I woke up to a muted buzz in the house. Multiple sets of feet were walking and stopping two floors below in the living room. Their voices reached my ears but I was unable to make out a clear conversation. I did not really want to since this was for my birthday party and supposedly a surprise. I was a little worried about everything but as my tiredness wore off, I realized how much I needed this break. The next weeks would be a lot of work. And most importantly, many lives relied on said work to be successful. I could take one day off.

“You’re up again”, Alex sent through the bond, “Good morning!”

“More like good day. It’s at least noon.”

“Not like I can see the sky from this cave.”

“How did you notice I was awake?”

“The vis flows a little differently. There’s a small… hitch whenever you wake up or go to sleep.”

“Curious… Well, I’ll enjoy my party.”

“Do that. I would’ve gotten you a present if I knew…”

“No worries. I would ignore the party if I couldn’t use the break.”

A few minutes later, the buzz calmed down significantly and I heard a door open. One person started to make their way up and eventually climbed into the attic. It was Safrah.

“Hey, Fio. You’re up, that’s good. Come on down!”

I made sure to connect to her with the new technique. There might be too many people for normal use of the supersensory matrix.

“Yes, let’s.”

We made our way down through the workshop. Just as we reached the bottom of the stairs leading into the living room, Safrah stopped me. She knocked on the door, first twice in rapid fashion, then once more after a short break. I was pushed forward to stand in between her and the wood. The next moment, the door swung open.

My eyes fell onto a small crowd of familiar faces. Vivi sat near the middle next to a comfy armchair. To her left were Master Riggard and his wife, smiling widely. On the other side stood Captain Dor and the head of Borsdown’s library. Her name was… Les Adena if memory served right. I was about to greet everyone with a hoot as the dwarves started to hum a song. Safrah behind me joined in while pushing me forward.

We made the round, starting with Les on my far left. She started grinning, her hum turning into a soft ‘ahh’-sound, as she pushed her fist against her heart and then mine. Dor was next, repeating the gesture. Vivi nuzzled my chest, instead, with the other two going back to the gesture. Last was Safrah. She held my sides for a moment, making me a little uncomfortable with my wings restrained, before repeating the fist gesture as well.

Then, she joined the half-circle in the empty spot next to Vivi and the humming started to grow louder and louder. At the climax, everyone opened their mouths to take a quick breath before shouting out a loud and quick ‘HAH’. Even Vivi joined in with a cut-off meow.

Then, everyone broke into applause and calls of “Happy birthday” and “Congratulations” mixed with the noise. I felt my facial feathers pull into a grin and hooted as loud as I could while connecting everyone to the supersensory matrix.

“Thank you, everybody. Truly, that was wonderful”, I sent.

Dor pat my back.

“For you, always. Glad you liked it!”

The grins were growing and seemed unable to stop.

“Fred and Jorgun could not make it”, Les said, “but they send their regards.”

I nodded.

“Thank them for me. I might not see them all that soon.”

Riggard and his wife also congratulated me personally before I was ushered to the table. There were snacks and tea prepared for everyone to take part in. I found Safrah having used the berry blend and as the ruby-red liquid poured into the cups, everyone’s gaze fixated on it.

“What is that? It looks beautiful!”, Riggard’s wife said.

“It’s fruit tea, Lora”, Safrah answered, “Fio brought it from Serrington. Apparently, they haven’t even started selling it.”

“Ohh! Tea from fruits? Does that mean you won’t need sugar?”

“Yes, it’s very tasty. But you can add sugar if you want to.”

A satisfied hum came from the librarian as she scented her cup.

“This is wonderful!”, Captain said, already having taken the first sip.

Riggard was a little more careful at inspecting it. He carefully observed the colour and the tiny flakes of fruit that were poured along.

“Was this… hmmm… dried fruit? Seems like it…”

I tuned out the banter for a moment to enjoy my own bowl. My shadows formed a small spoon, almost looking like a cup, which I used to bring the liquid to my beak sip by sip. Truly, nothing could beat this! The colourful taste of raspberries and blackberries mixed with the strong base of cherry danced around my tongue. The heat was no problem with the small sips I was taking. It was in fact rather pleasant to have my beak get warm after a while. It made me sleepy in that very specific way where one is simply content with the situation but not truly tired.

