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.