School of Hard Knocks (Cobalt and Morwen)

Morwen was as usual residing in the college up in the mountains, it was not the best of places because of the cold however it was the only place that she had ever known. She had grown up there practicing the art of illusion and alchemy, to such an extent that she was now one of the go to people in the area at the college despite her age.

It was like she had a natural aptitude for the magic.

Sitting in her rooms, dressed in her black leather armour, Morwen flicked over her notes on the newest developments in spells she had been changing and making more powerful, slightly adapting them so that even though others might come to her for help she would never teach all of them to them.

It would never do to have the student become better than the teacher, it would be a sure fire way to fall from her position that she had worked so hard on! Even the thought of it made her upset. Morwen wanted to pass on her knowledge in a way to help newly training mages and even more adept mages get better at other areas that she was adept at...but not to such an extent that she became totally redundant.

Not expecting any people visiting her today she looked over and amended the alchemy recipies that she had been tinkering with, and she wanted to be able to ensure the potion would not be as weak as it was the last time...what is the point of a poison if it only did half the job after all?

Cobalt was what a lesser person might call an Assassin... but that term was lost when you applied it to him.

Calling him an Assassin implied that he had targets and 'targets' implied that there was even a possibility that he had would be unable to kill his deader. He had come to Skyrim because the last of the 'legendary' Dark Brotherhood resided her, in one of the southern most mountain ranges.

Of course that implied that there were areas of Skyrim that were not marred by mountains.

But they had been mostly a disappointment when he got there to be honest so he had struck out of his own as he often did since he had been made the instrument of Meridia some three hundred years ago. The daedric prince (or rather princess) had a hatred of all things undead and as a young man Cobalt had excelled in hunting down Necromancers during the purge of it's practitioners. But he still had room to improve in his task.

Hence why he was at the collage in Skyrim now, wanting to find the chief expert on Illusion magics,

"Morwen? I'm looking for a mage called Morwen?" He called out loudly in the central courtyard of the collage, having knocked out the annoying woman at the gate who had insisted he had to be able to cast two crap spells to be allowed in, "Morwen! Illusion Master... I need to speak to you!"

Morwen could hear a commotion in the courtyard, frowning she rose from her seat in her rooms and went to see what was happening, she didn't think that such behaviour was fitting for the college however she hoped that whoever it was might be placated by some guards to stop making such an almighty racket.

It was making it hard for her to focus on her latest alchemy recipes - and that was making her a little bit more cranky than she would have been normally.

Sighing softly when she heard the male voice, the male voice actually shouting for her though was something that stopped the sigh dead in her throat. Honestly she had never been outside of the college, having been raised and studied here all of her life, Morwen never knew much about life outside of the walls apart from what travellers told her. It was rather exciting someone was asking after her.

"Yes that is I." she stated softly, stepping forwards to allow the man to see her "Please, step into my rooms and we will discuss there whatever business that you have with me, my fellow students don't take too kindly to their studies being interrupted." Morwen commented with a soft smile.

Leading the man into her rooms, she shut the door after them and smiled again; "What can I do for you?"

Cobalt raised an eyebrow when one of the professors, a teacher in the school of Destruction magics, seemed intent on calling the town guard to come deal with him. Not only was it insulting to believe that any town guard could hurt him but it was painfully obvious that the townspeople hated the majority of the professors and students at this magical collage.

But still, he was only a few seconds away from teaching the uppity mage what real Destruction magic looked like when she arrived for him.

She was a very different looking elf but by far the most attractive of her species that he had met in his many years. He nodded to her and followed her towards her rooms,

"I have been seeking you for a great many years Morwen, Caster of Shadows." he told her honestly, "I travelled all the way from the Eastern Desserts to see you..."

When the door closed he turned to look at her, smirking as he did so,

"Honestly? I need training in the art of illusionary magic." He told her simply, "I am in the service of... a mighty mistress and she thinks it best I learn Illusion magic. And she would have me taught by no one other than yourself..."

Morwen blinked when she heard that this man had come all the way from the eastern deserts to see her, there was indeed a great distance between the two locations and it spoke well of his desire to learn that he would travel such a great distance in order to learn from her. It didn't seem something that he was taking lightly.

Then again when he said that it was the will of his mistress that made Morwen blink again, perhaps he was in service to one of the Gods as the Greybeards were? Did he heed a summons to go to her and learn this magic? These were all questions that she would need to ask in order to see if he truly did need to be taught by herself - if he was truly committed.

