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weeks after her grandmother’s funeral, Amelia was sat on a stool in the Long Hall, staring at The Elders of Solhaven like a scolded child caught stealing preserves. The remaining four Elders—Esther included—watched her from behind their long oak table.

The last time she’d sat in front of them like this, she’d been sixteen and in big trouble. Was she in trouble today? Was she about to receive a lecture about her poor attempts at hiding her grandmother’s death? Or the way she’d revealed it to her horrified mother?

However you looked at it, she hadn’t handled this well. But that should be no surprise. Everyone knew Amelia blundered. It was what she did.

‘Look, I want you to know I wasn’t going to hide my grandmother forever,’ Amelia told The Elders.

They stared back at her. ‘What?’ asked Esther.

‘I mean, it’s not like I planned to keep her death a secret,’ Amelia stammered. ‘I wasn’t going to, you know, prop her up and pretend she was still alive or anything.’

Esther’s eyes widened. ‘Why would you even say that?’

‘I’m just clarifying!’ Amelia said quickly. ‘In case anyone thought… Well, not that you would, but, you know…’

Gregory, the most sedate and kind-faced member of The Elders, sighed. ‘Amelia, no one thought you had planned to turn your grandmother’s body into a puppet.’

‘Good,’ she said, nodding earnestly. ‘Because I wasn’t. Oh, and I didn’t mean to scream the news at my mother either. That was the duck’s fault—'

‘Amelia,’ Harriet cut in, her voice like a whip. She was by far the most cantankerous Elder and Mabel’s closest friend. She had a high grey bun that pulled her face into a permanently tight and disapproving expression. ‘Could you just stop talking?’

‘Oh,’ Amelia said, shrinking back on the stool. ‘Yes, of course. Sorry.’

The silence returned, heavier than before. Amelia’s stomach churned.

‘Amelia, this isn’t about how you handled your grandmother’s passing,’ Harriet said. ‘Although, now that you’ve brought it up, it wasn’t exactly graceful.’

‘So… what’s this about then?’ Amelia asked uncertainly.

Gregory exchanged a glance with Esther, who exchanged a glance with Peter, who exchanged a glance with Harriet, who did not return the glance but simply sighed as though this was all terribly inconvenient for her.

Harriet would never say so, but Amelia knew she didn’t like her. Amelia would never admit it, but she didn’t like Harriet either.

‘We’ve called you here,’ said Gregory, ‘to discuss the... delicate matter of Mabel’s planned trip to the mainland.’

‘The trip?’ Amelia repeated, blinking.

Everyone knew about it. It occurred once every ten years, and it was quite a to-do—as well it might be. It was the only time anyone left Solhaven.

‘It wasn’t just a trip,’ said another Elder, Peter (who Mabel had always said brought a bit too many dramatics to Elder meetings), leaning forward as though preparing to drop a bombshell, his big, bushy eyebrows furrowed. ‘It was the most important task she undertook for the community. You will be taking it over. If that goes well, you will join The Elders as a junior member.’

Amelia stood frozen, her mind racing as the words hit her with the force of a tidal wave. ‘I have to go to the mainland?’ she repeated, her voice a strange mix of disbelief and rising panic.

It couldn’t be real. Leave Solhaven? The thought!

‘Why isn’t my mother doing this?’ Amelia asked desperately. ‘She should be joining The Elders, going on this trip. She’s my grandmother’s heir. Not me.’

‘Ordinarily, that would be the case. But your mother’s heart condition prevents her from taking up this responsibility. Mabel decided this quite some time ago. She didn’t talk to you?’

Amelia shook her head. ‘My grandmother would never have wanted this. You must have misunderstood.’

‘I know it’s daunting. But your grandmother had faith in you,’ Gregory said kindly. ‘She laid it out in her will.’

‘What?’ Amelia laughed, shocked.

‘She specified that you should be the one to take her place and go on this trip,’ he told her.

‘I still think it should have been my daughter Jenny if it couldn’t be Lorna,’ Harriet interjected bitterly. ‘But it’s not my decision. It was hers.’ Her eyes suddenly caught a shine, and Amelia thought Harriet might start crying, which would have been a truly unique sight. But then she cleared her throat and seemed fine again.

