His magical growth was impressive, something unmatched by his peers who seemed to struggle to increase their base Magicka by the most minuscule amounts. Michael imagined that this was a combination of his cheating training methods, the Mage Standing Stone, and the Book of Heroes which seemed to enable him to keep growing no matter the limit that regular humans should be limited to.
He'd been training for under a year so far, yet his base strength was already reaching Olympic Athlete levels, which definitely isn't natural. The girls were also growing quite quickly, well, not in the physical sense as Charlotte and Tiffania's height seemed to be locked in a permanent timelock, much to the former's chagrin. No, their magical growth was close to matching Michael's own, which wasn't really a surprise considering that they were both geniuses in their own right. Tiffania is a Void Mage and Charlotte is a general genius in all things concerning magic.
It wasn't just Michael who noted the group's strength however, the Arch-Mage and some of the Masters seemed to be able to sense it, somehow. The only reason Michael knew that they knew was that he'd been asked about it. The Arch-Mage and his colleagues were worried that he and the girls were conducting dark rituals to artificially increase their strength, that or using dangerous artifacts.
The matter of their respective races came up as well, no one in the College believed that he, Charlotte, or Tiffania were actually human. It wasn't that bad for Michael due to his relatively average appearance, but for the girls? Tiffania with her incredibly long ears and Charlotte with her strange blue hair and small stature? There were many rumours about them going around.
Some people were even speculating that Charlotte was a part of the long lost Dwemer race. Which was kind of stupid, to be honest. You'd think an institution filled with scholars and students would be more rational, but he supposed people had to have their hobbies.
It wasn't just the Masters of the College who'd noticed his increase in strength either, Anti-Mage and Wei were more than aware of it. Every night he'd visit them, more than often enough making small talk with Wei until his time ran out. With his increasing magical potential though, Anti-Mage had all but forbidden him and Wei from interacting at all, leaving him to just spend his time in their world practising alone.
Disappointing, but not unexpected.
His training with his other Spirits was going alright though, Riki now beginning him on the basics of knife throwing, which was apparently something you need to be proficient in to learn the Ancestral Tahlin Techniques.
This month in the College hadn't only been spent studying however... Michael had finally decided to take the next step in his and Tiffania's relationship... He hadn't dragged her off to bed like he'd considered but instead scheduled a date for the both of them on a sunny(sunnier than usual) day.
Flashback :
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"It's pretty cold, huh?" Michael voices/complains as he and Tiffania slowly make their way down the cliffside, towards the shore which the College of Winterhold overlooked.
"Is it? I didn't notice." Tiffania replies, almost tripping over her feet as she drops onto a rock below her. One might think she was being sarcastic, but Michael knew her well enough to tell that she was being honest.
"With all those robes you're bundled in, you'd probably bounce if you fell..." he chuckles, indeed, she was wearing two sets of robes and furs over the top of it... When he'd said to get dressed for an adventure, he certainly hadn't meant that...
"You be careful Michael, most other girls would be offended." she says with a mock pout after he catches her from a higher than usual drop.
He smiles, "To be fair, you aren't most girls, are you Tiff?"
"What do you mean?"
He shrugs, "I mean, most girls wouldn't have put up with me for this long. I'm surprised Charlotte and Illu have stuck around this long, to be honest." he admits.
"We did promise to stay together... 'Forever' you said, you aren't rethinking it, are you?" she asks almost nose to nose with him.
"Hmm, and if I was?" he jokes as they begin to reach the bottom of the cliff.
"I would cast Erase on you and try again." she states, dead serious, causing Michael to cough on his own saliva in surprise.
"Well, know that I'm as sure as I am when I first made that promise." he says, finally dropping onto the sand of the shore and turning to be ready to catch Tiffania. She jumps without a shred of hesitation, landing in his arms as he twirls her onto her feet.
"Are you going to tell me why we're here yet?" she asks, glancing around at the rather barren shoreline. Most of it was still covered with the remains of what once was Winterhold, bits of rotten wood and large boulders scattered around the place.
A few Horkers were around, Walrus-looking that's that were larger than Earth's native species due to Skyrim's tendency to gigantify regular creatures. They left the duo alone though, preferring fish as their prey.
Michael coughs into his hand with a faint blush on his cheeks, manifesting the Book of Heroes and pulling out a bouquet of flowers for her. Her eyes shimmer with delight as she looks at them, the colours looking similar to the garden she used to tend to outside of her cabin, the cabin that'd been destroyed by angry villagers.
She tentatively takes it into her arms, admiring each unique plant, "H-how did you get these? These don't grow in winter... Or even grow at all in Skyrim!" she exclaims.
Michael smirks, "Well, I managed to 'persuade' Master Tolfdir and Master Collette to create these... They won't be able to bear seeds but, keep them in water and sunlight and cast the occasional heal on them and they'll last a long, long time... Hell, they might even outlive us both." he jokes, letting out a yelp as the girl throws her arms around him.
