As we arrived on the fourth floor, the levitator door slid open to an enormous warehouse-sized area. But that wasn’t the only surprise. There were dragons! Even Mark stopped to stare. The dragons weren’t as large as Merlovak or Yntri, but they were definitely dragons. They were encased inside a clear cylinder full of green liquid.

Once the surprise settled in, I noticed a few sakonians who weren’t in guard suits strolling through the warehouse above us. There was a separate pathway that seemed to bridge over the entire warehouse. They wore mostly gold and the occasional silver—suits that I’ve only ever seen at the city center. I also noticed a few children within the groups too. They were gawking at the dragons in awe. It reminded me of a tourist site. Before I realized, a few guards walked up to us.

One of the guards stopped in front of me. “Who’s this? He’s not wearing a uniform. You’re not—”

“I’ve got it under control,” Mark cut in.

The guard looked towards Mark. “What do you—Wait, what happened to your face?”

“The kid put up a fight.” He grabbed my arm and pulled me past the rest of the guards. “I’m just taking him to Sector 4-F.”

“The execution sector?” another guard called out. “You’re telling me this scrawny kid committed such a crime?”

Ouch. Scrawny? That hurts more than being called a kid.

Mark turned around and looked the guard in the eyes. “He committed minor arson.”

The guards all gasped in horror. The first guard spoke again. “Take him away! That kind of behavior is unforgivable.”

Mark nodded as we walked away, but I felt like my reputation took a big hit. I whispered to Mark, “is arson really that bad?”

“Yes. Very.”

“Why?”

“Mel, we need moisture in our skin to live. Even a small flame is dangerous to us. That’s why any use of fire is prohibited and is considered a highly criminal activity.”

“Wait, so how do you guys like… cook? Or like, you know, make weapons? Isn’t fire necessary?”

“That’s what soul crystals are for.”

“Soul crystals?” Soul crystals can replace fire? “How?”

“I don’t know. I’m just a mortician. Didn’t Captain tell you what they did?”

“I think she told me everything except for that…”

“Well, they can be used to cook food.”

“What? Just like that? No explanations or anything?”

“Captain knows more about that stuff.”

“But don’t you make them? You’re the mortician, right?”

Mark groaned. “Yes, I make them. But that doesn’t mean I’m supposed to know how they work. Now do you have any more questions you want to ask before the captain gets executed?”

Right. Almost forgot. “Okay… So, do you know where we’re going?”

“No.”

“Shouldn’t you have asked the guards then?”

“Mel, can you please stop with the questions just for a few minutes?”

“Well, we gotta know where we have to go, right?” I was a little annoyed. Mark didn’t sound like his usual self. “Why are you so on edge?”

“Mel, this isn’t a vacation. Take things a little more seriously, will you?”

“Yeah… I mean, I get that. I just—”

“Just keep going. We don’t want any suspicion.”

We walked through more containers full of sleeping dragons. The image reminded me of the crematorium from the sakoar. It's green though. I could've sworn it was blue before.

“Mark,” I whispered. “What are these dragons for?”

“I don’t know.”

I thought back to the crematorium again. The image of the bodies dissolving in the liquid continued to fill my mind. But these dragons weren’t dissolving. At least they didn’t seem like they were.

I whispered again. “Are they dead?”

“I don’t know! Okay?”

Sheesh. Well, guess this really isn’t the time to be asking questions. I shut my mouth for now.

Eventually we got to the end of the warehouse where a solid iron door stood in our way. On the door, it read, Sector 4-E. Mark opened without hesitation. He had to use both hands to open the door because of how heavy it was. When he walked through, I quickly followed behind.

It was dark. As the door closed behind us, we lost what little light we had from the warehouse. Then dim, red lights lit up above us. It wasn’t enough to light the entire place up.

I couldn’t see anything except a lot of glowing blue circles floating in the air. Above the glowing circles, there were pairs of glowing yellow dots that seemed to stare us down in the darkness. They reminded me of bat eyes; it was pretty damn creepy. I looked over at where I thought Mark was.

“Mark, you there?”

“Of course I’m here.” The voice sounded from the opposite direction.

I turned my head to face the voice. “We need some light here.”

“I know. I’m trying to find a light switch,” he replied. “Feel the wall for a switch, Mel.”

“Alrighty.” I held my arms out and felt around the wall where I thought the door should have been. I was hoping that there was a switch nearby, but all I felt was the cold, metal wall. I wiped my hands across to see if my fingers bumped into anything, but it was as flat as a pancake. “Mark, I can’t find anything—”

Before I could finish, I heard a small click and the room lit up brightly. My eyes burned from the sudden light. “Damn it, Mark. You should’ve told me.”

