I treaded lightly towards the door. When I turned the knob and pushed it open, I shook my head in disbelief.

I turned around and waved my hands to get Ada’s attention. “Um, this is a closet.”

“What?”

“It’s… a closet?”

“Ya gotta be joking. You don’t know how to open that, but you’re the captain?”

“Look, I’ve literally been Captain for just about a few hours.”

“I don’t need no sass, honey. Just duck under the clothes and crawl through the bottom.”

Whatever. I turned back to the closet and ducked under the clothes. It looked like I’d hit a wall, but when I continued to crawl through, there was nothing behind the clothes. It was wide open.

After I pulled my body completely through, I got back up to my feet. What greeted me were some stairs in a very terribly lit space. It went down pretty far because the only light I could see from up here was just a small dot in the distance. Well, no point in wasting time here. I carefully headed down the stairs.

As I got closer and closer to the light, I started hearing voices. At first I thought it was just my imagination, but the voices grew louder. I could hear the echoes bouncing off the stairway walls. It was faint, but there was definitely someone down there. I hastened my pace down.

I could slowly make out words from the voices. Something about crystals and money. And then I heard a yelp and a scream. Mark?

As I got to the bottom of the stairs, it opened up to a series of tunnels. It reminded me of an underground sewer system without the dirty water. It was also surprisingly well-lit down here.

The tunnels separated into three different routes—left, right, and forward. I disregarded both the left and the right; there was a levitator right up front where two figures were blocking the pathway.

I couldn’t exactly see their faces, but I really wanted them to move out of the way. I needed to examine that levitator. It could be a way down to Dans. I walked a little closer to see what kind of situation this was.

One of the figures was significantly larger than the other. He was a large man. He looked kind of like a blacksmith with a beer belly—gigantic arms with a big stomach. I had to admit, he could probably tap me to death with those arms. He also had one of those armored wetsuits the guards were wearing when we had gone up to see the Emperor.

The larger man stood above the other figure who was on the ground, pushed up against the wall. I tried to focus on their faces. The larger one was slightly facing away from me, so I couldn’t get a clear view, but the one on the floor… Mark? It was a little hard to tell since literally every sakonian wore the same old wetsuit, but the guy on the floor really looked like Mark.

The larger man pointed some sort of long stick at the guy on the ground; I couldn’t recognize what that stick was. It was much smaller than a trident, but I thought I saw sparks flying from the end. A small suitcase was also sprawled across the floor.

A rough, deep sandpaper voice came out of the blacksmith-like man. “I don’t have all day, Marky, my boy. Just come back to us! Come on! You don’t wanna die, do you?”

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Marky? That was too close to be a coincidence. The figure on the floor had to be Mark.

I quietly walked towards the two. The large man’s stick crackled. From the sound and the sparks, it sounded like that stick was some sort of taser.

I had to save Mark. There would be no point in saving Dans if I lost Mark in the process, especially if we haven’t even gotten anywhere.

I planned to take the taser stick from the man’s hands. Then I could try and zap him before he noticed. There was no other way I could defeat a giant like that.

The guy who was most likely Mark let out a weak croak. “I left this place before. I’ll do it again. Just… just let me go, Jacob.”

“I was like a father to you! I gave you a place to live, I gave you food! I saved you! And what do you do? Steal? All of my crystals?! I’m trying to be lenient here, boy. Come back and I’ll forget the past. You can work off that debt.”

“They were my parents, Jacob!”

“Now that’s all in the past, boy. I raised you, didn’t I? I could’ve killed you too!”

“You’re not my father.”

The man with the rough voice seemed to let out a short grunt. “This here?” He pointed at the suitcase. “These little crystals ain’t gunna cut it. Why’d you even come back, huh?”

The closer I got, the more I was convinced it was Mark. His face looked absolutely crushed as if he was beaten multiple times in the eyes and nose. The suitcase was open, and I could see all the soul crystals he had packed before he left.

I was about ten feet away from the large man. It didn’t seem like he noticed me, so I got to my knees and continued forth.

Mark, however, did notice me. His eyes widened a little, but for the most part, he kept still. He coolly replied to Jacob, “I made a promise… to my Captain.”

I was so close that I could touch the stick. Acting quickly, I speedily snatched it away from the large man’s hands. He wasn’t gripping the stick tightly, so it slid right out.

Surprised, the man turned around. But before he could see me, Mark let out a loud groan and got up to his feet. The man tried to turn back, but Mark was faster. With his hands still tied, he rammed into the large man and sent him flying. That was an impressive amount of strength coming from a mortician.

I quickly moved away before both of them fell to the ground with the thud. Then everything went silent.

I looked over at Mark. He was on top of the man, breathing heavily. The large man’s eyes were open, but they weren’t blinking. I saw a small splotch of red oozing out from beneath his head like viscous honey. It seemed like he hit the ground hard during the fall.

I let go of the taser stick and quickly got working on Mark’s tied hands.

“Thank you, Mel.”

“Man.” I sighed. “6pm? Really?”

After a few seconds, I finally finished untying Mark. He got up to his feet and stretched his arms. “Sorry, Mel.” He smiled. “I guess I’m really just more used to dealing with dead things.” He went over to the suitcase and took out a few soul crystals. “At least we didn’t lose much.”

“Yeah, you can say that after you look at your face.”

He chuckled. “It does sting a little.”

I glanced over at the man’s limp body. He looked pretty damn dead to me. “So… is it okay to leave him here? Don’t you guys know each other?”

Following my gaze, Mark also peered down at the body. He seemed to go quiet for a moment, but then he turned back to me. “He’s a nobody. Better dead than alive. Now let’s go. The levitator’s not guarded anymore.”

“I thought you were supposed to deal with black market morticians, not that guy.”

“Well,” Mark replied. “It was just a bit of bad luck. That’s all.”

“Really?”

“Yes, I didn’t think Jacob was still down here guarding this entrance. It’s been decades since… Nevermind. Let’s go.”

“Huh, okay.”

Mark rummaged through Jacob’s suit and pulled out what looked like a keycard. He walked up to the levitator and held the card up to one of the electronic panels on the side. The door to the levitator slid open. He picked up the taser stick I dropped earlier and walked inside the levitator. He glanced over at me. “Coming?”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m coming.” I took one more glimpse at the man before I entered the levitator. There was no more going back now.