2nd and 3rd of Heartfire 4E201
I skipped breakfast this morning and ran out the door. Jenassa bought herself some food and brought it along. It was still snowing just as bad as it was last night, but at least I could see a little better in the daylight. An Altmer woman named Faralda stopped us at the entrance to the bridge that led to the college and told us to stop. She asked what I wanted, and I told her that I wanted to learn as much as I could about magic. She gave me a test to see if I had any skill with magic. I had to cast the spell Fear onto the seal on the ground. I did it, and she welcomed me to the college as an Apprentice. As I followed her across the bridge, I was amazed that it was still standing. There were a few places where the edges of the bridge were missing, and I carefully looked down. It was a long drop. The college itself seemed to be on a floating island at first, but then I realized that the land holding it up was just very narrow under its base. I suspected that the only reason that the college was still intact was due to magic. When we got to the gate leading into the college, Faralda told me to seek out the Master-Wizard, Mirabelle. I nodded and thanked her, then practically skipped inside. Jenassa shook her head with amusement and followed.

I found Mirabelle in the courtyard, arguing with a Thalmor named Ancano. She was reminding him that he was only here because the arch-mage allowed it, and that the college wouldn't bow to his every whim like the Empire did. I liked her already.

Its so nice here! Mirabelle gave me a short tour, then showed me where my room was and gave me my college robes. They were only novice ones, but I'm sure I could buy better ones later. I changed in my room and freshened up a bit, then she showed me to my first class where I would meet my fellow apprentices. As I headed into the bulding, I wondered if an assassin could get into the college. I hoped not, but I would be on my guard nonetheless.

Ancano was in the classroom, likely spying on us. I didn't like him already. Something about him seemed sinister. I quickly forgot about him though, when I met the other apprentices and our teacher, Tolfdir. My fellow apprentices were a a cocky Khajiit named J'zargo, a Nord named Onmund, and a Dunmer named Brelyna. They all wanted to rush into learning spells, while I agreed with Tolfdir that we should learn to be safe before anything else. They all grumbled and told him not to listen to me. He decided that we should learn about something safe and practical, a ward spell. He had me demonstrate to the class how to use it properly. I stood across from him and cast it, making a wall of magic form in front of me. He cast a fireball spell at  me, and the ward completely blocked it. He congratulated me, and suggested that we all practice our ward spells. Then, he told us about an excavation that the college was doing nearby at a place called Saarthal. He asked us to meet him there in a few hours, so we could have a hands on lesson about application of magic throughout history.

I got to meet the Arch Mage, and was pleased to see that he was a Dunmer too. His name was Savos Aren, and he was very friendly and welcoming. He told me what happened in Winterhold, an event called the Great Collapse. No one knows what caused it, but many blamed the college since it had come out of it mostly unscathed.The Sea of Ghosts came alive, and waves battered the town and college, destroying most of the town and causing many people to pack up and leave. It sounded like it  was a terrible time.

I met another Dunmer, a man named Drevis Neloren. When I spoke to him, he seemed surprised that I could see him. Apparently he had been working on some sort of invisibility spell that hadn't worked. I wished him luck with his future experiments and made my way to Saarthal to meet with the rest of my class.
I didn't want to get lost, so I decided to use my new Clairvoyance spell to show me the way through the snow.

I met Tolfdir and the others outside of the ruins. There would definitely be draugr here, it looked just like a typical barrow. It was supposedly one of the first cities of men in Tamriel. Tolfdir explained that the College had taken an interest in the sight since many of the tombs had magickal wards on them. I followed them inside, excited about what we could learn here. Jenassa kept one hand on the hilt of her sword, just in case.

When we got inside, Tolfdir gave us all tasks to do. My task was to find a man named Arniel Gane, and help him to locate any enchanted artifacts that were in the ruin. Arniel pointed me in the direction I was to  look, then got back to his research. I managed to find three rings on the ground, and an amulet on the wall. When I took the amulet down from its spot, large spikes went up in the passageway behind us, trapping Jenassa and I inside. She quickly drew her sword and I got my spells ready, in case anything was going to come out and attack us. Nothing happened, so I went over to the newly risen bars and talked to Tolfdir through them, explaining what had happened. He suggested I try using the amulet to see if anything would happen. When I put it on, the wall it had been hanging on started glowing and making an odd sound. He suggested I cast a spell at the wall, so I cast a spike of ice at it. The wall crumbled and the spikes went back into the floor. Tolfdir got excited, and wondered why this part of the ruin was hidden. He suggested we see where the hidden passage went to. I nodded, and readied some spells, just in cast of draugr, or worse things. Jenassa kept her sword drawn, and drew her war axe as well.

We followed Tolfdir down a winding passageway, and stopped in a small room with a desk in the middle of it, and standing coffins around the room. Suddenly, the light in the room changed, and a man in robes appeared. He told me that I had set in motion a chain of events that could not be stopped. He then said that judgement had not been passed on me, since I had no way of knowing about it, but that judgement would be passed on my actions in the future, and how I deal with the dangers ahead. He then said the Psijic Order would be watching me, and I alone had the power to prevent a disaster. He said to take care and  reminded me that the Order would be watching me. Then, he vanished, and the room returned to normal. Apparently, only I had seen it, Tolfdir and Jenassa seemed to have been oblivious. I told Tolfdir about what I had seen, and he seemed shocked, since the Psijics had been gone for ages; even the island they lived on had vanished. He didn't know what connection they had with this place, but suggested we continue on. Suddenly, draugr came out of the coffins around us, they didn't last long though. One of their coffins had concealed a doorway, so we went inside.

