I awoke the next morning without much fanfare and headed back the way I had come. It was a little rash to run into the woods but I needed the escape and the sleep helped. I still walked back to town perhaps a little slower than I normally would but I got there in the end. The difference to the first time entered the town was astounding, the funny looks had gone but I drew a lot more attention than I had the first time, no disgusted looks this time but those who people's eyes lingered on my hand for longer than they normally would and afterwards they would send a furtive glance at me from time to time.

It was like I was a sports car in a backwater town, people weren't freaking out but they were definitely looking. I couldn't say I blamed them but I still felt a little uncomfortable with all the attention. It was the last thing I wanted right now but there wasn't much I could do about it. I picked up my pace so that I wasn't lingering around the same people for too long and eventually I made it where I wanted to go. It was a small grey brick shop with a sign out the front with a hammer and anvil emblazoned on it. "Ore Else" was written in a dangerous font underneath it that made me shake my head, it would appear that they have puns here too.

I pushed open the door to the shop to find a small reception area, there were example weapons hung on the walls around the room, they were mostly swords of varying sizes but there was also an abundance of hammers, axes, spears, daggers, and the like too. Behind the counter was a young girl, an actual child I was pretty sure and not just a gnome, she was maybe seven or eight and she gave him a goofy grin.

"Welcome to the shop mister, the best place in town for anything to chop, stab or bash with. Can I help you with anything?" When I didn't say anything but drew a little closer she frowned and looked disappointed. "Oh, you're just a golem, you guys are never any fun to talk to."

I chuckled inwardly at that and cast my spell.

"Well, I'm sorry that most of us aren't very good at talking but I'm not just any old golem. I used to be a man you know?"

She jumped when she heard my voice and ran off screaming. That could have gone better I suppose. A moment later a huge man came out of the back, the young girl hiding protectively behind his legs. He was a human, about a half a foot taller than me and about as wide. This dude was jacked and something told me that it wasn't vanity muscle. He was covered in soot and wearing a stained blacksmith's apron, an outfit of equally stained and slightly singed cotton clothes that barely kept themselves together over his massive frame and had a large black beard that covered the lower half of his head.

"What're you here for and who's your master? I hope you're here for a reason because I won't take kindly to people sending their pets to scare me daughter. If you had a brain you'd have thought twice before you came in here an-" His eyes happened to glance at my hand as he was eyeing me up and down and his words caught in his throat. "Well I'll be, you're actually a person."

If I could have awkwardly coughed before speaking I would have but the spell I had didn't really allow for such things.

"Yeah, I didn't mean to scare anyone. As you can tell, this way of speaking is a little scary to some people." I didn't actually know what I sounded like but considering people's reactions to it so far it couldn't have been good. "I'm sorry for scaring your daughter but I was actually looking for work."

He was a little taken aback by my voice and seemed even more so by what I had said but after a moment a thoughtful look crossed his face.

"Work? I suppose I could find something for you to do, I can't promise you steady pay you'll get whatever you earn but I could probably make something work. I'm gonna need you to find a better way of talking than that though, can't have you caring my daughter, or the customers for that matter, away every time you talk to someone. Might be good for the shop, people would probably come in just to get a look at you. Why don't you go see what you can do about that voice and come back to me tomorrow? We can work something out then." The little girl's eyes went wide after her dad started talking and grew wider still as he continued. She was rapidly looking back and forth between the two of us like she was watching the most intense game of tennis ever played. It was hilarious, if a little dizzying, to watch.

"That would be amazing, thank you, do you know where I might be able to find something? I had heard that there are charms or something for it but I have no idea where to go about buying one." He placed his heavy hand on his daughters head to stop it from twitching so much, probably to stop her giving herself brain damage or from making him dizzy.

"There is a jeweller a few stores down, his wife's an enchanter, I bet she could probably knock something up for you. Tell them I sent you. I'm Dave by the way."

"Alex, thank you, Dave, I'll be back tomorrow morning. Have a good day."

"May Vulcan bless your work."

Vulcan? Wasn't that one of the Roman gods? They were real? That was a bit of a bombshell to just sort of drop on someone, not that he knew I didn't know. That raises so many questions that I have no way of figuring out. It could have just been a coincidence but that seemed unlikely considering I'm pretty sure that he was the god of the forge or something along those lines and Dave was a blacksmith.

I walked down a couple of shops until I found the jeweller and walked inside, I was distracted again by my thoughts and wasn't really paying attention to what was around me until a voice entered my ears and brought me back to reality.

"Hello sir, how can I help you today?" The voice was masculine but effeminate and came from a slender elf behind a glass display case on one side of the room. The room was full of such cases, filled with glittering gems and finely crafted jewellery. Rather than waiting for him to notice that I was a golem, I decided to immediately answer.

"Good morning, my name is Alex. I'm an unbound golem and I was hoping that your wife would be able to make something so that I could speak a bit more casually. This mode of speaking is a little sinister, don't you think? Dave said that she might be able to help."

To his credit, the guy didn't even twitch, whether it was because he had seen my hand and was already expecting it or because he was just very good at keeping a straight face I wasn't sure but he immediately gave me a businesslike smile.

"Of course sir, if you give me a moment I'll go fetch her."

He came back nearly twenty minutes later with a gnome. It made me incredibly uncomfortable to think that these two were married she looked like a young child, even if she as a fully grown woman. The idea of not letting race get in the way of love and my instinctual reaction towards paedophilia clashed hard and I was glad that I had complete control over my face. Customs would have to be different here and I was likely to cause quite a lot of fuss if I made a big deal out of this.

She didn't introduce herself, say hello or anything, she just threw a small gem at me which I caught out of the air. After that, she put her hands on her hips and said "Channel your mana into it to charge it up, then as long as it's in contact with you it'll react to your thoughts. It'll work for you anywhere inside your domain though, you being a golem and all. Let me know if you ever want any enchantments on your body, that could be a fun project, now I'm busy, my husband will take you through the sale." then she left. That was another thing about this world, people had a tendency to just walk away when they were done with you. It was incredibly rude. Maybe my voice was just so unpleasant they didn't want to give me the chance to speak? Who knows?

The gem cost me five silver, which I paid and then I embedded it into my a mouth that I excavated for this purpose. It took about 10 mana to charge the thing and then I spoke.

"Hello, world."

I had expected it to be garbled and roboty for some reason and I thought it would be a funny joke, even if only I would get it but it had come out as my voice, my real voice from my old life and that realisation made me laugh with joy, which for the first time in a long while actually happened, rather than just being in my head. It made me feel so much better, that bit more human and gave me hope for the future. It was amazing what the little things can do for you.