Matteo didn’t particularly want to drag Tara around when she seemed both unwilling and in pain, so ultimately they spent the rest of the day at the inn. On his part, he read; he came prepared with more books than necessary specifically for this purpose, even if he wanted to go out and wander more. Tara alternated between drawing and sleeping, sometimes getting out a different notebook to write.

The next day started similarly, with Matteo waking Tara up in the morning so they could walk around. She seemed slightly better than the day before at least—complained and murmured about as much as usual, when she typically complained and murmured less when she had a migraine.

They went to somewhere else to eat, and Matteo explained his plan when they left.

“I have that piece of first island text,” he said, occasionally glancing back at her to see if she seemed to be listening. “There’s a library here and a library in the city—at least one of them should have a translating book or something I can use so I know what it says.”

“Okay.” If he learned anything so far, it was how little she provided input when presented with a choice. She must have some thoughts about it, she just didn’t say anything.

The library wasn’t too far, adjacent to a tiny bookstore. The two buildings took up about as much as their house in San Asari.

Matteo went into the library with little to no hesitation, with Tara only following behind him because she didn’t want to stay behind. An older man nodded at them from behind a desk right by the door.

“Good morning,” he said kindly. Matteo murmured a greeting in return. “You two are tourists?”

It didn’t exactly sound like a question, but Matteo answered anyway.

“We are. May we look around?”

“You may, just keep the books inside. Take them out and you’ll be paying full price for it.”

“Got it. Thank you.”

The man offered a kind of grunt as his response, then Matteo led Tara behind another door to the library in question. There wasn’t much to it—a few shelves about half-full with books, small seating areas every now and then. Kinda looked and felt like the library in the Qrian house.

He did a general walk past all the shelves—at a certain point, Tara stopped following him to take a spot in one seat that let her see the entrance and started drawing—then doubled back to skim through the sections that seemed most interesting to him. They didn’t have a large selection; a majority of the books were the same kind in most private and public libraries. There were a lot of history books and such, but nothing that fit Matteo’s particular interests. Tara didn’t even try to look for anything.

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He gestured to Tara after about half an hour of looking around. He doubted anything he wanted would be here—it didn’t seem like it, at least. It didn’t even have a ‘private’ section like the general library in San Asari, so he couldn’t check there to see if there was something in there that would help him.

Matteo went back to the front desk before directly leaving, which earned him some combination of a sigh and squeak from Tara.

“Sorry to bother you,” Matteo said casually to the man, despite not really being apologetic per say, “But do you know if the library in the city has a larger selection? I’m looking for something in specific.”

He could practically feel Tara’s disapproving look, for one reason or another, but the man must’ve heard dumber questions since he didn’t seem to mind.

“They do,” the man replied. “You need a letter of recommendation from the leading lord or some evidence you’re from a noble house, though.”

That might be hard; he did end up taking one of the knives Aurik had the Qrian crest engraved on, but he was also the only Qrian so he’d be outing himself as the prince fairly quickly if they kept up with news and gossip. He almost wouldn’t mind on his own, but Tara would probably death glare him for the rest of the trip and be even jumpier.

Out of curiosity, Matteo asked, “Who’s the leading lord?”

He didn’t know it off hand—the name of every city was more important than the people leading them, since even in the cities the ‘leading lord’ really just approved or denied things.

“It was Komatsu,” he explained. “Long story short, the patriarch died and willed it to his daughter, who gave it to her sister, who passed it on to her daughter. Dazuz is supposedly watching the place now, but the lady hasn’t done much in the year or so since. If you wanted to get in the city’s library, you’d have to talk to her.”

Matteo glanced back at Tara. “Don’t we know a Dazuz?”

The name sounded familiar, at least, but he couldn’t tell if it was because Mark would’ve said something about it earlier or if he knew someone from the family. Tara’s response was just to frown, though.

“Do you have to?”

“Technically, no. Could I just check?”

“No.”

She held her sketchbook a little closer, still frowning with a bit more emotion behind it. He took it as his cue to let it go; he knew there was probably at least one translation book in Aurik’s library, he’d just have to search for it.

Matteo looked back at the librarian.

“Well, regardless, thank you, sir,” he said. “Have a good day.”

“Right. You too.”

Matteo offered a kind of wave, and Tara walked right behind him when they left. With his plans otherwise over, the two came to an agreement to do their gift shopping for the rest of the day, then just loiter somewhere until the train came tomorrow.