Tomorrow is my Nameday.

Or rather, Amon’s Nameday.

Normally, ‘twould be a day I’d celebrate – mayhaps with a few friends or just going out to enjoy a show or somesuch. I’ve always looked forward to my Nameday, which interestingly falls on the final day of the calendar.

But now ‘tisn’t normal. Now I grapple with the questions of a made thing.

Do clones have a Nameday?

Or is there just some stamp in a digital file somewhere on a record-keeping Node that tells the day that this body was fully formed? Or would it be the day I was infused with the shadow of free will that made me think I was who I was.

All those Namedays I think I remember – are they mine, or is it all just a fabrication to trick me into believing I am my maker?

Of course, Tad continues to debate the whole thing in his own way. He says he has proof (which he never surfaces) that my clone was created using a true fragment of the soul belonging to Amon of Allag. He swears that if anything, I’m more the cousin he remembers than the Technologist in the Tower had been.

But I know how clones work. And I know that though man can make what his knowledge allows, souls are a thing that only the laws of nature can grant. None of the creatures I crafted in my past life were things with souls… unless the foundational was there already. ‘Twas why chimerabiology was of more interest than mere cloning.

I know there have been cases, even recent – though little to no documentation on the process was kept – in which a soul can develop through life experiences under the right conditions. Though, it seems a rare and special circumstance.

And yet… what does that make me?

Up until now, I was completely unaware of the truth of my origins. I knew, of course, my body was a clone of my own making – or so I thought. But I was quite confident that the soul and aether was my own. Never once did I question the validity of my own person.

Is this the blissful, unaware state of being a created thing?

Or is Tad correct – was there enough of a soul implanted into me that I can claim to be Amon of Allag?

I know naught the answer to either question. Nor do I know if tomorrow is really my Nameday.

-A