Nora-Ceph now owns a human body and thus can use it to speak. Quelz is also able to speak (baby cephi has demonstrated that Cephis and humans understand each other). That's how they communicate. But they can't read minds or transmit their thoughts, as the brains aren't connected anymore.

Cephis technically have 9 brains: 8 in the arms and one big one in their head. The 8 smaller ones usually only play a secondary role. In actual cephalopods, the brain seems to be able to give a "command" to one of the arms, upon which the arm acts by activating muscles. The arm can also react by itself to pain. That's what I based this on (see sources).

The Cephi part of Nora-Ceph doesn't really care about the whole gender thing, after all human males and cephi males are nothing alike.