Winds are magical energy in what can be considered its 'natural' form - one of eight flavours and acting according to its nature. That magical energy when used in a spell is no longer a Wind, because it's now acting according to the will of the person using it instead of according to its own nature, but it's still magical energy, and it still has the potential to revert back to Wind if the Wizard mishandles it. It can also revert back to its original form as a manifestation of the realm of Chaos if things go really wrong, and that's when you get the really nasty miscasts. Or it can be scattered so widely that it no longer has the nature of one of the Winds, and it becomes largely inert magic, sometimes known as 'earthbound' magic.
This is the energy that Runecraft uses, and one of the fundamental secrets of Runecraft is how you can have large amounts of this inert energy in one place with it remaining inert and not remanifesting one of its other natures. It's also the magic that is theorized to be behind the non-Teclisean magics like Hedgecraft and Elementalism and the like, using this inert magic to fuel lesser spells that can take just about any form because they don't have a fundamental nature that one has to work around. That these non-Teclisean traditions are often able to perform feats that Teclisean theory says are impossible using only earthbound magic is a bit of a sticking point in that whole theoretical framework.
Teclisean theory: "Well, technically if you use only tiny amounts of magic then you can shape it into any framework you imagine, but if you get too much magic together it will reassert an identity so you could only cast the most petty and minor of spells..."
Elementalists: "Haha fire golem goes brrr."
