"I saw white armor and robes," offers Vetareh, who's probably the best at spotting little details like that. Since she's had the practice. "But I think that's all the detail we're going to get. It's not worth the time investment, the echo's not going to want to stretch to before large amounts of magic got thrown around. So we can leave now to find and warn him, there's not much reason to stick around."

    "White Mantle, certainly," observes Caithe.

"—oh, sorry Vetareh. Canach is... a friend, who's been tasked with finding Minister Caudecus who we suspect is behind this whole fiasco," James explains.

She looks at him, then raises her eyebrows slightly.

"And you're worried about him still being alive. So." She recasts the enchantment that makes her lighter and looks at him expectantly. "Gauntlets off, sir, I appreciate the explanation, but it can happen on the way there."

Caithe raises an eyebrow at 'gauntlets off' but doesn't comment as James gingerly detaches the gauntlets and stashes them in a small mesmer-enchanted space-warping bag attached to his waist.

        "Commander! Are you up there?" comes a voice from the ground level.

    "Sounds like someone's looking for you," Caithe says softly.

Vetareh nods, and continues looking expectantly at James. She notes that it seems to be a thing that people just call him 'Commander' instead of his first name. ... She might want to start doing that so as not to give the wrong impression.

He steps up to Vetareh and, when she's ready, picks her up. Caithe very much does not say a word. He starts gliding down towards the person who called him.

Vetareh is starting to like Caithe.

She clamps down on the urge to giggle with delight at the gliding, but she permits herself a fond smile. This is still pretty lovely. Gliding on her own sounds fun, but it's also pretty nice to get carried around by a dashing necromancer.

They land and Caithe shadowsteps to where they are. There is a human in a military uniform of sorts there. "Commander! Ah..." She looks at Vetareh as James carefully sets her on her feet.

"Thank you," she says to James.

To the human in a military uniform of some sort: "Hello, the Commander found me in a cave."

    The human nods and looks at James again like it's all in a day's business. She clears her throat. "Canach ordered us to find you. Minister Caudecus is in the area."

"Canach's alive!" James exclaims, and there's a subtle relaxation of a certain tension in his posture that might not have been noticeable before it was gone. "I need to tell him what we just witnessed. Point me in the right direction. ...uh, Caithe?"

    "You know what, I think I'll stay a moment. Maybe poke around some more."

"Are you sure? Will you be okay?"

    "It's fine, Commander. Remember? I'm a shadow."

He nods and looks at Vetareh.

She kind of has to wonder what his days are like, if people think finding random women in caves is normal for him. Probably like this one. Actually, this might be a slow day.

"I am not a shadow. So I think I'll just be going with you."

He nods and looks at the other human woman again. "Lead the way, officer," he says, and Caithe disappears into shadow.

    The officer salutes and starts walking towards the other end of the cave. "I believe Canach tracked the Minister into the floating coliseum."

"I wonder what he's up to."

...

Vetareh looks at him.

"Really. Really. The Minister's potentially an unstable magical experiment gone wrong and could explode with power at any minute, and that is the terrible pun you decide to make?"

"I don't see you making a better one," he says without looking at her. The officer snickers then coughs to pretend she didn't.

"'Let's hope he's not too high on power.' 'I see he's keeping up his habit of looking down on everyone.'" She pauses, and tries to come up with a third one, and only manages several innuendos. "... Though honestly, there's more material available in the realm of innuendo than anything else."

James cracks up and the officer takes this as permission to also giggle some. "I'm curious about the innuendo."

"'Careful, if someone excites him too much he might explode,' 'Maybe he's just looking for some alone time after his body's new changes,' 'He's reached that age where people get experimental,' wait, no, that one's more of a pun, damn."

He laughs harder at those puns and at the last one causes an actual cackle.

She giggles a little herself. At last, all of that time spent practicing her wit in the Mists is paying off!

"Okay, I think I'm done now. There are a few more I could make, but they wouldn't be as good. I will not lower myself to such indignities."

"I would not dream of requesting it of you."

They reach a point of the cave where... it becomes rather obvious just how deep underground they are.

The answer is "very." They are very deep underground. The hole to the surface is very, very high.

She looks up. Yeah, wow, that's extremely underground.

".... 'I think the Minister went too deep,'" she adds. "Sorry, there turned out to be one more."

Both of them crack up again.

"I believe you will need some assistance to reach the top," James says between giggles, offering his arms again.

"Yep, I believe you're right about that."

She recasts her enchantment, then: here she is, in his arms again.

This time he makes his glider appear before they're in the air, and he doesn't take one of the updrafts again. Instead, he walks to one of the light lines that are pointing up and out of the cave and—

—their bodies are covered by a slightly tingly type of forcefield—

—and he's riding the magical line as if an impossible-to-feel wind is carrying them, up up up...

At an audible level that only James can hear, she makes a little, "eeee."