diff --git a/apps/fc-ttsreader/modern-tts/Dockerfile b/apps/fc-ttsreader/modern-tts/Dockerfile
new file mode 100644
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+++ b/apps/fc-ttsreader/modern-tts/Dockerfile
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+# FlowerCore modern-tts — wraps Microsoft Edge's Read Aloud TTS service
+# (via the edge-tts Python package) to give the cluster studio-quality
+# Modern Hebrew (he-IL-*) and Modern Greek (el-GR-*) voices alongside the
+# eSpeak biblical engine. Same shape as fc-biblical-tts so the .NET client
+# lives in the same Shared.Speech package.
+#
+# Note: edge-tts depends on Microsoft's public Edge endpoint; the cluster
+# pod needs egress to *.tts.speech.microsoft.com. dnsPolicy: None on the
+# Deployment makes sure the iamworkin.lan template hijack doesn't rewrite
+# the lookup back to Traefik VIP.
+FROM python:3.12-slim
+
+ENV PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE=1 \
+    PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1 \
+    PIP_DISABLE_PIP_VERSION_CHECK=1 \
+    PIP_NO_CACHE_DIR=1
+
+RUN apt-get update \
+    && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
+        ca-certificates \
+    && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
+
+WORKDIR /app
+COPY requirements.txt /app/
+RUN pip install --no-cache-dir -r requirements.txt
+
+COPY app.py /app/
+
+RUN useradd --create-home --shell /usr/sbin/nologin --uid 1654 tts
+USER 1654
+
+EXPOSE 10403
+HEALTHCHECK --interval=30s --timeout=5s --start-period=20s --retries=3 \
+    CMD python -c "import urllib.request,sys; urllib.request.urlopen('http://127.0.0.1:10403/health',timeout=3); sys.exit(0)" || exit 1
+
+CMD ["uvicorn", "app:app", "--host", "0.0.0.0", "--port", "10403", "--workers", "1"]
diff --git a/apps/fc-ttsreader/modern-tts/app.py b/apps/fc-ttsreader/modern-tts/app.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..60696e7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/apps/fc-ttsreader/modern-tts/app.py
@@ -0,0 +1,238 @@
+"""FlowerCore modern-tts — Microsoft Edge Read Aloud bridge for Modern
+Hebrew and Modern Greek (and other Edge-supported languages).
+
+Endpoints:
+
+* POST /tts          — body: {"text", "voice", "rate"?, "volume"?, "pitch"?}
+                       returns audio/mpeg (Edge returns MP3) which the
+                       upstream FasterWhisperAlignmentClient + the WPF
+                       MediaPlayer both handle natively.
+* POST /timings      — same body shape but returns
+                       {"text", "voice", "words": [{"text","startMs","endMs"}],
+                        "durationMs": ...} sourced from Edge's WordBoundary
+                       events — much more accurate than eSpeak's
+                       proportional-distribution approach because Edge
+                       emits real per-word offsets during synthesis.
+* GET  /voices       — voice catalog Edge knows about. Filtered to
+                       Hebrew + Greek by default; ?language=all returns
+                       everything Edge supports.
+* GET  /health       — fast readiness check.
+
+Pairs with fc-biblical-tts (eSpeak Ancient Greek + Hebrew). The biblical
+engine handles unpointed Hebrew + Erasmian Greek; this engine handles
+narrative Modern Hebrew + Modern Greek for translations the operator
+might be reading alongside the original.
+"""
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import io
+import logging
+from typing import Optional
+
+import edge_tts
+from fastapi import FastAPI, HTTPException
+from fastapi.responses import JSONResponse, Response
+from pydantic import BaseModel
+
+LOG = logging.getLogger("modern_tts")
+logging.basicConfig(level=logging.INFO, format="%(asctime)s %(levelname)s %(message)s")
+
+app = FastAPI(title="FlowerCore modern-tts", version="1.0.0")
+
+# Default voices by short code so AiStation can pick a sensible default
+# when the operator hasn't explicitly asked for one. Edge has multiple
+# voices per locale — these are the calmest male+female narrators.
