“Many reasons,” answered Harmony, hopping up onto the counter beside the sink. “But what made you think evolution was involved? Civilization hasn’t been captive to evolutionary pressure for long before I arose. These bodies were designed—originally, for the tropical paradise-world of Halcyon. Some features of their design are practical, like your hybrid water-air respiration and extremely slow cold-blooded metabolism. Others were ideologically driven. In the minds of the Tempered who originally settled here, auditory speech imposes itself unfairly on the universe. Others can choose not to listen, but choosing not to hear is harder. Instead of a computational solution, they settled on one that reinforced the other design determinations they made… relying on what you call ‘magic’ for instance. There is a ‘spell’ you can use to produce sound, though it’s considered quite rude to perform in public so I do not suggest it now.”