"Why?"

"I mean, mechanically, the stone is just - turning into something else? Going somewhere?"

"...Golems don't change weight when they move, if that's what you mean..."

"So the stone is turning into something else with the same properties except bendiness?"

"It's still stone, if you touch one in motion. You can't squish it. It's - sculpting itself, I guess?"

"That's really weird!"

"It's magic!"

"Magic is really weird!!"

"Are the other kinds of servants weird too or just nonarticulated golems?"

"They are weird in different ways but this is a different kind of weirdness."

"Maybe you would get used to it if I left a shine on your nose all day."

"Maybe I would get used to it if you left a shine on your nose all day."

Kib pulls one off the table and puts it on his nose.

Aitim kisses it.

Hmmm, what if it moves somewhere other than his nose?

Whatever Aitim was supposed to be learning about magic might not get learned due to distraction.

Fun.

A little after that he takes Kalatha out on trips to talk to servantmaking teachers.

There are plenty of them! What's he doing with that toddler and why does he want to talk to them?

He got attached. He's doing a research project and is curious about the best apprentices they've ever had, can he take them out to lunch and ask a few questions?

They will mostly be happy to accept lunch and talk about their apprentices! This one does the most beautiful golems. This one makes such clever automata and came up with a way to let them switch their own instruction cylinders under certain conditions. This one gave up the craft at fifteen, tragic, had such promise, went to open a bakery. This one works at a shine code office. This one does laundry automata. New city - this one makes golems out of glass. This one does shine- and shade-based art. This one was brilliant, died young without her potential paying off almost two decades ago, though she contributed some to her husband's work. The next teacher taught the husband but he's doing mostly medical stuff, not servantmaking. This one doesn't think that highly of any of her students but had an amazing co-prentice, moved abroad, marvelous programmer. This one had a student who was good at pets.

Anyone interested in the sort of thing that could have led to storks?

Well, storks are golems, so it probably wasn't the pet or shine specialists.

What's the story with the one who died young? (Convenient way to disappear if you need to, that, or sometimes a symptom of dangerous activities.)

Got the pox. Her poor husband.