Strange magic touched at the edge of Heln's senses.

"Bel, we're going to get in trouble." Heln knew the Grove was technically not off limits, but the shrine at its heart was the most sacred place in all of Ihale City and neither of them were supposed to be there.

An array of colored lights exploded against the dark backdrop of the sky, blue and green washing over the forest and turning the nearly skeletal trees behind him into silhouettes. He squinted up between the branches. When the light turned gold and white he knew it would be a lifelike, enormous picture of Eleti, Bringer of Magic. Even with most of the leaves gone, the canopy was too thick to really see it and they were too far away to hear the fanfare of trumpets, but Heln had been to every single Faire since he was born. He had the light show memorized.

"Oh, relax." The grin that his half-sister threw over her shoulder did absolutely nothing to relax him. Her promised 'shortcut' supposedly didn't go anywhere near the center of the Grove, but Heln was beginning to have his doubts. The trees were taller than he'd ever seen and strange magic pinged in the air around them that had nothing to do with the light show. "It's perfectly safe."

The sky above them became white, filtering down in filigrees through the leaves and twigs. "Sure it is. Look, we're missing the whole thing. Madam DoVan is going to be really upset."

Bel scoffed and waved a hand at him. "Your extreme lack of adventure and fun is not going to make me turn around, I hope you know that. Just call her grandma, Heln, she won't rip your head off."

"Maybe." But Heln wasn't certain. Madam DoVan was a terrifying figure. She had been the leader of the Ihale City Enforcers for longer than Heln and Bel had been alive combined and still struck a terrifying figure in her advanced age. "Weren't you supposed to help with the light show this year? Is that why we had to go home?"

Every year, the Festival of Eleti rose on the other side of the Grove. Every year, stones as tall as their house slid from the ground like old bones on the day that Eleti brought Magic and ended the war. Their surfaces were riddled with the script that made up the basis of all magic and they drew in any citizen of Ihale City that had the smallest ability to pay tribute.

Which had drawn the tents that sold everything from food to amulets. Each year the Festival grew until it was a spectacle of magic and mystery that shimmered on the very air, ringing down in Heln's bones.

Their grandmother never let them forget what a travesty this was, the Rising of the Stones used to be a sacred ritual, but according to Bel that didn't stop her from attending with their family every single year. The festival was a revival, a time to remember when magic became plentiful and the land that the City was sprawled upon was taken from invaders. It was a transition from war to peace that resonated with the seasons changing from summer to fall.

Heln enjoyed the festival, but it was Bel who was supposed to be helping with the performances. The year before, she had outshone all of the other students like a blazing star. That was the way it had always been. Bel glowed and everyone was drawn into it, even if they knew that they were going to get burned.

Heln was the opposite.

"No, no, I'm helping highlight constellations tomorrow night." Bel reassured him. At sixteen this was the first year she was allowed to help with the real entertainment, not just sparkling lights for the little children like the year before. "Now, see? Lights. We're almost to the road."

Heln wished they'd taken the road to begin with. At least it would have been better than this formless track lit only by the illumination bubble above Bel's hand and intermittent bursts from the sky. The actual road was lined with streams of color and fairy lights that darted in and out of trees that were thick with out of season blossoms.

The magic he had felt before brushed against his senses again, cobwebs in the dark. He thought it was the temple for a moment, but he'd been told that it was protected from sensing magic.

The stones rose where Eleti had brought magic to the world, but the temple was in the heart of the Grove. It was where any important magic was done, though Heln would never see it himself, being a low Ihalin.

The temple would feel like powerful, old magic. He always thought it would feel like a deep vibration that hummed down in his bones, a lot like how the stones felt to him when he got too close.

"Heln?"

He had stopped walking and Bel was waving a hand in front of his face.

"There he is." Bel's smile was slightly uneasy. "Where'd you go? I thought you didn't like this path."

"I don't." Heln blinked at her.

Bel's long, dark hair was temporarily highlighted pink. "Well then, let's move, unless you're communing with the trees. That's not a thing you can do, right?"

"No, don't be stupid." Heln was low Ihalin. He could sense magic and, like all low, he could use amulets, but he definitely couldn't commune with trees. "I think if anyone is going to be talking to nature, it's gonna be you."

"I'm not really a fan." She shrugged. "We still aren't moving."

