by Vashti Hardy
“I commend your conscientious nature, but if there is one thing a queen has, it’s an excellent sense of when something is going on in her court that she should know about.”
“Honestly, there’s nothing to know about,” Prue said, then quickly added, “Oh, is that a new dress, Your Highness? It looks particularly magnificent.”
Queen Adelaide raised her chin and smiled. “The finest velvet from Augustine.”
“It’s very nice,” Prue said, hurrying out of the door.
But as she made her way down the steps to the pneumerator, Prue’s mind began to turn. Perhaps she would be able to persuade Queen Adelaide to work with her on her memory project? Everyone had her down as a deranged personifate, but what if there was something different in her that was unlocking real memories?
When Prue finally reached the messenger tower, Luella was perched in the window. With a few beats of her wings, Luella flew down and landed on her shoulder.
They hurried through the factorium to the memory lab.
“This is very intriguing, Prue, but are you sure you should be in here?”
“No one has said I can’t,” Prue said carefully. She took out her journal from her hiding box and the GODAR she’d managed to fix. “I’d like to take a reading of your wildspark signal, if possible. But I must warn you there are risks involved. I’ve never actually used this machine before.”
“How will you do it?”
“If I attach these wires through your synthetic skin, I believe I’ll be able to get a reading on this machine here. Don’t worry, you won’t feel a thing.”
“I never do. It’s a funny thing, missing pain. Missing something unpleasant. Missing something you can’t even remember. Tell me, Prue, why exactly are you doing this?”
Prue paused then lowered her voice. “Luella, promise me you won’t tell another soul.”
Luella thought for a moment. “You’re a clever girl, no doubt about it, and you have a kind heart. I promise you.”
“You’re the only one who knows what happened to my brother. I want to find him, and I’m not sure how, but if I can unlock memories at least it’ll be a first step.”
Luella was silent for a while. Then she nodded. “So, you want to analyse my frequency as part of your search?”
“Yes.”
“Well, my dear, I feel this is a rather personal request, but it’s a noble pursuit indeed and I would be happy to play a small part in the process.”
In a moment, Prue had swept her up and hugged her close. “Thank you!”
Then Prue lay her equipment on the floor. “I want to attach a receiver wire to your chest, close to the qwortzite.”
Luella nodded. Prue gently inserted the wire, just a millimetre or two so as not to risk any damage, then she switched on the GODAR. It crackled, then she slowly twisted the dial. A frequency appeared on the screen.
“Well, I’ll be darned!” said Luella.
“Hold still, I’m going to make some notes.” Prue hurriedly sketched the shape in her journal. “Right, I’m going to zoom in a bit.”
Prue’s breath caught in her throat. There were complex patterns within the wave: waves within waves, within more waves. Some curved, another like saw teeth and another like a series of steps. She hurriedly copied it all into her journal.
“Will you move a wing for me, please?”
Luella did so, and the square wave contracted and expanded.
“Now could you imagine how it feels to fly?”
The saw tooth wave moved.
“Fascinating,” Prue breathed. “That must be linked to emotion.”
“I’ve no idea what you’re making sense of in all those squiggles, but I’m glad it’s of some use!” Luella laughed – and as she did so, the saw tooth signal rippled again on the screen.
Afterwards, Prue hid her journal back in the box and then popped her head out the door and checked the coast was clear before sneaking back out. She hurried to the mechanics laboratory for her lessons, and found apprentices of all levels were already there, bustling inside.
“Where have you been?” asked Edwin.
“Library.”
“That’s funny,” said Cora, “because the library is in that direction.”
Prue’s cheeks burned.
“And I thought you three were such good friends.”
Edwin and Agapantha went quiet and they all hurried inside.
“Why don’t you sit with me today, Agapantha? We both know we’re the only two who are going to make it here,” said Cora.
Prue ignored her and found a free seat. Master Tinubu was at the front of the class waiting.
“Apprentices, we are, as you know, all hands-on to prepare for the blood moon. The masters have decided that a suitable task for the apprentices will be to work on the mechanical voice boxes. The specification is uniform for each personifate, so this is the best task to get started with.”
Prue had read a little about voice boxes in her library studies.
“Apprentices who have been with the Guild for a year can proceed on the projects, and I will check your work. Apprentices who have been here under a year, please come to the front table.”
Seven apprentices came to the front. Master Tinubu placed a cube, about the size of a dice, on the table. Prue had certainly been expecting something a little bigger.
“While our own voice boxes, our larynx, controls the flow of air, the mechanical voice boxes we make at the factorium control the flow of signals and translate that into sound. The ghost’s own frequency results in the voice so there is only one possible, unique sound. If we don’t get the mechanics quite right, it results in static or silence. The voice box is complex micro-engineering, but the mechanics are easy to follow if you stick with the step-by-step instructions.”
Master Tinubu looked to the door. “I had hoped Master Sollentude would join me to get you all started.” She glanced at her pocket watch and sighed. “Well, we’ll have to just get on with it. She went to the cupboard then gave them all a copy of Inner Mechanical Workings of the Personifate by Hannah Woolstenbury, Volume III, which was as thick as one of Lavender’s spelt loaves.
