“Friends! Today I introduce you to … the future!” He speaks with a flourish and looks off-stage with an exhilarated expression on his face. I move even closer. The people are still quiet.

Verity leads the way and behind her comes Gull, shrouded in cloth. Her shy, hopeful smile brings tears to my eyes. If I can just get near enough—

This isn’t going to work. Longsight has misjudged the crowd. Please, no.

“Many of you will remember the day Leora Flint returned to us – that traitor, still missing, still a threat to our peace.” I look around, waiting for someone to notice me and call me out. “However, you may not know that another young woman arrived in our midst that day. And, although with the return of Flint came a resurgence of darkness, there was a little light. Of course, initially we were uncertain – for the one who came to our town with Leora Flint was blank.”

Voices rumble around me. It feels like distant thunder before the storm breaks. No, the voice in my head whispers. No. No. No.

But she’s there. They’re both standing right there – a proud and faithful Verity and a brave, foolish Gull – skin hidden for now, safe only because of the fabric wrapped around her.

Longsight keeps talking.

“I am here to tell you that Mel was right – there is hope, and that hope can be found in unity. That the blanks will return, return to the land and the culture they shunned; and when they come they will kneel and they will beg to be brought into the way of truth.”

“And we’ll destroy them!” one lone voice hollers.

Mayor Longsight pauses, head cocked. He takes a breath. I am almost at the stage.

“We will not destroy them, no.” He’s quieter now and all the more sinister for it. “We will test them.” There is a pause and he looks around. “Why has all this happened, now? My resurrection, my body becoming immortal? Because now is a new beginning. It is time for the blanks to call upon us for mercy and submit to the truth – confessing their evil ways and undergoing the inker’s needle. And then we will bring them in. A new, united community – the lost souls found.”

It is as though he is impervious to the simmering rage and disbelief that froths through the crowd. The heat has been turned up – it is unbearable, oppressive. Faces that are damp with perspiration are ready to bay for the cooling rain of blood. And yet, Longsight takes the quiet as assent, as support – and he unveils his masterpiece.

Gull removes her cloak.