"You are a master of the obvious," Heln murmured. "There's something in the woods."

"Your tree friends?" Bel turned in a circle, spreading her arms.

Heln closed his eyes. "I know it's really, really hard for you but please don't be stupid for about five minutes."

There might have been some protests from Bel, but Heln had found she was surprisingly easy to ignore. Whatever was causing the magic was moving closer, quickly.

The magic hit him like a punch. Heln pulled back his senses, but not before he sensed the wrongness of the magic, the way it pulsed and skittered across his mind. He imagined a shield forming between him and whatever it was, pain streaming behind his eyes and the taste of metal blooming on his tongue.

Magic had always felt like a living thing to him, vibrant and colorful in his mind, even when he couldn't physically see it.

This magic felt dead, like all of the vitality was gone and it was simple, moving parts.

Bel's illumination bubble flickered, sending shadows over her face.

"It's coming." Heln's words couldn't convey how serious he knew it was. He couldn't hear anything and without his senses extended he had no idea how close the magic was or even what direction it was coming from.

"That's ominous." Bel clearly hadn't noticed the stutter in her own magic and she was smiling a bit, proving she hadn't understood the seriousness. "You done now? I get it, I won't drag you down any more shortcuts. You are no fun at all, by the way, next year I'm not bringing you—"

Heln grabbed her wrist and ran.

It was clear they weren't going to get very far. Bel moved with natural grace. Heln did not, but neither of them were immune to tripping over exposed tree roots in the dark. He heard heavy footsteps behind them and grabbed the shield necklace he was wearing, nudging the tiniest amount of magic to activate it.

A dome that looked like a giant glowing soap bubble expanded around them, swirls of incandescence blurring and stretching the outside world before turning opaque. Something hit it from behind and the entire dome was shunted forward.

"What in Eleti's name was that?" Bel screeched, gripping Heln's arm too tightly.

"It's not an anchored shield—"

"That is not what I meant!"

The dome scraped forward and the back wall knocked Bel into Heln, sending them both toppling over. Bel's illumination bubble disintegrated in a shower of sparks.

A hand, too large to be Ihalin, pressed against the dome and slid slowly down it with a sound like nails on glass. Bel clapped her hands over her more sensitive ears.

Heln sat up, spitting Bel's ponytail out of his mouth. "Come on, we have to go."

"What?"

"We. Have. To. Go." Dammit, would she get that he really wasn't joking this time? The dome was inching forward again. There was very little that could get past it, but without an anchor they could be tossed around by anything strong enough to pick up a scrawny low Ihalin.

His mind was more than happy to list the amount of things that could toss him around. He wasn't sure they could even run fast enough with the shield covering them before it gave out and they got thrown around without it.

A bright flash of blue rocked the shield and the hand disappeared. At first Heln thought it was the light show, but a moment later someone actually knocked on the outside of the shield, making Bel squeak. They scrambled to their feet, looking at each other. Whatever the hand belonged to hadn't knocked on the shield and he had no idea where it went. Maybe they had run off? He didn't want to take the shield down just to find out, but the pendant was getting hot in his hand. He wouldn't have a choice in a few more minutes.

"What do we do?" Heln whispered.

"Not die?" Bel suggested.

With that intelligent argument aiding their predicament, Heln released the shield script, the dome turning into a stream of magic that slipped back into the pendant, leaving it smoking slightly. At best, he had maybe a few more minutes left, but that would be it.

They both flinched when it dissipated, but there was only a girl wearing a guard cape standing over a pile of dirt, holding a bright blue illumination bubble that painted the scene in strange shades, casting skeletal shadows from the trees around them. She narrowed her eyes at Bel.

"Oh, it's you."

Bel glared right back. "QuelArhyssa, in the increasingly underwhelming flesh."

"DoVanBellamy. 'Trespassers in the Grove causing a disturbance.' I should have known it was you." She used the exact same tone. She spared a glance at Heln. "And your… brother."

"Half-brother," Bel corrected her like it was automatic.

Heln would have felt offended, but he also made sure everyone knew that Bel was his half-sister.

Heln was still trying to peer through the deep shadows between the trees when he recognized the Guard Trainee. Rhyss was the daughter of the dean and great granddaughter of the founder of the Eleti Academy of the Magical Arts where they all went to school. Her mother used to be Captain of the Grove Guard, and anyone who had ever been within fifteen feet of Rhyss knew she wanted to follow in her mother's footsteps.

