The Wards' House
The Wards' House stands just inside the gate of the Hollow: where the village minds its children while their parents are away. Oriel keeps it, and the gate, and the book everyone signs on the way in; Tuck, her Woolli, minds the ones who can't sleep, mostly by lying on their feet. Go there →
The way in
Every member comes here first. A letter waits at the gate: two old friends have had to leave in a hurry and ask the newcomer to look after their child, who is at the Wards' House. Oriel asks for the parents described — their people, their looks, what they would do, what they were best at — not their names ("names are easy to borrow"), and finds them in the ledger; at dawn the child is in the newcomer's care, and goes home with them. What took the friends away, the record does not say.
The house rules
Shoes off at the door, if you're staying. Voices down after dark — somebody's always only just got to sleep.
Oriel's question
When one of the Hollow's children is grown, Oriel asks what they want to learn, and from whom: the Calling. The book with the child's name in it, from the day the hand signed for them, is open on her desk.