As to why I remain Nemo, it must suffice at the moment that your revelations of aetheric echoes and their stabilization are rather of interest to me. I beg you to recall the meaning of Nemo in the language of the imperial philosophers!

I am afraid I have some difficulty with your patois. This language is not my native tongue, so dialects such as yours give me great difficulty. I will attempt to answer your questions as best I can.

There are many different types of spirits, although yours sounds no different than the manner of spirit of my manservant. The difference is that I used very aetheralchemical means to solidify my manservant to make him useful in the corporeal world. It is possible that in the very near future you will be able to purchase a device to do that with your own spirit. Unfortunately, speech is a barrier that I am still working on. Some spirits do speak, but rarely in an understandable manner. I am not certain that anyone will want to comprehend what these echoes have to say, however… they are bound to be as repetitious in speech as they are in action, being primarily echoes as they are.

A very good question, Professor Atwater. I bound the spirit through a standard legal contract of employ, of course, combined with a Solomon’s Circle. For such a weak echo, it proved to be a very effect means. As far as providing ectoplasmic injection into the corpus, I use a patent-pending device of my own creation to give the corporeal form such solidity.

I found the spirit wandering the halls outside my office at the University. If one seeks a spirit, that is the place to look. However, not all the spirits at the University are as innocuous as my manservant…

So you be knowin, Mam’s mother resides in our attic. She’s been dead going on twelve years now. Mam doesn’t be a knowin, cus Mam and her Ma never did gets along, so I figure it best to not be a tellin her. The kidlings knows, but they never did be a knowing their Gram when she was among the livin, so I tells them she’s just a big windy-up doll you can’t be a touchin. Seems your own after-lifers can hold things, but Mam’s Ma can’t, as things pass right through her, which is a shame, as she was one fine cook and I’d love to sneak her down to the kitchen. So, there must be more than one type of ethereal being?

Now, while I do be recognizing it as Mam’s Ma, I admits that applying the science is a problem, as she does not have features in her facial region for recognizabling, nor a body for which to check for the skin marks, nor does she tell us as such. Mostly I assumes it be her from the flowered house dress and smell of lavender and vanilla.

Now, I always was a liking the old woman, and at times I goes up them there stairs and has long talks. Of course, she never does say anything back. I’d like to ask her why she remains. I’d like to ask her for her Apple Brown Betty recipe, which is to die for, if you do excuse my choice of wordings. If you gentlemens of the sciences evers does figure a way to talk with the here-between, I’d be appreciatin diagrams of the apparatus.

This here Adventurizing Club does sound like a hoot. Maybes one day I will get a wild hair and wander up to the city to visitize. Perhaps Mr. Welterschmidt would like to try some of our local hooch? I be hearing it resemblizes a Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier, but with a hint of chicory and crawdad.

No word yet from Dimbain the second, or on Senator Kelliwammer’s unnecessary rescue efforts.

Good day, Sirs,

Dimbain H. Wiggins

Anyone who has worked with my famulus understands the prospective joy of a speechless manifestation. I envy you, as always, on your successful academic career and now you have a servant of such magnitude! I will always admit to a bit on envy towards those deserving of a University appointment, and this news has made me a bit greener.

One question: Where did you find this manifestation and bind it? If I must leave the college for such an adventure, I shall!

Dr. Roundbottom, I apologize for not having a chance to examine your field recordings yet. I have asked for a similar devices for my own research and have been denied–again–by the half-penny pinching council. The device that allows us to access the ACI network is an early model, and I suspect it was a student project left behindd after her graduation. It cannot, currentlly, play the field recordings with anything close to accuracy.

And keep your hands off Miss Watkins or I will have to call you out as a scoundrel.

Dr. Ventius, thank you so much for your advice regarding the Harmonizer. I’ll be sure to investigate that option along with others.

Dr. Ventius– ah yes, that is the question is it not? I think we presume too much in calling the Bird Queen a spirit. Her nature has not been proven to me in any manner. The stories described her as a sort of endowed human with powers of communication. Which is of course ridiculous on the face of it, but we have evidence that she exists so we must consider the possibility. Perhaps, as you say, she is merely a woman emulating fashion.

Now, if the Bird Queen is some form of aetheric manifestation, as I do suspect, then her form could be such as it is for any number of reasons, not excluding your magpie hypothesis. Non-native manifestions sometimes take on local characteristics in an attempt to communicate, as my last paper documented .

Nemo– Why must you remain Nemo? Are the laws such where you live that you cannot change your name should you wish? I dwell in an enlightened society where one’s name is as fluid as the waters of the Danur River that runs through our country. Ah, but I ramble. To your question:

The most common creation of an aetheric manifestation of the ectoplasmic form is a profound and deep emotion. It is a common mistaken belief that spirits are formed only in the death of their imprint creators, but this is not true. Any sort of emotion can linger in the aetheric fields for decades. The science behind the power and strength of such echos is poorly understood and the subject of my latest grant proposal of course. Regarding your question of the echoes between the four known worlds, yes! I believe this is very possible and in fact have some preliminary evidence to confirm this suspicion. You are a very clever person… if you are ever at the University, look me up. We could speak more on this over a pint.

Mr. Alba,

Glad to hear that you remember me, even if I cannot remember you. I hope it was a good lecture, if not memorable.

Ahhh, the duende. Many of my elder colleagues have gone off their nut attempting to decipher that particular subject. It just so happens that I have a theory on this matter, relating to some of the comments shared with Nemo above.

I am working with a tinkerer in the engineering department to build an aetheric stabilizer. I believe that it could be deployed as a kind of cage in the vicinity of a duende, freezing their vibrations in a matrix of slow aether. Thus you could prevent the fade effect that is so troublesome to serious research into their natures.

They are most certainly some sort of aetheric entity, that much I can say. They are not the common emotional echo spirit such as is my manservant documented here by my good friend Julius.

Wunderbar! Julius had wrote to me of the wonderful correspondence he has been sharing via his machine. I simply must collect one of these of my own!

And don’t tell Dr. Roundbottom this, but I wouldn’t mind collecting a lass like Miss Watkins for myself as well, ha ha!

I am eager for your expert advice on a matter, though. In my land we have the duende, much like the fairies of Doctor Roundbottom’s Park. They are of many distinct species, but that is probably a discussion to save for the doctor, when he has more time. One species, however, known as the Older Duende (or perhaps Greater Duende, if you wish to translate it as such), seem to lie on the border between the doctor’s expertise and your own. For years they’ve been assumed to be simply a highly elusive species of fairy, but a recent theory holds that this assumption is wrong. Rather, it is argued, they are spirits, manifesting from the aether briefly. And so, attempts to understand their culture, evolution and ecological niche are misguided and doomed.

I confess that I side more with the traditional view on this matter, but I’m curious how you would go about testing such a hypothesis, as well as any anecdotes of similar spirits you may have encountered. These duende rarely show themselves, and reliable study of them has rarely extended beyond a minute or two; in fact, a researcher might be considered lucky to glimpse them for a few seconds more than once a year. Any advice you have on resolving this matter is greatly appreciated.

My question to the Professor is this: What do you make of the Bird Queen emulating humanity? This is clearly something new. Even Tennysen (Who we all know never actually researched a thing for himself) reports her being ‘clothed in cloake of feather bright’. This affection for human-style garb is quite… disturbing. Has she entered a Magpie stage? Have the swarm of humanity upset the etherical realm enough that the spirits are following us now? Or, like women everywhere, has she taken it into her head to emulate fashion, albet in a warped, nonhuman manner?