The Guard was in charge of keeping the Grove and the woods that surrounded the city safe from beasts and keeping citizens from wandering too far out. The Enforcers worked in the City itself and with the citizens. There was a longstanding rivalry between the two that stretched far beyond mortal memory.
Being in a Guard interrogation room would not end well for someone whose only career path lead straight into the Enforcers. Bel would probably be okay, but Heln didn't want to go to a Guard prison even for a single night under any circumstances.
"Hm."
Heln was tired of barely being able to see their faces. He tugged the light stick from his bag and pressed his thumb over the activation line on the bronze half. The crystal that made up the other half slowly ignited to a steady glow, the yellow-tinted light almost cheerful.
Rhyss didn't look mad, at least. Bel was sitting on the opposite side of the cave, only a few feet away, her chin resting on her knees.
"So what do we do?" Heln set the light stick between the three of them. The bronze end adhered to any surface with a touch of the second line. It looked like a little campfire. Heln wondered if they could light a fire. The warming script sewn into his jacket wasn't doing much to help.
"Let me call my superiors." Rhyss pressed her fingers against one of her arm guards. Magic script carved into the wood lit up blue, forming the pattern of a speaking crystal. Heln wondered how it worked for a moment, after all, speaking crystals were made of crystal for a reason. The magical vibrations could travel better from crystal to crystal. "And then I'll make a report. You two are lucky that we were near this cave, I helped carve this protection script two days ago, just in case."
"In case of what?" Bel looked around.
Heln shrugged. "Dirt constructs, apparently."
"Clay constructs," Bel corrected him, "and yes, good point."
"In case of anything." Rhyss looked a little smug. "Guards are always prepared. And it pays off, in case you didn't notice. You didn't even thank me."
"Thank you," they said in unison.
"See? Was that so hard?" Rhyss began tapping on her arm guard, punctuating long and short pauses. Heln didn't know any codes at all, but he supposed that was how they got it to work through the scripted wood armor. Script worked best with stone and crystal. It took her a few minutes to tap out her message, ignoring Bel's inquiries into what exactly she was saying. Once she was done, she pulled her braid over her shoulder, fiddling with the bead on the leather strap at the end. Ihalins traditionally wore large, metal ornaments in their hair, but leather or ceramics were more practical for everyday wear. Bel's strap was leather, too. The bead was made of stone, and the type indicated clan. Rhyss's was a teal that was only a shade paler than her hair. Heln didn't know rocks, the best he could say was it probably wasn't turquoise.
When Heln had gone to live with his father the year before, he'd told him that he could wear whatever he felt comfortable with: the green agate of the DoVan clan, or the more common quartz worn by low Ihalins. Heln had cut his own hair off that night. His father had seemed to understand, taking him out to get it cleaned up. He hadn't let it grow any longer for that entire year.
"So, actually." Rhyss's voice cut through his thoughts. In the dim light her eyes shone oddly when she glanced at him. "There's been… weird things happening out here, apparently. That's why they brought in all of the Trainees even though it's the Festival. I guess by 'weird things' they meant 'dirt monsters', because I worked this route last year and saw nothing like that. Well, no answer yet. For now, I guess we just sit tight."
"What you're telling me is that they knew about the dirt monsters but they didn't, I don't know, warn people?" Bel pretended to look shocked. "A cover up."
Rhyss glared at her. "I am assuming that they didn't want to cause a panic, and that they were not anticipating anyone leaving the path, and believed that we could handle it."
"So what, this is our fault?"
"Obviously."
Bel huffed and leaned against the wall, staring pointedly out the cave entrance. Heln followed her gaze, but there wasn't much to see. The light show had ended, leaving the forest a hazy darkness, no details visible beyond the pearly luminescence of the shield. If anything was out there they wouldn't be able to see it. He couldn't even make out the shapes of the trees.
They would be rescued soon. He and Bel might get in trouble for trespassing in the Glade, but it was probably better than being eviscerated by a clay construct. Though they might be eviscerated by their grandmother.
The back of the cave didn't offer a better view. It was lost in shadows, a deep, dark circle that looked like a throat.
"It goes on for a while, I followed it once." Rhyss told him. Heln barely kept himself from jumping, he hadn't noticed her watching him. "The floor stays pretty even, too. No big holes or anything like that. I walked for… fifteen minutes? It's all the same, curves a little bit but that's it."
"I guess we can always run that way if we have to," Bel said.
"No," Rhyss said. "We wait for my superiors to respond."
"Eleti alive." Bel rolled her eyes "I was joking."
Heln tried to make out more, he thought maybe he could see the curve, but that was it. A breeze that smelled of earth and deep, hidden places brushed against Heln's face like gentle fingers, accompanied by a soft sound, like the sigh at the end of a long,