+DEFAULT_VOICES = {
+    "he":    "he-IL-AvriNeural",
+    "he-IL": "he-IL-AvriNeural",
+    "el":    "el-GR-NestorasNeural",
+    "el-GR": "el-GR-NestorasNeural",
+    "en":    "en-US-AriaNeural",
+}
+
+
+class TtsRequest(BaseModel):
+    text: str
+    voice: Optional[str] = None
+    language: Optional[str] = None
+    rate: str = "+0%"     # Edge accepts +20%, -10%, etc.
+    volume: str = "+0%"
+    pitch: str = "+0Hz"
+
+
+def _resolve_voice(req: TtsRequest) -> str:
+    if req.voice:
+        return req.voice.strip()
+    if req.language and req.language in DEFAULT_VOICES:
+        return DEFAULT_VOICES[req.language]
+    return DEFAULT_VOICES["he"]
+
+
+@app.get("/health")
+def health():
+    return {"status": "ok"}
+
+
+@app.get("/voices")
+async def voices(language: str = "default"):
+    catalog = await edge_tts.list_voices()
+    if language == "all":
+        return {"voices": catalog}
+
+    # Default response: filter to languages relevant to the FlowerCore
+    # biblical workflow (Hebrew + Greek) so the AiStation voice picker
+    # isn't overwhelmed by 400+ Edge voices.
+    keep = ("he-", "el-")
+    filtered = [v for v in catalog if any(v.get("ShortName", "").startswith(k) for k in keep)]
+    return {"voices": filtered}
+
+
+async def _synth_with_subtitles(req: TtsRequest):
+    voice = _resolve_voice(req)
+    LOG.info("edge-tts synth voice=%s len=%d", voice, len(req.text))
+    communicate = edge_tts.Communicate(
+        req.text,
+        voice=voice,
+        rate=req.rate,
+        volume=req.volume,
+        pitch=req.pitch,
+    )
+    audio_buf = io.BytesIO()
+    word_events: list[dict] = []
+    async for chunk in communicate.stream():
+        if chunk["type"] == "audio":
+            audio_buf.write(chunk["data"])
+        elif chunk["type"] == "WordBoundary":
+            word_events.append({
+                "text": chunk.get("text") or "",
+                "offset": chunk.get("offset", 0),       # 100-ns ticks
+                "duration": chunk.get("duration", 0),   # 100-ns ticks
+            })
+    return voice, audio_buf.getvalue(), word_events
+
+
+def _to_ms(ticks_100ns: int) -> int:
+    # Edge emits offsets in 100-nanosecond ticks (.NET TimeSpan style).
+    return int(round(ticks_100ns / 10_000))
+
+
+@app.post("/tts")
+async def tts(req: TtsRequest):
+    if not req.text.strip():
+        raise HTTPException(status_code=400, detail="text is required")
+    try:
+        voice, audio_bytes, _ = await _synth_with_subtitles(req)
+    except edge_tts.exceptions.NoAudioReceived:
+        raise HTTPException(status_code=502, detail="edge-tts returned no audio for the supplied voice/text.")
+    except Exception as ex:
+        raise HTTPException(status_code=502, detail=f"edge-tts failure: {ex}")
+    if not audio_bytes:
+        raise HTTPException(status_code=502, detail="edge-tts returned an empty audio stream.")
+    return Response(content=audio_bytes, media_type="audio/mpeg",
+                    headers={"X-FlowerCore-Voice": voice})
+
+
+def _estimate_duration_ms_from_mp3(audio_bytes: bytes) -> int:
+    """Best-effort duration estimate from raw MP3 bytes by walking frame
+    headers. Edge always returns CBR ~24kbps mono so we can infer total ms
+    from frame count. If parsing fails, return 0 and let the caller fall
+    through to a per-character heuristic."""
+    if not audio_bytes:
+        return 0
+    # MP3 sample rates by version+layer (MPEG1 layer3 / MPEG2 layer3 / MPEG2.5 layer3).
+    # We just walk frame headers and count frames; each frame is 1152 samples.
