De Lancre stood at the end of the hall. His fingers started crackling with small bolts of lightning that illuminated his face from below, giving him an eerie glow. 

“Oh sh!t!” said Kepa. “I’ve seen this movie…”

Lightning flew from De Lancre’s fingertips and across the walls and ceiling as it marched down the hallway to where Kepa and Latxe stood.

“What is that?” Latxe barely whispered, paralyzed as she watched the lightning dance in front of her.

“Magic!” bellowed Kepa as he pulled Latxe and ducked into a side room. He grabbed her shoulders, looking into her eyes. “That was magic. He’s a powerful… magic user. That sounds so lame when I say it outloud…” he mumbled to himself. Shaking his head, he continued. “He’s going to fry us if we don’t find a way out of here!”

Latxe nodded numbly, but then swiped furiously across her tablet as light flashed through the open doorway with increasing frequency and brightness. Suddenly, the door disappeared and a new staircase appeared in the room before them, vanishing into the ceiling. 

“Goazen!” barked Latxe as she rushed up the stairs, Kepa on her heels.

As soon as they got to the next floor, Latxe swiped at her tablet and the opening faded as if it were never there. They found themselves in the dining area of de Lancre’s suite. Kepa quickly looked around, seeing the balcony that overlooked the city on one side and several closed doors on the other.

“Maite!” he yelled.

“Hemen!” he heard in reply from behind one of the closed doors.

He rushed to the door, fumbling for some kind of door knob or control panel that would let him open it, but finding nothing. He pounded on the door in frustration. “Maite!” he bellowed again.

Latxe nudged him gently aside as she again focused on her tablet. The door disappeared.

Maite burst from the room and threw her arms around Kepa. “I knew you’d find me!”

“I would never leave you!” exclaimed Kepa. After a moment, he broke free. “I couldn’t have done it without Latxe here.”

Latxe smiled at Maite, and then quickly looked away, pretending to focus on her tablet. 

“We won’t have much time…” she began when the doors at the end of the dining room burst off of their frame and flew across the room.

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