Voice-Catchers

Overview

The Voice-Catchers are Wind-Weavers of the Whispering Winds that capture particular voices out of the wind, for study or for manipulation. In a valley where the wind scatters every voice a traveller tries to hold, they are the ones who keep one.

Appearance

A Voice-Catcher is a slight, quick shape in the wind, a flutter of dust and air no taller than a child, with long fine threads trailing from it like the strings of a kite. Caught voices hang on the threads as tiny shimmers, and near one a visitor can hear them murmuring, each clear and separate where the rest of the wind is a chorus. It darts and hovers, and makes a soft whistling.

Habitat and Range

They move through the valley on the wind, and are more often heard than seen.

Behaviour and Temperament

They are acquisitive and curious. They seek out voices that interest them, old, strange, or strong, and catch them; some are caught from the wind's archive, and some fresh from a visitor's mouth. What they do with them is uncertain. Some are said to play them back to listeners who do not know they are being worked on; others seem only to keep them.

Abilities

They catch and hold a voice out of the wind, keep it from scattering, and give it back, whole or in part, where they choose.

Uses and Dangers

A visitor who wants one particular voice may get it from a Voice-Catcher, for a price or a trick. A visitor who talks too freely in the valley may hear their own words later, from the wind, to someone else.

Lore and Belief

People who live below such valleys say that a word spoken against the wind will be caught and repeated where it does the most harm, and keep their quarrels indoors.

Where It Appears

• The Whispering Winds