Despite her insistence to the contrary, Lydia was not ready. She seemed almost to be her usual self at first, but she jumped when her shield accidentally banged the wall of the tunnel. She muttered something inaudible to herself, and soldiered on.
When a mage materialized from nothing ahead of them in the hallway, however, she nearly swung her sword toward his head, stopping herself just before the swing became obvious to anyone but Volund and herself. Tolfdir, in contrast, seemed to take the sudden magical appearance in stride. While the stranger did not ignore the Dragonborn and his housecarl, it was to the elderly wizard that he mostly spoke.
"I bring a message from the Psijic Order. Be warned, all of you. You have started a chain of events which cannot now be averted. Its consequences will be dire, and may be disastrous. Momentous action and legendary powers will be required to shape coming events in such a way as to avoid oegnithr – change for the worse. Judgment has not been passed, as you had no way of knowing the results of your actions. Judgment will be passed from here onward. We will be watching."
The spectral mage vanished. Lydia chewed her bottom lip, and the silence stretched on for nearly a full minute before Volund finally spoke.
"Well… at least he wasn't pretentious."
A ghost of a smile crossed Lydia's face and faded again. Tolfdir seemed lost in thought. Volund shrugged, and moved on, and the others followed, both seemingly in their own worlds.
From there, little of note seemed to be present in the ruins. The draugr were determined, but between Tolfdir's magic and Volund and Lydia's swords, they fell with little real danger to the adventurers, even if Lydia's swings seemed a bit off from time to time. There was no more dragon writing, and it seemed as though the entire adventure might end with nothing more than some gold or weapons, when Volund opened a door and the three froze in place.
"WHAT is THAT?!" Volund voiced at the same time that Tolfdir exclaimed "My goodness!" and Lydia made a small "Oooh" noise.
A giant orb hung suspended on the air before them, humming audibly and casting strange lights on the walls of the room. As Volund walked toward it, he realized that the hum was not just in the air, but in his mind. The orb called almost in the same way that words of power did, although it seemed this call was from a greater distance, and it did not resolve itself in his mind like the dragon language. He shook his head as if to clear it, but it had no effect. The hum remained in the back of his mind.
Tolfdir circled the orb slowly, examining it and muttering observations as he went. His voice increased in volume steadily as the elderly mage grew more and more excited. As time went on, Volund grew more restless and cleared his throat. Tolfdir seemed to remember that he was there, and begged him to go get the Archmage.
"I can't risk leaving this alone," the mage said, although Volund thought he would have been just as accurate to say "I can't bring myself to stop looking at it." Nevertheless, the Dragonborn rose to the challenge and trekked back to the College, dutifully informing the Archmage, who set off at once.
The day had been long, and Lydia at least was tired, though she had not complained. Mirabelle Ervine found the two an unused room in the students' wing, and the two went to bed. More concerning to Volund even than the giant mystical orb was the fact that Lydia deliberately turned her back to him as she went to sleep.
Funny how the free time you expect to have seems to vanish… Anyway, I wrote out Jyrik Gauldurson. Why in the world would you seal away an evil power-hungry undead mage for centuries or millennia in the SAME ROOM AS THE EYE OF MAGNUS? That's just begging for trouble. Even worse, he's not actually sealed. He's not even in a coffin! He's just sitting there as you walk in, pondering how to use the unlimited power he has to the best advantage.