"I love them!"
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After handing over the flowers, Michael leads Tiffania down to the shore, and onto some flat ice burgs so they could get further out to sea. After some walking hand in hand, Michael finally stops when he spots a circular hole in the ground, one used by desperate fishermen. Indeed, there were even a couple frost-bitten wooden chairs next to it.
"I know you and Charlotte are into experimenting with alchemy ingredients, so I wanted to take you here." he gestures at the hole, "Apparently a shoal of Slaughter fish have set up shop here, so we'll catch them and scale them... I know it's not first date material but, there isn't much else to do around here." he says while sheepishly scratching the side of his face.
Tiffania nods at his words but pauses at the mention of a 'date', "First date? Michael, is this a date?... Oh! It must be, you gave me flowers and everything!" she murmurs, eyes wide but not looking as upset as her surprise would make out.
"Is that, not okay?" he tentatively asks.
She rapidly shakes her head, "No, no! It's fine! I just... Wasn't expecting it! We've been together for so long and we... I was starting to think you weren't interested..." she admits.
He crooks a brow, "If you were waiting so long, why not just ask me first?"
She blinks, "But, that's a man's job, isn't it?"
"Is a woman's job to silently stay at home, cook and look after the kids?" he answers her question with another question.
...
"Yes...? Maybe?"
"Maybe I'm making the wrong choice here then, me thinking I was asking a girl on a date, turns out she was a manly man, a manly man who fights, uses magic, and looks good in a dress." he laughs.
She jabs his arm with an embarrassed flush on her face, "Can we just start fishing?"
"Not before you admit I was right and you were wrong."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The date continued without interruptions, the duo learning together how to ice fish, occasionally catching a flailing Slaughterfish which gets unceremoniously dumped onto the ice next to them. Neither had much experience with fishing, so it was a learning experience for both of them... Not very date-like, but fun nonetheless.
Evening rolled around soon enough, and the temperature started to dip from 'uncomfortable but manageable', to 'Freeze your piss in mid-air'. Most folk would have had to take the long way around back to the College since the cliff wasn't really scalable without climbing equipment... Luckily, Tiffania was able to open a Teleportation Gate which led right back to the entrance of the College.
"So, would you want to do this, or something else another time?" he asks her as they approach the archway leading to the College.
"Whenever you want, Michael." she smiles, letting go of his hand and leaning closer.
They share a kiss. This is the second kiss, but it feels just as strange, exciting, and addictive as the first. Indeed, unlike last time, neither were able to hold themselves back as their embrace get more and more intimate.
*Ahem!*
The duo almost jumps out of their skins as they hear the voice, each getting a little distance as they looked towards the College entrance where Nirya was standing with crossed arms and a prominent frown. "Are you two done? You're disturbing the peace." she states.
Michael glances around, spotting no one aside from the empty street and the isolated buildings that comprise the whole of Winterhold. "Disturbing the peace? Disturbing your peace maybe..."
"My peace is the peace, if you must swap saliva, do so where I can't see it." she commands.
"Alright, we'll leave you to your peace then." Michael offers, knowing that the Altmer couldn't leave her guard duty... He and Tiffania walk past her and into the College hand in hand, ignoring the angry growl behind them.
"She'll get over it." he whispers as Tiffania rests her body on him as they walk.
Flashback end :
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Since then they hadn't been on any more dates, as there wasn't really anything to do around Winterhold... He could have Tiffania teleport them somewhere, but even then, where would they go? Whiterun? Riften? Falkreath? Neither was exactly 'date' material. If anything, Michael wanted to take her to Solitude next, the Capital of Skyrim and 'Most beautiful city'.
Unfortunately, while he and Tiffania were enjoying their time in Skyrim, Charlotte's mood was steadily getting worse the longer her mother went without recovering. Despite her improvements, it didn't look like she'd regain her mind in many years.
The occasional glances she sent his and Tiffania's way only made him feel more guilty about enjoying himself. The look she sent was one filled with envy, dejection, bitterness, and hopelessness. Clearly, she thought that Maria would've been healed by now... Maybe she thought he was stalling? Or maybe she thought that he'd forgotten her while his attention was focussed on Tiffania?
Regardless, he'd need to think of a solution to it soon, their last chance was at Markarth in the temple of Dibella, so if that failed he had no idea what to do... Probably travel to another world in hopes of finding a cure?... It wasn't like they couldn't come back here afterwards, right?... He'd need to get Tiffania working on that. Maybe have her look into it while she was researching the Familiar summoning ritual.
Whatever, at least Illococoo was enjoying herself... The girl could now use 'Fus' proficiently enough to knock a grown man off of his feet... And that was only the single word of the three-word shout... How powerful would it be altogether? And would it get stronger if she was in dragon form?... All things that motivated him to get stronger, simply to not be left behind by his companions.
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