"You look happy," Rath said with surprise, his wide blue eyes leaving his plate long enough to look his brother over as he entered the kitchen. "She must be okay, then."

"Yeah," Char said, grinning as he took a seat and the plate the fairies pushed in front of him. They were zipping around with a lot more fervor this morning than he'd seen yesterday.

Rath studied him suspiciously. "So, how did you get from her crying her heart out to this?" Rath asked, gesturing to Char's expression.

"I proposed."

Rath's fork hit the plate with a clatter, bounced onto the table, and landed on the floor. His jaw nearly reached it.

"You what?"

"And she said yes."

Rath sat back in his chair, utterly flabbergasted. The fairies darted over to set a clean fork next to his plate and retrieve the dirty one off of the floor. Char smirked in amusement at his brother's astonishment.

"Why are you so surprised? You were the one who said I was headed toward marriage."

"Yeah, but-"

Iris walked into the kitchen and didn't even get a chance to say 'Hello' before Rath rounded on her.

"You're marrying this idiot?" he exclaimed, pointing at Char.

"Good morning to you, too," she said cautiously, glancing quickly at Char. He shook his head, still grinning, and stood up to pull a chair out for her.

"But you barely even know him!" Rath continued.

"We've been through a lot together," she said hesitantly as she took her seat, still darting her eyes at Char for reassurance.

"And he's only shown you his good side. He's really awful. Have you even had a fight yet?"

"I...we've disagreed..."

"No, no, no," Rath moaned, putting his face in his hands. "You don't know what you're getting yourself into."

"I think I do," Iris said, but the uncertainty was heavy in her voice.

"Don't listen to him," Char reassured her. "He's just upset that I won't have as much time for him."

"You wish," Rath retorted. "This jerk is going to up and leave you at the most random times, and you won't even know where he went or when he's coming back."

"I am not going to do that," Char insisted.

"When you do get into a fight, he'll shut down and drink until he passes out."

"Okay, I might do that," Char admitted, glancing nervously at Iris.

"And he can't cook. At all. If you get sick or something, you're just going to have to hope he calls Mother to take care of you, because otherwise, you're going to starve."

Iris giggled, and both men turned to look at her in surprise. Her brown eyes were dancing as she looked from one to the other.

"You wanted to kill me when we first met, remember?" she teased Rath.

He frowned and dropped his guilty gaze to his plate.

"And I thought Char was going to kill me in that cave."

"I couldn't let you get away and run into him," Char said sheepishly, also averting his gaze.

"Maybe I haven't seen Char in every situation, but I think I've seen the worst and the best, and I can manage the middle."

"Hmph." Rath looked over at her, still scowling. "Well, if you end up regretting this, don't come running to me. I tried to warn you."

"I am not that bad," Char protested.

"Thank you for your concern, Rath, but I think I'll be okay," Iris reassured him. "Char said we're in a dwarven cave, and we need to find a way out, right?"

Rath nodded, shooting a glare at Char. "Yeah. The crystal exploded after you passed out, and it caused a cave-in. We barely made it out of that tunnel alive."

"We wouldn't have made it out alive if it weren't for the fairies deflecting boulders and shards of crystal," Char added.

Rath cleared his throat.

Char smirked. "What?"

"Don't you 'what' me," Rath grumped. He looked at Iris pointedly. "I'm the one who transformed when we got out of the tunnel and shielded you two from the flying rubble, not lover boy here. My side still hurts," he added, rubbing his ribs.

"Wrong side," Char noted dryly.

Rath crossed his arms over his chest petulantly.

"But I appreciate you doing that so I could make sure she was still alive and work on warming her up," Char said. "You nearly died," he added to Iris.

"Thank you both," she said graciously. "I heard you two...discussing leaving me or staying, and I wouldn't have blamed you if you left, but I am glad you stayed."

"You probably would have been fine," Rath muttered sheepishly. "I mean, you saved the king's life. That had to count for something."

"The king sent the army into the throne room after us. I don't think he was too grateful," Char pointed out.

