by Vashti Hardy
TRAPS, HATS, WINGS AND WOES
The next day, Prue, Edwin and Agapantha headed straight for the forest to set the trap. Light shone in hazy beams between the branches as they trudged through mulchy leaves in and out of green-brown shadows. Prue touched the trees as she passed between them and recited their names in her head; Francis had taught her to identify the tree type just by the feel of the bark.
It was apparent that Edwin remained on edge, and he looked over his shoulder every few paces. “I’m glad we’re at least doing something,” he said, jumping over a moss-covered, fallen tree.
“It’s a bit spooky in here,” said Agapantha, giving Prue a quick sideways glance. She was wearing her worried “rabbit caught in the mechanicart lights” expression, just like the day they’d first met at Deakins.
Prue tried to smile reassuringly, even though she had to admit there was definitely something eerie about the forest. “It’s fine. We’re together. A wolf would be more scared of us, I’m sure.”
Agapantha gave a little nod. “I’ve never done anything like this before.”
“If there’s anything out here, I’m sure we’ll catch it,” said Prue.
A short distance in, they found a suitable place where the trees were the right distance apart, then they spread out their equipment on the ground. Prue climbed up among the shifting leaves and creaking branches to hoist the ropes into place, instructing the others on where to tie and loop and thread the ropes and counter-balances. After a while, they finished and stood back to admire their work. Then Prue instructed them to carefully throw some leaf debris over the net, to disguise it.
On the way back to the transport hut, Prue caught the distant sight of Craftsman Primrose and Master White walking beside each other.
“They are definitely a thing,” said Prue.
“You mean, together?” said Edwin.
“Totally. The way they look at each other, you can tell,” said Agapantha.
“Gross,” said Edwin, sticking out his tongue.
They all laughed, but as they walked through the forest back to the pneumerator, Prue glanced at Edwin. Did personifates love in their second lives? Could love survive from the first life into a second life? If she found a way to unlock the past lives, the personifates could at least remember.
Back at the house, the fire was lit in the parlour room, and the three of them stretched out lounging on the sofas, as for once they were the only apprentices in there. The relaxed Sunday mood was spoiled when Cora and Larkin returned from visiting their parents two hours later. Larkin went straight upstairs, but Cora popped her head around the door and burst out laughing at the sight of Edwin wearing his new cap.
“Nice try, but wearing a hat isn’t going to make you human,” she said curtly.
Prue’s mouth jarred in disbelief. “What did you say?”
Cora snort-laughed in response, then turned to Agapantha. “Don’t forget, we must sort a date for you to come to my house.” She gave a sickly-sweet smile then left the room.
Edwin took his hat off and threw it at a wall.
“She really shouldn’t have said that,” said Agapantha quietly.
“Sometimes she is just awful. Ignore her, Edwin.” Prue went across the room, picked up his cap and put it beside him.
*
On Monday, the first lesson was rudimentary muscle wiring and signals in the laboratory. Master Sollentude was busy on the hundred, so to Prue’s annoyance, Cora joined them.
“All thought and feeling signals come from the qwortzite frequency,” Craftsman Primrose was explaining. “But it’s not one-way wiring. The sensors send signals back to the qwortzite in a constant stream. As craftsman, and for you as apprentices, our most important skills are centred around the inner connections and workings of the machine.”
Cora sidled up to Agapantha. Prue knew she was angling to work with her.
“It is our attention to detail that makes the Imperial Personifate Guild of Medlock stand head and shoulders above all the other cities and indeed the wider world, as a centre for invention.”
When Prue glanced across, Cora mouthed. “Farm girl.” Prue sighed and looked away.
“Ignore her,” Edwin whispered.
“Once a ghost is harnessed inside the qwortzite, the first thing we need to do is establish the loop. So today we are going to be working on making simple loops. The movement data comes from the wildspark. But we can’t practise with a real frequency, so in training we use signal simulators. Your task will be to create the looped wiring between the synthetic muscle and the simulator.”
Craftsman Primrose bent down and took something from the cupboard below. It looked like the wing of a small bird, suspended by a delicate rod that had been mounted on a small base.
“Wings are used extensively in training and refining your skills. Elegantly simple, yet infinitely complex, they are the perfect choice for early studies. Have you all brought your copies of Master Tinubu’s Simulator Starting Points? Good. And you all have your apprentice kit? Excellent. Then you will notice on your bench there is also an essential tool for all craftsmen for use with intricate mechanics.” Craftsman Primrose slowly took off his thin wire-rimmed spectacles and folded them up. Then he carefully opened a wooden box about the size of a pencil tin and took out what appeared to be an elaborate pair of glasses with various interchangeable lenses on hinges. “These are magno-viewers.” There was a soft hum as he put them on and looped them over his ears. When he looked around, the tiny cogs whirred and ticked, with telescopic cylinders extending and lenses slotting seamlessly in and out of place. “They follow the direction of your sight and auto-focus, allowing you to see intricate areas in the finest of detail.”
Prue lifted her own pair up, trying to work out how they were powered, then saw a tiny cog mechanism.
