„Flash grenade! Duck!” exclaimed Vellantina, wanting to take out her gun but changing her mind because shooting while blinded was not the best idea.

„I’m blind, I’m blind!” cried Ulius with his most desperate and penetrating voice.

Apart from them, no one else talked. Estella was crying, but no one could hear her as there were noises, broken glass, metal hitting metal, things falling, and thumps. It was like an army assaulted them all at once.

Finally, the noise subsided.

„Everyone all right?” asked Vellantina. „Say your name and status as I call you. Estella.”

„He... he... here. I’m....mm...a...all ri...right..”she sobbed.

„Ulius”

„I’m blind...” he wailed, sobbing too.

„No, you are not,” said Frey’r, lighting a pocket electric torch he founded in the boy’s backpack. „We’re all fine, Vella, but what happened, and where are we?”

Around them, gone were the bookshelves; they had been replaced by other shelves, filled with jars of pickles and all sorts of stored food. The air smelled mildly moldy. It looked like they were in an underground cellar.

„Someone threw a flash grenade, that’s sure,” hypothesized Vella. „How did they move us? That is the question. Did they perform some sleeping magic of sorts? To remove the scroll and kidnap us?”

„Nonsense!” exclaimed Sirinn. „I have the scroll in my hands, as you can see. And I’ve hit the desk with my knee when the light startled me, I still feel the pain. That light was just seconds ago.”

"Please, please, Providence, let it not be spiders around! I'll die it if there are spiders!" panicked Estella.

„It was a tunnel...” sighed Ulius. „A wormhole, to be precise. An incompetently made one, our father would say, thus the light. Someone kidnapped us indeed...”

„And left the door open?” asked Frey’r, who had tried the cellar door handle. The door opened in a tunnel. “With nobody around to subdue us?”

They started to talk at the same time, arguing, when Estella shouted.

„Shut up! Shut up!”

She was trembling and sobbing, but she managed to say what she had to say. They were in a dark cellar, and she told them dark words.

„At that moment, when Sirinn told us about the blinky light, I’ve felt a presence... Someone was looking at us through that thing. A mage, a wizard... mighty...”

„How powerful, Estella?” asked Vellantina. „Should we be worried? And why he brought us in a cellar instead of some dungeon or wherever evil wizards dwell?”

„Very powerful, Vella. Our connection was held just for a second, but it was Nemesis level powerful. Like in the horror magic novels. And I think he did try to get us to his lair, but I’ve resisted; I fought back, trying to stop the tunnel. I didn’t manage, but probably it was diverted somewhere else. Not far, though, I can still feel him, though faintly. We should seek help immediately. Ple-ease - her teeth were shaking - let's get help, let's call dad. Ulius, where’s the communicator?”

„Why are you asking me? You told me not to touch it, to not break it. Vella’s supposed to be in charge of communications, no?”

„Me?” Vella widened her eyes. „Not at all, I’m your guard, and that’s it. Don’t you all have a valet? Sirinn, where’s the communicator?”

The said Sirinn had just opened a pickle jar and was munching on some gherkins.

„Shnever shaw. Jhe shcat musht hath ate itf...” was the only thing he managed to say.

„Oh, Providence,” sighed Estella, shivering like she had a bad fever. „We’ve forgotten it... I..i...if only all this had happened in Ohst, where I have my full po...powers. Never... mind, we have to go... or we’ll be trapped...”

"We're like mice in a trap here indeed," recognized Vellantina. "Let's go."

All their belongings were present. The metal sheet was now opaque and inert, so Sirinn tugged it deep into Ulius rucksack. With Vellantina in front and Frey’r in the back, they proceeded on the tunnel. It went on for a hundred yards, with similar pantries all the way along, to the left and the right. Finally, a door, a wooden, sturdy door, underneath, a small space one inch high, light entered through it, but it was interrupted by two shadows. Feet.

„There...is a guard... on the outside,” whispered Estella feverishly, making them a sign to be quiet. "He must be... attracted inside... and knocked out. Ulius... can you..make some little chirping noises? We’ll hug the walls... hiding behind the door.”

„That’s ridiculous!” derided her Vellantina. „Cover your ears.”

Before anyone managed to say something, she pulled her revolver and discharged three shots into the door. A loud thump told them she had not missed. They were near deaf, despite that they did cover their ears in the last second.

„Why isn't it opening?” she asked, trying to push, then pull the door.

„It’s locked,” stated Ulius.

“Well, aren’t you the locksmith wizard? Open it!”

“It has a bar on the outside!” sighed Estella. “He cannot do bars, only mechanisms. That’s exactly what I wanted to avoid, the guard leaving and letting us closed here... and here we are, trapped anyway...”

A small noise of something big dragged on earth, the guard, then a knock on the door and a voice speaking.

„Promise you’ll not shoot, and I’ll open the door.”

They looked at each other with big eyes.

„I promise,” Vellantina shouted.

„Moment, this bar is too heavy!”

Grunting noises, the bar doing a loud clinck when hitting the soil, and the door opened.