The next morning, Prue sneaked out of the room before Cora and Agapantha woke up. The events of the previous night seemed silly in the light of morning. She was pretty certain it had been a Cora and Larkin joke, and she’d decided not to get drawn into Cora’s games and focus on her memory mission. She hurried down the stairs, hoping Edwin was still resting in his room. Her stomach twisted uncomfortably – it was horrible having to lie to both of them, but she needed to keep on track with her plans to get to Francis, before she was found out.

She was about to open the door to the pneumerator staircase, when a cough came from the dining room.

“Where is one off to so early, Frances?” said Queen Adelaide

Prue turned to see Queen Adelaide sitting on her golden chair.

“Oh … one is, I mean, I’m off to the library, to get some study in before lessons.”

“I commend your conscientious nature, but if there is one thing a queen has, it’s an excellent sense of when something is going on in her court that she should know about.”

“Honestly, there’s nothing to know about,” Prue said, then quickly added, “Oh, is that a new dress, Your Highness? It looks particularly magnificent.”

Queen Adelaide raised her chin and smiled. “The finest velvet from Augustine.”

“It’s very nice,” Prue said, hurrying out of the door.

But as she made her way down the steps to the pneumerator, Prue’s mind began to turn. Perhaps she would be able to persuade Queen Adelaide to work with her on her memory project? Everyone had her down as a deranged personifate, but what if there was something different in her that was unlocking real memories?

When Prue finally reached the messenger tower, Luella was perched in the window. With a few beats of her wings, Luella flew down and landed on her shoulder.

They hurried through the factorium to the memory lab.

“This is very intriguing, Prue, but are you sure you should be in here?”

“No one has said I can’t,” Prue said carefully. She took out her journal from her hiding box and the GODAR she’d managed to fix. “I’d like to take a reading of your wildspark signal, if possible. But I must warn you there are risks involved. I’ve never actually used this machine before.”

“How will you do it?”

“If I attach these wires through your synthetic skin, I believe I’ll be able to get a reading on this machine here. Don’t worry, you won’t feel a thing.”

“I never do. It’s a funny thing, missing pain. Missing something unpleasant. Missing something you can’t even remember. Tell me, Prue, why exactly are you doing this?”

Prue paused then lowered her voice. “Luella, promise me you won’t tell another soul.”