«Father, asks Sirius, can he hear and see what people say in memories? »

«I'll answer you. Yes, he can hear, see, speak, and look. » With these words, Harry launches the picture from his memory that froze in front of them.

The music starts playing again, and people move and talk. A few finger movements, a quick rewind and then a couple consisting of a man and a woman, who are at a reasonable distance away from Harry and Alrus , sharply approach them just steps from the protective barrier so that they can be viewed properly and one can hear what they’re saying:

« John, stop making me angry, or the director will get angry. According to the scenario, I should smile easily, » a girl says spitefully, and it’s unclear to whom she’s angrier—to John or to the director.

« Yes, you're right, the director will be angry when he sees an animal grin instead of a smile, » the man pokes fun at the girl, to which she growls, but then she sharply melts and asks almost pitifully.

« Please, John, stop bugging me! You know, if something goes wrong, I'll have to pay a penalty, and I don't have any money. Why, do you think, did I sign up to act in this crowd?»

«Forgive me, Sara, I'm just kind of bored .…»

The movement of a finger and everything stops, people freeze in various poses, and the music and the hum of voices accompanying it fall silent.

« Kind of like this. »

« So you're telling me that in addition to being able to work with memories by zooming in on them now, Sirius can also lip-read and reproduce what he's read?»

« Everything is right. »

« Oh! Then helping Sirius might be a lot easier. »

« What exactly would be easier? »

« Wait, you see it yourself if this works. Ask Sirius to choose an image with which he associates himself and show it to you. »

After listening to his son, Harry turns to the mage thinker and begins to quickly tape a text.

Ree watches from the sidelines as lines appear on the screen and, with detachment, wonders why all magical things stop, causing him rejection. Before him is an animate artefact, and he feels nothing except interest.

Not having come to any conclusions, Ree continues to observe how Harry corresponds with Sirius. Driven by curiosity, he comes to grips and begins to read the correspondence. From this, he understands that Sirius truly is like a child who is afraid to make mistakes in choosing his image. And if that happens, Harry will stop loving him because of that. In response, Harry assures Sirius that he will accept any of his images and won’t stop loving him, as well as try to calm him down, saying that Sirius can change his image at any time to the one that is closer to him. And now Sirius should choose some images.

After long and difficult persuasion, a drawn representative of felids appears in front of them. To which Harry only says, "Hmm, and to the questioningly raised eyebrow of his son, he asks with amazement.

«Didn't you recognise? »

«No. »

«Sirius took the image of Simba from your favourite cartoon, ‘The Lion King’. »

«I hardly remember this cartoon, » says Alrus, averting his eyes.

« This is very strange! How can you forget it? » a short pause, and then a question.

«Ah, it doesn't matter; you won't tell me anyway. What to do next? »

«Next, » gladly repeats Alrus, enjoying that they have gone from the topic unpleasant for him, « asks Sirius to try to hear us using this image similar to how he hears conversations in memories. »

Having waited for some time Alrus after his father stops taping and looking at the painted lion asks:

«Sirius, can you hear me? »

The tension that seized the men after the question is asked can be felt. Maybe for this reason or maybe for some other, but the moment that has separated the question from the answer feels like an eternity. But then it’s over, and they can see the nod of the drawn lion cub.

Harry immediately turns around, wiping away tears; Ree smiles brightly; and only Alrus immediately makes a new proposal.

«And now, Urs, similar to how you were able to hear me try to say something and look at us. »

«To say wwwwhaat? » a squeaky,  terrified , quavering and barely audible voice is heard.

« No matter what, the most important thing is that you can speak. Tell us, why are you so scared? »

«I dooon’t knnnow. I’m always very scared. »

«Is there any way we can help you? »

«No. We can’t be helped. » a lion cub has disappeared, and the voice heard is absolutely non-emotional and some kind of mechanical.

«I made calculations and found out that the animation of artefacts exceeding the definite level of complexity would lead to such a result as we have. I can switch off a fear of my emotional part for some time so that you can talk with it. »

There’s a long pause. Harry, off the hinges, opens and closes his mouth, trying to say something. Alrus becomes lost in thought while trying to remember something. It’s unknown for how long it would continue, but a cub lion again appears in front of them, and it looks not so frightened and shivering. Alrus immediately startles and, in a businesslike manner, addresses him.

«We already found out that you can hear us and talk to us; now we should know if you can see us. »

«I can. It turns out that this is very simple. Why wasn't I able to do this before? » answers Sirius in a normal voice.

«Because I wasn’t able to explain this in plain, simple language as Alrus did, » responds already calmed Harry.

«And not only like this, besides this fear and dual personality stops Urs from this, » Alrus disagrees with his father.

Harry nods, agreeing, but having seen how Sirius has felt down, he decides to change the subject.

«Why did you call Sirius Urs? »

«I just shortened his name; I took the last syllable of his name and placed the letter “r” which is in his full name, between two letters.

Once I saw what form he took, it immediately appeared in my head: Urs. If you, Sirius, don’t like such shortening, tell me, and I won’t call you by this name.

