“—and you, my useless lug of a husband, you let them know we’ll be reimbursing this month’s delivery, understand? Thank the Sun no one got hurt, or else we’d never—”

Carnelia roused in the passenger-side seat of an old pick-up truck to the sound of distant hollering. Through the window, a middle-aged woman was scolding a pair of young boys and a sheepish-looking older man. Their equally bowed heads and sun-bit skin told her this was the family of pulley operators that lived atop of the Chute. The Berros’s.

Mrs. Berros—the trader lady that she vaguely remembered asking after her—shifted her deadly blaming finger from the father to the twins.

“And you two sand-for-brains! I want you working on an apology letter while I’m gone! You’d better make it good, too, ‘cause I’ll be reading it when I come back! I expect tears! Tears, y’hear?”

As Mrs. Berros made her way back to the truck, her flowing sun wear cut angry streaks into the arid sandy ground outside. After making sure to shoot several pointed stares at her family, she finally crossed over to the driver’s side and dropped into the seat beside Carnelia. Then she slammed the door closed, like a period on a statement. She sighed, deeply.

Carnelia was slightly concerned for her life, but the woman turned to her with nothing but remorse on her face. She tucked a few stray locks behind her ear and clasped her hands tightly in front of her chest.

“Again, Carnelia, you have my deepest apologies for the foolishness my boys perpetrated. My idiot husband was supposed to be watching them, and I warned him they weren’t ready, but those no-good, dung-headed, sand-chewing disappointments must have convinced him—!” The woman cut herself off with a breath. “No. These are all excuses. I should’ve been there from the start. We have been privileged from the start to work for the fine people of Downtown and—”

“Mrs. Berros! It’s okay! I’m okay.”

The woman’s relentless self-repudiation was a bit much, because since she had survived, Carnelia kinda thought what happened was cool. An appropriately bombastic start to the legend of Carnelia Blazebright, Challenger extraordinaire. She tried to wave it off, but the woman raised a halting hand.

“No, no. It’s the principle of the matter. I’ve been operator and proprietor of this business without incident for nearly twenty years, but as soon as I turn my back for one second, a child nearly dies. Pah! Why did I ever marry that useless man.”

The woman shook her head angrily, scattering those recently tucked locks again. Catching herself, she suddenly took the back of her hand and pressed against Carnelia’s forehead. She peered curiously into her face, like a doctor looking for signs of a concussion.

“Are you sure you’re alright? You know, after a fright like that, most people would be catatonic.”

Carnelia double-checked. Aside from it being swelteringly hot inside the truck, everything seemed to be in one piece. She shrugged.

“My gramps always says that I have more guts than sense,” she said matter-of-factly.

Mrs. Berros laughed. “I wish my boys were more like you! Attempting the Confirmation at your age… All my boys want to do is take over the family business! Pah! Pathetic!”

She thrust a thumb out the window at her two sons who were receiving a second scolding from the father and scoffed. Carnelia cocked her head.

“You don’t want that?”

Not moments ago, the woman had been insisting that it was a privilege to help the Downtown community. That same woman now shook her head furiously.

“They shouldn’t be thinking about bills or job security at this age! And they certainly shouldn’t want to spend their lives hauling packages for a bunch of weirdo hermits living in a hole in the middle of nowhere. They should be thinking big! Like you! And they ought to resent the obligation of taking over the business, only taking it on because I make them promise to on my deathbed! That’s proper youth!”

“Er…”

“Taking the Confirmation and becoming a Challenger?” Mrs. Berros rolled on, shaking her head in envy, “Now, that’s a proper tradition! You know, I still remember when your mother left for her Confirmation.”

Now that made Carnelia sit up with attention. It had never occurred to her that someone so close to home would’ve met Diamme, though it made perfect sense now that she thought about it. There was only one way in and out of Downtown, after all.

“You do? I mean… You met Diamme?”

Mrs. Berros nodded sagely. “Mm-hm. She was one of the first people I transported out of Downtown after inheriting the business from my father. I was there when she brought you here, too, by the way. A squalling little bundle of cloth, you were back then.”

“What about her?” Carnelia asked. “What was she like?”

“Her? One look into those sharp eyes of hers and I knew that girl was going places. Even though she was a decade younger than me, I got chills. Then, when she came back with you in her arms, I saw that she was going many more places still. Ever meet anyone like that?”

