"You know," Bel was telling Rhyss as they both got as much mud off of their clothes as possible with a cleaning script, "I totally saved your life back there."

Rhyss, of course, didn't even bother to look at her. "How do you figure that?"

"I threw the magic that distracted it." Bel didn't even have to watch the lines of magic that knocked the mud from her clothes and skin. Ihalins, especially high Ihalins, were supposedly graceful from the time they were teenagers and nearly fully grown. Bel was pretty sure this was a lie because she still needed that particular script a lot. "Therefore, I saved your life."

"But you missed."

Bel bit her lip to stop what she was going to say and gave Heln a look that clearly said, "Can you believe this girl?"

Heln either got the message or didn't; his shrugging didn't really convey that much meaning. He was still rubbing his arm where Rhyss had hit him.

After a moment she felt safe enough to take a breath and try again. "Well, I didn't want to hit you, now did I? It was a distraction. Clearly. And it worked! So, you're here and you're alive. You're welcome."

Rhyss gave her a blank stare. "What exactly do you want from me?"

"Well. You know. A 'thank you' would be nice." Bel felt smaller than she had a moment ago. Rhyss had a way of making her feel that way. It was unlike anyone else in the rest of her life.

"Thank you." Rhyss rolled her eyes and turned around, slapping Heln on the shoulder and performing the same cleaning script on him. "Let's get moving once we're cleaned off. We don't know how far this tunnel goes."

She started walking despite that, mud flaking off of her like dead leaves and splattering on the tunnel floor. Heln rubbed his shoulder and looked at Bel. "Why does she insist on hitting me?"

Bel shrugged.

"Wow, great insight." Heln looked down at the ground, or at the trail of mud that Rhyss had left.

"Well, I don't know. Sometimes I want to hit you, too. Maybe she likes you? She seems like the type that would hit people she likes." Honestly, Bel had no idea about the kind of people Rhyss liked. From what she'd seen, Rhyss didn't seem to like anyone.

Heln shuddered, which honestly even she thought was a bit of an overreaction. Even she knew Rhyss was smart and not actually horrible to look at. "No. That's… no. Besides, Rhyss likes girls, so you're the more obvious option."

How did Heln know that? Rhyss liked girls. Bel was a girl. Rhyss could possibly like her.

A notion that had to be destroyed immediately or she would keep thinking about it forever. "Well, her preferences aside, she actually does hate me. Maybe she hits people she hates and likes. Complete equality in gender and violence and all that. Or, more likely, she just likes hitting people! Did you ever think of that? Because I certainly did."

"Are you done?" Heln looked dangerously close to laughing. If he did, she was pretty sure she was about to understand Rhyss a little better and start actually hitting people herself.

"Yes! Let's follow her before she falls in a hole or something." Rhyss could not possibly like her, Heln was just trying to annoy her. She was more annoyed that it had worked.

"Once again, you're the more obvious option for that."

"You are the worst."

Heln shrugged and turned to walk away, shoving his hands in his jacket pockets. Bel let her illumination bubble hover next to her, but she had to jog a bit to catch up. Heln was getting tall. He was already taller than her by over an inch. Soon he wouldn't be much of a little brother, half or otherwise.

The tunnel was a lot like the first one they had been in, with a smooth floor and moss coated walls. The ceiling curving above them, the monotony of it broken by the occasional dangling tree root. Rhyss was far enough ahead that she could see the way the tunnel curved, hiding part of her light from view. The moss glowed faintly and the floor sparked and glittered sometimes, quartz and mica deposits flashing when their light moved.

"So, what's the plan?" She had to break the silence and get away from her own thoughts. The only noise for what felt like hours had been the sound of their feet on stone and the occasional drip somewhere, whether it was behind them or ahead of them she wasn't sure. If the creature was behind them it was much stealthier than she would have thought with its little leg nubbins dragging around its oversized body.

"Keep moving, don't look back, don't die." Rhyss spared her a glance this time.

"I like the last part of that plan," Heln said.

"So, what, we just keep moving forward and hope the tunnel lets out somewhere? What if it's some sort of drainage tunnel and it gets flooded while we're down here? Or it's caved in?"

"The walls and floor are saturated with magic." Heln reached over and touched some of the moss on the wall. "I'm guessing that they're protective scripts."

"Okay two questions then. Why wasn't that thing that apparently eats magic back there gnawing on the walls and why are there tree roots?" Bel pointed at one that looped down the wall like a white snake.

"The trees above us are part of the Grove, so they're probably tied to the script." Heln at least sounded somewhat like he knew what he was talking about, but Bel knew Heln said things that weren't true all the time that sounded perfectly reasonable to her. "As for the monster or whatever it was, its mouth didn't really look suitable for gnawing on anything, but you'd know more about that than me."