"Either way," Iris interjected before another argument could start, "we all made it out alive, and now we need to find a way out of here."

"There are fireplaces in almost every room," Rath noted. "Or ovens, in this case," he amended himself, nodding toward the combination oven and stove where the fairies were flitting around, refilling their plates from pots and pans. "So, we're pretty close to the surface. And we know which way we came from, so it should be as simple as following the tunnel in the opposite direction."

"Unless the outlet is in one of the other tunnels branching off from that main cavern," Char mused.

"No way to know without trying," Rath said, shrugging. "Are we all going together, or am I exploring alone while you two...do whatever?"

"Or we could ask the fairies to help," Iris suggested, immediately blushing and averting her eyes at Rath's implication.

"That would take the fun out of it," Rath argued.

"Well, I guess it's up to you, Iris," Char said. "Are you feeling up to traveling?"

"I'm still a little sore, but I think it would be better if I started moving around to loosen up," she replied.

"Sore? Didn't you heal yourself before Char found you?"

Iris dropped her gaze to her food. Rath looked at Char questioningly.

"Or is this from what you did in the throne room?" Rath continued hesitantly, his eyes darting from Iris to Char anxiously. Char shook his head and shrugged.

"I...healed what was done by magic," she said quietly, keeping her eyes on the food she was pushing around nervously with her fork.

Rath looked like she just slapped him. Char felt like somebody punched him in the gut. He considered doing so to Rath and settled on shooting him a glare instead. The image of the blood on the bedsheets flashed through his mind again.

"S-sorry," Rath stammered quickly. "I didn't think-"

"It's fine," she interrupted, although her flat voice said it was anything but fine.

"U-um, s-so, we'll follow the tunnel and see where it goes," Rath continued, his face bright red as he tried to recover and change the subject. "We should bring supplies, too. If we find an outlet pretty close, we'll have to travel for a while before it's safe to transform and fly home." He dared a glance at Iris, and his face fell even further. "Oh."

Char came to the same realization as Rath at the same time. Without the amulet, Iris wouldn't be able to fly safely, not unless she was wrapped in a lot of blankets.

"We'll pack extra blankets," Char said. "If we use enough, you should be fine, right, Iris?"

She nodded, still focused on her plate. "What about visiting the church?"

Rath looked helplessly at Char and shook his head slightly. He didn't want to be the bearer of bad news, not after putting his foot in his mouth.

"It probably isn't safe for us to go back into the capital right now," Char told her gently. "Rath and I are still in stolen uniforms, and now every soldier in the city will have our descriptions. But Kelnor said we would be attempting negotiations with the humans, so if you handle the flight well, maybe we can come back when everything settles down."

She nodded again. Char scrambled to think of something to say that would cheer her up.

"Mother's going to kill me," he finally said.

"Why?" Rath asked curiously.

"Well, that wasn't the best proposal. She lectured me on making it memorable for Iris before we left."

Iris looked up at that and gave him a small smile. "I liked it."

"Mother knew about this?" Rath sputtered. "Why did you tell her and not me?"

"She dragged it out of me," Char protested.

"And you didn't tell me."

"I thought you'd react like this."

"Darn right!" Rath exclaimed. "First, you keep her a secret from me, then you lie to me about what she means to you, and now this?" Rath smacked him on the shoulder.

"What's that for?" Char asked, rubbing his shoulder.

"For leaving me out, you idiot! If you wanted a good proposal, I could have helped! Now you've just got whatever lame thing you worked out-"

"It wasn't lame," Iris interjected.

"Stay out of this!" Rath told her emphatically. "You love him, so you're giving him a break, but you deserved better than whatever he came up with." Rath spun back to Char. "Don't you dare laugh! This is serious! You didn't even give her a ring, you jerk!"

Char pressed his lips together and did his best not to laugh while Rath continued berating him, but Iris' stifled giggles and dancing eyes made it hard to keep a straight face. Rath, too, was fighting a smile. By the time their plates were empty, they were all laughing without restraint, and Char had almost forgotten the images from Micah's tower.