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along the leftmost edge
of their tunnel.
    The cold was becoming really biting. Betreec
was used to the need of dressing warmly. Once you left the
immediate area of the hot springs, things tended to cool down in a
hurry, but this was unlike anything she'd experienced.
    She was hurrying after I'rone, when she first
saw her breath fog the air before her. "Powers, I can see the air
leaving my body."
    I'rone slowed down enough to look back at
her, and she thought she saw the barest trace of a smile playing
about his lips.
    "It's the cold. Once the air drops down
enough in temperature you can see the warm air your body breathes
out. It's always at least this cold when the Guadel are out on
circuit traveling between way caves."
    Betreec felt her mind whirling as she
digested this new concept. Her instructors had indicated it was
cold outside, but this was something else entirely. "You've been
outside then?"
    I'rone definitely smiled this time, and if
condescension's good-natured cousin was present in the barest
measure on his expression, she couldn't really hold it against him.
"I guess that's a silly question. You're obviously not originally
from the Capital, so you must have passed through the outside to
get here."
    Betreec mentally flogged herself at
forgetting such a small detail. She'd always loved how exotic his
name sounded, but never really stopped to consider the implications
of him having been born elsewhere. Some of the girls who'd lived in
the villages had complained the other girls made them feel stupid
when they first arrived at the Capital, but she'd never wondered
what it must have been like for I'rone to have come here as a young
boy.
    "Unfortunately the 'Great Tunnel' still
hasn't been discovered."
    It took a moment to realize I'rone was making
a joke. The great tunnel was an elusive corridor rumored to connect
the Capital to each and every one of the villages, which some of
the older miners swore would someday be found. The more devout
occasionally cited obscure passages from  Teachings of the
Light  as evidence of the tunnel's existence.
    Verses about bringing all people together,
and smoothing the way aside, Betreec had always thought it one of
the sillier superstitions. Now, faced with a cold beyond anything
she'd imagined, she wasn't so sure but that she'd pick the finding
of the great tunnel over the fulfillment of any of the half dozen
or so of what had previously been her fondest bedtime stories.
    I'rone pulled a thin gurra wool scarf from
the pack and handed it back to her. "It's not cold enough yet to
make this stream freeze solid yet, but if you find the air becomes
cold enough to make your lungs burn, wrap this around your
face."
    "You mean it gets colder than this? Cold
enough for water to stop moving?"
    "Of course it does. Where else would the snow
come from?"
    "I don't know. I thought it just fell from
the sky."
    I'rone pulled a similar scarf out for
himself, wrapped it twice about his neck and then shrugged at
her.
    "It does fall from the sky, but it's made of
water. Sometimes we had to melt it in order to have something to
drink."
    Betreec suddenly wondered if she should
already know what I'rone was telling her. It boggled the mind to
believe she could have missed such amazing, non-boring facts, but
she did tend to space off during class more than she should.
    I'rone seemed to read her mind. "Don't worry,
most of that stuff is covered in an outside survival class they put
Guadel pairs through before sending them out on their first
circuit."
    It was like the Goddess had finally heard
Betreec's prayers and offered her the perfect opportunity, the
ideal opening for steering the conversation to where she'd been
hoping it would go.
    "I'm not that far from finishing up my
courses. Another four months probably and I'll be in my last
series. Once that happens, I can be courted, can even accept
proposals if they were to be tendered."
    I'rone's posture seemed to have stiffened
just the slightest bit.