Heln stared up at the sky.

The grass underneath him was soft and the darkness above him was littered with stars that blazed like lanterns. They were outside. They'd finally made it out.

Something was wrong, though. At first he thought maybe he had hit his head, or his glasses had fallen off, but they were still somehow miraculously on his face and while his head ached he didn't remember hitting it on anything.

The stars were wrong; their light was too steady, and there were no patterns that he recognized.

He wasn't looking at the sky, but at a ceiling, far above him. It was dark and littered with glowing filaments, possibly more moss. They hadn't fallen nearly as far as he'd thought. At most it was a few feet. Heln could see the tunnel in the wall above them, if he stood up he'd be able to reach it.

Rhyss was already on her feet, spinning an illumination bubble and sending it up into the tunnel. His heart stuttered when the light made a tree root shadow look a lot more menacing, but the tunnel itself was empty.

"Where did it go?" Her voice was only slightly higher than normal. "Why didn't it follow us?"

"This room is coated in protection scripts." Heln could feel them, like the lights on the ceiling. "Really old, really powerful ones. I don't think it can come in."

Even as he said it, he knew it was true, like the room was talking to him. Or he was overhearing magic having a very intense, whispered conversation and picking up bits and pieces of information.

"You think?" Rhyss put a hand on her hip.

"I know."

"Yeah. Okay. That's great and mildly ominous, which seems to be your… thing." Bel waved a hand to gesture to him.

Heln wasn't really surprised Bel thought that. He'd never really fit in — not at school and certainly not at home. His own mother had left him with a father that he had never even met. Tavlyn, his dad, was trying, but it was clear he didn't really understand Heln, either. Sometimes, Heln didn't even really understand himself. Most of the time he didn't mean to be even mildly ominous, it just happened.

Bel wouldn't care about any of that. "Thanks?"

"You're welcome!" Bel said, brightly, like it was a compliment. Maybe it had been, in her own weird way. "Either way maybe we should move away from the creepy tunnel full of death?" Bel suggested. "Wow. Look. Stairs. First step was kind of a doozy."

Heln had thought they were on a ledge, but Bel was right, they had fallen onto a step, a long, broad square of stone that tapered off into steps like the ones in the tunnel, long and shallow, hugging the wall and descending into a dim twilight. He could see a landing below them, and then the stairs curved back in on themselves, hugging the wall of the cave until it descended into darkness.

The cave itself stretched on so far that Heln couldn't see the end. Farther out was a bright point of light that shone down what looked like spires of stone rising from the shadows, bathing them in silver like a ghostly moon.

"Last chance to go back." Bel reminded them. It almost sounded like a question.

Rhyss didn't say anything, just started walking down. There was nothing to do but follow her.

The stairs were wide, but Heln still walked close to the wall, not trusting himself without a railing. If he fell onto the other set of stairs, he would probably die.

"I could send a light down there," Bel offered.

"Yes, and then we can talk really loudly and maybe throw off a few fireworks so we can really let whatever is down there know that we're on our way." Rhyss gave Bel the most sarcastic smile Heln had ever witnessed, which was saying something when he was related to Bel.

"At least they'd be ready for us with tea, maybe a nice cake." Bel's return smile was sweeter than the imaginary dessert.

Heln almost groaned out loud, almost. He wondered if Rhyss and Bel actually listened to themselves. He had assumed that Bel only talked so much because she was in love with her own voice, but maybe it was just the sound of it.

He had never understood why anyone would want to even bother with romance and he was suddenly grateful. The way they interacted looked and sounded absolutely exhausting.

"Or you could both stop flirting so I could concentrate on making sure we're not walking into some ancient magical bog that eats Ihalins for lunch. Or something."

"I will, but only after I protest that flirting comment, because it was out of line and you should apologize," Bel said, but she didn't sound very serious.

"I'm sorry, Bel." He was only sorry he had to be the one to point it out. He knew absolutely nothing about romance and even he knew they were flirting. "And you, too, Rhyss."

"Thank you." Rhyss didn't sound like she had been all too concerned with his thoughts on it.

"Better, anyway." Bel still stuck her tongue out at him and Rhyss rolled her eyes, but they both fell silent after that.

A few minutes later he almost wished he hadn't said anything. The bickering was annoying, but at least it filled up the empty spaces that began to buzz with anxiety and terror when they stretched too widely.

The staircase curled back in on itself and Heln felt a different sort of tension in the air, a different sort of magic.

"There's something," he told them. "I think it's coming from the middle of the room, where those weird stone things are."

"I hear something, too." Bel was looking down into the darkness below them, her head leaned slightly to one side like it would help.

"A low hum." Rhyss drew her dagger, but didn't activate any of the script. "Heln, stay between us."

"I like the wall, thanks."

"You can stay near the walls, just between us on the steps." Rhyss sounded like she'd much rather push him down the stairs, but he could tell she was attempting to be patient.

A few steps down from the landing a soft breeze stirred his hair.

"It's wind. That's what we're hearing. And those are trees." Bel sounded excited. "We're not going into darkness, it's just trees. But how? We're still underground. Maybe there's a way out on the other side…? Maybe it opens up!"

"I don't know." Rhyss shifted the grip on her dagger slightly. "Heln, anything different?"

"I think I'll have to be closer."

She nodded and led them down the rest of the steps. They broke through the trees and the glowing from the ceiling nearly cut out, but it didn't matter.

Beneath the initial dark canopy everything seemed to have its own light, putting the tunnel behind them to shame. Flat, shelf-like mushrooms ran up the trunks of the twisted, gnarled trees, flowers bloomed like frozen points of fire, and every single little plant or insect had its own radiance. Even cracks in the bark of the trees were glowing patterns. It felt different than it had in the tunnels, the tension was still there, but this was a sacred place.

"It feels like the Grove." Heln looked up at the branches crisscrossing above them. "Maybe those aren't weird stone things, maybe it's a building."

"Makes sense, we should head there, I bet it's the center of the room and we can get our bearings. How does that sound to you, oh fearless leader?" Bel looked at Rhyss.

If Rhyss kept rolling her eyes every time Bel said something that supposedly annoyed her, Heln was pretty sure she'd end up with some sort of permanent eye strain before they got home. Which was kind of stupid, because he knew that she wasn't nearly as irritated as she let on.

"I suppose, I think it's stupid, but…"

"But you don't have a better plan." Heln supplied for her and nearly pressed himself into the wall when he was treated to the full heat of her glare.

It cooled off faster than he expected, and she turned away. "You're right, I don't, so let's go. Maybe there's a way out on the other side of the room. Maybe the center is full of magic eating monsters. I don't know, and that's the problem. I would scout ahead to make sure it's safe but that would be leaving two defenseless civilians behind, and I can't do that."

"Oh so now I'm—"

Heln elbowed Bel in the side before she could finish that sentence. Enough flirting was enough. Now really wasn't the time. "It's okay, Rhyss. We'll be fine if you want to go, these stairs seem safe enough, or we can all go together."

Rhyss's hands balled into fists, then relaxed. "C'mon. The building isn't a completely terrible idea, it's at least a central location, and there seems to be a path."