Her words fell on apathetic solitude; she was acting to viewless space.

She rushed to the opening, dashed the hanging bark aside and leaped to the ground.
She ran forward wildly a few steps, and stopped.
"Hallo!" she cried.

"Look, 'tis I, Teresa!" The profound silence remained unbroken.

Her shrillest tones were lost in an echoless space, even as the smoke of her fire had faded into pure ether.

She stretched out her clenched fists as if to defy the pillared austerities of the vaults around her.
"Come and take me if you dare!" The challenge was unheeded.