introduced the place. The next floor made me stop and stare.
"Holy book heaven!" I hissed in awe.
"The Arcanaeum houses one of the most expansive libraries in all of Tamriel. It is home not only to the Ysmir collection but has works dating all the way back to the Merethic era though those are strictly off limits for preservation purposes unless absolutely necessary." Faralda said calmly but I was practically drooling.
Years of scraping together whatever information I could to reach where I have and it wasn't as much as a single percent of the contents of this floor. It was enchanted shelves for as far as I could see and the desk way at the back was barely visible. What IS very visible and VERY intimidating was the atronachs floating above the shelves silently and watchfully.-
"You don't need to worry about those so long as you follow the rules of the Arcanaeum." Faralda said after noticing my gaze.
"I know enough conjuration magic to know better than to relax anywhere near an atronach, ESPECIALLY storm atronachs." I said warily.
The games did NOT do atronachs justice. They weren't fairly weak creatures that you could bat aside casually. No they were literally condensed destructive elemental magics given a spark of life by the chaos of Oblivion. Even worse was that they got stronger the older they were without any known limit though the growth was slow.-
You could roughly tell the strength of an atronach by a few small details that you could spot looking at them carefully. For storm atronachs it was the color of the lightning and stones that made up their forms and the overall size of the atronach. For frost atronachs there was actually two branches of evolution over time. The usual was the size and jaggedness of the thing. The second however was how humanoid it was. Any frost atronach that looked like an intricately carved ice sculpture of a person was so old and powerful you might as well not even fight back, it's a pointless struggle.-
Fire atronachs were unique in this regard because they were humanoid from the start. The changes they had with age and power were "blackening". The "metal" that seemed to contain their raw elemental fires in a shape grew larger and covered more of their forms until no fire could be seen within them. Make no mistake however these ones internal fire burned so hot they turned whole swaths of land into burnt husks of ash and sand merely by existing.-
Knowing this I could tell at a glance that these were not young atronachs. Not ancient pinnacle existences but definitely not fresh ones either. Faralda nodded when I said my piece though and even seemed to approve before she led me further up the stairs. This brought us to the Archmages domicile. It was a large mostly open room with stone floors, walls and ceiling. In the center of the room was a large ingredient garden for alchemical plants and a massive ritual circle that made me stiffen in horror. I didn't recognize it entirely but just by reading the runes that were in it I roughly got a feel for what it did.-
It was a pinnacle summoning circle.
That was to say a gateway for pinnacle level creatures to enter the world.
The worse part was that it was in use at the moment.
"Ah, Savos dear you didn't tell me you were bringing over such an interesting guest.~" The deceptively small woman with multiple black eyes in the circle said with a sultry lilt.
"It seems I'll have to cut this short, apologies my lady." The Dunmer with a knotted beard and long intricate robes said to the daedra.
"Oh fine~ but I want extra next time." the daedra said with a pout before winking at me with four of her eyes and vanishing in a purple portal.
The Dunmer turned to look at us with a curious but stern manner "I hope this interruption was important, it's cost me quite heavily after all." he said waiting for an explanation.
Faralda bowed apologetically "I didn't know you were in the middle of THAT or I wouldn't have come." she said sincerely.
He sighed "It is not entirely your fault. I should have put up wards, I was careless. Now then what's this about?" he asked curiously.
I held up a hand however as I was unable to hold it back "Before that can you please tell me that wasn't who I think it was?" I asked hoping for reassurance.
"Oh? So you recognized her even in that form?" he asked with a slightly impressed expression.
"I read the runes and then put together the details. Would you believe this is the second time in a month that I've met a daedric prince?" I said with a helpless sigh.
"You've met another!? When and what did they want!?" Faralda demanded with an alarmed look.
"I must also insist on knowing, their ilk can be capricious and dangerous." The man who I was certain was Savos Aren, the Arch-mage of the college said firmly.
"The hunter, near Shor's stone. I came across his hind while on my way to exterminate a group of bandits. I avoided it since I wanted nothing to do with his attention but he chose me as prey for a werewolf follower of his after that. I killed the werewolf however and apparently earned his favor." I explained helplessly.
"So you are a werewolf then?" Savos asked curiously.
I shook my head "I got lucky and he let me choose a boon. I took the knowledge of a certain hunting related enchantment which pleased him even further so he granted me that and a spell, [Summon hound of Hircine]." I said honestly.
The man smiled and clapped "Congratulations are in order then. It's no lean feat to navigate the whims of a prince and come out better than you began. That spell will no doubt serve you well. I must admit however that I am curious about what enchantment could please the lord of the hunt?" he said intrigued.
"The [dragon's bane] enchantment. An ancient Akaviri enchantment designed to facilitate the hunting of dragons with greater ease than normal." I said frankly.