After our little scuffle, I took out the gold ring I prepared. Ring was maybe a bit much, it was more of a squiggly oval plate with a hole in the middle. Of the crystals I prepared, two were very close to fitting inside, so I picked one at random and started fitting the gold to its shape. It was difficult to get the form right with just my talons and shadows to work the material. Well, my shadows only held it in place. They could not exert enough force to shape the material. I only really succeeded with my talons thanks to [Solid Grip].

After a while, I noticed ocelot sitting next to me. She was staring intently at my every motion, curious about my actions. I supposed out here in the wilderness she would not have seen anything like this in her life. I mostly ignored her and just kept on working. It was difficult enough already. I had no practice working with metal and only knew some basics from the crafters I had watched in the goblin village. Those all worked with bone, wood or leather, however.

Another difficulty was me not being able to touch the crystal without draining mana from it. I hoped it would not matter after I was finished, the things I knew about artificing at least made me confident a finished item would not be unwittingly drained of its power. Once I had the shape properly approximated, I picked up the crystal with my shadows, making sure to only touch it with a layer of leaf in between. Then, held it on top of the bearing and pressed. I had formed it a little wide and the pressure bent the metal over the crystal, making it stay in place with preformed clamps. So far, so good. Now came the difficult part. Turning this thing into a vis amulet.

The book talked about using an infusion altar to combine crystals of all six primal aspects into a mundane gold accessory. This required a lot of essentia as well, two parts energy, and one each of aura and void. Some processes also added magic essentia to reduce the required energy. I did not have a way to get all crystals nor was I able to procure the essentia. The lack of crystals was not much of an issue since I planned on using it for further crafting rather than as mana storage, which it was originally intended for. The lack of essentia and an infusion altar was more of a problem. I had to improvise.

Now, what I wanted was a storage. I already had upgraded my [Owl Stomach] Skill to hold items, so there was a good baseline. This was, however, not supposed to hold items. I did not need more of that right now. And gold was most likely too weak to make a proper storage item. I wanted the bracelet to hold mana. That was a stable baseline from where I could shift its purpose to hold memories and then once more work it to transfer thoughts. In the end, I did not need the actual storage part. It would be removed anyway. I still wanted it as a step to be able to monitor my process more closely. It would allow me to double-check for issues.

To create a storage, void mana was core. To make it hold mana, it would need energy, magic and aura, or at least one of these aspects. Aura was a combination of air and magic, magic was void and energy and energy was fire and order. The best choice here was magic. I could later break it down to energy, then fire and finally combine it with soul to create the aspect of knowledge. Now, where could I get the aspect of magic from? Obviously, from the crystal. That was why I had been so careful in handling it before. Having it keep all the accumulated mana allowed me to proceed by simply infusing void from my soul into the item. The gold would hold the additional mana I added to it, acting as a stabilizer and catalyst to combine the intent of my will with physical reality. Though this had little to do with physics if I was perfectly honest. Besides maybe conservation of energy.

The void energy flowed freely from my core. It was much easier now to draw on my power and it was barely intercepted by my physical body anymore. I wondered if this would let me use [Winged Death] in quicker succession or with more power. Something to figure out later. The void mana sunk into the crystal first, where I directed it. A shadow tendril hovering less than a feather’s thickness above, just barely avoiding touch. This allowed my will to push the mana in with some effort but it could not get back out on its own. At the same time, I gripped reality and shaped the magic in the crystal to my plan.

At first, the void mana simply flowed in but soon it started to grab pieces of the magic and dragged them along into the gold bearing. It created a shell around the crystal, a layer formed from interwoven energies. I soon realized it would be unstable so I added some order alongside. It set around the shell and stabilized it during the process. After what felt like an hour but was at most a minute, the item was finally saturated. A small amount of magic was still in the amulet, along with a large amount of water essence. This now quickly fell into itself and collapsed outside reality. The process settled down and I touched the item feeling a surge of order mana flow back into me. Apparently, it was not consumed in the process.

Feeling for my creation I found a large reservoir of water mana inside. It would probably be a very useful item for my new friend. Which said friend also noticed quickly. The ocelot snapped out of its wonder and nearly snagged the amulet from me, only my tendrils unpredictable movement keeping it in my possession. I hooted angrily and held it close to myself. The cat lowered herself a bit and growled. She really wanted this, huh? I gave a short hiss and opened my storage to pull out the rest of the gold bar. It was more than enough for five of these amulets and the feline finally calmed down. I sheared off another bit of gold and gave it to her, then gestured at the crystals still lying around. She nodded and picked up the gold to start working on it herself. I watched on for a moment as her claws extended in sickles of water before returning to my own crafting.

