And that night the long pillow is removed, and Sylvi cuddles up in her sleep.
Oh, there it is.
"Excuse me, do you need this?" she asks, tapping the stranger's copy of Advanced Topics in Autonomous Golem Engineering.
"No," he says. "Sorry, I neglected to put it back. This one's better," he motions to another book that is making up the book fort: Golems: An Expert Engineer's Guide, "that one's more theory instead of instruction."
"It's not bad, just - not helpful if you would like to do the theories it mentions. It's excellent if you're looking to see if you want to get into golem creation before you actually do."
"Oh. I have a project in mind, just - well, are you using the better one right now?"
"Not right now, no, but I'm likely to need it later. But, good news, I am open to the mystical concept of 'sharing.'"
She giggles. "All right, I won't walk off with it, then. Thanks." She takes the book and opens up her notebook, which is full of instructional diagrams and other notes.
He doesn't look at her notebook, he's already back to reading his own books - there are three of them that are open. He's switching between them and taking notes on each. Verifying things from multiple sources, maybe? Or something else entirely. Either way, he's apparently busy.
"You haven't by any chance already read this through, have you? Specifically chapter four?"
"I need a way for golems of the same make to share information that they acquire like that with each other."
"If I'm remembering right, this one's got a good chapter on it," says the stranger, holding up a newly discovered book. "Seventeen? Or sixteen."
"Ooh. Thanks." She accepts the book. "Do you have a project too or are you just academically inclined?"
"You're welcome. Project, if yours turns out to be about medicine-delivering self-cleaning golems, you're allowed to just crib entirely from my notes if you promise to help."
Aly hesitates. "I don't really - I'm worried that it could become very political. I'm planning to stay anonymous."