He nodded. “More to the point, are you all right? What happened with your brother, what you had to do… I mean, Prue, that must’ve been a terrible choice. I can’t even imagine how you did it.”

“I’m glad I’ve got you to talk to about it. You’re the only one who saw Francis; if you hadn’t witnessed it, I would have thought I’d imagined it.”

“I’m glad too.”

“In truth, I still don’t know what to make of it all. I can’t help but think that Charles Primrose had a point, even if he chose a rather extreme way to try and tackle it.”

Edwin looked at her. “I feel the same.”

“But I know that it was right to let go of Francis, that I have to move on, find my own way.”

Prue trudged along the path. It was just like the first day she’d arrived at the factorium, yet her world had changed so much. “Is there a part of you that would want to be back inside a human body, if you had the chance?”

Edwin was quiet for a moment. “It was a bit confusing changing bodies back then, but given the chance to be the first-lifer boy me? Yes, I think I would take it.”

Prue wondered again what he would have looked like in his first life. How he might have died. She wondered what it would feel like not to know.

“Master Woolstenbury has taken my adapted GODAR, so there will be no more name discovery for now.”

“That doesn’t surprise me. At least I got to find out my real name first.”

“And she had some news for us,” said Prue. She paused and turned back to face the factorium. She glanced at Edwin. “She’s taking us on as apprentices!”

Edwin laughed. “What? Are you serious?”

“She’s going to tell you herself, but, yes!”

“That, I didn’t expect!”

Agapantha appeared from the nearby transport hut. She waved and jumped through the snow towards them. “Ed!” She picked him up and hugged him, then grabbed Prue and pulled her in too. “What did Master Woolstenbury say?”

“Well, we’ve not been thrown out of the Guild. And it seems we have ourselves a new mentor.”

“Craftsman Shad? Oh, is it Master Tinubu? She’ll be brilliant… No wait – it’s not Sollentude, is it?” Agapantha grimaced.

“It’s Master Woolstenbury.”

Her mouth opened wide. “No way! Wow!”

“On the condition that I let go of my plans to bring back memory.”

“Are you all right about that? What with Francis and everything.”

Prue nodded. Even though it still compressed her throat to think about it, the moment she’d decided to press the button, she’d known it had to be that way.

More apprentices began emerging from the transport hut.