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Mana, as it is considered by academics, is a measure of two things. Firstly, a given mage’s attunement to the energy of the world, and secondly their ability, in an instant, to make changes unto the world by their will. The more mana one can channel, the more they can change– both in degree and in magnitude.
A beginner Destruction mage can barely heat and cool a glass of water.
A master Destruction mage can split the skies, call down a cataclysm of flame, stir up a howling blizzard. Most elite mages could level a settlement without much trouble.
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“You’re lucky you missed Colette’s ‘lecture’ this morning,” Onmund sighed to J’zargo and Brelyna. “She just kept going on about how we’ve probably used Restoration before, and how it’s a fine school of magic, and a lot of nothing, really.”
“J’zargo has used wards and healing, yes. But Restoration does not have the same… punch as the other schools. It is hard to compete with Destruction for punch, though,” J’zargo says.
“I’ve actually been wondering if Restoration could be considered a sub-school of Alteration,” Brelyna adds. “Wards are so similar to Stoneflesh, and healing is almost like transmutation!”
“Don’t let Colette hear you guys say that, though,” Onmund says. “She’ll do that– ‘Restoration is a perfectly valid school of magic’ thing,” he mimics, making his voice shrill.
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Healing, as considered by (non-magic-using) professionals, is an incredibly subtle and delicate art. Alchemists know very well that the deadliest poisons can, under the right circumstances, heal; they know that the most common medicines can kill with the right amount.
Tiny blood clots lead to strokes, heart attacks. The slightest contaminants to food, water, air, can bring infections and contagion. All healers know how to kill, even if they rarely think about it.
Colette Marence knows how to kill. She thinks about it regularly.
The thing is, while it’s easy to tell when you’ve put enough Restoration mana in to heal someone’s wounds, it is equally easy to keep pouring more in. For a mage at her level, at least– a novice could no more ‘overheal’ than they could, well, heal to begin with.
The thing is, all medicine is poison. Further ‘healing’, if properly focused– flesh regeneration, production of blood, chemicals, and humours– is at least as deadly as any wound.
The thing is, wards do not interfere with healing magic. Nor, oftentimes, does magic-resist enchanted gear.
But every time Colette entertains the idea of making Ancano die in agony in front of her, fighting back against the restrictions increasingly levied against the College and against Skyrim as a whole, she stops herself.
The problem is, it’s too easy to use Restoration magic as a weapon. Anything she demonstrates will become widespread within weeks at most. And with the Thalmor being the greatest concentration of mages on Tamriel…
Restoration is already a critical skill on the warfront, besides. Any soldier who can shape mana does not leave training without learning Healing, at least. Tens of thousands of people who, with a little more training and effort, could kill from a distance with no mage able to block them. To say nothing of the adepts and Archmages scattered around Nirn.
Colette Marence has no desire to be the cause of the bloodiest, most violent war in history. Only Sheogorath’s followers would seriously entertain turning healers to destroyers of Men and Mer.
So even when the Dragonborn, of all things, shows up to learn from the College, she holds herself back. This is a knowledge that would shake the world, and while at times she burns to use it, she has increasingly resigned herself to the necessity of letting it die with her. Colette Marence plays the fool.
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She corners the Dragonborn in the Arcaneum one day.
“You consider Restoration a valid school of magic, don’t you? Don’t you?”