“Chapter Eleven onwards. You’d better get reading, then tomorrow you can make a start on the mechanics.”
*
By the end of the afternoon, as they walked back to the transport hut, there was so much information going around in Prue’s brain that she longed for sleep just to give it a rest. The voice boxes were fascinating, but it had been difficult to concentrate when her mind kept drifting back to her memory research. She looked back at the factorium, then she realized with a bolt that they hadn’t checked the trap in two days!
“We’d better check the trap. If some poor animal was stuck there, I’d feel terrible.”
“I’d almost forgotten about it, what with that business at the spirit lights,” said Edwin.
“It’s time to take it down anyway. Whatever killed the personifate is probably long gone,” Prue said, although there was still that seed of doubt in her mind. What if it hadn’t been a joke? What if there was more to the creature she’d seen? “We need to keep an eye out, in case Cora and Larkin try anything again,” she added.
The evenings were drawing in earlier by the day, and the light already had a murky gloom to it as they entered the forest. They walked silently, eyes flitting in all directions, on their guard.
They were approaching the trap when they suddenly all froze, hearts thumping in their chests with both fear and elation: there was something in it!
“Is it another deer?” asked Edwin.
But Prue had already seen that the long leg sticking out of the net was not that of a deer. Her body slumped with a terrible realization. “Oh no,” she stammered.
The three of them stepped into the clearing and looked up.
They hadn’t caught an animal.
The net gently rotated. A human face pressed against it and slowly swung towards them. “What in all of Medlock is goin
g on?” he rasped.
It was the unmistakable ashen face of Master Sollentude, ten feet from the ground.
“Oh dear,” Prue said breathlessly.
“Well, I guess we know why he didn’t show at the lab today,” Edwin whispered.
“Get. Me. Down … immediately!” he said, his voice furiously quiet.
They rushed to release the trap, with Prue stuttering instructions and pleading to do it as gently as possible. Even so, Master Sollentude landed with a bump.
He stared at them. “The Duval apprentices warned me about you three. Cora said you were up to something in the forest. I’ll be speaking to White and Primrose and you can expect severe repercussions.”
They gathered the trap netting, then were marched back through the thick ferns to the forest edge.
“Leave the equipment there for now and get back to the house, out of my sight,” said Master Sollentude. “You’ve not heard the last of this.”
The three made their way solemnly back to the transport hut.
“We should probably start packing,” Prue said gloomily.
“Do you think?” said Agapantha.
“Look, we don’t know,” said Edwin.
But their sagging shoulders and shuffled steps told each other that it wasn’t looking good.
Not another word passed between them as they rode the pneumerator, then they glumly made their way across the hall.
The bottom of the staircase was barred.
“Had a nice evening?” Cora had a smug, pinched expression which made Prue’s hands clench. She felt Edwin’s paw tap her as though to say don’t.
Prue barged past and stormed up to the bedroom and slammed the door. She was likely to be sent home and she’d barely got started on finding a way to Francis. Moments later, Agapantha gently opened the door.
“Frances, Lavender said there’s tea downstairs.”
“I don’t want any. Tell her I’m not hungry.”
Agapantha closed the door.
Prue felt so many emotions, but the worst one was knowing that it was her fault; she’d come up with the net idea and persuaded the others to do it. She’d let down the best friends she’d had since her brother. If only she hadn’t been so keen to prove herself.
She hurriedly changed into her pyjamas, got into bed and pulled the covers tight around her.
WARNING
The next morning, Prue, Agapantha and Edwin were told to report to Master White’s office at eight o’clock sharp.
When they knocked on the door, Craftsman Primrose answered. Prue hardly dared to look him in the eyes, but when she did, he smiled awkwardly, and it made it all the worse that he’d taken a chance on her and she’d let him down.
Masters White and Sollentude were both sitting behind the large desk. Master White beckoned them to come forward.
“These three have been up to all manner of shenanigans, blatantly disregarding—” Master Sollentude began.
“With respect,” Master White interrupted, “you have already detailed the events, and I’m sure the three concerned are not experiencing any random memory loss.”
Prue noted a small grin at her words from Craftsman Primrose, who, as the least senior Guild member in the room, was sitting just to the side.
“Do you have anything to say?” Master White asked the apprentices.
Prue raised a hand. “It was all my idea; if anyone is getting thrown off the apprenticeship it should be me.”
“But we went along with it,” said Agapantha.
Edwin nodded in agreement.
“I see,” said Master White.
“So, she’s the ringleader. I told you it was one of Primrose’s apprentices to blame; he’s obviously chosen unfit individuals for the trade and let them run amok,” said Master Sollentude.
“The smaller personifates were shaken up after what happened to Rayana,” said Edwin. “We just wanted to make sure they felt safe, so we thought we’d try and catch whatever it was.”
Master White tilted her head. “Taking heroics upon oneself is not a sensible course of action. The Guild searched the area and found nothing. It’s likely long gone and just a unique, tragic occurrence.”
“Reckless actions have no place in the Imperial Personifate Guild,” Master Sollentude chimed in.
