“So, you won’t be staying in the village, then?”, Thomas asked.

We were still sitting around the table and everyone’s focus returned to me.

“Definitely not tonight. I’m teaching my family Ordugh but they don’t know [Telepathy] so it will be difficult to communicate. Those blackboards might work once they get down their letters. Otherwise, I would consider bringing them closer. I believe it will be much easier to get them used to a few humans at first.”

“That does make sense”, Joanne spoke up, “Say, do you mind if I meet them?”

“Dear…”, Herbert began.

“No”, she interrupted him, “I will not hear it!”

The man lowered his eyes after a few moments. Joanne nodded.

“Of course, you, Circe and Mira should be there as well.”

“If I can convince them, sure. My sister has met them but left quickly. As I said, they are scared.”

“Which I can understand”, she nodded, “Is there anything I could do to make up for that?”

“Food, I guess? That means, raw meat. Best would be hole rats and mice or smaller birds and lizards.”

She pulled a face.

“I… see. Could you provide me with some, Leon?”

“Eh? Probably… Are hares fine?”

I bobbed my head.

“Or you can ask Liz. Her cat often brings a ‘gift’ to her door.”

“Oh, right. That might work.”

“Can you store the kills? It would be bad if they were older than a day and out in the open.”

“We can!”, Circe said.

“Right. The pantry.”

“Mhm!”

“Wonderful! When should I come, then?”

“No idea. I’m trying to convince them every morning. Just be there early?”

“I see. I can do that.”

“I’m…”, Herbert started again.

“Not coming with me”, his wife said.

“But!”

“No buts! You would just scare them away.”

I blinked. She was suddenly being much more friendly. Was she trying to build trust? I hoped there was not more to it but I somehow doubted that.

The conversation settled into more comfortable topics like the festival preparations and what I might contribute. I was uncertain what I would be able to do but everyone insisted I do something. That was one of the best options to introduce myself to the rest of the village in a more positive light.

While they considered their own parts, I got to thinking. The biggest problem would be making myself understood by everyone. I could try to push [Telepathy] beyond the Breakpoint but that was far from certain to succeed and might not give me what I needed, anyway. The easy solution would be to build a magical speaker of sorts. I already knew how to turn sounds into a magical signal with the arcane ear. Granted, that was not a very sophisticated method and more on the level of any noise beyond a certain volume giving a signal. There was little distinction between what was actually ‘heard’ by the artefact. Then again, my will would be taking over that part.

I needed some way to turn energy into sound. That would most likely include the aspects of sensus and humanus in some way since I wanted to project a human voice. I also needed to actually put it out there which could be done through a mix of praecantatio and aer, unless there was a sound aspect that could do all that for me in one go. I had never heard of that, though. Then again, time had not been visible to my understanding until I stumbled upon it on my own.

The device to carry it would best be built from greatwood. Which I had absolutely none of with me and no way to get it within the week. Normal wood had to be enough. At least I should be able to get some metals from the village. Hopefully. I had heard the clanging of a hammer on metal so there was probably a smith for household needs.

“Fio, can you do some cool magic to make this more special?”, Circe asked suddenly.

“What? For the inauguration, or what?”

“Yes!”

“I can do darkness and killing. Not really good for the festival mood.”

“Ah, sucks. Worth a try, at least.”

I turned to Thomas.

“Do you have a smith I could buy some brass from? Maybe a bit of iron as well?”

That caught him off-guard.

“Well… we do have a village smith but what for?”

“I want to try making something to let me speak out loud.”

“The what now?”, Herbert asked, “Are you a [Thaumaturge]?”

“No. I learned the basics of artificing from the dwarves.”

Empty gazes met my sweeping vision.

“You can just go ask the smith”, Circe said, “I’ll show you where it is.”

I bobbed my head.

“Good”, Thomas said, “Then we just do it as planned. You hold your speech, Dad, then I come up and you have me swear on the book. A few more words from me and then the feast.”

“Sounds good to me”, Leon said.

“Oh, I’m so excited!”, Joanne squealed.

Had they just decided to ignore me? Not that I minded…

After a few minutes, Circe stood up and motioned for me to follow.

“We’re going to Rubeos”, she said.

There were a few nods as answer and Joanne told her daughter to come back after with a kiss on the cheek and then we were out.

The village smith, Rubeos, was near the palisades not far from a small river flowing right outside. It was also rather close to the butcher we met earlier but we took a path between the houses that led us directly there rather than down the main street.

There was an open hut, mostly just a roof, with paved stones around the forge attached to a slightly larger house than the surrounding ones. I could hear the clanging of a hammer and a grindstone shaving metal all the way over. A large man stood at the anvil and was working a piece of metal into an elongated shape. He was bulging everywhere but not like a bodybuilder. His muscles were covered in thick layers of fat stretching out the leather apron he wore. He was also bald.

