Prue felt like the past day had been a dream. As she walked back through the atrium, she half expected Craftsman Primrose to appear. Despite his crazed plan, she found she missed him. After all, without him she would never have been here.

Abel had put some star-shaped blue and pink flowers in a vase close to the entrance. She took a couple then glanced at the corridor which led to the Hall of Lost Personifates.

Inside it was utterly silent. Not a cold silence, but peaceful. She passed a gap where the painting of the storm-grey hare with intelligent eyes had been, and thought about the second day at the Guild, when Craftsman Primrose had brought them here. The plaque remained below the empty space.

Carl Cold-Moon

Technician

Capax Infiniti

“Holding the infinite,” she said quietly. What and who had Craftsman Primrose been in his first life? It was probable that she’d never know. She wondered if Master Woolstenbury would return the painting to the room.

She moved further down the hall to where Edwin’s painting of Luella rested, carefully laid the flowers on the floor below, then put her fingertips to the pigeon’s chest. “Thank you for being a friend. Maybe you’re somewhere with Francis now, looking out for each other. I think you’d get on brilliantly.” She smiled at the thought.

She regarded it for a minute longer, thinking of everything that had happened, how a few moon-cycles had felt like a lifetime. Then she took something from her pocket and left the room.

The door gently clicked shut behind her.

Back in the Hall of Lost Personifates, tucked inside the frame of Luella Harvest-Moon’s painting, was the picture of Francis grinning and leaning against a mechanimal plough horse.

*

As Prue walked back through the atrium, she suddenly caught sight of something moving in the white through the window. She ran outside.

Two beady eyes blinked in the snow, then Edwin bounded towards her.

“You’re you again!” she cried. Relief, warm and soothing, coursed through her.

“Master White returned me to my real body straight away. It was fun being a flying lion for a while, but she thought that a quick transferral back would be the least risk to my wildspark signal.”

“It’s good to have you back. I mean, how would you be able to sit on my shoulder as a flying lion?”

“You’ve not been thrown out of the Guild, then?”

“Not yet!” Prue tapped her shoulder. “Hop up for a moment, Jack Swift, if it’s not invading your personal space?”

Edwin scampered up to sit on her shoulder and they took a walk along the path. Abel was in the distance by the gates, shoveling away.

“Are you really all right?” Prue asked. “This week has been pretty overwhelming.”