"I only acknowledge results, James!"

"Yes, ma'am!" he calls, saluting.

Caithe smiles and shakes her head then says something, to which James nods then waves at Vetareh before resuming his search.

She smiles and waves back, then goes back to attempting to sort through the magical echoes.

Other monsters and creatures continue to show up and attack James and Caithe. They continue to successfully survive.

Good.

The details of the beginning of the explosion are the equivalent to magical mush to her unaided eyes, but she can see enough of the echoes to see the general arc. The explosion started here, and the waves of magical energy of this flavor went that way, and that other flavor went this way...

She expects to have a decent idea of where it will be best to place all of the bloodstone shards by the time James and Caithe return.

And return they do, in companionable silence. James's body language is also somewhat less cold towards Caithe, now.

That's interesting. Maybe it was some kind of past drama, or being upset about being interrupted while flirting with her. Or something. She doesn't really know. It's probably not her business.

"Welcome back!" she chirps, brightly. "Bloodstone crystals, please? I think I know where best to put them."

"Here you go," James says, handing her three, and Caithe gives her another three wordlessly.

"Thank you," she says.

She peers at them to get a good idea of which flavors of magic each one has, then carefully begins distributing them into positions on the pedestal that look kind of inscrutable to outside viewers.

"Okay. That should do it. And none of these feel so magically charged that they should explode, so if we're careful we won't be looking at a mess."

"Good, I always like it when things don't explode."

    "Is there anything in particular we need to do?" asks Caithe.

She smiles at James. James continues to be cute and it continues to be a good(?) thing that he's covered in spikes and fire.

"Not really. Though—I suppose I do need you to not do things. No magic for a little while. We'll essentially be gently nudging faint magical echoes to be a bit louder, and they can get drowned out by other, stronger magic nearby. Which in this case would be just about anything."

It is really nice to just be an expert in a subject again. It's even nicer to solve actual problems that actually matter, instead of running around in a realm where nothing matters at all. She's having real actual effects on the world!! She's solving a problem because she's very clever! Ahahahaha!!!

"Okay," she says, clamping down on her urge to bounce up and down like a small, excited child. "Give me a bit, this shouldn't take too long."

Then she begins gently magically nudging the shards appropriately. A lot of this is finicky finesse, with a heaping of guesswork, but she just so happens to be rather attuned to knowing what signs imply echoes getting stronger. If she's just patient and watchful and careful, she should get it to work...

The Bloodstones emanate light that crosses in the centre of the platform, showing the echo of a person standing on it. There are other people around, wearing white armour and robes, waiting while Bloodstone pours its power into the person in the centre—

—then the person starts glowing, as brightly as the lightning creature from before—

—and explodes, turning everyone around them to ash.

Vetareh winces. Another mark down for why proper safety protocols are important.

"... Well then. Not a natural occurrence at all."

    "No, not at all," sighs Caithe. "Who would have done something like this...?"

"Someone who just absorbed the lion's share of a Bloodstone's worth of magic... Could have been Caudecus. I have to find Canach and warn him... if he's still alive."

"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."