"Okay, fine, pecking at the walls, but the point still stands."

"That and there were stairs, so I don't think they use these tunnels for draining." Rhyss cut in. Bel hadn't even been aware she was still listening. "Besides, Vin said the tunnel led to the Temple, and I believe him."

"They could be for maintenance or something." She decided to let it go. For now. "Still, this seems like a bad idea. I mean, we could end up outside of the city. Then what?"

Her companions were silent at that. No one had been outside of Ihale City for as long as history had been recorded, after Eleti brought magic back to the land and founded the valley that now housed the enormous, sprawling city within which Bel had spent her entire life. There were probably other cities, but no one remembered where they were or what they had been called. The forest that surrounded them was too dangerous to travel through. Bel had been raised on stories of people who entered the forest and never returned.

So Ihale City continued to grow.

"If that's the case, then we figure it out and you feel lucky and privileged that you're with a member of the Guard." Rhyss seemed to puff up as Bel watched her.

"Trainee." Bel felt that was a very important distinction.

"Either way it's better than you being alone with your brother."

"Half-brother." Another important distinction.

"Whatever."

It wasn't 'whatever' to Bel. Heln had just shown up the year before, dumped unceremoniously on their doorstep. Their dad had enrolled him in Bel's school and insisted that Heln be included in any plans Bel made with a smile and a sad look in his eyes that meant Bel couldn't refuse. It wouldn't have been so bad, Heln was pretty quiet for the most part, but she hated how other people treated her. With pity. Like having a low Ihalin for a brother was the worst thing that could have happened to her. Suddenly she wasn't defined as Bel, top of her class, breaker of hearts, granddaughter of the former leader of the Enforcers who would probably take that same position someday. She was defined as 'the one with the low for a brother.'

Heln didn't really seem to care, either, that they were siblings or that Bel tried to keep her distance from that idea. Maybe he didn't like to be defined as 'Bel's brother' and he was just a lot less outspoken about it.

Heln clearly hadn't been listening to Rhyss and Bel talking. "Look at these pillars."

Bel obliged. She hadn't even been aware that there were pillars, but there it was, a solid half cylinder of stone that held up a cross piece above them. Roots and moss hung like Festival streamers from it. When Heln touched the moss on the pillar it lit up a vivid orange, cutting through gaps in the green, shooting up and down the wall like lightning. "Um. I think that was just… moss stuff, not magic."

"Bioluminescence." Bel nodded. Honestly, she didn't need magic sensing abilities to know that. "Is that what you wanted to show me?"

"No." Heln pulled a loose streamer of moss back. "It's all carved. I'm not an expert, but they look like runes to me."

Bel frowned, moving her light a little closer. The blue glow cast the impressions in the rock into stark relief. "Those are runes. I couldn't tell you which ones. No one's used runic magic since… well, Eleti. These tunnels must be ancient."

"Or the person who carved them was a little behind the times," Rhyss said. "Right now I'm more concerned with getting us out of these tunnels than figuring out why they were built."

"But if we figure out what they are and why they're here then it could be easier to find a way out," Heln argued, but he let the moss drop. "Or at least, I don't know, a safe place."

"The sooner we get moving, the sooner we get out of here and are safe," Rhyss said. "Besides, none of us can read runes. Not even the nerd."

"I don't resent that remark at all." Bel gave her a bright smile, and Rhyss glared back. Exactly as she had expected. "I suppose you have both made your points and it's up to me to make the best course of action."

"No." Rhyss deadpanned, turned on her heel, and started walking again, stomping hard enough that each step rung clearly around her.

"Sorry, Heln, she made the more valid argument." Bel shrugged. "Alas, we'll just have to follow her. But I'm totally on your side. It's what half-sisters are for."

"Shut up." Heln tugged at the moss again and his eyes widened. "Bel. Bel look at this."

"I told you: I can't read…wow. That's. Uh. Vulgar."

The pillar had a deer skull in profile carved onto it, the horns rising in jagged lines and fangs protruding from the upper jaw. It was probably a trick of the light, but she swore something glowed deep in the socket facing them. "Drop it. Let's go."

"But—" Heln started.

"Drop it," Bel advised him. "It's just a carving, it doesn't mean anything."

Even with the moss covering the skull, Bel felt like cold fingers were being pressed one by one all the way up her spine. "I don't think there is a safe place here."

Heln was still staring at the moss. Bel wrapped her fingers around his wrist and tugged him down the tunnel and away from the moss that'd so captivated him.