I gave Alex the good news as I took off. It was early morning and I had not gotten any rest this night. Still, flying was relaxing and I wanted to settle this right now. She was ecstatic about finally being independent.

I arrived by evening, maybe an hour or two before sundown. It was a little difficult to tell with the mountains. My friend welcomed me at the entrance into the village, a bunch of goblins moving around stone and dirt out of or into the farming cave.

“I’m here, calm down”, I sent. The golem was standing perfectly still but I could feel her excitement rushing over across the bond.

“I know”, was her only answer.

“Where do you want your node to be, for now?”, I asked.

“That… is a good question. Maybe a little out of the way down there?”

She pointed at a spot a few metres further along the wall. It was located between village and farm and would let her move around both without much issue.

“And what if you want to go into the forest cave?”

“Then I have to figure out how to get a core.”

I nodded.

“If you’re fine with it. I don’t know the range you’ll have, though.”

“Better a small cage than a straightjacket.”

We got to work setting up her node. Roguk and big brother came to greet us and stayed to take a look. As I placed the stabilizer down, I had Alex guide me to the exact position she wanted. That turned out to be just anywhere along the wall. She was not very picky.

“So this is for Alex to move all the time?”, big brother asked.

“Yes. You’ll have to figure out conversation. She can at least understand you, right?”

I turned to the golem with the last word.

“I can. My goblin language is good enough.”

“I speak Ordugh, you know?”

“Don’t. Teach me Goblin. I want to learn it.”

“That’s a good idea”, Roguk nodded, “And you can teach us writing in return, maybe?”

“[Telepathy] would help you guys a lot”, I said, “I’ll come back once I have the Skill and see if I can’t teach it to Alex.”

“It’s a deal.”

Finally, I brought out the node.

“I hope this one will be good enough. Otherwise, I might have to get another one.”

“Just get to it, Fio!”

“Yes, yes”, I chuckled. It came out more as a click of the tongue.

I put the Node in a Jar on top of the stabilizer and got the seals ready. Then, I broke the jar to let it out and watched the device activate. After a few moments, the barrier was settled.

“I want to try going with this one, first. You should get more energy from the transducer but it would be impossible to move without getting a new node.”

“Go for it”, Alex agreed.

I flexed my will to feel out the bond. Normally, thaumaturges would use a specially constructed bell to guide their vis into the world. It was not necessary for me. My magic was strong enough without simple tools. I still visualized the bond by overlaying it with a tendril of shadows.

“I’m disconnecting us”, I sent.

Then, the connection was broken. Alex and I were no longer bound. I could feel the tiny drain I had gotten used to disappear and my body breathed out in relief. No longer was there a constant, if minuscule, amount of flux cycled through me. I could not feel Alex anymore, but I saw her arms and head twitch before she went completely still. She was most likely preserving energy.

I led the tendril I was using to visualize the bond to the node. I found it quite easy to connect to normal ones in the wild but the stabilizer made it quite a bit more difficult. That was until I hooked up directly to it. I felt the energy ready to flow into me any second but there was a small block preventing unwanted transfer. Still, it was connected to me, right now. I pushed against the binding and slowly moved it over to Alex. It was much easier once I actually walked up to her.

The bond slipped out of my grasp as Alex got close enough. I found my shadows disconnecting from my body and then quickly dissipating. With bated breath, we looked at the golem. I still felt her consciousness through the supersensory matrix but she seemed distant. Most likely, she was busy with accessing the node’s energy.

After a few minutes, her head turned to me.

“I did it!”, she sent, “We did it! Thank you!”

Before I could react, I was grabbed and hugged by a golem half my size. Her tiny arms were just barely too short to reach around my body. They were still strong and I soon felt my feathers crinkle under her squeeze.

“We did. Now, don’t crush me, please?”

“Oh, sorry.”

With timid steps, she brought some distance between us. There was little in the ways of expression on her static face but I could still feel what counted as an embarrassed smile through our mental connection.

“You’re free now. Somewhat. You might even be able to get vis enrichment from this node. Let’s check the range, first. Maybe we need to energize it.”

