"Balance," As Mage Scholar Earana reviewed the Official Text of Arcane University Lecture number One, she was softly talking to herself in a sing-song voice. Generally if one was singing, people tended not to listen, presuming it was some remnant of a recent bardic offering. She found that it was a convenient and usually unnoticed way to review the content of her planned approaches. Singing in semi-public could also annoy some of her more straight-laced, which was usually to say Imperial, brethren in the magical order. It was definitely win-win, she thought smugly to herself.

"If only certain individuals can activate runestones, they may represent a further sub-specialty of the more traditional types of magic. Since invariably every mage will have styles of magic to which they respond with greater or lesser affinity, it may simply be that few mages have this particular affinity."

She thought it likely that it would be an Altmer, if anyone, who discovered those secrets. After all they were the longest lived race, and the most magically skilled.

The sounds of stones falling interrupted her reverie and she looked up.

Hanging partway down the grey stone wall that separated the inner gardens of the Arcane University from the public area, was a very large mud crab. It appeared to have anchored itself by a rear pair of legs. Atop the irregular brownish carapace of the thing was a precariously balanced pale skinned little Breton with tousled dark hair. The Breton was garbed in simple undyed tan linen, and even as Earana watched, she lost one of her oiled linen shoes in her struggle to maintain her hold.

Wide blue eyes met Earana's brown ones as the girl stammered out her request for help.

The complete lack of quality to her clothing, and the fact of the mud crab, not to mention the irregularity of her situation all combined to identify her as the Ward that Gaspar Stegine had been instructing. After the Green Stain Cup incident, her overabundance of creativity had many of the members of the University betting quite heavily on just how much damage she would eventually do either to the University grounds, or to herself.

The wall didn’t seem to be overly damaged, nor did the Ward.

Earana knew that Gaspar was fond of her. Helping her would be a useful bargaining chip in dealing with him.

The altmer carefully set her lecture notes on the bench; anchoring them with a wisp of magicka. Slowly she walked up the low dais to stand at the lecture podium, to get a better view of this interesting oddity. "An unconventionally bold approach for a ward, little one."

Tallis flushed. "This mud crab. I mean he's not really a mud crab. Or she, I'm not sure. But I didn't know that until just recently, and I think Mariette wants to just kill him, and I don't have enough spells yet to know how to change him back."

From the other side of the wall, a shrill angry voice came. "Show yourself Ward Tallis. You can't hide that thing from me forever!"

Earana said. "You had best come down from the wall."

The mud crab made to gather itself, and then raising his right claw to where Tallis would be able to see it, signaled 'no'.

"I don't think he can jump that far," said Tallis. "I grew some tree branches for us to climb to the top, but there's nothing here close enough climb down."

Earana raised her left hand, and pulled a swirl of magical energies through Tallis, and Tallis guessed from the way her pseudo-steed shivered, the magicka had gone through him as well.

"Jump quickly," The scholar instructed. "And the fall won't hurt you."

"It will be okay," Tallis encouraged the mud crab. She hoped it would be.

The crab gathered itself and jumped. Instead of falling, they arced through the air slowly, falling with the speed of an autumn leaf, or maybe a feather, to land on the other side of the double rows of benches intended for lecture seating. The crab spun around so that they were facing the mage scholar, and then folded its legs under it.

As soon as it had settled, Tallis slid down from her perch. As her feet touched the grassy ground, she realized that one of her shoes was missing. She glanced around, trying to be surreptitious, and didn't see it. Well there were more important things than lost shoes to worry about.

From the other side of the wall, a refined voice commented. "Observe, Apprentice Rielle, how one of the University's trees has been distorted. I believe I have a good idea of what happened to your lost ward and her mud crab."

Tallis half turned toward the sound of the voice, but realized that Carayna and Mariette would chose to go through the lobby than climb over the wall. Turning back she appealed to Earana. "I don't really have any money, but-"

Earana stopped her with a gesture. "True. You, little one, currently owe service to the Empire, and to Sorcerer Gaspar, and thus you really don't have much to offer me."

She then addressed the mud crab. "I don't know your magical potential, or even your true race, however even a beastman can learn some magic when he works hard enough at it. So my price for releasing you from your wabbajacked form is that you serve me as my apprentice for a period of not less than four years."

"But-" Tallis started.

Earana cut her off with a stern glance. "This is between me and my potential apprentice."

The mud crab raised his right claw and nodded it up and down.

"That means yes," Tallis spoke quietly.

"Very well." Said Earana in a pleased sort of tone. She raised her hands, and Tallis could feel the magic begin to build.

