Carnelia Blazebright had seen worse.

When she was seven, an earthquake had once toppled the statue perched atop the town hall and caused a deafening crash that echoed back and forth across the cavern for more than a minute straight. And on her thirteenth birthday, another earthquake had rattled her birthday cake straight off the counter it had been cooling on, delaying the party for another two whole months while they waited for the replacement ingredients to be delivered. Given those experiences, a minute-long tremor with barely enough power to shake a few kitchen utensils was nothing remarkable.

Still, Carnelia found it hard not to be unnerved. No matter how far away from the fault lines Downtown had been carved, no matter how calm the desert lands above them usually were; a million tons of earth rumbling right over one’s head was enough to strike fear into anyone’s heart. The only reason Carnelia didn’t run for cover was because she was already in the safest spot in all of Downtown. Right below the Chute, the main entrance and exit to the cavern city.

If the cavern containing Downtown really did collapse —which it hadn't for the countless millennia since its creation— Carnelia had an infinitesimal chance of survival where she currently sat. Which was a considerable improvement over the nil odds provided everywhere else. Fortunately, the earthquake wound down without causing an apocalyptic end to Downtown and things settled back down to the way things had always been around this place. Quiet, and still.

Laying back, Carnelia watched the last remnants of loose dirt and sand shaken free from the earthquake drift down the Chute feeling filled with merry doom. They glinted gold against the distant celestite-blue sky as they swirled and scattered along the air currents of the cavern, slowly losing their liveliness as they fell deeper and deeper into its shadows.

Carnelia breathed in the faint scent of desert air that had drifted in from the outside. Here, in her home of quiet, gray stone, the wind didn’t whisper, the breeze didn’t play. The air sat stagnant and still, drab as the lives of the elderly residents that lived within it.

But her hair wasn’t thin and graying like theirs; it ran a rusty auburn color, streaked with vivid strands of copper. Her skin didn’t sag or have liver spots either; it was fresh and unblemished. And her eyes weren’t cloudy and rheumy; they shone with bright fire, like the polished gemstones of her namesake.

Carnelia was young, and with youth came dreams. So, as the distant, meager sunlight warmed her through the stiff bolero jacket she wore, she squeezed the silver coin necklace in her hand and dreamed. Dreamed about her real reason for skipping class.

The truth was, Carnelia hadn’t come to this spot to save herself from the earthquake. She'd come here today to celebrate the anniversary of her first brush with someone from beyond the stone limits of Downtown; a woman who had rescued her in the dark, unmapped cave system surrounding the underground village. What she considered her real and true birthday.

She remembered their encounter like it had only happened yesterday.

The primal fear that seized her entire body captive as a cavern crawler slopped out of the shadows, heaving forth its carapaced body in gross, undulating motions.

The reverberating CRACK! as Corun, her rescuer, sprang forward from out of nowhere and pierced the creature's shell with a swing of her steel rock pick.

The sting in her cheek as, afterward, the amateur Challenger lashed at her with hand and mouth for forcing her to kill an innocent creature to protect her.

Back then, the experience had sent Carnelia fleeing to her room where she spent the rest of the day huddled in bed in tears. Now, with time and perspective, Carnelia treasured the memory. It had opened her eyes to the width of the world.

The silver Challenger coin in her hand, with its four mirrored C's, served as a memento of that special day. Scratched and scarred by a thousand unknown adventures, it stood as a promise, for all the adventure and glory waiting for her in the world above.

Funny thing, though. Despite finding it on the same day she had met Corun, Carnelia was pretty sure this coin didn't belong to her rescuer.

Carnelia distinctly remembered a pristine steel Challenger coin pinned on the woman’s vest, not this aged silver one that she now possessed. Granted, the difference between those two metals was hard for most people to spot, but having grown up surrounded by all varieties of rocks, minerals, and ores, Carnelia was sure she hadn’t misidentified them.

A steel Challenger coin found without the official Guild badge was the mark of an amateur Challenger. Someone who had attempted the Challenger’s Confirmation but hadn’t passed. They possessed the coin, but not the official card meant to hold it.

A silver Challenger coin found without the official Guild badge was… a mystery.

Not only did that mean the owner of the coin had passed the Confirmation and was a bonafide Guild-contracted Challenger, it also meant they were successful enough in their endeavors to achieve the second highest rank available within the Guild. People like that didn’t just lose their Challenger coins. Especially considering the incredible perks and access they’d be giving up without it. So who could have possibly left something this valuable behind in a place so remote?

