The end of the month could not have arrived any slower for Carnelia.

After spending days bedridden and sore from the knocks and burns that the namestone challenge had inflicted on her, all that remained was to count down the days to her freedom… and endure constant mothering from Jeorr.

“You’re going to take a taxi? Tell me your exact travel plans! All of them!” he demanded, after catching her idly playing with a childhood toy.

“Keep emergency money in your shoe! Otherwise, if you lose your wallet, you’ll be stranded!” he declared, when he found her putting on her shoes for a walk.

“Don’t accept any drinks from strangers! You can’t trust anyone when it comes to the Confirmation!” he said without prompting, as he brought her their morning tea.

The man had suddenly found a million reasons to poke and prod at her plans, and it was more than a little exhausting.

To assuage his worries, Carnelia spent some time walking her guardian through all the preparation for the Confirmation she’d been secretly doing behind his back. She started with her itinerary, page by page showing him her main travel plans, all her back-up routes, even a few emergency lodging options in case things went sideways. Then she showed him what she’d secretly assembled in her travel bag over the last few years. A first-aid kit for if she got hurt, an emergency heat shroud and waterproof matchsticks for if she got stuck outdoors, high-calorie bars and a little cooking set for if she got hungry, and anything else a girl like her could need on the road. She even walked him through half a notebook’s worth of research on the Confirmation; the rumors and records of past ones, as well as the clues and hints for the current one.

And yet, all that did was make her grandfather fret more. All while she explained, he kept pacing around, wringing his hands, and insisting she pack more travel snacks.

Unfortunately for the Jeorr, no amount of old-man worrying ever slowed down time. Eventually, as it always did, the day of her departure arrived.

They stood together in the entryway to their home, next to a small stone garden with too many statues. Their place was on the long end of a curved street, placed intentionally apart and behind walls to protect neighbors from any hammering and chiseling noises. As Carnelia shouldered a backpack they had filled to bursting together, Jeorr clutched the door frame like he was tethered to it. Her eyes were bright with a long-ambered excitement.

“Ok, Gramps, I think I’m ready!”

Jeorr nodded reluctantly. He knew what his role was supposed to be in this moment. The books said that as her father-figure, he was supposed to encourage her; give her a firm handshake, tell her he believed in her, and send her on her way. Like he had with Diamme.

But he couldn’t. Not this time.

He dropped and grasped his ward’s arms, searching for any sign of wavering in Carnelia’s eyes. She had to be absolutely sure about this. Or else the notoriously unforgiving Confirmation would surely crush her and her budding hopes alike.

“You’re sure about this, right?” he asked. “The Confirmation is risky business! Most adults can’t handle it, let alone a child!”

She nodded.

“I know.”

“And you’ll be alone up there, with no one to help you. I won’t be able to help you.”

She nodded again.

“I know. I’m still going.”

Carnelia’s gaze was steady, without a hint of doubt. Faced with such resoluteness, Jeorr could only ask.

“Why?” he pleaded. “Why do you want to run off and become a Challenger so badly? It’s a dangerous life.”

To the risk-averse Jeorr, only a fool would pursue the path of a Challenger. It was like cleaving into stone, blind. Yet Diamme, no fool herself, had pursued it. As well as countless other great men and women. Now Carnelia did too, except… was she actually thinking it through?

The question caught Carnelia off guard. She glanced off into the distance, at the light streaming down from the Chute in the distance. She thought of Corun, her rescuer, whom she had only met once. Of Diamme, a parent she had seen only in photos. Of all the other Challengers that she knew only by name and reputation.

They were all strangers. But also, exactly who she wanted to be.

“Everyone’s out there, climbing mountains, sailing oceans, doing and discovering anything and everything worthwhile in this world…”

She took a deep, longing breath.

“…I feel like if I don’t go now, I’ll never catch up!”

A familiar song of dreams ran in her voice, and for a moment, Jeorr saw Diamme from twenty years ago, a perfect mirror of Carnelia. Their faces were different, their words too, but they shared an inexplicable, undeniable kinship. To explore the world and devour all that it had to offer.

The vision left the bittersweet taste of fate in his mouth. He sighed in resignation as he realized something.

“I never had a chance of stopping you, did I?”

Carnelia shook her head with a smile.

“No. You didn’t.”

Carnelia watched as, with a sad smile of his own, her grandfather slipped his hands around hers. His tough hands —the same ones that had taught her to identify stones with a scratch of a fingernail, to sense fractures and fissures with a rap of the knuckles, to crack crystals with a right strike of a palm— had never felt so soft.

“Well, if you really have to go, a-at least promise me you’ll come back.”

He almost sounded like he thought she genuinely wouldn’t. And when her gaze drifted past him, to the quiet, stone house looming behind him, she realized why. It was a frame too large for its picture; an old man alone. The last time someone had left him in this place, they’d never properly returned. Until she’d arrived, he’d had nothing but postcards and statues to keep him company inside its cold and empty rooms.

She would be sending him back to similar times. For the first and only moment in the past ten years of her life, Carnelia felt doubt about leaving.

And yet, her heart still picked her dream. It dragged her off towards the sunset, cheering and screaming. At least, this time, when she set her jaw and squeezed Jeorr’s hands, she knew she meant it.

“I promise I’ll come back. May a thousand rocks fall on my head if I don’t.”

A children’s promise, but Carnelia whispered it with real fervency. Jeorr nodded and wrapped her up in a tight hug, tears welling in his eyes.

Though the two shared no name, today a parent lost their child.