«Urrrss, » a lion cub literally purrs his name listening to its sounding and then renders a verdict. «I like it, you can call me like this. »

«That's great! » Alrus smiles. « I have an idea, » and he pulls a box out of the air like a circus magician. «  But I can't guarantee that it’ll work for sure and solve Urs' problem with dual personalities. But we can try. What if it could work! »

At Alrus's action, Ree looks with amazement before information appears in his head. Everything is simple—the pocket dimension—and there is no other additional information about this pocket. Think of it as you will!

«I'll start from afar. The archemage who wrote the book on the creation of animated artefacts was more of a scientist than a politician; that’s why he was framed to free up his position. As a result of this, he was banished from the Magical Academy, and his scientific works were declared heresy and strictly prohibited.

Some of his books were hidden by his students, some by his colleagues in artefactorics. So, in the library of one of the artefactors I found a book on animating artifacts. With the owner's permission, I made a copy of it, and when I had time, I slowly translated it.

Having familiarised myself with this book, I was looking for his other works all the time I was in that world.  But I was lucky, just before my departure from that world. Quite by accident, I was able to find the tower in which he lived after his exile. This book was discovered in hiding.» He pats the box resting on his lap.

«It so happened that I had a little time, so I skimmed through the book, left it in the stasis box, and put it in the dimension pocket, having decided to study it later, but it happened that I completely forgot about it. And only a today reminder about the book on the animation of artefacts helped me remember it. »

Having made a little pause in order to gather his thoughts and having rubbed the bridge of his nose with his fingers, Alrus continues:

«This book, » and he again pats the box, «contains the last scientific work of that disgraced archemage.

According to my assumptions, disgraced and having lost all of his students at once and also having obtained the ban to take new pupils, he had to remember about his work on the animation of the artefacts. I suppose he decided to reduce his loneliness with the help of animated artefacts.

After a series of experiments, he faced the problem of the low intelligence of artefacts. After this, he proposed a theory that he himself began to prove. The essence of his theory was that if an animated artefact turns into an animal, he would be able to independently move around him. Thus, its constant presence near a human would allow the primitive to develop and eventually become smarter.

Finally, he conducted two successful experiments with animals. With one animal a little bit larger than a rat and the second one like a dog. According to the results of observation, it turned out that the development and maturation of the artefact's personality directly depend on the development of the animal used for it.

«Yes, yes, yes! » screams a cub jumping on the spot, «I want to be a lion and run everywhere! »

«Calm down, Urs! It’s not all rosy. There’re a number of conditions that are obligatory. »

«What conditions? »

«The first one. The animal must be a magical one, and there are no magical lions. The second one. At the start of the work, it must be alive. The third one. Its volume and the artefact’s volume must completely be the same. »

«I didn’t understand the last condition, » with meowlike notes, sustains Urs.

« How can I put it to you in a simpler way? The artefact's volume should completely fill the animal's skin, as it did when it was alive. »

«Do I understand you right, Alrus? »Harry interjects, « If we take, for example, a manticore, would we havehave to add a volume to the Urs’s receptacle to completely fill the manticore's skin? »

«That’s right, father, but in this case there are positive aspects. »

«Like what? »

«Urs can be added to as many additional functions as he can have. »

«Yes, yes, yees, I can have hands! » Urs begins to squeal and immediately becomes sad. «I just don’t like manticore. »

«Don’t worry, Sirius, »Harry addresses him, «You can choose the animal yourself. »

«We’ll deal with this later. Father, I didn’t understand completely. What hands should be added? »

To this Harry is a little embarrassed.

«You know, son, » he starts his explanations from afar, «By the time I began the ritual of Sirius animation, I was got by another idea.

As soon as I performed a ritual of animation and affirmed that Sirius completely corresponded to my needs, I immediately loaded him down with calculations in order to start turning my new idea into reality.

When I started to create in reality everything we calculated with Sirius and to the following trials, I couldn't devote much time to it, and Sirius got bored. That’s why I hold an Internet for him. »

«And what hands did he find for himself? It’s even scary to imagine this! »

« It’s not all that bad, believe me. On the Internet, Urs found science fiction that describes the creation and capabilities of AI. In these books, artificial intelligence has different types of drones and robots under control, with the help of which it can independently perform certain actions.

Having read the books about the AI, Sirius got passionate about an idea to get helpers for him, part of which would replace his hands.

«What can I say? This is a great ideaIf I remember correctly, there’re a lot of different types and sizes of drones and robots. »

«Yes, » confirms Urs.

«Well, we’ll talk about it later. Father, I and Urs make the plans, but you still don’t say anything, and don’t say out loud your choice. Will you take part in this project?»

«I thought you forgot about me or you don’t need me in this business, » huffed grumbles Harry, then he smiles and adds, «Of course I’m with you. I won't miss a project like this. »

« That's what I thought, » says his son, and addresses Urs.

«This book isn’t translated, so you’ll have to translate it yourself. But I’ll load all the materials that will help you in this work as well as my remaining drafts of the translation of the artefact animation book. »

«I'll translate. » Sirius answers seriously and nods in addition to his words.

«That's good! » Alrus says, opening the box and taking a book out of it, then hands it to his father with the words:

«Here, take this, father. »

Harry, meanwhile, carries out the corresponding manipulations. A flat box has emerged from the vertical part of the artefact, into which Harry places the book he has opened on the first page.

Ree watches with interest how the three of them plunge into the process of discussing assumptions and searching of variants.