“I want you to get used to the wiring, the structure, and the synthetic muscles, and perform the loop of a simple up and down movement. If you have read the first chapter, you can skip straight to page eight and begin. You may work individually or in pairs as it’s your first time.”
Cora’s hand shot in the air. “Sir, may Apprentice Young work with me?”
“I’m honestly fine on my—” Agapantha began,
“Come along, Ag,” Cora said.
Rolling her eyes at Cora’s bossiness, Prue paired up with Edwin.
The connectors and tools were far more delicate than any Prue had used before, and the magno-viewers were a marvel. It took a while for her to get used to the difference in what she was seeing and her finger movements, but she shortly got the knack of it. After half an hour of careful wiring, their wing jolted, expanded, and rose.
“Bravo, Apprentice Haywood and Snow-Moon! That’s the fastest I’ve seen it done by an apprentice since Larkin Duval, although I think he may still just hold the record,” said Craftsman Primrose with a friendly wink. “You can move on to chapter three.”
When Prue glanced over, she noticed that Agapantha was doing all the work, while Cora seemed to be expert at sitting back – then looking involved as soon as Craftsman Primrose looked over.
After a break, they were joined by Master Sabrina Tinubu for a lesson on personifate structure.
“Each personifate is based on a rigid primary structure, something akin to our skeletons but stronger. We compress and fuse flakes of grapheme to form a low-density, high-strength material.”
“So, the skeletons are light but strong?” said Prue.
“Indeed. You will notice that while the bodies of the personifates replicate the natural world, they are generally faster and stronger than their animal equivalents.”
Every part of it fascinated Prue. There was so much to take in, and she couldn’t help but ask question after question about all the technology.
At the end of the lesson, Craftsman Primrose gave them all a worksheet to complete on the internal components of personifates, then informed them that the attendance of the new apprentices would be required at the fac
torium at eight in the evening in Master White’s office. When they asked him about it, he wouldn’t say any more.
As they left the lab, Cora was telling Agapantha how brilliantly they had worked together and how they should pair up all the time. Prue whispered to Edwin that they should skip dinner back at the house and check the trap, but they’d have to make sure Cora wasn’t around.
“I think I’ll grab something to eat here rather than go back,” said Prue loudly. “Agapantha, can you stay and go over those equations you were showing me? Edwin’s struggling with them too. We could go to the library.”
Agapantha frowned, and Prue tried to tell her with her eyes to just go with it.
“You’re skipping dinner to do maths?” Cora said in disbelief. “Mind you, I guess you need all the help you can get. I’ll tell Lavender you’re so behind you have to work on. See you later, losers.” With that she breezed away.
“She’s certainly a force,” Agapantha said.
“That’s one word for her,” said Prue. “I guess she has quite a lot to live up to with Larkin being super apprentice. Not that that’s an excuse.”
“I shouldn’t have let her get to me with the hat,” said Edwin. “I know she just likes to push our buttons for her own entertainment.”
Prue hooked Agapantha’s arm. “Come on, let’s check the trap. If we’ve caught a wolf, we could always put it in Cora’s bed as a surprise.”
Edwin laughed. “Looks like personifates aren’t the only ones with a wild spark. I like it!”
They made their way to the forest.
“I wonder what we’ll be doing later at Master White’s?” said Edwin.
“I forgot to ask: where are the masters’ offices?” said Prue.
“Top floor of the factorium,” said Edwin. He leapt ahead, weaving his body this way and that.
“Don’t go too far!” Agapantha called. “You know – what with hungry wolves and foxes and all that.”
Prue watched him frisking elegantly, leaving a trail in the leaves, and tried to follow the pattern he was making with her own feet. She imagined what it would be like to be in the body of a stoat, to be so fast and athletic – she wondered if it would suit Francis. Having got to know Edwin, she was pretty sure if she came back for a second life, a stoat body would suit her well.
Suddenly, Edwin froze, rearing up on his back paws, his body rigid.
“Ed?” Prue whispered urgently. Her skin prickled.
He pointed upwards. “There’s something in the trap!”
Prue rushed over. “If we’re careful, we can keep it contained in the netting, and show the masters, then…”
Her elation quickly melted into disappointment as she took a closer look. It was a deer.
“I’m pretty sure deer are herbivores,” said Agapantha, frowning at the writhing body above.
Prue sighed heavily. “We’d better release it.”
They lowered the trap and after a few tense moments of untangling itself, the deer sprang away into the forest.
“Well, it’s lucky we’ve got a spare hour to reset it!” said Edwin.
HARNESSING
There was a shabby sophistication to Master White’s room. It had a forest green, leather lounge chair, glass jars, red velvet curtains, and chaos lights in fringed lamps. Master White and Master Woolstenbury stood in their ruby jackets by a mahogany table where the machine body of a golden eagle lay beside a piece of equipment that Prue had seen pictures of before but had yet to see in real life: a spectral oscilloscope.
Prue’s heart jumped. It was the full moon; they were at a harnessing!
“Please sit down,” said Master Woolstenbury. She had a voice which commanded in its assured, snipped tone. “You are here as observers, there will be no need to comment, or move, and no need to take notes. You are here to purely experience.”