Earana stood at the lecture podium in the Arcane University gardens, frowning down at the mud crab that waited patiently near the student benches.

Waiting nervously nearby, Tallis edged toward one of the benches and sat down. She recognized Earana's intent look; the combination of focus and relaxation necessary to examine the details of magicka.

Tallis turned to look at the mud crab, wondering how much more detail the Scholar could see than she herself would. Would she be able to tell what race the poor thing had been before its transformation? As Tallis turned to look again at the patient mud crab, it suddenly occurred to her that she'd never actually detached the pod that she'd magically grown on it. She raised a hand as if to interrupt, and then shook her head. It really wasn't worth worrying about. Restoring the mud crab to whatever he or she had been was much more important; she could always try her spell again some other time.

Abruptly Earana relaxed and chuckled. "Good." She said. "I imagine whoever did this to you was using magic that had been prepared by another."

"Try to relax, little one. This shouldn't hurt too much, though it's bound to be somewhat uncomfortable."

Tallis did her best to relax and observe as well as she could. She wasn't likely to see anything like this again soon, so this was potentially the only time she could learn something from watching it.

As she watched, it was as if pale blue layers of energy were being peeled open from the mud crab; rather like opening up an onion, layer by layer, yet leaving all the layers still connected at the bottom.

Earana frowned in concentration, and beads of sweat stood out on her forehead. She was very still, not even using any of the usual hand movements to guide her magicka. The air began to feel thick and heavy, like a storm was gathering. Tallis could feel her hair shifting, and she could hear little crackles of static electricity.

Then suddenly the center was removed from all the layers of energy and magic, and they fell apart and away from the mud crab. As they did so, the creature twitched; it almost seemed to Tallis that the irregular carapace was writhing.

Then a sound like a gasp, and a shiver, then instead of a mud crab, there lay a young man. He was an Imperial, Tallis could see that right away. Dark brown hair, a little long and a little ragged, obscured his eyes. She could see that he had a growth of a couple days of beard. He was wearing leather pants that were laced up the sides, and knee high boots of some soft material. He also had a blue tunic, slightly rumpled, and she could see that even around the back of it there was some kind of embroidered panel at the collar.

He was shivering as first, but maybe it was a reaction to the magic, because after he took a few slow breaths the shivering seemed to fade. He pushed up with his forearms, and nearly fell just from that effort.

"Balance." He said, and the word was barely understandable. He shook his head a little, and then tried again. "Balance." This time the word was a little clearer.

"Yes, little one, from your reaction I suspect it's going to be difficult to make the transition from balancing on eight legs to balancing on only two." Earana turned to Tallis. "Assist my new apprentice to one of the benches."

"Of course." Tallis did her best to keep the young man steady. She noted a couple small shells fall away from the folds of his tunic as she carefully guided him the few steps it took to a bench. Once he was seated, she looked back at the grass, and noted that what had fallen were several limpets, unable to cling to a tunic as they'd clung to a carapace. And there was the pod she'd enchanted. It hadn't been lost after all.

She was of course happy to have the pod, but she gathered up the limpets as well. She'd throw them into lake Rumare and they should do all right. But first, she turned to the young man, who was sitting rather anxiously on a bench. His hands gripped the wood of the seat as if he were afraid of falling off of it.

Tallis glanced up at the mage and realized that Earana was looking at her expectantly. When Tallis didn't say anything right away, the mage raised an eyebrow. "Do you not think introductions are in order here?"

Oh, of course. Or at least of course when mer were involved. It seemed like any time Tallis was around any mer for more than a few minutes, she ended up being chided for missing or forgetting some point of etiquette.

She gave a half-bow to the Imperial. "I'm Ward Tallis D'Artagnan, and this is Mage Scholar Earana."

"Reg" Again that hoarseness, and he flushed and started once more. "Regulus Cassiana, at your service."

"Apprentice Regulus Cassiana." Earana corrected him. Turning her attention to Tallis, she said. "Any you, my little helper, may wish to hasten to the Praxographical center to be the first to detail the events of the day to your instructors." She glanced meaningfully to the door to the lobby.

"Yes, of course." Tallis hastily gathered up the pod and the limpets, and when she glanced up at Earana, the scholar silently pointed to a spot near the wall.

Her shoe.

Tallis flushed, quickly picked it up and left. As the door of the Praxographical center closed behind her, she heard the door from the garden to the lobby opening.

She was so relieved to be out of side of Mariette, and so busy trying to keep everything in her hands and not drop anything, that she completely missed seeing that the room was occupied until Borrisean's quiet question startled her.

"Ward Tallis is there some reason why you are carrying your shoe rather than simply wearing it?"