She was in the same year as Bel and since their own father was head of the Department of Magical Artifacts for the City Enforcers, they had clashed more than once a week, and that was just since Heln started attending classes.

Maybe whoever had caused the magic had run off to avoid a debate on jurisdiction between the two departments. He honestly wouldn't blame them at all.

"On guard duty or do you just like following me around?" Bel gave her the smile that had more edge to it than Rhyss's Guard issued dagger. "I can't blame you, honestly. Or are you following Heln around?"

"I'm right here," Heln said, distractedly. He wasn't particularly interested in Bel's supposed lifetime of rivalry with her classmate.

"I'd rather follow him around." Rhyss shrugged a bit. "So, what was that thing?"

She gestured to a pile of loose earth. Part of a tree root stuck out of it at a haphazard angle.

"It looks like a pile of dirt," Bel said.

"I would really rather not bring you in to make my report."

"Aww you're letting us go? How sweet."

"I just don't want to spend any more time in your presence than I have to." Rhyss rolled her eyes. "So, what exactly is this? It looked like a person, but when I hit it with a restraint, well."

Bel frowned, crouching next to the pile and poking at it. "You said it looked like a person?"

"I did say that, just a second ago, you were standing right there."

"Don't get smart with me."

"Someone should probably get smart here," Heln pointed out. He doubted it was going to be either of them, since they seemed to lose their heads entirely in each other's presence. They glared at him and he held up his hands and took a step back, nearly tripping on an exposed root.

Bel sifted through the dirt, a frown creasing the spot between her eyebrows. Finally she seemed to be taking this seriously. "I would say this has all of the makings of a clay construct—"

"Dirt construct?" Heln interjected, because of course she'd used the wrong term.

"They're the same thing." Bel didn't even look at him. "The problem is there's no power core."

"So what?" Rhyss crossed her arms.

"You've taken Scripted Items so I shouldn't have to spell it out for you." Bel stood up and brushed off her hands. "But it's impossible for a construct to be created or controlled without a power core. It's where the script animating it originates. Heln, you must have sensed it, right?"

"It felt wrong," Heln explained. Rhyss was regarding him in a way that made him feel uncomfortable, like he was only half trained and she expected him to fail at his only trick. He didn't really feel like sticking around to see if it came back. "Look, it's gone now, we should go, too. It was probably a prank or something."

It hadn't felt like a prank. The light show ended with a brilliant blaze of color above them.

Color that reflected off of eyes all around them.

Rhyss saw it, too, drawing her dagger. It was curved like a talon. "You two. Get behind me. Heln, do they feel the same as… That thing?"

A twig snapped to Heln's left. "I don't know, I have mental shields up, I can't—"

"Take them down, then!"

He let them slip, just a little, and the scratchy, empty wrongness of dead magic assaulted his senses. It tasted like copper and the smell of dead flowers.

The next thing he knew he was being dragged through the forest by Bel while Rhyss ran ahead of them.

"Why aren't we going to the road?" His tongue felt heavy.

"Because we would be leading them straight to a bunch of defenseless civilians!" Rhyss snapped at him.

"I'm a defenseless civilian."

"Shut up, trespasser!"

Heln supposed he couldn't argue with that, the cottony feeling in his head didn't want to, either.

A clay construct loomed in front of them. It was roughly shaped like an Ihalin, if an Ihalin was roughly eight feet tall. It had sunken holes for features, roots clambering over its open mouth. Deep in the sockets it had for eyes was a green glimmer, like fireflies. One hand was larger than the other and it swung at Rhyss, who ducked underneath it and slashed her knife in the air in front of it. A scythe of magic cut the thing in half and it crumpled into another pile of dirt.

"Over here!" She grabbed Bel's sleeve and yanked them both in the direction that she wanted to go. They tumbled into the mouth of a cave that had been hidden by an overhang and she slammed her dagger into the dirt, magic script around the opening flaring to life and forming a barrier much stronger than the one in Heln's pendant.

They all lay there just breathing for a moment.

"Okay." Rhyss sat up and adjusted her long, teal braid. "What in Eleti's name was that?"