The vis amulet was done. It looked like a butchered apprentice’s work but it did the job. The uneven golden oval clamped around the mana crystal and expanded its natural ability to hold mana all the while preventing it from escaping on accident. I could now freely touch it and only when pulling on it would the mana draw into my body. Since it was pretty much only water mana with a smidgen of destruction, I could not use it really. The energy would just dissipate into flux before reaching my Core. I could just go ahead and attempt the next step but decided to first study my creation in detail. The flow of mana and how it held the energy inside was one thing but more important for moving on was the ability to drain and fill the item. With the node nearby as well as all the crystals experimenting would not be a problem.

It turned out to be a very simple process. The mana reacted to my will if I touched the amulet. It worked through my shadows as well as my body. If I was fast enough I could even return the energy to the item. My body did not accept the energy, turning it into flux. The only issue I found was the difficulty of recharging the item. I tried just holding it up against a mana crystal but that had no effect. The node did not help either. After checking the Thaumonomicon, I found a recharge pedestal was needed. A special item used to drain energy from nearby nodes. That was only the option thaumaturges used. I was a magical beast, I surely had other ways.

My idea worked out. A shadow tendril placed between the amulet and a raw mana crystal allowed me to transfer the energy directly. A little bit was lost in the process but as long as I avoided transferring through my body, the dissipation was minimal. These findings bode well for my purposes. It required willpower to both move energy in and out of the item. This should, with the finished version for telepathy, allow someone to only send and receive thoughts when they wanted. A mute function was a great idea. Although, I wanted to use one item to connect to other minds. That was the super end goal. For now, making a pair was enough to communicate properly with my friend.

The next step was turning it into a memory bracelet. I needed to change the storage from mana to knowledge. So the best aspect to use for this process was change. Who would have thought? I had magic and a little destruction in the item. Aggravating the destructive mana let me push it into the aspect of magic and start breaking it down. Void and energy were the first pair. I simply absorbed the excess void. Then I broke down energy into fire and order, once again absorbing the excess. Now for the hard part. The aspect of soul would combine with fire to create knowledge. I did not understand why. Most of the combinations were apparent. The best I could come up with was attributing the fire aspect more with the idea of inspiration. It did not matter much. As long as it worked.

The soul aspect was something I had been reluctant in pulling from myself before but I only needed a tiny bit. And as a combination of life and death, the only thing I did not have myself was water, of which there was plenty still in the amulet. I pushed some earth mana in to combine into life, then took some of that and turned it into death with destruction. Then my will pushed to combine the two and created the soul aspect. I held for a moment. This was a very interesting aspect. It strongly resonated with my Core. I almost slurped it up right then and there before coming back to my senses. Quickly, I combined it with fire to create knowledge. Then, for the final step, I replaced what was left of the aspect of magic in the amulet and felt it shift.

A sudden shock went through my being, images, feelings, smells and thoughts scrambling together. Most of it I recognized immediately as the last few months of my life. The time since my rebirth. There was, however, a good number of memories I could not really place. People, humans, with vague faces and speaking distorted words, different rooms filled with devices, white coats coming in and leaving as they pleased. Clear pain swapped places with foggy rest. A few times I felt like someone held my hand or gently stroked my hair. Then, there was one clear image. A bonfire, people sitting around. Red skinned and clothed in pelts. Feathers and bones adorned their clothes and paint parts of their skin. An old and wrinkly woman looked into my eyes from across the fire. Her coarse voice spoke.

“Therefore, show respect to owls and frogs, child. They might be your ancestors in their second or third life.”

I felt myself nod and returned to reality. My new reality. I shook my feathers and spread my wings. My beak was tested with a few clicks and my talons gripped the dirt. Shadows flit about, cutting grooves into the dirt. Good. I was still me. I was still an owl. The human limbs were only a dream. A faint memory. From a time before the end, from before my second chance. I felt good. My new body felt right. There was no way I would go back to fingers and hands over wings.

With some trepidation, I took a closer look at my new item. I hesitated a moment before touching it, but the questioning meow I heard made me flinch and accidentally bump into the now green crystal. There was no reaction, at least not instinctive. The item was there and it was magical, alright, but it did not hold any memories. It did not force me to remember anything. Not that I was scared.

I let out a deep breath and looked at my feline friend. With all these ideas rushing through my head, I really thought I should give her a name. As a sapient, I knew I could. But I wanted to discuss it with her beforehand. So I had to get back to crafting. Hopefully, we would soon be able to talk to each other.