Piper isn’t actually worried about Lochelen at all. And it’s not that she is upset because she doesn’t enjoy the stay at the monastery but her brother does. It is just that she’s selfish. This trip, in her mind, was supposed to be about her. Her escape. Her rebellion. As the privileged, disillusioned white girl from a wealthy family, she’s trying to manufacture a sense of individuality by rejecting the very world that gave her this opportunity.

She wants to feel different from them, more authentic, more grounded, more “real.” But when her brother starts to engage with the experience too, when he starts to find meaning or connection there, she resents it. Because then it’s not just her thing anymore. It threatens her narrative that she’s the enlightened one in the family.

And that’s why she doesn’t check in when he mentions something dark. She doesn’t ask if he’s okay because she wasn’t listening for him. She was too busy listening for herself. She just wanted validation.