The four of them sat on the green lounge chair, hardly daring to breathe, while the two women proceeded to set up their equipment and talk to each other in hushed voices.
After a few moments Cora leaned in towards Prue. “Your boots look a bit muddy for library study,” she said quietly, her mouth pinched.
“Oh, we—” Prue began whispering.
Cora put up her hand. “Spare me. If you’d rather gallivant around the grounds than study…” She paused while there was a brief break in the Master’s conversation. “Then it just means that your exit from the Guild will come all the sooner.”
Prue let out an agitated breath.
Master White sat on a chair beside the table and faced them. “This is the most important piece of machinery in the harnessing process, our spectral oscilloscope, or as we like to call it, the GODAR: our Ghost Observation Detection and Ranging device. This screen allows us to visualize the signals. In time you will come to learn the inner workings of these systems.”
Master White took the key from around her neck and went through a door at the back of the room. She returned with a small wooden box. Prue recognized it straight away.
Master White opened the lid and gently took the qwortzite out as though holding a fragile egg. It glowed with kaleidoscopic colours. She placed it inside the machine body.
A long time passed as the two women examined and adjusted equipment, with Master Woolstenbury wearing her magno-viewers. They attached something to the main machine that looked like a dish.
“This is a parabolic reflector. We use it to focus the signal into a feed point,” said Master White.
Master Woolstenbury was adjusting the dials, looking at the signals streaming across the spectro oscilloscope. Prue strained to see them more clearly. She couldn’t help but wonder: was one of those squiggly lines Francis, trying to come through?
“Signals, Prue. They’re everywhere, we just can’t hear or see them all.”
Prue shook her head doubtfully. “How can they be there if we can’t see or hear them?”
“Take rats, for instance.”
“Did you say rats, Francis?”
“Yes. They communicate with each other at a range outside of human hearing.”
“Really?” Prue said, dismounting her mechanimal horse beside the barn.
“I’ve heard it on the signal generator, when I was testing the homing transmitter. Silent signals are how the transmitter works. It sends a message through the air, and the receptor on the machine picks it up.”
“That’s brilliant!” Prue said, amazed.
“Come on. I’ll show you how it works.” Francis smiled.
“Agapantha, can you hold this for a moment for me, please?” asked Master White.
Prue looked to Agapantha, the spell of her thoughts suddenly broken.
After a sideways glance at Prue, Agapantha tucked her russet hair behind her ears and went to Master White. “Just hold that dial right there… That’s it, give it a slight turn. Stop when it feels right.”
The signals seemed to pulse a little faster. After a moment, they became less tangled.
“Thank you, Agapantha. You have a knack for this. You can sit down now.”
Minutes later, there was just one pure signal pattern on the screen. Master Woolstenbury glanced at Master White, her eyes gleaming.
Then she looked at the four. “Newly arrived souls are like infants, and in their panic about losing their memories, their sense of self, they can imprint on a person. This means they form an attachment that is deep, and very powerful. Here at the Guild we are very careful to prevent that from happening, because that affects the personifate’s precious free will.” She took a silver hand-held mirror from the table and held it before the face of the personifate eagle. “The first thing it sees, must be itself.”
A wing twitched.
The next part of the process took Prue quite by surprise.
In the gentlest voice, Hannah Woolstenbury lay her hand on the chest of the eagle. “Welcome. Do not be alarmed. You are back in the world of the living, but you are something new now.” Its eyes fluttered, then shut again. “You have no
memory of what has come before. It is part of the process. Can you open your eyes?”
They waited for several moments before the eyes wavered and blinked. The bird’s talons twitched.
“You were alive once. You were in the world of the dead. We cannot tell you for how long. Take your time, and when you feel ready, use your thoughts and feelings to try and speak.”
After a while, the eagle opened its beak slightly.
Prue was leaning forward, barely on the chair, her heart thumping. What if it was Francis?
“You are in a different form, but the essence of you is the same,” said Master Woolstenbury. “Can you see yourself?”
The eagle personifate gave a slow nod.
“Try to say something. Think, and it will flow.”
Prue gave a little gasp of anticipation.
“He … hello,” came the quiet voice of the eagle, unmistakably older and female.
Grief twisted in Prue’s chest. Stupid, she thought – she was so stupid. How could she have possibly thought it would be Francis? The disappointment bore down on her like a wave, crushing her chest.
Master Woolstenbury bent down to the new personifate. “You bring with you understanding, but not history. You are in the body of a great bird, and in your new life you will work together with the living in a second, different life, striving for the good of all.”
The eagle raised a wing and stretched out a foot, as though trying out her new body.
“We will give you time, but you are free to stay here in this form or return to where you were.”
“Do I have a name? I don’t remember.”
“You may choose your own, or we can choose for you.”
The eagle personifate paused then said, “Choose for me.”
Master White looked to Master Woolstenbury. “Perhaps we should consult the apprentices?”
Master Woolstenbury nodded in agreement, but Prue’s mind whirred with so many emotions she could barely hear what was being said any more. She wiped the sweat beading on her brow, her hands were clammy.
