At the market, the shopkeepers who recognized Val and Adrien would ask idle questions about their days, their path, their future - how far the apprenticeship had come along, how much longer would it last; and to each one Adrien gave the same answer - that everything was going as planned, and that it wouldn't be long before his final exam. When they said that he would surely graduate soon, Adrien would nod and agree and quietly hope for them to be wrong. It would make a more convenient story, Adrien thought, if everything went according to his original plan; he could tell everyone that he had his apprenticeship and did everything on schedule and went back home as a sorcerer and started working - a simple, linear story, pleasing but not pleasurable, delivered politely at arm's length. It would make a more convenient story, Adrien thought - but he didn't want his story to be convenient. He wanted to fully inhabit himself, even if it made his story difficult and uncouth.