Alex nodded and we started making our way through the caves. First, we tried the farm. Alex could go just a little past the centre of the third chamber before she felt a change. There was suddenly more flux being created and less energy reached her. I told her to stay a little past and checked on the node. Just as I guessed, flux also formed around it. She would be able to move further than this but staying there for a prolonged period of time would be a risk to the environment.

I returned to the group.

“Looks fine but there’s a bit of flux on both ends. You should not stay far from the node for too long.”

Alex nodded and we returned to the village. We tried the tunnel to the forest cave as well and found she could just barely not reach it before the soft limit. That meant we would be able to go inside together for a bit if we ever needed to.

My friend was extremely happy with the proceedings. It was clear from her posture even without any facial expressions.

“This is wonderful. I don’t have to rely on you any longer.”

“You can still do so, though. I’m gonna get you to full freedom if you don’t get there first!”

Her head turned to me once more. The faceplate of the thaumium helmet with its permanently threatening expression tilted a tiny bit to the side.

“Hmpf! I can’t tilt my head. This sucks…”

“Just get stronger”, I sent.

“I will, just you wait!”

Her tiny arm reached forward and a bolt formed in the crossbow integrated into it.

“Oh, shit. Sorry. I didn’t want that!”

She quickly pointed it at the ground and after some fiddling, simply shot into the stone.

“No worries. I know how tough it is with an unfamiliar body. Just don’t actually shoot someone. Unless you want to.”

“I know. Sorry.”

“So, everything is settled, then? You’re good?”, Roguk asked.

“I… yes? Look…”

“I don’t care about that weapon as long as you don’t shoot anyone. I’m sure you don’t want to, so there’s no reason to worry.”

Silence stretched the next few seconds into an uncomfortable minute.

“I see”, Alex finally said, “That makes sense. Yes.”

“Then let’s get to that farm, Fio!”

I nodded.

We made our way back into the newly dug out cave. The goblins had started on the fourth chamber in a straight line. I checked with big brother and they had only four pickaxes that were no longer usable. Dwarven smithing was really good, apparently. Still, I would have to get someone to teach them metalworking when I was in Serrington the next time.

The fields were ready in the first two chambers. The goblins had left a path in the middle stone to walk on, keeping two nine-by-four metre patches of dirt per room. That was not much for a village of almost sixty but magical farming would hopefully work that out.

I decided to start with the node transducer. This was a bit of a risky task since it could only be done once. An energized node would reduce the amount of vis it could hold but instead refill rapidly. Removing the transducer would not have it grow back to its original size, though, which meant in most cases the node would fade after a few days.

This one was a medium one for herba and a little bit of aer. The air vis would be negligible after energizing but for herba, it should suffice to supply a few dozen lamps of growth, at the very least. Maybe I could use some special funnels to make vis crystals grow in certain places from the excess?

The energizer was a little difficult to properly set up. I had to somehow move it above the node, upside down and keep it in the air. With the help of the two goblins and my shadow tendrils, we somehow managed without much issue. I got out my wand and a pinch of salis mundus, which was dropped on top. With a flex of my will, the transducer activated and sunk into the barrier. When the square gaps touched it, the device settled with a slight shake, before lightning bolts started to shoot through the node into the stabilizer. Within moments, the blueish-white crackles were all we could see. I took half a step back while trying to glean anything interesting from the process. It looked to me as if the transducer was trying to break the node by pushing out vis violently while the stabilizer kept it hole by keeping it contained within its barrier. I could maybe draw on my core in a similar manner if I was able to find a way to emulate the stabilizer. Then again, that sounded a bit like fancy suicide by flux. At least in this containment, the energy shot back and forth before being able to do any damage.

After a few minutes, the lightning settled and before us floated a glowing ball of green. Rather than the soft light one might miss on a sunny day, this looked like someone had put up an LED for some live show. Only one, though. In the middle of a cave full of goblins.

“Did it work?”, Roguk asked.

“As well as it could’ve”, I sent, “Never touch this, though. I’ll have to come back to repair it and bring a new node. Unless you want to have your own thaumaturge in the village?”

“Not planned right now”, the goblin said, “But maybe one day. I must admit, when I see what you can do, I am a bit envious.”

I puffed up my feathers.

“Thank you!”

“Now we only have to get the plants going, right?”, big brother said.

“Correct. Let’s get to it!”