Her journey to the climbing wall had been risky and reckless. But her parents had not questioned her. They never expected her to become infected by the outside world. They’d educated her about it, of course, teaching her literature, mathematics, science and faith. It was a rich and varied learning and she knew much. But it still surprised her when she watched people interacting with one another, either in the real world, when she dared, or on a screen. She’d had countless opportunities to flee her parents in the last couple of days alone, but she hadn’t. Each time, she was pulled back by the invisible hand of what she guessed was loyalty, honour, duty, yes, but never love.

If only she could think of a way to show Callum that her way was more alluring than what he’d been showed in his limited world. He too lived in isolation, on a deserted and windswept farm, just like her. He too looked at his parents as though they provided the biggest obstacle to his spiritual growth, out of all of them. He too had a look of wanting to break free, but lacking the courage to do it.

The girl irked her. Daphne saw no value in her whatsoever and felt disappointed with Callum for giving her his energy. It sapped his aura. She saw his colours fade around him. The girl carried with her an energy of the lost. She was like the personalities Daphne watched on her laptop: plastic, embellished, empty and noisy. Whenever she saw her, her head exploded with the cacophony of an entity so adverse to nature that it must hurt the earth too. If only she could tell her father. She was taking more and more risks, driving around looking for Callum and the girl.

She walked up and down her bedroom, running her fingers along the dusty texts so lovingly gathered here, possibly over a hundred years. There were maps, novels, geography texts, nature tomes, serials, dramatic works and atlases. It was a library of scholarship. An altar of knowledge.

She stopped at the end of the bookshelf and wandered back again.

She looked at a clock on her bedside table, an old antique left in the house, and calculated that she had time to watch the climbers’ practice ascent, if she left straight away. She remembered being caught sneaking out, and the severe beating which followed. Her body ached for weeks. The memory of the pain made her fearful of leaving the house. But if she didn’t go and watch Callum then she knew she’d lose her mind. She meant no harm. She’d be careful. With binoculars, sat on an adjacent peak, across from the rock face, no one would see her. She could be back before dinner.