"What is going on…" I mutter to myself, as I look for Loaf's food in the kitchen.

"I should be asking you!" the oven says. "Welcome home, by the way."

“Oh. Hello oven.”

"What is happening with the… whatever was happening? It seems pretty important. I can feel tingling in my roots."

"I– what." I should probably ask about the tingling in the roots. I really don't want to. "Well, I don't know enough about the incident."

"Isn't that your entire job? Keeping track of the gods?"

"My job is negotiating with the gods about regular, everyday things. If some tree-fused god blocks the road with her roots, I'll ask her to please remove them for a while. That's all." Found Loaf’s food.

"Really? That's all?" The oven sounds suspicious.

"Yes. Officially, yes."

"Unofficially?"

"I don't know. I'm worried so I want to know what's happening, but I'm very out of my depth." I look at Loaf, who's circling my legs instead of eating, and pet her. "Very, very out of my depth. You know, you're very strange, oven."

A sad metallic scrape. "Strange? How?"

"Let's get this straight: you're a god sprout, yes? Part of a god's body?"

"I don't know. I just started existing one day. But…"

The oven seems to be thinking. There's a low hum coming from it. I want to go onto the other questions. Like how it made the cat who is currently pawing at my legs. It's not that strange for some cats to have this golden look as kittens, she'll probably shed and look fully brown later on. Epiprocta did not comment on the fact that she was conjured up inside the oven, either, but that's because Epi does not like 'causing a panic'. There are many strange animals on Chamkra. Of course there are, some of them form a symbiotic relationship with the god sprouts and some of the god sprout bio-matter remains in their body. That's mostly bees and such, though, and I've never heard of entire animals being born like this, and Epi definitely got the sense that something was strange (even if she doesn't want to say it out loud, but why is that?) and–

Ting!

I laugh, with how suddenly it snapped me out of thought. But the oven’s voice is quiet and somber.

"I am connected," it says.

"Connected? To what?"

“If I pay attention, there are many talks in the backgrounds. People saying what ideas they have. What they’re scared of. What they hate. Things they need to do.” The oven’s words come out slowly, like it’s thinking very hard. “Some of them talk to each other, but maybe some are just talking to themselves. They talk about… humans… what are the humans doing, something like that.”

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“So it’s the thoughts of the gods?”

“Hm. Mmm. Thinking. Hm… maybe?”

All the sprouts are connected to all the gods, but they’re always more closely connected to the god they sprouted out from, with some exceptions (mostly very old sprouts, but oven sprouted a couple months ago).

“Can you tell me what exactly you hear?” I ask. “Especially the loudest stuff. The clearest and the loudest.”

“Hm. I’m thinking. Hmmmmm…”

Clack clack clack!

A bird is pecking at the window, letter in its beak. It twist its head up as I open the window and take the letter. The Guild’s symbol — a human holding a tree god’s branch — is stamped on the top of the letter.

Ferrus sent this. Or had it sent by whatever apprentice happens to be free at this time. I haven’t even checked if it has her name inside (usually these letters don’t have any names, they’re just ‘from the Guild’) but it’s from her for sure.

“My metal feels like it’s melting,” the oven says.

“Oh. Sorry. Can you try again when you feel better?”

“Digging out other things’ thoughts is very hard. But okay, I’ll try again later.”

“Alright, goodnight,” I say. The oven’s hums die down as it goes to sleep. When it’s like this, you could easily mistake it for a normal oven.

I unfold the letter and read.

“Translators of the Guild: From tomorrow, you must proceed with your regular duties for the week as normal. None of the gods under your care are involved in the ichor theft case. The primary Guild members will finish the preliminary investigation by nighttime. All residents, including translators, are under curfew until tomorrow morning.”

As I look up from the letter, I see the bird flying away. Probably to perch on a tree and suck some sap before heading back home. These birds avoid ichor since it’s toxic to them, but I can’t help but wonder if all of our plants are infused with at least the tiniest, tiniest bit of ichor. Ichor is everywhere, even if not pure. Available to all non-gods, so maybe even its power… I guess that’s what the thieves and witches were thinking, too. But harnessing the power is a different thing, no one’s done that(?). Unless someone did do that and that’s why creatures like the oven and Loaf exist? I feel like there’s a connection here, but I could be wrong. Maybe this is completely unrelated to the ichor theft.

I certainly hope they’re unrelated, I don’t want either the oven or the cat to get involved in the Guild’s investigation. Even if they’re connected… no, that sounds like a mess, don’t think about that. I probably can’t figure out what exactly is happening with them because I don’t know anything and I’m just confused, I’m very confused and borderline incompetent, but Epiprocta seems to know something. Camellia won’t say anything to the Guild unless the oven and cat are related to all of this. But they might be. So I’m just going to avoid that whole topic with him from now on. Like they’re not related at all.

Oh, and I’ve got to question the oven again later. The gods’ minds are in the network, thoughts scattered. And the minds of their sprouts as well, but both of them are connected so of course they’re there too. Then again, even if they are connected, aren’t they still different people? The oven doesn’t know what god it comes from. Loaf barely even counts as a sprout, and– actually, I need to ask Epiprocta about this. She knows something. She knows.

Tomorrow. I’ll go about my regular duties in the morning, and then I’m going to talk to Epi during the afternoon break.

Tonight, there’s nothing left to do, but tune my harp and head to bed.