We got back to the village head’s home a few minutes later. The discussion was mostly over and the family was preparing lunch with Herbert and Thomas talking quietly to each other. I walked up to them since I could hear what they were saying. They were discussing a birthday present for Leon.

“Hello!”, I greeted after connecting to their minds.

“Oh, you’re back?”, Herbert asked, “Did you get what you were looking for?”

“Yes. I do need a workshop of sorts. A room that can take some heat would be good but the temperature won’t get too high.”

“No? You’re working metal, right?”

“I have my methods.”

“I see. Well, we don’t have much space where you can be on your own. You could share Circe’s room, though. If she agrees to it.”

“That would be fine.”

The girl in question made her way over as she heard her name.

“What’s that, Dad?”

“Let’s share rooms?”, I asked her.

“Sure!”, she grinned.

“That’s that”, Thomas said, “Are you gonna stay here, then?”

“Not for tonight. After that, maybe?”

“What do you eat, Fio?”, Joanne called from the kitchen.

I added them to the connection.

“Raw meat. Best freshly hunted. Don’t worry about me, I’ll get something later.”

Leon’s head peeked out from the kitchen.

“That’s unfair. I want to hunt like you!”

“At least you have fingers.”

He looked down at his hand holding a knife. After a few seconds, he nodded.

“True.”

I decided to leave the Helio family to their lunch and made for Circe’s room. My friend showed me where it was. A simple wooden chamber with a bed, a closet and a table with a chair. The sheets were simple cotton and it looked like the mattress was made from wool. I had almost expected straw.

There was not a lot of space in the room but the table was big enough to spread out my materials and I could place the heating plate next to it if I needed to use my crucible. Circe told me I could use it however I wanted since she would sleep at Mira’s house no matter what. I thanked her and got out my materials. Three bars of brass and one bar of iron. I wanted to first try the brass and if that did not work, I would make some thaumium.

The device I wanted to make needed to project sounds after the guidance of my will. I could try to make something larger like the arcane ear but I wanted to try and make something portable. Something comparable to my supersensory matrix which I could simply wear like a bracelet. That would allow me to make some for my family as well. They could use those to communicate with humans without me having to teach them [Telepathy].

The idea was to go from a similar base as the supersensory matrix had. It used an adjusted memory bracelet to import thoughts and then send them to someone else. Now, I just had to make them turn into sound.

I decided to fly out and collect a few vis crystals to use as a base. Aer seemed like the most practical option but I also picked up some order crystals.

Back in my temporary workshop, I picked up a brass ingot and filled it with metallum vis from my soul. It allowed me to exert some control over the material with my pure will and within fifteen minutes, I had a long brass wire in front of me. It was maybe two or three millimetres thick which was just what I needed.

I bent and threaded the wire into a mesh and cut through where it overlapped. The straps of metal fell into place and I pushed the metallum vis to the connecting surfaces. Within minutes, the metal was essence-welded just like the dwarves had taught me. I had a clean brass mesh without any overlapping wire. The excess bits were fused into a ball of raw material.

I took the mesh and wrapped it around an aer crystal. Once again, the excess was cut off and within a minute, I had a vis crystal properly caged in brass. Now, the real work began.

I knew I needed sensus and aer to create the sound. Aer was already in the crystal and I could combine it with spiritus to create the other. Spiritus was somewhat easy to get. Now that I knew how to access my soul properly, I could also draw on it more effectively. Within moments, I had turned the crystal into a 1 to three mixture of sensus to aer. The two aspects were not interacting at all, though, so I flexed my will. I wanted to create sound which needed some kind of input to define it. That idea was what I pushed forth and soon, the aspects started to interact. I started to hear a very quiet hissing and decided that was enough as a proof of concept. Now, it was time to make the input.

I had to somehow have the idea of a voice converted into a magical signal of sorts. That meant I obviously needed praecantatio, the aspect of magic. Sensus might be useful as well but I decided to forgo it for now. It did not feel right. It was more important to have mind and soul working together as a source. Soul was something I already used with the aspect of spiritus. Mind, or cognitio, was the combination of that with ignis. Only, I had no fire crystals anywhere nearby. Nor did I have an aspect I could easily break down to get my talons on it. I considered using my crucible to break down the essence of burning wood but decided against it. My family had a node with ignis. There were a few crystals there or I could even tap straight into it. I only needed a little, after all.

I picked up my half-done work and took to the air after shifting out of the window. When I arrived, my sister was just in the process of absorbing vis. Dad was watching and resting.

I greeted them with a hoot as I settled down. They acknowledged my presence with hoots of their own.

