Handwobble handwobble dotted line coming off from these city outskirts thisaway?

She can't not know where the exit is. No matter how much you love caves, this is still the most important thing to know about them!

"I don't understand why you won't - can't - draw the exit. ...I can pay you a few lire to guide me out?" She's lucky she has any on her; currency isn't exactly standard equipment and her actual equipment isn't hers to trade away. 

"Can't," repeats Belmarniss.

Ugh.

"Is there anyone else in these caves?" People wouldn't go down here without backup, right?

Nod, but like, a kind of hesitant nod.

"You're not sure?" Tanya guesses. "Because the caves are so big, and there might be other people here, but you came alone?"

Headshake headshake.

Thaaat... probably means 'no' as in 'yes, I'm not sure'? 

Tanya can try to follow the map and come back if she fails to find anything. But if the map is at all accurate, this cave system is very intimidating and even if Tanya could find her way back here some hours later, there's no guarantee she could find Belmarniss. And she still has no idea how she got here, whether she needs to fear enemy action or what form it might take, whether Belmarniss is an enemy agent or an honestly confused civilian... 

If she finds a sufficiently large empty space she could start collapsing the ceiling until she reaches the surface - definitely not a good idea, building demolitions are not the same as cavern collapses tens or hundreds of meters underground. A move of desperation, to be considered in case she runs out of water and has no better options. ...but it won't come to that, because she can follow Belmarniss who presumably has supplies even if she doesn't intend to leave the caves any time soon. And it will give her time to think.

"What was the magic you used earlier?" She's not sure what else to ask but they both know the other is a mage, so - it might shed some light. 

"Comprehend Languages."

...it makes sense she can't explain it if she barely knows Germanian, and Tanya really can't think what spell with no obvious external effects you'd cast upon seeing a stranger.

What magic would a (probably) low-grade speleologist even need in a non-orb implement? Light is the most obvious, air and water filtration, communications, ideally something to help climbing (but Tanya hasn't heard of anything like that on the civilian market)... Some of those would be ongoing spells, comms don't really work underground (better to string a telegraph cable), and none of them make sense as a reaction to seeing her. It could be a very short-range signal but anyone close by can probably see or hear them anyway.

This whole situation is incredibly suspicious but Tanya can't see any better way forward, so.

"I don't know how much you can understand me and I don't really understand you. I intend to follow you, hopefully to your camp and then outside. Alright?" Not that Belmarniss can stop Tanya from following her, but if she wants to obstruct her she could just stay here for a day.

Handwobble. ".......all right."

And she'll turn and lead Tanya through the caves.

Progress of a sort? It's at least better than staying in one place. Tanya follows, alert for signs of anyone else being around. 

It feels weird for Tanya to be lighting their way when she's in the rear. Belmarniss must be conserving her batteries, or her mana if she has a mage light. She definitely seems to know her way around.

Belmarniss does, after a bit of walking, cast a spell! "Root."

That's a different spell from before! Tanya is watching closely this time and she can't make much sense of it. It... does something with the ground Belmarniss is walking on? Maybe she's doing some kind of surveying or analysis of the rock formations? That sounds like a reasonable industrial spell that probably exists, but doing it all alone in a cave must be a rich eccentric person's hobby. And she's not even stopping to look at the ground as she does it, she's just talking and gesticulating to herself? Well, anyone who spends their time alone deep underground is likely to be some kind of weirdo.

She does that same spell every few minutes as they go, particularly in places where the ground is uneven or steep.

Tanya isn't interested in her surveying and hopes she's not going to spend the rest of the day at it. She's not slowing down and even the biggest cave system can only be so big, so hopefully they'll end up somewhere more useful-to-Tanya soon? It doesn't cost her anything to fly along except that actually time is precious and she has to report back as quickly as she can!

Belmarniss is moving reasonably quickly, though, Tanya doesn't need to help her climb cliffs or anything like that. These caves are unexpectedly easy to traverse on foot, or at least Belmarniss has found a route through them that has that quality.

Yup.

This cave has some people in it! Two who are dressed about like Belmarniss, with pointy ears and purple skin and pale hair, and a couple who are waist-high but not proportioned like children at all. Belmarniss says something - to the purple people; she's not addressing the little ones.

....this is very weird. Three people with obvious family resemblance and two - dwarfs? It's not really her business but it's quite confusing. 

Also, why did Belmarnis make a "so-so" hand gesture when Tanya asked if there was anyone else in the caves and then lead her straight to them? Tanya is mentally downgrading the degree to which they had understood each other.

"Belmarniss, does anyone here know any of my languages better?" She can greet them in each of them again.

Headshake. Rapid conversation in her own language with the purple people and then she's trying to lead Tanya through the cave and onward.

Tanya wants to stay at least long enough to try to communicate with these people who might actually understand her! 

(And they also appear to have turned off their lights as Tanya and Belmarniss were approaching? What is it with these people?)

The purple people in the cave had mostly stopped paying attention to her in response to something Belmarniss said and one of them looks annoyed that Tanya's trying to get her attention. There is more conversation among the purple people and some of it involves gesturing at Tanya.

She's going to have to insist on getting their attention, even if this involves speaking rather loudly and in their faces. Do they visibly understand anything she's saying?

When she gets right up close to a purple person the purple person pulls a knife and shouts at her! Belmarniss shouts too!

Her barrier is categorically adequate against any amount of force a man can exert but that doesn't mean she wants to antagonize them, she just wants their attention! She backs off and insistently goes through all the languages she speaks.

...and she'll get out the money she has on hand. It's - thirteen Ildonian lire in coins and thirty Germanian marks in bills, apparently, which is not that bad for something she happens to have on her approximately by happenstance. Money in hand is a universal language, right?

(The one-lira coins are 5 grams of silver each, alloyed with a bit of copper. The marks are harder currency, but also harder to exchange locally. Ten lira is more than most people's daily wage, so the total sum ought to be fine recompense for diverting someone for a few hours to lead her out of here if they were at all inclined to help her.)

Rapid annoyed talking in their language. At one point Belmarniss rolls her eyes and casts a spell - "Light -" on a pebble one of them tosses her. They squint at the coins.

Belmarniss's light is a nice white light that makes it clear that the full size people are all in fact purple. (The tiny ones are human colors.)