Evangeline closed her hand over a small scrap of paper she’d kept at the start: a child's drawing of a crooked fence. The edges were frayed, the crayon faded, but when she held it she felt a pinprick of something like home. The Trainer’s glass eyes reflected the scrap and, for a moment, a flicker of something like pity passed through the gears.
She had rebelled from the dukes’ estates for less than glory: a promise to her brother, a patient dying in a cottage miles from the capital. The Trainer’s lessons were precise—tactics, speech, deceit, courage—each taught by a conjured phantom that mirrored and magnified her performance. In one hour, she could learn to talk like a lord; in a day, to fence like a palace guard. But every skill took a notch from something else: a memory of a mother’s lullaby dimmed, a single laugh erased, a freckle vanished from her hand. The Trainer did not lie. “Exclusivity is price-based,” it chimed. “One may buy the world, but not the self wholly.”
The Clockwork Apprentice
Evangeline closed her hand over a small scrap of paper she’d kept at the start: a child's drawing of a crooked fence. The edges were frayed, the crayon faded, but when she held it she felt a pinprick of something like home. The Trainer’s glass eyes reflected the scrap and, for a moment, a flicker of something like pity passed through the gears.
She had rebelled from the dukes’ estates for less than glory: a promise to her brother, a patient dying in a cottage miles from the capital. The Trainer’s lessons were precise—tactics, speech, deceit, courage—each taught by a conjured phantom that mirrored and magnified her performance. In one hour, she could learn to talk like a lord; in a day, to fence like a palace guard. But every skill took a notch from something else: a memory of a mother’s lullaby dimmed, a single laugh erased, a freckle vanished from her hand. The Trainer did not lie. “Exclusivity is price-based,” it chimed. “One may buy the world, but not the self wholly.”
The Clockwork Apprentice
