A gout of fire that does 8 points per second. Targets on fire take extra damage.
Flames is a novice level Destruction spell that deals fire damage and sets targets on fire, dealing 30% of the immediate spell damage and scaling down quadratically over 0.1 seconds, commencing 1 second after impact.
Like most Fire spells, it can be used to set off Fire Runes or oil slicks from a safe distance (though Firebolt or Fireball may be preferable due to their greater range). In addition, casting it or merely having it ready to cast in an area with flammable gas will result in a massive explosion.
Because all players start with this spell, the tome is only useful as decoration or as an item to sell to merchants.
In the original Skyrim with no DLC, Flames was worth 20 XP/s, on par with Frostbite and Sparks for XP per Magicka point spent. Dragonborn knocked this down to 14 XP/s, probably unintentionally, making it much less favorable for XP gain.