While I was out hunting books, the mages had moved the orb into the College tower and taken to calling it the Eye of Magnus - Magnus being the god of magic.
I reported to Tolfdir my findings - The Night of Tears attributed the destruction of Saarthal to the Falmer, who were envious over an artefact of great power discovered buried in the city. This must refer to the Eye. And that would mean that the Eye must be that source of great magical power...
Arcano interrupted our musings and informed me that a member of the Psijic Order had appeared in person, requesting to speak with me. I am summoned to the Arch Mage's quarters to meet him. The Thalmor agent is obviously not happy to be a messenger boy.
The Psijic mage Quaranir was waiting for me. He told me - via "time stop" again - that the presence of the Eye had interfered with his ability to communicate remotely with me, so he was forced to come in person to give me a clue as to where I am supposed to go next - he said I should seek out the Augur of Dunlain, who resides in the College.
Quaranir left hurriedly after passing his message. To Savos Aren and Arcano, no time had passed and they are mystified by what happened - did the Psijic Order send a monk just to look upon the face of one of the College students that they’d asked by name, and then leave? Arcano was particularly suspicious, for there is no love between the Thalmor and the Order.
Later, I asked Tolfdir in private where I can find the Augur. He revealed that nobody in the College who knows of the Augur wants to talk about it: a long time ago, a mage had studied the source of magic that seem to flow throughout the College so deeply that he became part of the source that powers the building. The steps he took to become such was never documented, and nobody could undo it. Since then, the Augur has been treated as a pointed lesson about going too far in one’s research... Eventually the name of the mage was forgotten, and everyone merely referred to this sentient power as the Augur. The Augur had accrued much knowledge over the years but is had been content to reside deep in the dungeons under the College - in a complex known as The Midden.
Deep in the Midden, I find evidence of dark rites being conducted, away from the scrutiny of the College masters. Left undisturbed in the dark of the Midden, there’s no way to date these rites... The College itself might frown on unethical practice of magic, but there are certainly students who are more lax in that regard.
In one room was a summoning circle with a Daedric mechanical arm in the middle. The report found on a table here suggested that nobody knew what the arm was, except that it was obviously Daedric. A sign of Oblivion on the palm says as much. It was also recorded that the students who participated in the summoning did not survive, and the rings that came with the arm were stored in the College for further study. Perhaps there is something more about this rite that it appears.
Deep in the Midden, I found the Augur - it told me that events had already overtaken all chance to avert disaster - but I must find the Staff of Magnus if I were to effect the best outcome possible. The Augur also mentioned that Arcano is mistaken on his views about the Eye... Increasingly, it would seem a confrontation with the Thalmor cannot be discounted in the future.
I reported to the Arch Mage what the Augur said. Savos Aren was surprised that I found out where the Augur is, and even more surprised by mention of the Staff. The Staff of Magnus is a legendary of the god of magic itself. Its best known ability was that of absorbing magical power, supposedly allowing Magnus to roam the mortal realm by preventing his overflowing magic from affecting it.
The Arch Mage said that the Staff was associated with many powerful mages in history, but the current location is unknown - though possibly out of sheer coincidence, mages from the Synod had come to the College recently asking about the Staff, Savos Aren shared that they headed off to the Dwemer ruins of Mzulf, thinking that the Staff might be found there... Odd - that a staff associated in history with magicians in recent history would be in Dwemer ruins abandoned thousands of years ago... still these Synod mages presents the best clue we may have about the Staff of Magnus
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