My eyes found the guests enjoying their own first cups of wonder. Dor was the first to finish and immediately poured himself a second one. Though he took a small break to pick up a cracker from one of the plates.

“Hmm… The salty ones don’t go all that well with this”, he mused.

“I recommend sweets. Biscuits or cake are best but scones, waffles or muffins go just as well.”

“I can see that”, Les said, “Good thing my sister loves baking.”

We devolved into small talk after that. The dwarves wanted to know what I had been up to in the last weeks so I told them a slightly compacted version of my adventures in and around the goblin village. Dor was impressed how we dealt with the [Bloodrush] and when I mentioned Alex, even Riggard was drawn out of his musings.

“You are telling me there are sapient golems?”, Dor asked.

“Yes. They are created as slaves and I honestly don’t know if all of them are souls with memories from a previous life. Still, the process is rather complicated.”

“That won’t really matter. We have to keep a closer eye on the dwarven thaumaturges. How can you tell if a golem has a soul?”

“Well, they are a special construction called ‘advanced golem’. The primary difference is their head, which contains a real brain, likely taken from a rodent. Zombies are supposedly the best resource but I have no idea how you could even get those…”

“So, just crack the head?”

“No. Normal golems have a simple chunk of metal for a head. It is a sort of sensory antenna. Advanced golems have a magically reinforced jar containing the brain. It can’t be fully closed within the material the rest of the golem is made from since it’s responsible for sensing the world. You shouldn’t have any issues figuring it out.”

“That’s good information. Thank you, Fio.”

“How useful would golems be for artificing?”, Riggard asked, “Could they help in my workshop?”

“Unlikely. You’re not a thaumaturge and won’t be able to make and adjust the seals to command them. Even then, you would need a proper power supply, which usually means a node.”

“Worth a shot…”

“You don’t need golems, Riggard”, Les said, “You need sensible business ideas.”

Everyone chuckled at that. I blinked.

“The interceptors don’t work?”

“The large scale version is… troublesome. I’ve been running into a number of issues I likely won’t be able to solve without a stable supply of thaumium. It’s gonna be expensive.”

“Needless luxury”, Dor said, “Stick to your household and business instalments. Those are great!”

Lora hid a giggle with her hand.

“You won’t be able to get him off that thing. He left his clan to figure it out, after all.”

The teasing and joking kept up for another hour until the snacks were emptied and another three pots of tea had been brewed and drank. At some point, the Riggards excused themselves, having to go check on work. They had left the workshop in the hands of some senior apprentices but were unsure how long that could go well. Les also said goodbye soon after, citing a need to read some books. I could totally understand and thanked her for showing up.

Dor stuck around a little longer, wanting to talk to me about something else.

“So, this golem, Alexandra”, he began, “What’s she like?”

I tilted my head in thought.

“Well… She has some sort of military background. More of a planning and support role as far as I understood. She’s also really nice. I would not have expected someone in her situation to be this reasonable.”

“I see… I would like to meet her. Would that be possible?”

“What for?”

“For one, learning about how the military she knows worked might be enlightening for my management of the guard. On top of that, living with dwarves would be much better than anything else I know of. If she fits in, at least.”

That was a rather conceited statement. I took it for what it most likely was, simple lack of peaceful neighbours, rather than the potentially racist ideal one might read from it. The dwarven cities were very nice. I should visit humans to get a comparison.

“It might be possible but before we can consider any of that, we’ll have to find a way to power her independently from me. Right now, she can’t really move without risking to knock me out. Simply because I’m too far away.”

“That makes sense. Just tell her about the option, if it’s in any way feasible. Even if she doesn’t fit in, I would like to meet her.”

“I will.”

He nodded and said his goodbyes. After that, I snuggled up with Vivi next to the table while Safrah finished the clean-up. This had been a very enjoyable day. It looked like dwarven customs had nothing like giving presents or maybe they simply had no time to prepare any. I was very fine with it. There was remarkably little I would need and the small get together was more than enough to show their appreciation.

The three of us spent the rest of the day simply resting. There was a little small talk here and there but we kept mostly silent. I asked them when they had their birthdays and found they were both coming up in about two months. Vivi was not entirely sure of the exact date, though, since this was her first time since joining society. We would do something similar for them when it was time. I just hoped the farm would be finished before then.