Thank you for the comments, everyone!
Yes, saying goodbye is painful. I remember when my daughter was in middle school, and lost friends whose families moved out of the area. They didn’t move to another dimension, but keeping in touch long distance is hard, especially for kids.
When I was writing the scene with Emily worried about losing part of her culture, I remembered the bit from “The Foundling” where Lex had Beethoven’s Tenth Symphony in his secret vault, and had to throw it in.
