As Kykna and Conrad were going east to Stonehenge, Thomlyn guided Gergo and the huntress Cleis to Hibernia. The history of the Order in Hibernia was kept at the mercer house of Leth Moga, in Munster. To get there, Thomlyn and Gergo took a ship for 3 days across the Irish sea to Cork. The mood in Cork was tense and Thomlyn, who could speak the language of the Ostmen in town as well as English, soon discovered why: the English had conquered Cork, and the Ostmen who lived here (descendants of Viking raiders) weren't happy with English rule. Moreover, Cork was surrounded by Irish-held territory; Thomlyn was warned not to travel by night and, if they saw Irish raiders, run, for the locals would attack anyone they saw, especially if they thought intruders might be English.
With this warning, Thomlyn and Gergo stayed the night in town and set out the next morning for the village and monastery of Cloyne, where Leth Moga was located. This was an easy day-long journey along the Irish coast. Cloyne was discovered to be a modest village sheltered in a valley with hills to the north and south, with a 100-foot tall stone tower that housed the monks. Several outbuildings surrounded it, including the mercer house, a large wooden manor with an attached barn. Thomlyn and Gergo heralded someone they saw in a red cap, and were quickly led to Diarmait mac Fergaile, head Redcap. Diarmait was resting by the hearth and conversing with a friend, Bradan O Murchadha, nephew to a Hibernian magus.
Thomlyn and Gergo revealed why they had come and Diarmait was happy to help them. Everything they wanted to know would be in the Red Book of Cloyne, the historical record of the Order in Hibernia, but by order of House Guernicus, other magi were not allowed to look in the book. Diarmait would have to find the information for them, a process which might take a few days. In the meantime, they were welcome to stay at Leth Moga, and Diarmait asked Bradan to show the guests around. In particular, Diarmait mentioned that he kept a serviceable laboratory in the barn, and was happy to rent it out for 1 pawn of vis per season. Since the magi did not yet have a covenant of their own, they might find this useful. He also gave them casting token for the Mercer House's Aegis of the Hearth ritual, and asked Gergo if he would be so kind as to renew that ritual, using a casting tablet Diarmait kept for that purpose. To this, Gergo agreed.
Bradan showed the others around, asking about their new covenant and the status of their effort. The barn was discovered to have a Magic aura of 1 and be usable by magi, but not an alchemist like Thomlyn. Gopstan, Diarmait's son-in-law, briefed Gergo on the ways that the Peripheral Code of Hibernia differed from that of other tribunals, including the tradition of Macgnimartha, the fact that Wizards War is more easily declared and lasts forever, and that covenants must keep cattle and a cathach. He tried to explain that the Peripheral Code was designed to ensure that Hibernian magi were brave, but also good caretakers of the land. Other magi thought there were no rules in Hibernia, but the opposite was actually the case. If Gergo and his fellow magi were to consider joining the Hibernian tribunal, they should try to understand the Irish.
The next morning, as they broke their fast, everyone was interrupted by the arrival of Nuala discipula Xylia Ex Miscellanea, an apprentice from the covenant of Qui Sonant in Ulster. She quickly met with Gopstan and they left the chamber. But only a few minutes went by when suddenly everyone in the building fell into a magical slumber except for Gergo, who had been protected by his Parma. Remembering that apprentices sometimes raided covenants in Hibernia, he sought out Nuala and found her emerging alone from a room in the house, and she had the Red Book of Cloyne! The two struggled, and Nuala succeeded in putting Gergo to sleep... but not before he grabbed a fistful of her hair.\
At dusk, everyone woke up in the central room of Leth Moga, where they had all been placed by redcaps from the village who had found them earlier that day. Clearly, Nuala had stolen the Red Book and put everyone in the building to sleep. There were reports that she had taken a horse and a stable hand had spoken with her, saying she was headed for the Killarney Lakes. But strangely, all these witnesses had exactly the same story, and Thomlyn suspected a ruse or trap. Moreover, Nuala was an apprentice; how could an apprentice put everyone in a building to sleep, especially when she would have been hindered by the house's Aegis?
But now Cleis began to track the horse that had been taken from the stables. With her keen eye, she soon found a spot outside the village where Nuala had gotten off her horse, released it, and simply walked back into the village! With the help of some maps, Gergo began repeated castings of The Inexorable Search. At first, he was unsuccessful, and Bradan wondered if perhaps Nuala had escaped into a regio. But with the use of Nuala's hair—which had now turned silver—and vis given to them by Diarmait, who was desperate to recover the Red Book, Gergo was able to locate Nuala, inside the monastery of Cloyne.
Diarmait got them an interview with the abbot, who found all of this hard to believe but who trusted Diarmait. There was in fact a visitor who had arrived the night before, a monk the abbot knew named Poor Brother Bressal. Bressal was asked to attend the abbot, and he soon appeared, insisting that he was nothing more than a humble monk traveling across Hibernia and seeking shelter. But the pointed questions of Gergo and the others soon made it clear to Poor Brother Bressal that he had been discovered, and he used magic to try to escape, first using magic to make the abbot, Diarmait, and Bradan agree to let him go, and then simply vanishing when that failed. Gergo was able to see through the invisibility with his Second Sight, and he saw "Nuala" as an elderly Irishman. He gave chase, but the thief escaped. Fortunately, they found the Red Book in Bressal's room, undamaged.
After a description of the thief, Diarmait deduced the thief was no less than Archmage Busiran, one of the most respected and influential magi in Hibernia. Based on the fact that Busiran had hidden so close, it was Diarmait's belief that he had not intended to keep the book for long, but had planned to somehow return it after getting whatever he wanted out of it. And by blaming the theft on Nuala, the apprentice would even gain honor in Hibernia for her daring and her magical skill. But Gergo, Bradan, and Thomlyn had thwarted the Archmagus, and Diarmait happily found them the information they needed. Moreover, he explained that he could now use Busiran's attempted theft as leverage against the old wizard.
Armed with the locations of four failed covenants on Man, Gergo, Thomlyn and Cleis set out for home. But with them went Bradan, who was looking for a new covenant, where he could be chief librarian.