+    sample_rates_v1 = [44100, 48000, 32000, 0]
+    sample_rates_v2 = [22050, 24000, 16000, 0]
+    sample_rates_v25 = [11025, 12000, 8000, 0]
+    bitrates_v1_l3 = [0,32000,40000,48000,56000,64000,80000,96000,112000,128000,160000,192000,224000,256000,320000,0]
+    bitrates_v2_l3 = [0,8000,16000,24000,32000,40000,48000,56000,64000,80000,96000,112000,128000,144000,160000,0]
+
+    pos = 0
+    total_samples = 0
+    sample_rate = 0
+    while pos + 4 <= len(audio_bytes):
+        b0, b1, b2, b3 = audio_bytes[pos], audio_bytes[pos+1], audio_bytes[pos+2], audio_bytes[pos+3]
+        if b0 != 0xFF or (b1 & 0xE0) != 0xE0:
+            pos += 1
+            continue
+        version_bits = (b1 >> 3) & 0x03
+        layer_bits = (b1 >> 1) & 0x03
+        if layer_bits != 0x01:  # layer 3 only
+            pos += 1
+            continue
+        bitrate_index = (b2 >> 4) & 0x0F
+        sample_rate_index = (b2 >> 2) & 0x03
+        padding = (b2 >> 1) & 0x01
+        if version_bits == 0x03:       # MPEG1
+            sample_rate = sample_rates_v1[sample_rate_index]
+            bitrate = bitrates_v1_l3[bitrate_index]
+            samples_per_frame = 1152
+        elif version_bits == 0x02:     # MPEG2
+            sample_rate = sample_rates_v2[sample_rate_index]
+            bitrate = bitrates_v2_l3[bitrate_index]
+            samples_per_frame = 576
+        elif version_bits == 0x00:     # MPEG2.5
+            sample_rate = sample_rates_v25[sample_rate_index]
+            bitrate = bitrates_v2_l3[bitrate_index]
+            samples_per_frame = 576
+        else:
+            pos += 1
+            continue
+        if not (sample_rate and bitrate):
+            pos += 1
+            continue
+        frame_length = int((samples_per_frame * bitrate / 8) / sample_rate) + padding
+        if frame_length <= 0:
+            pos += 1
+            continue
+        total_samples += samples_per_frame
+        pos += frame_length
+
+    if sample_rate <= 0:
+        return 0
+    return int(round(total_samples * 1000 / sample_rate))
+
+
+@app.post("/timings")
+async def timings(req: TtsRequest):
+    if not req.text.strip():
+        raise HTTPException(status_code=400, detail="text is required")
+    try:
+        voice, audio_bytes, events = await _synth_with_subtitles(req)
+    except Exception as ex:
+        raise HTTPException(status_code=502, detail=f"edge-tts failure: {ex}")
+
+    words: list[dict] = []
+    for event in events:
+        start = _to_ms(event["offset"])
+        end = start + _to_ms(event["duration"])
+        words.append({"text": event.get("text", ""), "startMs": start, "endMs": end})
+
+    # Edge sometimes omits WordBoundary events for non-English voices
+    # (notably he-IL-* and el-GR-*). Fall back to proportional distribution
+    # over the input text — same approach the eSpeak biblical-tts uses.
+    if not words and req.text.strip():
+        total_ms = _estimate_duration_ms_from_mp3(audio_bytes)
+        if total_ms <= 0:
+            # Last-resort fallback: ~600ms per word at average speaking rate.
+            total_ms = max(1, len(req.text.split())) * 600
+        tokens = req.text.split()
+        if tokens:
+            char_total = sum(max(1, len(w)) for w in tokens)
+            cursor = 0
+            for token in tokens:
+                share = int(round(total_ms * max(1, len(token)) / char_total))
+                start = cursor
+                end = start + share
+                words.append({"text": token, "startMs": start, "endMs": end})
+                cursor = end
+            words[-1]["endMs"] = total_ms
+
+    duration_ms = words[-1]["endMs"] if words else 0
+    return JSONResponse({
+        "text": req.text,
+        "voice": voice,
+        "words": words,
+        "durationMs": duration_ms,
+        "audioBytes": len(audio_bytes),
+    })
diff --git a/apps/fc-ttsreader/modern-tts/requirements.txt b/apps/fc-ttsreader/modern-tts/requirements.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..82b7a0c
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+++ b/apps/fc-ttsreader/modern-tts/requirements.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+fastapi==0.115.6
+uvicorn==0.34.0
+edge-tts==7.2.8