“I’ll distract those things,” said Marina. “You two get out of here.” She handed Maite a small object. “Meet me here.”
“Non?” asked Maite, looking at the object in her hand. It looked like one of those die Dungeons and Dragons players used, except there were no markings on the faces. “How do we use this…?” she began, but Marina was already gone, rushing through the crowd, knocking people over as she dashed to the other side of the hall. The spheres, red lights flashing and reflecting against the ceiling and walls, gave chase.
“Orain!” hissed Kepa. “Now! Goazen!”
Kepa grabbed Maite’s hand and pulled her through the door and into the hall. Scanning the room, he noticed a large entryway that seemed to lead to a tunnel. People were flowing in and out of the opening. Marina had gone in the opposite direction, drawing the spheres away.
“This way!” he said, tugging on Matie’s arm. “It must be the exit.”
They weaved their way through the crowd, deliberately trying not to bump into too many people to avoid a scene and draw the attention of the spheres. They heard a crash behind them. Turning, they saw Marina at the far end of the hall, standing on a table or something, smashing one of the floating monitors. The spheres were converging on her.
Kepa stopped. “We have to help her!”
“Ez!” barked Maite. “Marina will be fine. Her vessel…” Maite shrugged. “She knows what she is doing.”
The crowd had begun drifting toward the end of the hall where Marina was making a scene. Kepa and Maite continued to make their way upstream, toward the exit. Reaching the large circular opening, they stepped on a sparkling white conveyor belt that took them out of the hall.
“Are you sure she’ll be ok?” asked Kepa.
Maite nodded as she looked at the small dodecahedron in her hand. “We just need to figure out where we are supposed to go.”
The conveyor belt took them through a glass tunnel through which they could see outside. The strange buildings, with their organic shapes that seemed to meld with trees and vines, towered over them. The tunnel above them ended as the conveyor belt dumped them onto a small plaza. The ground seemed to be made of solid stone rather than the bricks or concrete they were used to from their time. People rushed around them, moving in all directions. Kepa watched as one particularly large man approached what looked like to him a large, human-sized egg. The man simply walked through the shell and moments later the egg shot into the sky, carrying the man with it. Another egg seemed to form out of nothing to take its place.
Kepa shook his head. “Can we find somewhere to sit down a moment?”
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