That is very very strange.

Lira has seen an electrical light before - there's an artisanal workshop under Iríya Rikàthè that has a gorgeous electrical light in the ceiling, powered by a handmade generator that runs off the river Laiyénu - but where's the wire? And how is it changing into so many colours? And how'd they get it so small? And why are two such foolish people in such ugly clothes wandering around with such a valuable thing and no weapons?

"Rákya?" Lira asks, and pokes the phone with xer sword tip. "Daln sìrithenté?" 

"Whoa, hey, you'll scratch it. I don't know what you're saying. I don't have signal. Do you have signal here?" Here's the map. The rivers do mostly match when she gets the map oriented the same way, so that's... bad, actually, this strange sword guy is not something Leasca expected to find near the cave at all.

Lira is not getting close enough to see the maps lining up, but... Leasca definitely seems to be getting some kind of information from the magic wireless box that somehow has lights with no wires and no nearby generator.

Well, a gate guard is properly charged to figure out what in fairyland is going on with trespassers - and these are definitely currently trespassers and not guests - so xe has a right to know what, in the name of all that's noble, that is!

"Lé rachat," Lira commands, and holds xer free hand out for the phone and the book. 

Leasca hands over the book immediately! That's his! Also it is one hand's worth of object.

"Torilú," Lira says automatically without thinking about it, and then feels silly for saying it. Xe pockets the book and jabs the phone again with xer sword. "Rákya áya daln? Lé rachat! - vo'royit, lè áya rachach ú'tinúliseta." 

"Hey, you're going to scratch it, don't do that!" says Leasca, pulling the phone back and putting it back in her pocket.

"I think he's mugging us," says Nocran, from where he hasn't gotten up off the ground.

"...you think he's mugging us? With a sword."

You can't just... respond to a guard asking to see something by hiding it in a confusing fold of your garment - wait, is that a sewn up garment fold? Is that specifically for theft? Lira tries to figure out what conceivable purpose that would have other than theft, and can't come up with anything, but... they're not wearing overgarments to hide the fold so it's not even very good for theft.

"Zat, zat," Lira says dismissively to the subordinate on the ground, who should not be interrupting while xe tries desperately to figure out if xe's dealing with incredibly confusing rich diplomats with awesome wares to sell from a faroff land or petty thieves who aren't even very good at stealth. 

Turning to Leasca, xe pokes the garment fold where the fancy wireless light was just hidden away. "Lè vo'das vonsè." 

"Zat zat?" repeats Nocran. That was an unusually repeatable bit of verbiage, maybe he's trying to teach them something?

Leasca steps back.

Lira casts a very despairing glance at Leasca. Is Leasca going to.... do anything... about the subordinate being incredibly rude?

Xe gestures at Nocran and tries the same shrug and eye roll that xe's seen Kairé do when Lirénnaya is being particularly out of line, wondering if it softens the blow for Leasca if they can commiserate over the difficulty together, rather than it just being Lira being embarrassed and Leasca having to be terribly ashamed. 

Leasca is absolutely not picking up what Lira's dropping here. "Nocran, let's see if he'll just let us... leave, I'm not sure he's mugging us but I'm also not optimistic that he's about to get us to, like, civilization."

"What kind of discount portal fantasy even is this?"

"Yeah, I don't know, it sucks, but this isn't a middle grade novel and we are going to need, like, food and shelter, and this dude isn't looking likely to provide." She takes another two steps out of sword range, circling around slightly toward her friend, and offers him a hand up.

...nnno, Lira does not fancy explaining "there were some incredibly confusing trespassers or possibly visitors wearing the weirdest clothes I've ever seen and then they showed me some incredible portable light but then hid it in some kind of special theft garment and left" to anyone when the guard changes, actually. If they aren't handing over the object Lira guesses the best option is to... take them to the linguists' guild? Maybe someone will be able to decode what they're saying?

(If they back out past the gate then they aren't xer responsibility anymore at all, but until they do that...) 

Lira will try one more time. Xe advances and... is xe skilled enough with the sword to delicately precisely cut through the part of the garment designed to hide things? Probably not, but xe will try it and then err on the side of pulling back if they see unexpected blood? 

Leasca shrieks like that's the most surprising thing that has ever happened to her in her life, scrambles backward, and escapes with only a small slit in her pocket that isn't enough to release the phone. Nocran gets to his feet without the hand up and takes off back the way they came, and Leasca follows.

...well, they're now outside the boundaries of where Lira can actually honourably demand anything of them, so xe will stand at the gate and watch them go with an utterly baffled expression on xer face.

Xe has no idea how xe's going to explain this to anyone.

On the bright side they have some kind of unfamiliar footwear, and are consequently leaving the most obvious, distinctive footprints that Lira has ever seen in xer life. Xe turns around to go get someone actually authorised to track these people down and engage in whatever diplomacy needs to be engaged in. 

They stop running when they're out of sight of the arch and don't seem to be being immediately followed; neither of them is a runner and they're both coming off a longish hike. They slow down to a walking pace and for lack of a better idea return to the cave.

Lira's superiors are pretty sure Lira is pulling a prank, and once they see the footprints with their elaborately detailed treads, very proud of xem for pulling such an excellently elaborate prank. Young Lira thought a good prank was emptying a water bucket over someone's head and running away, and this is both much less annoying and much more competently and subtly executed. It perhaps even graduates from 'prank' to 'shenanigan', though they'll reserve judgement on that until they follow the footsteps to their destination and see what they find. 

The footprints go all the way into the cave. They are harder to follow in there but the people weren't making any effort to cover their tracks.