At La Casilla’s gathering, Santángel senses the arrival of Antonio Pérez and watches as Pérez pointedly ignores Víctor de Paredes, a slight Santángel finds both pleasing and dangerous. Pérez commands the room with a patriotic speech promising miracles for Spain’s holy cause, and Santángel quietly warns Luzia that invoking Don Juan is risky—Pérez lost favor after Don Juan’s failures and the murder of his secretary.

As the first performance begins, Gracia de Valera steps onto the stage in an extravagant gown and reveals a familiar setup: a tower of Luzia’s glass goblets. Santángel realizes Gracia has chosen to go first to steal Luzia’s signature miracle. Gracia coyly tips the goblets to shatter them, then produces a “vision” with heavenly choir sounds and clouds of mist, after which the goblets appear restored—an impressive illusion that wins the room.

Santángel recognizes the act as stagecraft rather than true power, but he fears the damage is done: if Luzia repeats the trick, she will be mocked and Víctor will turn on her. The crowd applauds Gracia, and her patron Don Eduardo Barril greets her as she returns to the audience.

When Luzia takes the stage as La Hermanita, she appears tense and angry, then deliberately smashes the goblets again, unsettling the audience and drawing a scowl from Pérez. Instead of restoring the glasses, Luzia stomps and unleashes a high, eerie wail that lifts the shards into the air, forming a hovering, glittering cloud over the ballroom.

Luzia reshapes the floating glass into a constellation above Pérez’s head: the Pleiades, the astrological sign tied to Pérez’s birth and ambitions. The crowd erupts, and Pérez fixes his bright attention on Luzia, while Santángel realizes she has somehow read Pérez’s private Latin letter. Víctor exults at the triumph, but Santángel forces a smile, newly worried about what will follow—and whether Luzia’s lies will survive the night.