“Basil!” Touya shouted down into the darkness. It was pitch black. He couldn't even see the light from the jar Basil had been holding when he fell. He hunched over to look through the hole, then made a swift movement of his arm to point down into the darkness. “Down!” He ordered curtly. Instantly over half of the floating lightning sparks zoomed past him and into the dark, spreading out like ink dropped into a water tank and illuminated the area. It left him in a dim room, but that wasn't his concern. Down below by a fair distance he could make out Basil laying on his side in a pile of the rubble. “Basil!” He called again. “Are you okay?”

“Ow.” came the response. He heard as Basil shifted and groaned onto his side, but didn't stand. “My ankle hurts and I think my hand's bleeding.”

“Can you get up?”

“Uhm,” Basil tested his leg by seeing if he could move it. “I don't think so.” Then he chuckled, “That was exciting.”

“Can you see anything?”

Touya watched as Basil looked left, then right, then behind him and then back in front of him. He looked like he was digging something from his hand. “Looks like some stairs to my left, and a big ornate door over to my right.” He paused and made a hurt sound in his throat. “I think I've got glass in my hand.”

“Stay put!” Touya ordered. “I'll find those stairs and come down to you!”

“What? No! Touya! Stay!” Basil looked up to him, barking his orders frantically before Touya could move. “We don't even know where my stairs go to, or from.”

“You want me to jump down there? I'm not leaving you!”

“Calm down.” Basil waved his not-bleeding hand up at Touya in a big swoop motion. “I've got a rope in my bag.”

“What's good is that?!”

“You can pull me up.”

“You're like, way, below me!”

Basil shook his head while he slung his bag off his shoulder and began to dig through it with one hand. “I'll need help bandaging my hand.” He explained. “I can do it myself but it'll take a few minutes.”

“I can wait... I guess.” Touya sighed, relaxing his back. He pointed with his right hand again, “Down...” and more of the lights swept past him and down to Basil. This group clustered around him to offer light.

“Uh... thanks.” Basil commented as he dug out some cotton bandages and some white little squares of fabric meant to put on wounds. “I dropped that light... so you'd better not get fatally wounded now.”

“Says the guy who's bleeding.” Touya shouted down, but in a tone that sounded like a grumble.

“It's just my hand.” Basil retorted.

The two bickered for a moment more while Basil dressed his wound. Once he had the bandage wrapped as best he could, yanking it tight with his teeth while using his other hand to pull the other bandage the other way, he successfully tied a knot. After that was done, he pulled out the rope, dropped it on his lap, then pulled his bag back onto his back.

“Okay, Touya, you'll have to be careful.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Basil eased the rope into a swing like shape with two loops meeting in the center end of the rope. He yanked both loops under his legs. He left one loop at his middle thigh, and pulled the other to his waist. He adjusted the knot to make sure the loops didn't get any larger, then wrapped the rope around his good hand twice, once at the elbow and once at the palm.

“You ready?”

“What's happening?” Touya asked.

“You just have to catch it.” Basil told him.

Touya immediately caught on. He took a bite of the eclair, then shoved the pastry into his shirt by going through the hole at his neck. He clapped his hands together and held them over the hole. “Just count to three.”

The blond nodded. “One, two, three,” and on the silent count of four, a blast of unstable wind carried the rope high, high, high above him. And then it fell flat.

It caused Touya to burst out laughing. “Maybe,” he heaved, “you should put a weight on it.”

Basil pursed his lips as he pulled the rope back to himself. “A weight, a weight.” He was sure nothing he had was heavy enough to sustain it, and still be light enough to go up. “We'll just have to try again.”

“Rememeber, aim for my idiot face.”

“That won't be difficult.”