MagiStream

Ysog presses a fist to their forehead, closing their eyes tightly against the light from inside as well as a sudden welling up of tears. This was the closest they'd gotten in the months they'd been preparing for this journey, and they can't believe they let themself get distracted like this. "....no. It wasn't." They push the sheet of blank, almost new paper aside, and survey their copy, half hoping they'd gotten further along than they thought and wouldn't need to start the hunt for that stupid map again.

....They'd only just started copying the path in, having started a list of landmarks in a small notebook before they ever got to copying any features onto the paper.They start to mutter, voice cracking. "Of course. Why not, what's three more months? It's only my whole keep at stake-"
Ysog remembers they have an audience, and scrub frustratedly at their eyes. If the worst of their instructors couldn't make them cry three years ago, they certainly aren't going to cry over this, here, now, in front of some random automaton they just met. This is nothing. They've faced off raging nandi bears and an angry aresian pegasus, they can handle losing the map and having to search for it anew.

Eurus shifts the dragon in their arms. "Are you missing something?" They try to look at the map that Ysog has copied so far. "Are you missing your keep?"

"...Would you like help searching?"

.....
"I'm not- I'm not missing my keep." The wizard finally says. "...I'm missing the main source of power that keeps it running and... safe." They look at the automaton. "...There's an item that's supposed to be just as strong, and it can be created rather than taken, but nobody seems to know for sure, nobody's- nobody's even seen it, and I haven't wanted to say why I needed it. The map is supposed to lead to instructions on how to build the... item, but the map just appears randomly on big enough sheets of paper here in the library." They pause to scratch under the chin of their Ilikatal. The rats begin landing back near them, a particularly large one dropping directly into a pocket and disappearing. "...and you can't just game the system by removing all other papers out of the library. It knows, somehow, and it just won't show up."

"Is there a particular time when the map shows up?" Eurus has moved closer to Ysog's table, trying to see if they recognize anything on the map. The dragon wakes up just long enough to grumble, and the automaton pets him. "Is three months how long it takes, or the estimated time it takes to search for it?"

"N-no, it's-" Another sigh from the mage, who is looking more exhausted by the second. "It won't appear again until morning. I'm- not sure when. Three months was how long it took to find it early enough to actually copy anything down." They slide back into the chair and drop their face onto the table, narrowly missing the drying ink of their partially copied map. Ysog raises two fingers and traces a circle in the air. At a pitch only dogs and other such creatures can hear comes a whistle, and a few other small creatures zip out of the stacks and land on Ysog's shoulders.

Eurus pats the now thoroughly grumbly dragon, the papers discarded on a table. "Hmm. Would organizing the papers for later perusal not work?"

"....of. Of the whole Library?" Ysog says, slowly, because this is sort of an insane concept. "Just take all the papers big enough to hold a map from everyone else?" He scratches along the neck of the small beetle-like drake- a small brindle dynastis- and continues. "I am alright with the people around here considering me an ass, I don't fancy the fallout that will come of me just taking every blank sheet of paper larger than eight by eleven inches for the night."

"L-listen. If you want to help, you can- meet me back here tomorrow morning, around seven. I have... something I can do, I just usually can't because I don't have... a lot of people I can rely on. If- if you don't mind... me relying on you. I could do it." Ysog tugs their hat down, avoiding the gaze of the automaton.

The automaton stares directly into Ysog's soul.

And then gets bapped by a now awake baby dragon. After they move their face out of the way they shrug. "The only thing I have to take care of currently is this dragon. I will help you, as I was before."

A faint smile. "Great." They meet Eurus's eyes again, and the smile widens for just a second. "So- seven?" They ask, frowning at the darkened sky. "That's the soonest I'm gonna be able to get up, at least." The two little dynastis also scurry into a pocket, vanishing. "...I'm going to find something to eat, then, and sleep a few hours. Thanks. For real." Ysog starts towards the door slowly.