The parade wheezed to a stop and everyone began looking around, wondering what was going on.

“Rights for personifates!” someone shouted.

“Look down there,” said Prue, pointing to a leopard who raised herself on hind legs and threw a second paint bomb.

Then across the square a few individuals started chanting, “ASL! ASL!”

“Oh no, it’s the Anti-Second Lifers,” said Prue.

In no time, Sovereign Chancellery guards seemed to appear and bundled both the leopard personifate and the Anti-Second Lifers away.

“It’s quite all right, nothing to worry about,” Governor Watson-Wentworth called to the crowds.

“What was the leopard upset about?” said Prue, as the music started up again.

Edwin frowned. “Let’s just say that some personifates aren’t happy with being controlled by the first lifers.”

“Oh, I’ve not thought about it like that before.”

“That’s the problem,” said Edwin. “I’m not saying that the personifate was right in what she did, but…”

“But what?” said Prue.

“But you’ve got to admit there’s an imbalance. How would you like to know you at best had fifteen years? Wouldn’t you want to choose your path and to do everything you wanted to in that time rather than doing what the Sovereign Chancellery want?”

“Yes, of course, but even though it’s not ideal, isn’t it best to be given any chance at a second life?” said Prue.

“Without our memories, without any history, without any sense of who we are, we are putty in their hands, and they can tell us who we are.” He huffed.

“But are any of us truly free?” said Agapantha.

Prue shrugged. “True – we all have to live with rules.”

“I wouldn’t expect you both to understand.” Edwin jumped down from the statue.

“Edwin, wait!” Prue called.

“Let him go. We’ll talk more when he’s cooled down,” said Agapantha.

Chapter 18: Spirit Lights

SPIRIT LIGHTS

The Inventors Parade had come to an end fairly swiftly after the incident, even though Governor Watson-Wentworth had waved the trouble away and ensured his personifate cart finished the full rotation around the square. The red paint bomb that had hit the side of the cart dripped like a wound down the side and was not so easily brushed away.

Prue, Edwin and Agapantha didn’t talk any further about what had happened, but the incident continued to play on Prue’s mind into the next week. She’d thought about what Edwin had said, and the leopard personifate had a good point. Even though all the personifates she’d met seemed perfectly happy, it didn’t seem fair. When she eventually found a way to bring Francis back, she wouldn’t want him to be assigned in a post as a messenger or kitchen worker. She wanted him back on the farm with her.

If she found a way to uncover the personifates’ memories, surely that’s what most of the personifates would want?