Carnelia had her guesses. But rather than waste any more time on pointless speculation, she wanted to get out there and find answers! Up on the surface, where everything worth doing was happening without her.

There was only one obstacle remaining. One teensy, tiny thing. She just had to convince her grandfather to let her go.

As she envisioned a kaleidoscope of scenarios, her heart began to race faster than it had during the earthquake. Would he shout at her, furious that she had kept her plans from him for so long? Or laugh instead, assuming her declaration was a poor joke? Or turn his shoulder, denying her his support through silence?

Would he somehow make it so that all her planning, preparation, and patience were going to be for naught?

Carnelia didn’t know, but she wasn’t about to get cold feet. She couldn’t suffer another year, another month, another day, in this stuffy old place. This was a place for a bunch of eccentric retirees to fritter away their last few decades, not a place for a young girl to spend her best years—

“Aren’t you a little old to be skipping school?”

Much closer and clearer than the distant echoes of neighbors checking on neighbors, a gravelly voice sounded behind her. Carnelia jerked up. She turned to see the deeply creased face of a balding, thick-waisted man as he stepped forward into the light cast down from the Chute, shielding his face with a calloused hand. A trail of stone dust streamed from his work apron as he regarded her.

The man’s name was Jeorr Agrashi, a semi-retired sculptor over seven decades old. And although he was technically Carnelia’s legally appointed guardian, she preferred to think of him as her grandfather.

“Gramps!”

Carnelia sat up in both surprise and delight, but as the old man raised one of his unruly eyebrows, she remembered that she was supposed to be in class. She smoothed down her hair and adopted a more appropriately remorseful expression.

“Sorry. I couldn’t stand being stuck in that tiny room today.”

Jeorr snorted. “Only natural. Kids aren’t meant to be cooped up in a place like this. Scooch.”

Jeorr grunted as he settled down beside her. He adjusted his keister several times, then gave her a sidelong glance.

“Still, it’s been a long time since you’ve skipped class like this, Carnelia.”

“Has it?”

“Mm-hm. Last time must’ve been when you were five or six. Do you remember?”

“Hardly.”

“Mm. Well, back in those days, we couldn’t keep you in class not matter how hard we tried. You ran off so often those days that you had poor Miss Eleina thinking she was such a bad teacher. She even came to me crying, asking me to find a replacement.”

“Crying?” Carnelia blinked in surprise. If there was one word that came to mind when she thought of her teacher, it was composed.

Jeorr nodded. “That woman has spent her whole life raising other people’s children. For her whole life. But you and your relentless disregard for anything that wasn’t what you wanted to do had her convinced she’d lost her touch in retirement. I’ve told you before, what’s the thing people in this place fear the most?”

Jeorr’s voice took on a heavy edge, like that of a chisel. His stern gaze felt like it pierced straight through her. Carnelia flushed, actually feeling the remorse instead of just wearing it on her face. She dropped her head.

“Well,” Jeorr sighed and looked down at his hand and clenched and unclenched it for several seconds, “you could do well to consider how your actions affect others before you skip class again. Understood?”

Carnelia nodded remorsefully.

“I do. I’m sorry.”

“Good. Make sure you apologize to Miss Eleina later.”

With that bit of parenting complete, Jeorr leaned against her and joined in at gazing up at the little bit of sky trapped within Downtown’s chimney of stone. Warm light bathed the washed-out stone of the Chute in tones of chalk and gold, and a topaz blue sky peeked out behind it, scattered with wispy crystalline clouds. It was a palette of lights and colors that didn’t exist in the Downtown; the palette of the real, living world.

The girl and man shared the view for a time, one loving it, the other almost dreading it; both aware of the greater conversation that loomed beyond the horizon.

To Jeorr's pride, Carnelia didn’t shy away from what she needed to say. Just as he had raised her to, Carnelia straightened her back and faced her guardian head-on.

“Gramps. I have something to tell you.”

Her grandfather didn’t respond right away, but Carnelia waited. She would, for a conversation this important.

A cloud cast a shade over them both. Jeorr took a breath and met her eyes.

“Well?”

Carnelia stared right back, without a waver.

“Grandfather. Next month, once I turn fifteen, I’m leaving Downtown to take the Confirmation. 

...I’m going to become a Challenger.”