There was no answer.

“Mark?” I panicked. Did something happen? I quickly rubbed my eyes to get used to the light. After a while, I finally saw Mark next to the door we had entered through. I felt relieved. “Mark,” I called out.

But Mark didn’t answer. He grimaced. Is he looking at me? No. His eyes weren’t focused on me. They were rapidly scanning what was behind me.

Puzzled, I looked to where Mark was so focused on. And then I saw it too.

We were in another hallway. But instead of the usual doors, I was greeted with rows upon rows of what looked like transparent prison cells. Inside every cell, there was a sakonian lying on the ground, eyes weakly fluttering open to glance at the light that had just turned on.

Most had sunken cheeks and almost fully visible rib cages. They all looked extremely thin and fragile. Like starved animals. Their eyes were also a sickly yellow.

Transparent collars full of the same blue liquid I've seen before were connected to the cell ceilings. It was looking like the crematorium all over again except this time, the sakonians were still alive and kicking. Well, “kicking” wasn’t the term I’d use.

The sight was pretty terrifying even for me. I thought I could handle gruesomeness especially after that burn incident, but seeing people suffering up close was a completely different experience.

They were still alive. That was the biggest difference. They weren’t just some dead corpse without a conscience.

I scanned the cells around me. Some of them stirred at our movements. Their eyes met with mine. I couldn’t help but look away.

Mark fell to his hands and knees. He started to breathe heavily. He started to repeat “it’s okay” to himself as he closed his eyes. Eventually, his breathing slowed.

“You okay?” I asked.

“I-I’m fine. Just reminded me of something. I… I should’ve expected this.”

“This reminded you of something? What in the world did you go through?”

Mark sighed. He balanced himself off the wall. “My parents… They were executed here.”

“Oh…” Is this an execution? Like what Dans is going through?

“They were executed just like this… I’m sad to see that they haven’t changed their ways.” He sighed. He looked me in the eyes. “Do you know why I despise the Emperor?”

“Uh, well… By the looks of it, he killed your family?”

“It’s because he executes and kills like this… What do you think is the difference between an Emperor and a murderer?”

“Um—”

“It’s the fact that the Emperor can kill with cruelty without being considered a criminal. He has his own law behind his back.”

“So… I’m not quite getting how they’re being executed…”

“Right. You don’t know.” He pointed at one of their glowing, blue collars. “You’ve seen the crematorium. It’s the same thing.”

Crematorium? “What do you mean it’s the same thing?” I stared at their collars. The liquid inside swished back and forth like an ocean wave. The blue liquid? The realization started to settle in. “Wait, is that blue liquid—”

“They’re creating soul crystals.”

“Wait, while they’re still alive?”

“That’s the point. This is an execution.” He scoffed. “And this is what the Emperor believes is a worthy punishment for criminals. All these guards and the Emperor… They’ve been desensitized. They don’t even know the value of life anymore.”

“So… they’re essentially killing these people slowly by draining them or something?”

“Something like that. It takes about a week to completely execute somebody, so you’d think you’d have enough time to save them if they were wrongfully convicted. But every day that passes, you can see it in their eyes. They lose something. Every minute, every second that they’re strapped into that thing”—Mark pointed at their collars—“they lose a part of themselves. They aren’t the same anymore. Their bodies weaken too. But I always noticed the eyes growing duller and duller each time I went to visit my parents. And I couldn’t do anything except watch…”

“Oh, I uh…”

“It’s fine, Mel.” Mark gave me a weak smile. “I just wanted to get something off my chest.”

I took a moment to calm down. “Um, thanks for telling me.”

“But”—Mark got back up—“we came here for Dans.” He quickened his pace past the rows of cells.

I glanced over at the numerous prisoners locked in their cells. “Did they deserve it?”

Without stopping he answered back. “I don’t know. I don’t think anyone deserves that kind of death. Maybe something a little less brutal…”

While we swiftly moved past the prisoners, I took quick glances at each one, trying to see if any of them were Dans. Mark did the same. After a few minutes, we got to the end of the hallway. It seemed like Dans wasn’t here.

In front of us, there were two sets of stairs; one went up and the other went down. I walked over to a sign. The only thing the sign said was Security with arrows pointing up.

Security room it is. I faced Mark. “Shall we?” I pointed up the stairs.

He replied with a stern look, “Let’s go.”