Seraphim didn't lose consciousness in the traditional sense. They were pretty much human-shaped bundles of spiritual energy made corporeal by willpower alone. Besides, he'd fallen longer distances faster and harder while exploring with Sorey than this without blacking out. This time though, he found himself opening his eyes to darkness with his back against cold stone and a warm body crumpled over his chest.

"Alisha," he said, identifying her by the feel of the armor on her arms pressing into him. She stirred, not unconscious. He'd taken most of the fall with his artes and the rest with his body. So that's why he'd blacked out for a second. At least it hadn't been Sorey, he thought. He'd have crushed him.

She sat up, taking the weight off his body, and looked around herself wildly. A weak glimmer of sunlight filtered in through the chasm they'd fallen into enough to see by once his eyes adjusted to it, but she didn't appear to notice him. Mikleo groaned. Sorey was so far away that he couldn't share his resonance with her, and she'd lost her ability to see him.

"Alisha, can you hear me?"

Alisha didn't react as if she could. She stood and grabbed her spear. "Sorey!" she cried up through the stone chasm above them, voice echoing on the rocks. "Lady Lailah? Lord Mikleo? Do any of you hear me?"

Mikleo sighed. It was like Elysia all over again. Alisha couldn't see or hear him.

The water where he'd used his artes to soften their fall had left mud on the floor. He dipped his fingers it it and began to write on the wall in what little light there was. At first, Alisha jumped at the sourceless movement. Then she seemed to grasp what was going on and relaxed.

"Here," he wrote on the stone. "Mikleo."

"Lord Mikleo," Alisha said, bowing her head. She still revered the seraphim, and while that was refreshing to see in a human, Mikleo found it a bit awkward. The way she said his name like that made him blush, and he was relieved she couldn't see him. "I'm glad you're here with me."

His own connection to Sorey was still active. He could leave and return to him in a flicker of light at any point. But then Alisha would be alone and stranded, and without any ability to defeat hellions on her own. He had to stay with her until the others could find them.

The mud was proving a difficult method of communication, however. He couldn't find enough to write what he needed to tell her. Alisha's resonance was getting better though, so maybe he could get through to her.

He took her hand. Alisha yelped and then let out a sigh, realizing that it must be him. She smiled, but not quite in the right direction. At least she could feel his touch. "Alisha, can you hear me?" he said, concentrating on her as hard as he could.

Alisha's eyebrows wrinkled and furrowed. Her bottom lip stuck out and she squeezed his hand hard. "I can almost hear you," she said. "But it's barely there, it sounds like it's too far away to make out."

Mikleo held both of her hands and held them against his chest. "How about now?"

"Ah, it's getting better!" She tightened her grasp around whatever she could feel, cinching the fabric of his vest between her fingers. "Please keep trying, Lord Mikleo."

Mikleo groaned. This would be hard to explain to the others, he thought. But none of them were here and that was sort of the problem. So he did it anyway. He put his arm around Alisha's waist and pulled her in against him, until her face was pressed against his neck. "How about now?"

"Ah!" Alisha stammered and blushed. "Yes, I can hear you perfectly now!"

"Sorry about this," he said. "I know it's embarrassing."

"N-no!" she choked out. "If anything, I should feel honored."

Mikleo sighed. At least she wasn't upset about it, even if her reverent worship of the seraphim struck him as a little odd. "Sorey's so far away I can barely feel him, and you've lost your squire's gifts."

"Oh," she whimpered, and sunk into him further. "I had hoped I'd improved at least enough to hear you on my own by now."

He could smell sweat on her like he always smelled on Sorey, but other honey-sweet things, too, like the perfume that Natalie had as a gift from Mason. He and Sorey sprayed it on themselves once when they were children, and made her quite upset. "Don't worry about that," he said. "Are you injured? It was a long fall."

"I'm fine. I'm not hurt. You must have broken the fall with your artes."

"Even so, pace yourself," he said. Although truthfully, Alisha with her knight's training might be even more suited to this sort of thing than Sorey. "We have to look for a way out. I can't keep holding you like this while we walk, but just say my name out loud and I'll show you that I'm still beside you with my artes."

"Okay," Alisha said with a nod. She pulled away from him and smiled. "Mikleo?"

Mikleo used one of the first artes he'd ever learned, a simple bubble spell. Sorey used to love it when he'd make bubbles when they were children, and the adult Alisha was almost equally enthralled.

"Wow, it's pretty!" she laughed, watching her reflection in the translucent rainbow surface of the largest bubble as it reflected the weak light. Then she cleared her throat and tried to look serious. "If you need to tell me something, then you'll just have to grab me," she said. "We can't afford to be shy if it's our safety at stake."

Mikleo didn't answer since he knew Alisha would be unable to hear him. He was certain that compared to the political atmosphere of Ladylake, being lost in the depths of a cave was easy-peasy. Her cool-headedness was admirable and something he wished Sorey would learn from.

That's what he was thinking as she took a battle stance and began to fight. The hellions were small, snake-like creatures that posed little threat to them after all they'd faced so far. Still, without the power of purification granted by Sorey's pact with Lailah, Alisha would be quickly overrun without his help.

He readied his artes to strike the finishing blow while Alisha kept them distracted with her spear.