When the woman looked at her, eyes crinkled with nostalgia, an image of Corun, her rescuer from all those years ago, popped into Carnelia’s head. The fearlessness that had been in her eyes. The surety in her step. ‘Here I go, on an adventure,’ her whole vibe had said. Carnelia nodded deeply.

Mrs. Berros smiled in commiseration. Then she caught the time on her wrist and clasped a hand over her mouth.

“Oh dear. I’m doing it again. Running on and on with this mouth of mine. You mentioned in your letters that you have a schedule to keep, correct? So, where to? After today’s fiasco, you have me at your complete disposal. Just point and we’ll go!”

“Sure! Um…”

Finally reminded of her purpose, Carnelia glanced around to orient herself. Of course, she could’ve just said ‘to the west, please’ and been on their way, but that would’ve been boring. Now that she was under the sun’s warm umbrage, she wanted to try using it to navigate. It rose in the east in the morning so…

She grabbed the rearview mirror and swiveled it.

Huh. How weird. Despite the completely open field of travel ahead of them, they were already facing the right direction. And Mrs. Berros was clearly watching her out of the corner of her eye.

Slowly, Carnelia pointed straight ahead through the dust-swept windshield.

“That-a-way please… but you already knew that, didn’t you?”

She cocked her head at the older woman. Mrs. Berros replied with a cool, sidelong glance that broke into a grin.

“You got me. Just wanted to check if you were serious about this thing.”

“But how do you know where to go?”

Carnelia was genuinely curious. The location of the Confirmation was coveted information. It had taken her almost half a year of sniffing around on the library computer to figure out. Her eyes widened as a possibility struck her. “Unless… you’re trying to become a Challenger too?”

The prospect of meeting a fellow competitor excited Carnelia nearly as much as finding out more about Diamme, but Mrs. Berros laughed and shook her head.

“Just heard it through the grapevine, is all. To be frank, I’d be quite the incompetent trader if I missed an event as big as the Confirmation being planned in my backyard. Saying that—” Mrs. Berros winked playfully, “—it’s not every day that the Confirmation happens in this neck of the desert. Maybe I should try my hand at it.”

“Do it!” Carnelia said, with an enthusiastic nod. “I think everyone should try to become a Challenger if they have the chance!”

The trader laughed, slightly taken aback by her vehement support. She held a hand to herself.

“Even an old lady like me?”

“Why not? Anyone can try, anyone can join; that’s the spirit of the Confirmation! But…” Carnelia hesitated. “You probably won’t get very far if you haven’t prepared for it.”

“Haha! Aren’t you an honest one! I see more and more of Diamme in you by the second. Makes me feel silly for even bothering to test you. After all, do you know what feeling I get when I look at you?”

The trader grinned as she plucked her keys from the sun visor above her head and turned the ignition. The engine rumbled to life.

“Déjà vu.”

In a plume of dirt and dust, Mrs. Berros’s truck peeled away from the Chute, Downtown, and everything that Carnelia had ever known. Ahead was a wide-open world, as astoundingly endless as it was endlessly astounding. Carnelia had never realized how small her underground home had been until in three short minutes, she traveled further from home than she had ever been before.

—and that was just where the dirt road ended. Once they merged them onto a highway that cut across the desert like a black asphalt slash, Mrs. Berros really stepped on the gas. They blasted along the countryside, the dry, featureless landscape outside their windows slowly turning into rolling hills topped with yellow-green brush, and the stolid desert heat into a nice balmy breeze. Not a single vehicle blocked their way.

However, though their path was free of obstruction, they were hardly alone in their travels. Just as Carnelia was taking flight from her nest, all around the world, people of all shapes and backgrounds were leaving their homes to journey abroad. Some took ships that blasted their horns as they sailed into harbor. Others rode trains that screeched as they pulled into their stops. A few took airships that buzzed with deafening noise as they touched down on airstrips. They were converging on the same location, making their way in whatever way they could, honking, pushing, and shouting.

Like moths to a flame, humanity was gathering, congregating, to begin a great rite of passage; the great and infamous Challenger’s Confirmation.

And in this gathering of motes…

…Carnelia was but one light.