The Calling

When the child is grown, Oriel at the Wards' House asks the question the Hollow asks its own — not what they'll be, but what they want to learn, and from whom. The Hollow's people take apprentices: each offers their craft to a grown child who suits it — by their regard for the household, the child's gifts, the Ways walked, the child's temper. A Plot of their own and the Wilds are always offered; so is "not yet", which is an answer too, for a month.

The choice is a title — apprentice to Doc Pellory, the Hollow's next healer; keeper of the Spring, after Wen; a walker of the Wilds — kept on the profile, under the child's name at home, and at the mentor's place in the Hollow.