"You come to me to learn all my tricks have you?" she asked with a rather bewildered look on her face "I have to admit I have not expressed an interest in taking on an apprentice, for a permanent basis anyway, a few lessons could be given but I hardly think I am the best person to teach you the way of Illusion on a larger scale."

Sitting down at her desk she shut her papers closed with a gentle smile; "Do you have a specific area you want to focus in? Fear, intimidation? Invisibility? Or perhaps a more obscure but still marvellously effective area? I can point you in a more experienced scholar who knows just as well as I."

Cobalt could see that she was rather flattered to know that he had been seeking instruction from her and he had to admit it was likely rather flattering to learn that a man had travelled the length and five countries to learn from you. Definitely flattered the skills it had to be said. But she was intelligent to know that he had a reason behind it.

"I've come to learn as much as you can possibility teach me, I'm a bit of a perfectionist." He admitted with a small smirk, "I can already boast impressive skills in it... perhaps enough to be considered powerful. But it's not enough."

He looked her in the eyes before he shed his baggy travelling coat to reveal himself fully. Dressed in mostly black leather, he had numerous scrolls, daggers and potions strapped to his chest, two oddly shaped swords at his waist and a demonic-looking set of arrows with matching bow,

"I am the champion of the Daedric Princess Meridia... I have wandered the world of Nirn for over three centuries, purging the land of the undead." he told her before he sank to one knee in front of her, "I need to become as much of a master in the arts as you Morwen... I will do whatever is necessary to achieve this."

Morwen looked on in amazement when she saw the amount of weapons, poisons and dark magic items that this man had upon him. Honestly it made her feel a little bit intimidated, she didn't know what to think about this at all. It was no doubt flattering that this man had travelled so far and was instructed by his goddess to learn from her...but she still had reservations.

How could she teach him everything she knew? She hated that people might be able to do the same things that she could.

It wouldn't stop her from giving him the basic spells and training to a higher standard than he already possessed however. It wouldn't do to have a goddess angry at her, or it would seem this man as well despite his kindly bowing to his knee he seemed a force to be reckoned with.

"Why do you believe the art of illusion will help you with this mission, to kill the undead?" she asked with a quizzative gaze "There are those here at the College who practice the art of Necromancy, as I am sure you are aware...I don't want there to be any problems here while I tutor you. This is a place of peace for me, I wouldn't like it to become a place of brawling or anything worse than that."

Sighing softly she nodded; "If you can promise while learning you will abide by that, I will teach you to the same level I am already."

Cobalt looked up at Morwen from his place down on one knee. His bright blue eyes were alit with magic, mostly Destruction magic to be honest, and almost shone with the light and energy,

"I do not come here to learn your magic so that I can kill some children meddling in the affairs of gods and demons." he told her, his voice deep and steadily becoming deeper, "I come to this land because the beasts of history had returned! The dragons did not disappear to a distant land, only to return now..."

He stood from the bow,

"They were... ARE... dead. So these dragons of immense power and numbers? They are undead and I have been tasked with their destruction." He told her, sighing as he let the pent up magic ripple across his skin, "So you have my oath, as a champion of Meridia, that I will offer no harm to the others in your collage. I only seek those who would misshape this world with their presence. Now..."

He smirked a little bit,

"Where do we begin?"

Morwen was scared inside of her being when this man, who had not even the curtosey to tell her his name decided that he was going to act that way towards her when she had given him her time, offered him her help like he wanted even though SHE did not want to take on an apprentice and such a troublesome one as well, acted the way that he did.

It was like he was trying to make her uncomfortable for something that she had said.

To be honest it rubbed her up the completely wrong way and when she had initially calmed down from the fright that his show of magic had caused her, Morwen frowned and clasped her fist together in a show of strength that was nowhere near his own but her resolve was set.

"I don't think such a harsh display of words were needed. Perhaps if you had given me all the information and mentioned dragons, not simply killing undead, I would not have formed such conclusions, perhaps you should show me a little more kindness seeing as you are the one who needs my help." Morwen stated with a soft frown "You have not even done me the curtosey of telling me your name."

Cobalt looked in Morwen's eyes for a few moments before sighing as he brought himself under control. He wasn't used to having to deal with too many people. To be honest he had barely spoken to anyone barring a few shopkeepers he traded with - The ones who didn't ask who's blood it was on the shirt, just cleaned it and sold it.

He nodded to her once,

"You are correct Morwen, I over-reacted and I apologise." he told her with a simple bow of the head, "It is not something that has been believed by anyone else I have encountered on my travels to be honest Morwen."

