Did the books ever clarify if he was walking around in person or as some sort of projection while safe in Orthanc? I can’t remember. Guess it’s time for a reread!

This Redditor is pretty sure it’s Saruman.

Last time I read the book, I had the same feeling.

So we don’t know if Saruman was there in person or some sort of wizardry type projection of himself. Cool, thanks for the link!