Elemental Whispers

[Arden Oakwald]

If you already have a familiar, would the familiar you gain from elemental whispers function as a second familiar (& thereby give you two options for familiar skill bonus benefits and such?), or would the levels be made to stack, forcing me to choose one familiar or the other?

elemental whispers:

Source Horror Adventures pg. 57
Element universal; Type utility (Su); Level 1; Burn 0
You form a friendship with a fragment of your element. The element speaks back to you empathically, like a familiar. Pick a type of creature usually allowed as a familiar when you gain this wild talent. You gain the Alertness feat and the special abilities granted by a familiar of that type. As a standard action, you can give the voice of the element the body of such a creature, using elemental matter of the appropriate element within 30 feet. As long as you concentrate, the familiar can take actions as a normal animal of its type, and it can move any distance away from you, though if it takes any damage or you cease concentrating, it returns to your mind. You lose Alertness while the familiar is manifested in this way. The familiar gains abilities as usual for a familiar of its type, though it never gains the ability to speak with animals of its kind.

[blahpers]

Dot.

/Yakko and Wakko optional

[Arden Oakwald]

?

[Weirdo]

I believe that generally having multiple familiars is discouraged so it should probably stack in some way.

[merpius]

It is (sort of) like a familiar, but it is clearly not a familiar. You lose the bonuses (Alertness and to a skill) when it is manifested and only have them when it is not; you have to concentrate for it to be manifested; if it gets damaged it reverts to not manifested; it doesn't advance with class levels.
I think you could have a familiar and have this ability, almost certainly by RAW, and probably even RAI. Despite extreme reluctance to allow multiple familiars, this clearly isn't a second familiar.