In the back on the grindstone sat a boy not older than 15 sharpening a hatchet. A few other cutting tools lay in two neat piles not far from him. Knives, cleavers and arrows mostly.

The two of us waited for a few minutes and watched Rubeos do his work. The piece of metal was thinned out into a long stick and then bent around the curved side of the anvil. I soon realized what he was making. He left a small gap and moved the chain link to his right. I jumped a few steps to see and there was a chain already seven links long to which he attached the eighth with a precise strike of his hammer.

Then he looked up.

Our eyes met.

He stared.

I hooted and waved a wing.

“Hey Rubeos!”, Circe greeted.

The smith blinked and turned.

“Oh! It’s you! What’s on?”

“Fio wants some metal.”

I could practically see the cogs turning in his head. I decided to relieve him from his confusion.

“Hello”, I sent to his mind.

He flinched.

“That’s her!”, Circe said while indicating to me.

“Nice to meet you”, I said.

The grinding stopped and the boy looked over. I added him to the telepathic connection and sent another greeting.

“What’s going on?”, Rubeos asked.

“Fio is my friend”, Circe said, “We just were at dad’s place. She needs some metal”

“Bird’s can’t smith.”

I scoffed.

“That might be true but I can do artificing.”

His eyes widened.

“Show me!”, he grunted.

I thought about it for a moment and pulled out the heating plate from my storage.

“Here. I made this myself.”

The smith left his forge, almost forgetting to put down his hammer and tongs. The boy who was most likely his son also made his way over. Together they looked at the heating plate which was nearly a square metre in size. They observed it from all angles and carefully ran their fingers over it. In between, the two men shared a look here and there, almost as if talking.

Eventually, Rubeos turned to me.

“What is this for?”

“Heating”, I said, “Step back a bit.”

I reached out for the vis input where normally a crystal would be placed while everyone else got some distance. Energy flowed into the plate and it started to emit heat. First only a little, then more and more. I turned it hot enough to boil water and held it there for a moment before reducing the energy input. A minute later, it was cold again.

“So cool!”, the boy squealed.

“This!”, Rubeos said, “Teach me!”

I met his eyes and stared for a moment.

“Do you have vis enrichment?”, I asked.

He shook his head.

“Then it will be impossible for you. You need either vis enrichment or a stable supply of crystals and the devices to turn them into essence.”

The two men drooped their faces. All the energy seemingly left them within but a moment. They slunk back to their work on dragging feet.

“Um, Rubeos?”, Circe tried.

“Mmm?”, he acknowledged her.

“Don’t be sad?”

“Mmm…”, came from both men.

“There will probably be some Paladins when dad messages the church. You can ask for basic enrichment, then.”

That somehow perked them up a little. They were not happy but no longer sulking.

“So… do you have some spare metal?”, Circe asked.

“I need brass and some iron”, I said.

“Boy”, was the only answer Rubeos gave.

His son made into the house proper and came out a minute later with a few bars of what I asked for.

“Are these good enough?”, he asked quietly.

I scanned them with my senses, looking for the essence. It was not a foolproof way to make sure the metal was structurally sound but to me, the magical coherence mattered much more. It was something like a magnetic field but only inside the object. And sometimes the lines were broken or distorted, running around obstacles or being turned around. This one was fine. There were a few spots but that much was normal. As long as there was no disturbance larger than a third of the material’s width, I could use it without issue.

“Yes”, I said, “Can you spare three bars of brass and one of iron?”

The boy looked at his father.

“Yes”, came the answer between clanging metal.

“How much do I owe you?”

“Seven silver”, the father said.

I dropped the coins from my storage. The boy’s mouth gaped. He carefully picked up one of the dwarven silver coins and brought it to his father. The hammering stopped again. The smith grinned.

“Three is enough”, he said and his son picked them up.

I blinked, not quite understanding.

“Oh!”, Circe exclaimed, “Is that dwarven money?”

I bobbed my head.

“Of course! Those are worth a lot more than any human coins.”

“What?”

“We have different coins in every human country”, the smith piped up, “Dwarven coins are only rivalled in value by the ones from The Cathedral.”

That… made a lot of sense.

“Thank you for being honest”, I said as I packed away the change and my heating plate. The boy returned with my metal and handed it to me.

“No worries”, the smith said, “Fio, right?”

I bobbed my head.

“You’re good.”

And that was that. The men went back to their work and Circe bid me to move back into the village. I was not sure where she wanted to go next. Maybe back to her parents? I had to get some time to work on my device, though. I could just ask if I could take over one of the rooms in their house.