When she said that he had not even told her his name he blinked a little bit before nodding a little bit as he realised he hadn't,

"You are correct again Morwen, I apologise." he told her before nodding to her, "My name is Cobalt. And for the purposes of this quest of mine, my full name is Cobalt Smiteguard. It is not my real familial name but I'm sorry, I lost my familial name some time ago."

Morwen hummed a little bit before she decided that she was going to let the incident go because she didn't want the rest of their relationship to be marred by this one little mistake. The apprenticeship might last for some time after all and it would be counter productive to hinder their relationship with such a silly little burden.

Waving her hand with the same soft smile on her lips as before, Morwen put her anger and upset behind her ready to move onto more productive aspects of conversation.

"It is quite alright, I understand that perhaps the less intellectual think of dragons as only the stuff of myths and legends however they are indeed quite real and there is evidence mounting in the world to show this." she stated with a little smile "So please take a seat and we will discuss about the paths you wish to go down first."

Nodding her head Morwen grinned at Cobalt, the name she had to admit suited him, it looked like he did a lot of smiting in his spare time after all.

"I do not have a familial name either, so perhaps in that instance, the loss of our lineage we are alike." she stated with a soft smile "Would you like something to drink before we begin? I need to know what spells you have mastery over already, and your level of mage-ship before we start to plan out what you wish to learn."

Cobalt was glad that she seemed to be agreeable to his idea of just letting the subject drop for now. No good would come of them getting into an argument. No good for him because she was unlikely to teach him if it got too bad. No good for her because if it became violent there was a very real chance he could kill her without meaning too.

He didn't have a lot of experience in only disarming or disabling a person.

"Like you would not believe." he told her with a soft smirk, "I was asking about a dragon sight locally in the tavern a few days ago and the inn-keeper directed me to the local bard... who proceeded to try and win my coins with a lively song about dragons."

He paused before smirking,

"It was a good song so not all was lost."

He had noticed that she had no familial name either but had not liked to comment on it. From personal experience he knew that being reminded of such pain just brought it back ever stronger. Nodding, he smirked softly,

"I would love to have some wine if you have some." he answered her question, gliding over the sensitive topic, "As for my level of mage-ship... I have mastered Destruction, Conjuration, Alteration and Restoration. Though I admit my restoration is a little rusty. My Illusionary skills... I learnt the spell to move silently and that is the only spell I know from that branch of magic."

Morwen could not help but giggle a little bit when she heard that when he had been asking about dragons locally, he had been directed to a mage who had no doubt gotten a few good coins from him for information before breaking out into a little song. The expression on Cobalt's face might have been a picture if she was honest with herself while imagining the little exchange.

"I can imagine that you were less than impressed with the rather inferior to expectation information that you got for your money." she grinned "But at least you were able to enjoy a good song out of it, if he is as good as you say."

The information about what magic he had developed was very useful she had to admit because she knew now that he had master level skills in all of the other disciplines and that meant that yes, Cobalt was very dedicated to the mage way of life and besides that, he had the aptitude. There were many who had enthusiasm in buckets, however they couldn't even perform a novice spell.

"Ah so you just have my areas left to become a master in, is it something of a goal for you to master all of the mage spells that you can?" she asked, making light conversation "So, for illusion spells you were able in one branch to go quite far however there are three other branches you haven't yet tried. Do you have one you want to focus on in particular?"

Cobalt had to agree with her assessment. When he had first been told the inferior information he had been absolutely livid. It had taken all of his willpower to not draw his holy sword and strike down the pitiful little bard who had sang to him instead of giving him any real information. But that would be wrong of him he supposed so he had not done as he had so desperately wanted to do.

Much as it had pained him at first.

"Yes well he was lucky that I was otherwise having a good day. On my bad days I've had to flee from regions rather swiftly with many guards on my tail." he joked. It was a joke too... in those situations all the guards were dead or too scared to follow him. He smirked a little bit, "He was good enough to live after lying to a Champion of Meridia."

Cobalt knew a lot about magic... some spells that had actually been forgotten to be honest. He remembered the old spells from the time of the Oblivion-Crisis and he knew the newer spells as well. Not even for a year or a day had he let his magical knowledge slip. He smirked a little bit before nodding,

"You could say it was a goal, yes. My Mistress commands me to be the best and so I cannot help but strive to better myself in all ways possible." He admitted with a little smirk before nodding a little bit, "Yes I would very much like to become invisible and to intimidate my enemies. So the routes towards fear and invisibility would be priceless to me."