On the urgency of Tolfdir's instructions, I hurried back to the College to inform the Arch Mage of the find. Savos Aren seemed almost nonchalant about it, but the Thalmor overseer Arcano got wind of my return and suspects something... he correctly surmised that a discovery of great importance must have been made, since Tolfdir had stayed behind in Saarthal and sent a student to report it.
While the College masters make preparations to transport the Orb to the campus for closer study, the Arch Mage suggests that I study the history of Saarthal to see if there was any mention of the orb.
Urug gro-Shub, the orc librarian, informed me the book I want about Saarthal is missing - stolen, in fact, by a student not too long ago. Orthorn had apparently thought to seek his fortunes with a rogue group of magicians called the Summoners, and thought that stealing a few books from the College would make a good introductory gift.
The librarian had tried persuading the members of the College to track Orthorn down and reclaim the books, but everyone was "too busy" to help. Since I have need of the books, Urug is happy to let me know exactly where he thought Orthorn might be - the Summoners operate from a compound call Fellglow Keep, east of Whiterun.
And no wonder. Fellglow Keep rests on a plateau accessible only by a narrow path hidden from the main roads. The guards were understandably surprised by any intruder this far out in the mountains, a hostile one, too - sniper arrows made short work of unprotected magicians. Within the keep, corpses of both vampires and wolves made amply clear that the Summoners had been conducting some grim experiments. There were also live specimens - I put them out of their misery together with their jailers. All except one.
Orthorn sat despondently in a cell. Apparently the Summoners only wanted him as a test subject, and had made use of him to get hold of the books they needed from the College as well. I freed the repentant Orthorn, who said he would head to Winterhold and beg for entrance back to the College.
The book I seek - The Night of Tears - is now in the possession of the leader of the Summoners - someone who calls herself The Caller (they're big on ominous names, I guess). She tried to bargain the book for Orthorn's life, but what kind of Harbinger trades a life (even if that of a fool) for a book?
What followed was a battle of the conjurors as she and I threw flame atronach after flame atronach at one another. I do have an advantage of having a decent bow as well, however, and eventually won the day. Having Breton magic-resistant blood probably helped a bit, too.
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