Traveling through the Vault

We continued on.

"Hey, son and Nagini, come over here," called my mother, Ann.

"What is it? Quills? Wait, is this what I think it is?" I asked, arriving at the same conclusion as my mother.

"I believe so, too," she replied.

She read the description aloud. It was an automatic writing quill.

"It appears to be an automatic writing quill, but we don't know what kind of writing it does," I said.

"What do you mean, Aurelius?" Martha inquired.

"Well, there is already one called the Inkwizit that the Prophet commonly uses, but if this one is here on its own, it's possible my family made the first. The Inkwizit can write using your subconscious rather than conscious and verbal thoughts. What we're hoping for is that it follows the same principles and that it's even better than the Inkwizit. If it just records what is being said, it's a far inferior option," I explained.

"Oh, why isn't that commonly used everywhere? If it can answer using what's in your noggin, why use a normal quill again? I'm surprised the Ministry and nobles don't have it as standard," said Martha.

"It can be rather rough because it might write down all of your thoughts on the topic. It's difficult to utilize fully because you can't modify how it works, only how your subconscious works. Even for an Occlumens, this isn't guaranteed," I explained the flaw of the current automatic quill, Inkwizit.

"Oh, well, do you think this one might be better?" asked Ann excitedly. After all, if the tool could be adjusted, it would eliminate all possible paperwork.

"I don't know. We'll have to see. I'll put some magic into its enchantment to link it to myself. I will read the stuff in my mind palace. If it writes just that while avoiding all my miscellaneous thoughts, then I can say it did its job. If not, it might as well just be the Inkwizit," I said, contemplating how to ensure its effectiveness.

I went through the process of entering my mind palace. I drew upon my mind palace where my subconscious lay. I began to read the book while thinking about the tangents it made me ponder. I then closed the book, prompting the quill to stop.

"Did it work?" I asked.

"What do you mean? You were watching it with us," said Ann.

"The thing is, my mind literally goes into my subconscious. The body takes care of its functions while my mind is somewhere else. I can hear, feel, smell, taste, breathe, and see, but comprehending anything outside myself when my mind is solely focused on my mind palace isn't possible," I explained the downsides of using my pseudo-eidetic memory.

"Well, that's kind of creepy, but anyway, take a look," said Martha.

"I see no mistakes, and I don't see any of my random tangents coming in, so I'd say it's a complete success. But that was when I was focused on the task," I said, trying not to get overly excited.

"So you want it to be able to write all of this without even paying attention? Is that even possible?" asked Nagini.

"What I was doing was actively feeding it exactly what I wanted, but the Inkwizit functions using the subconscious mind. If this follows the same principles, it should be able to answer the question without my input. All I need to do is designate the topic it needs to focus on," I said, excited to perform the next test.

"That's brilliant! Try it, try it!" Ann exclaimed.

"All right, I'll do what I usually do: prompt my brain by taking a mental photo, and the quill will search my brain to answer the question using that information," I said, summarising the process.

Five minutes later...

"Well, bugger me, it worked!" I exclaimed.

"It worked!" squealed an excited Ann, squeezing a confused but happy Martha.

"Final test for my purposes: duplication," I said, hopeful this would save me from having to write the hundreds of books distilled into me over the centuries.

"Isn't there already a duplication spell?" asked a confused Nagini.

"The duplication spell isn't permanent and is far more fragile than the original. This one is based solely on my memory, not a document. It has to write down word for word what is in my head without my conscious thought. There is no question to answer; just copying what is seen in my head," I clarified.

"Well, enchanted parchment seems to be connected to the quill, so it likely will be able to do that. Do you wish to leave it going while looking around for an hour and see how it went when we come back?" my mother Martha suggested, curious about other things.

"Yeah, okay, Mum. Since we're in the utility section, is there anything that might make things easier for you?" I asked.

"Hmm, well, I suppose it would be nice to have something that massages," said Martha, thinking about herself and her wife.

"Let's see. Lift," I called.

The lift arrived promptly like a rocket.

"Okay, everyone into the lift," I told them.

We all got in. I cast sticking charms on all of us.

"What's with the sticky feet, Aurelius?" asked Ann while the others looked at me, wondering the same thing.

"Just in case the lift goes fast. Hold on tight and say what you want," I said while pressing the 5% button.

My mother said, "To get something that massages?"

We braced for any abrupt, fast movements, but we moved at a normal speed, akin to an escalator. I felt rather foolish. I just couldn't catch a break. It was just one floor and two sections to the right.

I canceled the sticking charm, and we stepped out of the lift. Immediately, I dropped to my knees, sniffling and holding back tears of embarrassment. It happened again. I swear someone who made this vault is messing with me.

We came upon something akin to a body suit, except it looked oddly mushy, like shiny plastic clay.

"Well, Martha, this is what you wanted. Give it a go," my mother said, chuckling.

"Right then. Wish me luck," said Martha, slightly nervous.

She put on the body suit, and we saw it squeeze her body. We were about to remove it, but it released the pressure. She then felt the suit turn thicker in spots, and we saw her eyes glaze over.

"So, any commentary, Martha? You look like you're in seventh heaven," said Ann jokingly, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, it was tight but then released, and now it's got little harder bits pushing into all the right areas at once. It's quite pleasant. And it's been releasing heat this whole time," she said, short of breath and looking pleadingly for some reason.

"Okay, I think this is not for my eyes. I'll be going down the lift. Just call it later and have it bring you to us. Feel free to bring the suit with you," I said, grabbing Nagini's hand and calling for the lift to take us down.

"So, can I use the suit?" joked Nagini.

"As long as you do so with silencing charms and aren't immediately in front of me or my family. I believe my mother was about to climax, and the only thing keeping her together and silent was not doing it in front of her son and a woman she only met a few hours ago," I said, my ears burning red.

"Oh, and what about when you're older?" she asked, half-joking with a knowing look.

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it," I said, keeping my gaze forward.

She chuckled. "As for your mothers, I believe you're quite on point."

"Do you think they'll return to us after a quick... session?" I asked.

"Considering her body language, I believe that's likely. Do you want to see how the book has been doing?" she asked.

"Yes," I responded.

While reading the book written by the quill, I read it page by page, and an hour passed.

Later, a rougher-looking Ann and Martha came down.

"Did you both use the massaging suit?" I asked, looking up from my book.

"Yep," they both said a bit too quickly.

'They likely did both use it, but I believe you were right,' said Nagini through our mental link.

I smiled and placed the suit into my bottomless bag.

"Okay, we have confirmed that these quills are fully functional for Mother's and my needs." I placed them into my bottomless bag as well.

"Will you sell them once you've made more?" asked Ann.

"I'll need to look at the schematics to find everything needed to make this quill, but I'm not entirely sure. It would be warranted since this alone could push the unnecessary stuff to the side, but I also see why they didn't make it public. This meant they could spend more time doing other things while their competitors did this manually. However, I don't care much about that, but the same reason to not sell them is to give us time to fix the infrastructure and design of our wizarding society while not giving the darker side any room to grow," I said.

"Well, you already have them at your beck and call with your debts once they find out about it, so why not just speed up the process by selling it?" asked Martha

"Perhaps once we're fully defended, but until then, I will refrain from it," I said firmly in my tone.

"I have to agree. This is a critical time. Giving an opponent time when you already have a plan and are putting it into play is just harming yourself." Said Ann