“They were just trying to be helpful, surely?” said Craftsman Primrose.
Sollentude scowled at him.
“Anyway, Sollentude, what were you doing lurking about in the forest?” Craftsman Primrose asked, taking his glasses off and wiping the lenses with his pocket handkerchief.
“My apprentices alerted me to the fact they’d seen your lot prowling suspiciously about the woods a week or so ago, so I decided to take a look.”
Craftsman Primrose stood up. “Perhaps you could alert me to the fact, should the occasion ever arise again – which I doubt it will. As you say, two of these are my apprentices. And I’m sure Master White would feel the same.”
Master Sollentude narrowed his eyes.
“Imagine if they had happened to catch the bear, or wolf, or whatever it was that preyed upon our dear Rayana. Perhaps they’d be heroes.”
Master White turned to Master Sollentude. “Master Sollentude, I am in agreement with Craftsman Primrose.”
“Of course you are,” said Master Sollentude accusingly.
“Master Sollentude, I can assure you I am quite capable of an independent opinion. I think the apprentices have learnt their lesson. I will explain to Master Woolstenbury and, as Guild rules stipulate, the choice of consequences for any minor inappropriate behaviour from apprentices lies with the direct mentor. Perhaps you should question why your own apprentices took over a week to report to you that they thought the three were up to something in the woods? If they suspect fellow apprentices to be in any danger, it is their duty to report that immediately.”
Master Sollentude’s cheeks burned.
Prue could feel Edwin stifling a grin beside her, and her own shoulders relaxed for the first time all morning.
Master Sollentude stood up stiffly, nodded and left the room, flashing a last look of disapproval in Prue’s direction.
“We didn’t mean to catch him. We’re sorry,” said Prue, once the door had closed.
Master White clasped her hands together. “There’s plenty for us to focus on with the blood moon approaching; we really don’t need these distractions. There are still one hundred personifates to finish, and I trust you will be too busy with the voice box task to get up to anything else problematic. I will assign a suitable task as a matter of consequence for your actions when I have a moment to think. In the meantime, you may go.”
They all left Master White’s office, Master Sollentude glaring at the apprentices as he waited for the lift.
Craftsman Primrose walked with them across the atrium.
Edwin repeated how sorry they were.
“Look, there’s no harm done, really,” Craftsman Primrose said, pausing. “Except when it comes to apprentices being kept on long term, it’s not just me who gets a say. The masters can collectively overrule any decision I make. While Agapantha is at a slight advantage being apprenticed to a master, I’m afraid I don’t yet offer you two that benefit. I don’t want you to go near the forest again. Is that understood?”
They nodded.
“If it makes you feel better, I’ll ask Master Woolstenbury to ensure the woods are searched again by the guard personifates, but I really think what happened to the poor jackalope was a one-off. Now, off to mechanical lab three with you all. I have some business at the Sovereign Chancellery – the usual trouble in the city with the ASL. Honestly, these people.” He hurried away.
The three headed up the stairs towards the mechanical labs. Zareen was walking along the corridor, her golden fur bright in the morning light streaming through the sky-light above.
“Ah, the three net busters,” Zareen said.
“Word gets around here,” said Prue awkwardly.
“I’m not judging you. Many of the second lifers here think the intention was actually very nice of you,” Zareen said. “But be careful. There’s been reports of a strange animal roaming the streets of Medlock after dark. Two sightings in one week.”
“Really?” Prue said.
“The ASL are saying it’s the guard personifates getting above themselves and scaring first lifers for fun.”
Prue wondered if that was the business Craftsman Primrose had been talking about.
“Personifates wouldn’t do that, would they?” asked Edwin.
Zareen shook her head. “It’s probably just rumours the ASL have started purely to create fear of personifates. Even so, Master Woolstenbury is going to send a note over to the house to ensure everyone is extra vigilant. I just thought I’d tell you three, as you seem prone to trouble.” Zareen raised her eyebrows and carried along the corridor.
“I wonder what that was all about?” said Agapantha.
Edwin shook his head. “Probably just the ASL, like Zareen said.”
*
In the mechanical lab, Prue was glad to focus on something technical for the day. She still felt responsible for what had happened with the trap, and if she got caught for lying about who she was, or for the memory lab, she didn’t want the others to get into more trouble on account of her. She decided she’d have to keep her distance, for her sake and theirs, starting from that moment. She set up on a bench of her own and worked quietly by herself, then sneaked out before the others for lunch break.
When it got to the end of the afternoon, Edwin came and sat next to her. “Frances, you’ve barely said a word all day. If something’s bothering you, you can talk to me and Ag. I know we got into trouble with the trap, but it’s not that bad. I’m sure they’ll forget about it soon enough.”
Prue shrugged. “I’m fine. I’m going to take the trap equipment back – I just remembered we left it by the forest edge.”
“We can all go,” said Agapantha.
“No, honestly, it won’t take me a moment. I’ll see you both back at the house soon.” And she hurried off before they could disagree.
Once outside, Prue hurried to the forest edge to collect the netting. A rustling came from somewhere in the trees. Pausing, she squinted, staring into the dark mossy green. There was nothing there.