For a minute or so, I tried to find a suitable crystal to use for my purposes. They were all too small. There was a reason my family had not harvested them for the boys to gain sapience. They just held too little vis to even be considered minor crystals. So I asked my sister.

“Yuuna. Can I use the node for a bit?”

She stopped draining it and settled down.

“What for?”

“I want to make something that lets us speak.”

“We can speak.”

“In our minds, yes. With [Telepathy]. To a small group of people. When I’m there. What I’m making should let us make the sounds. Like humans.”

Dad blinked at me.

“Why like humans?”

“So we can be friends.”

He titled his head.

“Why friends? We are happy”

I bobbed my head.

“For now. The humans know about us. They will want to talk.”

He straightened and closed his eyes again.

“We should speak”, he said.

My sister bobbed her acknowledgement as well. I thanked them and returned to my work. I had to be careful not to drain the node. Even if the vis would never arrive at my core, I could easily consume it into my body at a pace much quicker than it could restore itself. If I drained all of it, the hole in reality would collapse. I did not want to do that to my family.

I took out my work-in-progress device and extended a tendril of darkness towards the node. Carefully, I extracted a tiny bit of ignis and pushed it together with my very own spiritus. As the aspect of mind was formed in my tendril, I moved it to the caged crystal. A simple shove of my mind and I had what I wanted right where I wanted it. I thought about returning to Circe’s room but I felt I was almost done.

I pushed my will into the item again alongside a little more spiritus vis. This time, I wanted to create an interface of sorts that could interpret thoughts and move them to the output. That was done rather quickly but the whole item felt very unstable. Even my sister and my dad were looking a little worried. Their senses must be quite good if they could figure out there was a potential threat here.

I stayed calm since I was pretty sure I knew what was missing. I needed praecantatio to keep everything working. The aspect was quite easy to locate since it was contained in every vis crystal. It was there as essence, though, so the only way to get to it was to break the crystal down. The physical way of doing that would completely nullify all the work I had done until now so I was only left with the conceptual approach: Finishing the item.

I decided there was one thing missing and got back to the leftover brass. Metallum vis flowed into it and I spread it out as thin as I could. I also made a few small studs and tacked them onto the outside of the mesh. After about thirty minutes, the crystal seemed just about to disintegrate. But I was ready.

I took the brass sheet I just made and essence-welded it to the studs. I made sure it was under enough tension to never sag inwards. When I was done, I had a near-oval brass object that softly rang whenever it touched against something else. I pushed my will into it and focused on the idea. The concept of taking mental input and giving vocal output. I felt the essence shift within the material. The praecantatio part of the crystal shifted and spread out through all of the item. Spiritus and cognitio collected within the centre while sensus and air spread out evenly across the brass sheet. Within a few moments, it had stabilized.

I lowered my new creation to the ground. It looked like a smooth brass football someone had stretched a little longer. The points were about fifteen centimetres apart while the centre was a little over five centimetres wide. My [Owl Sense]’s magical perception was able to make out a mesmerizing pattern of aer and sensus on the surface. It seemed successful. I would have to find a name for it but first, I wanted to try it out.

I reached out with my soul and easily slipped into a connection. My conscious felt extended into a second point, something akin to a second body. It was, of course, not alive. But it was still there and it could do things. And I made it speak.

“Hello”, it said. I said.

Dad opened an eye. My sister tilted her head.

“It works!”, I both sent and said. They flinched. I shook my head. That had been a little too loud.

I pushed my will to control the sound.

“I did it!”, I said. This time, I avoided speaking through [Telepathy].

“This is speak?”, Dad asked.

“Yes.”

The voice sounded just like I imagined. I realized my wings were shaking slightly, almost as if vibrating. Inside my soul, my human self cried tears of joy.

This was Catori’s voice. This was my voice. From before and now, as one.

“Cool!”, my sister sent, “Can I have one?”

I blinked.

“Of course. I’ll make one for everyone.”

Without noticing, I had slipped back into [Telepathy]. I would need to practice a little. Or just not use the Skill. The latter was probably better if I was not with someone that needed it to communicate.

I quickly checked my leftover resources. It had taken half an ingot to make the item so I could produce a total of five. That was almost too convenient, though I knew Vivi and probably Nymph as well would want one when I came back.

Now, I only needed a name. I almost used something emotionally loaded but quickly stopped myself. This would probably be picked up by Truth and available in the Thaumonomicon for every thaumaturge. I would need something more professional. Artificial throat? No. Too simple. Loudspeaker? Ah! This was it! Arcane speaker! Yes. My new creation would be called arcane speaker!