Jolted awake, a shock wave threw me out of bed. I was robbed of my hearing and my ears rang in protest. My head bounced off the ground, barely hanging onto consciousness. I opened my eyes, but everything was blurry. After an excruciating second of my eyes refusing to work, I was able see a white robed man stride into what was left of our main room. I glanced around the room to seeing the orphans sprawled on the ground holding their heads. It took my brain a moment to process what was happening.

Steel armored men, with the emperor’s insignia, passed by the man in white robes, who motioned towards the kids. The men continued forward and grabbed the orphans.

Seeing them take the kids away, I panicked. I urged my body to get up, to do something, to do anything other then lay motionlessly on the floor. All I managed to do was grunt in pain and shift my body slightly. The white robed man noticed my feeble attempts to get up and looked right at me before smiling. He began to make his way over to me, through the rubble. I could only watch him come closer, as the sphere continued to affect me, my body rigid like it was encased in stone. I lay there,  silently praying for help.

Hope blossomed as I saw Herald slip from one of the armored men's grasp. Seeing my predicament, he broke free to help. He grabbed a piece of wood as he sprinted towards me.

Herald rushed up from behind the white robed man and raised the makeshift club above his head, poised to strike.

Right before Herald came within reach, the white robed man turned towards him. His hand lit up and he thrust it towards Herald. I saw the air ripple before a force hit Herald in the chest, sending him flying across the room. I couldn't even scream out, before Herald hit the wall across the room.

He crumbled to the floor, with his neck bent at an unnatural angle and blood seeping out of his mouth. In that moment, everything felt like it was in slow motion as his body fell to the floor, unmoving.

I just lay there, staring at my best friend, unable to do anything. I didn't even notice his killer approaching me. Even as the white robed man reached out, touching my head with his glowing hand, I couldn’t react, my mind was in shock from what had just occurred. I could do nothing but stare at my dead friend’s eyes as my vision slid to black.

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I came to as water dripped onto my forehead. I opened my eyes and shifted my head to avoid the incoming droplets. Darkness surrounded me, with only a single torch lazily shining through the small slots in the bars, adorning the top-center of the door before me, allowing me to see my surroundings. I tried to move and heard clanking. I reached down and felt cold metal shackles digging into my ankles.

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At first I was confused, but then the memories came flooding back. The strange sphere, the white robed man, and finally, Herald’s death.

It took a moment to process everything, and in the end all I could focus on was the image of the white robed man thrusting his hand towards Herald. I sat in the cell, going through the day’s events over and over again. I was able to move now but it was useless, I was locked in a cell with nowhere to go.

The cell was empty, besides a small latrine-hole that reeked. I curled up in the corner of the room, as far away from the hole as possible. I couldn’t believe that Herald was gone. I bit my lip and wept silently. I thought back to some of the happier times when we were together but the memories only made the grief sink deeper. Why couldn’t it have been me? He was going to use that money to make something of himself. Why didn't the white robed man kill me instead? Why did he do any of this? The question made me grip my hands tightly, until my fingernails dug red lines into them. I stopped weeping and lashed out at the wall next to me. I continued mindlessly punching the wall, as blood dripped down from my knuckles and my hands became numb. Each hit became weaker until I collapsed back onto the ground. I tried to clear my mind as I lay there, but I couldn’t stop seeing the image of Herald dying. I was occasionally interrupted from my stupor by the slot in the door opening up, food and bottled water being thrown out at me through that slit .

At first, I yelled and tried to get the guards to talk with me but they were silent. I then began to plead and bargain with them,  offering anything just to hear another voice. Eventually, bitterness completely took over and I just cursed at the men. I yelled out awful insults and charged at the door until the chains jerked me back, just to see if I could get a reaction from them, but they just delivered the food and water silently and moved on.

After a few days, I didn't have any physical or emotional energy left and just sat waiting for when my food and water would come. Curiosity began to set in. Why was all of this happening? What did I do to deserve this? It was driving me crazy. My whole life, my whole everything,was gone and I didn't even know why.

I spent what could have been days or weeks, as time wasn’t marked, in complete isolation.  One night, while I was sleeping, the guards came in and grabbed me. They unlocked my ankle cuffs and dragged me from my cell. I fought half-heartedly, which earned me a punch to the stomach. I struggled to breathe and just dangled between them as they dragged me away.

They carried me through a maze of corridors and into a large circular room. Inside of it was a slanted stone table, that they laid me down on. They restrained my wrists and ankles with rough leather strips to the stone slab and walked out. I looked around the room to try and figure out why they had brought me here. Directly across me was another contraption. Obscure characters were engraved into the ground. To my right was a table covered with a cloth. I began to panic as I noticed the large red spots that stained the cloth, where different shapes protruded.

I heard the door open and my heart began to race. I turned my head to look at the door and saw the white robed man walk through. I pulled at my restraints, cursing vehemently at him.

He examined me, before walking closer, with a sinister smile on his face.

“Oh, I am going to enjoy this.”