We made it down another small passageway, and emerged into a circular room, with coffins all around, and a bridge in the middle of the room. Draugr came out of the coffins when we entered, but we soon dispatched them. Tolfdir remarked that he had never seen anything like this in a Nordic ruin before, and suggested Jenassa and I go on ahead while he examined the room. He said he'd catch up to us in a bit. He either had a lot of faith in me, or was very scatterbrained when it came to the safety of his students. I shrugged and exited the room, and we both had our weapons of choice ready for the dangers ahead.

We were nearly killed by a draugr. We went through a few passageways, and killed draugr along the way. Then, we came to a room with six of the rotating pillars. Thankfully the one they were supposed to be on was pictured on the wall behind them, nearly hidden from view. It took both of us to get them all into the right place, then I pulled the lever at the end of the room and the gate opened. in the next room, a draugr came after us from his coffin. He was so powerful that he could shout! He knocked Jenassa back a few times, and wounded her so badly that she fell to the ground. He even defeated my flame atronach, causing it to explode in a blast of fire. I attacked him with my conjured sword, not relenting until he fell to the ground. Then I killed him and hurried over to heal Jenassa. She got to her feet, and said that she hoped I wasn't expecting a thank you.

We kept going, and ended up in another room. There were pictures the walls, much like the Hall of Stories in Bleak Falls Barrow that had the dragon claw door. There were more puzzle pillars here. We would turn one, and the others would move. This was going to take a while.

It took about an hour or so, but we figured it out. We decided to stop and have something to eat, since both of us were getting tired. Tolfdir caught up to us finally when we were eating. He asked how we were, and Jenassa gave him a look that would make a dragon turn around and fly away. I was thankfully that he didn't see it in the shadows. We pressed on, and found an old alchemy lab in the next area. I managed to get it working and made us some potions to replenish our supplies. We then headed to the next area, but in the way out Tolfdir stepped on a pressure plate on the floor, causing poisoned arrows to shoot out of the wall. I helped heal everyone, then we continued on. I hoped we were getting close to the end of this place, I kept stumbling from sleepiness.

The next room had the strangest things in it. Not only was there a giant floating sphere in the middle of the room, but there was also a draugr guarding it. None of our attacks worked at first, so Tolfdir cast lighting at the barrier around the sphere while we distracted the draugr. He managed to break the barrier, and we soon defeated him. Jenassa even picked his staff up off of the table and used it against him. he was wearing a broken amulet around his neck, and had a note on his body. I read it aloud to everyone "Be bound here Jyrik, murderer, betrayer. Condemned by your crimes against realm and lord. May your name and your deeds be forgotten forever. And the charm which you bear be sealed by our ward." Tolfdir said that it sounded like a part of the Gaulder legend, and that the paper must have been a writ of sealing. I pocketed the amulet, and we went over to investigate the giant glowing orb that was floating in the room.

We studied it for a while, unsure of what it could be. Tolfdir asked if I could head back to the college and tell the Arch-Mage about it, since he didn't want to leave it unattended. I agreed and we left, going through a door in the back of the room. As I walked in the passage beyond, I heard the same chanting I had heard from the wall in Bleak Falls Barrow. The wall even looked similar, if a bit smaller. It also did the same thing as I approached, with the glowing and the streams of light. I didn't think I'd ever get used to this.

Out at last! It was snowing badly when we made it out of the ruins, and I had no idea what time of day it was. It was dark out though, so I used my Candlelight and Clairvoyance spells to help us find our way back to the college. On the way there, we passed two sabrecats. I summoned an atronach to help fight them, but they just stood there, not attacking us. I even got right next to them, and they just looked at me. It was the strangest thing I had ever seen. I shrugged and we hurried back to Winterhold before they changed their minds.

The sun was starting to rise by the time we made it back to town. I passed a few of the instructors from the college on the way in and stopped one of them to buy a spell book. His name was Phinis Gestor, and he was the expert on Conjuration at the College. The only spell I could afford that I didn't already have was a Bound Bow spell. I would have to save up to get some better robes. I put the book in my bag for now, and we started searching the college for the Arch Mage.

I was stumbling with tiredness by the time we found the Arch Mage. I told him that we'd found some sort of orb thing, and that Tolfdir thought it was important. He then asked me to go to the library, to start research on what it could be, and rewarded me with a Staff of Magelight. I sighed and sleepily headed to the library, wondering when I would get to sleep.

The librarian, Urag gro-Shub, had already heard about what we were looking for, and said he didn't have anything that could help us anymore. He said that some books had been stolen by a runaway apprentice named Orthorn, and that one of them may contain something I needed. He took them to give to a group of mages in a place called Fellglow Keep that used to be students at the college. The Arch Mage had kicked them out for their dangerous research that was against the rules of the college. It seemed that I would have to get the books back if I wanted to learn anything about the orb. While I was there, I asked if he had any books for sale, and he showed me a few that he said weren't worth adding to the library. One of them was about the Black Sacrament, so I bought it. Maybe it would help me find out  who was trying to have me killed, or at least offer some clues. According to Urog's directions and Jenassa's map, Fellglow Keep was far south of Winterhold, closer to Whiterun. I wouldn't be able to make it that far on no sleep. I was so tired that I didn't even feel like learning my new spell. I could learn it tomorrow. On the way out of the library, Ancano stopped me and questioned me about what we found in Saarthal. I didn't tell him much, and gave vague answers. He informed me that he would expect a full report when Tolfdir returned, then walked away.  I shrugged and wandered off to find my room and get some sleep.