‘But what am I even going there to do?’ Amelia asked, nowhere near accepting this decree.

‘Mabel travelled to the mainland to maintain our arrangement with the government. The arrangement that allows us to live on this island in peace.’

‘I know she went to “maintain the arrangement,”’ Amelia repeated. ‘But what does that mean? What do I do?’

‘She signs a contract on our behalf,’ Harriet snapped. ‘I don’t know why you’re pretending not to know that.’

She did know that specific detail. What was flummoxing her was the wider question of the trip. How did a person go about a visit to the mainland?

‘But, I just mean…’

‘It’s a mere formality,’ Harriet said with finality, shutting down the question.

Amelia shook off her surprise and fell back to her original emotion. ‘But… Me?

‘You’re surprised?’ Harriet huffed. ‘Imagine how we feel.’

‘Harriet!’ Gregory said with a tut.

‘I mean no offence, Amelia, but you did fall into a blackberry bush last week,’ Harriet pointed out.

‘I slipped!’ Amelia shot back, her cheeks burning. ‘It was muddy!’

‘That I could understand,’ Esther joined in. ‘But to get so stuck that we had to call three people to haul you out… Jack put his back out.’

‘The point,’ Harriet interrupted, ‘is that this is not a decision we are making.’ She sighed heavily. ‘It is Mabel’s wish, and we are honouring it,’ she added bitterly.

‘Mabel trusted you,’ Gregory said, his tone much gentler. ‘She believed you could handle this.’

‘But why?’ Amelia burst out. ‘I’m not a leader. I’m not even—well, I’m not very good at keeping things organized. Or calm. Or upright.’

‘It’s her last wish,’ Gregory said with finality.

‘What happens if I... if I don’t go?’ Amelia ventured cautiously.

The Elders exchanged another series of glances. ‘Are you saying you won’t?’ Gregory asked.

‘I’m just asking what would happen,’ Amelia said quickly.

‘You would leave us no choice but to send someone else,’ Harriet said.

Amelia could hear in her voice that she was itching for Amelia to refuse. If she did, The Elders would be blameless. Amelia would be the villain.

‘But everyone would know I’d refused her request,’ Amelia pointed out.

‘Not necessarily,’ Gregory said with a glance at Esther.

Esther looked back. ‘Why are you looking at me?’

He didn’t answer.

Amelia took a deep breath. Could she deny her grandmother's final request? It wasn’t really a question.

‘I’ll do it,’ she said, trying to keep her voice steady.

Harriet was visibly angry. ‘Good. That’s… good.’

‘You’ll need to leave in three days,’ Gregory said. ‘We’ll prepare everything you need in time. We’ll give you written instructions for the trip. Mabel arranged everything the last time she was there. The appointment with the government is set, as is your lodgings.’

‘Do you have anything you could tell me now?’ Amelia asked desperately.

‘Yes,’ Harriet said with a smirk. ‘Don’t fall off the boat. It’s a long swim back.’

Amelia groaned, burying her face in her hands. What in the world had her grandmother (rest in peace) been thinking!? Amelia was the last person who should be taking up this task. Not that she didn’t have her strengths. It was just that those strengths did not include being responsible for anything important.

And the mainland? Amelia had always been intrigued by it, but she’d never expected to actually go there. What should she expect?

All she definitively knew was that growing up in Solhaven made her utterly unprepared. Solhaven operated on trust, barter, and a shared stubbornness to keep life simple. They did not partake in so-called ‘electricity’ and all that came with it. They did not use money. They rejected consumerism, excess, and the hollow nature of the world across the ocean, choosing instead to prioritise community. Life on Solhaven could be tough—storms lashed their small island, and the rocky soil wasn’t forgiving—but no one starved, and no one was left behind.

Amelia had been taught that on the mainland, people were selfish and consumed with shallow things. Would anyone care about Solhaven’s claim to its tiny patch of isolation? What if she said or did the wrong thing? The thought was enough to make her stomach churn. Yet there was no choice; The Elders had made that painfully clear.

Beyond the shores of Solhaven lay another world, full of strangers and rules she couldn’t begin to guess. And a responsibility she wasn’t remotely ready for.

But Amelia had no choice. She was going to the mainland.