Takana gave Sous a white lab coat as they entered into the factory along with a helmet. They walked through the doors after scanning their ids. The first thing Takana did was introduce Sous to the front end workers of the factory who were elves.
He showed her the offices, the loading docks where they just came from, the locker room for the employees, and the lunch room.
They took an elevator that would lead them to the first floor that wasn't the loading docks but the first stop for the COO every morning.
Sous watched the elevator light go from one button to another. The smell of flesh and iron filling her nostrils. She scratched her nose, and even attempted to plug her nostrils.
Takana laughed. "Yeah, you'll get use to it after some years."
Sous just looked at him and stepped out of the elevator. Sous mouth dropped all the way open, not expecting the vision that reached her eyes.
She was led onto metal railings and she looked over the edge, she saw hundreds of unicorns packed into small stalls, barely any room to move. They were covered in yellow and brown coloring due to having to sleep and sit in their own filth.
Sous noticed their bodies were fat, fatter than normal but certainly not in a cute way. Sous gulped, feeling her lips dry. She brought her fingers to her lips, tempted to start picking them, a sign of her anxiety.
She stepped away from the railing. "Do they have to be confined like that?"
"Its cheaper."
"Cheaper isn't always best," Sous said. "And why are they so fat?"
Takana and Sous continued to walk down the railings, all the while Sous did her best to not want to see the unicorns in their horrid conditions.
"Alchemy is probably what we specialize in after technology. We pump them with hormones to make their blood more tender and sweeter."
They walked to a room with large machinery, the sound so loud, conversation was impossible to have when in the room.
Takana gestured for Sous to look over the rails and when she did, she saw the unicorns being lined up and pushed into a machine where they were slaughtered. Completely slaughtered.
Sous felt herself being sick. She saw the blood and meat shoot threw a shoot on the other side of the machine into a large barrel.
She covered her mouth, feeling herself about to gag. She looked at Takana and he was just standing there, smiling at her.
"You get used to it," he said once more.
He guided Sous to another room. This room so had machinery but instead of elves working the machines, it was green skinned goblins.
They were rags, some of them even wore handbands. The room was split into sections. In one section was a large barrel where goblins was stirring the blood. In another area, the goblins were organizing the organs that came out from the unicorns unscathed.
Her knees were about to buckle with the railings the only thing keeping her up. "Why are they working? Don't they know what's to come of them?" She asked.
Takana shook his head. "They haven't the slightest clue. We go to them advertising work and jobs. We separate them in groups and we slowly begin to slaughter them. We then go out and recruit all over again."
Takana took Sous back to the elevator. They went up to the next floor. The dungeons.
Sous walked on the gobble floor. Her eyes peered into the jail cells of the goblins. They were packed in tight spaces similar to the unicorns. About two dozen per cell from the looks of it.
They walked down the entire floor until they got to the other elevator. They went to the next floor where Sous saw the goblins walking in lines into a machine.
By this time, they knew what was happening but hadn't any way to escape. They were dead either way because up on the railings were elves with bows and arrows. Even a few elves with guns. It was either to get shot on spot or to walk into a machine that would tear you mercilessly.
"Why are they choosing to go in?"
"Because it gives them time to hope that something will happen to prevent their death even until the very end. Also," he said. "They're not the smartest."
Takana escorted Sous to the end of the machine where Sous could see the goblins squished so their blood was squeezed from them.
Sous was too slow to cover her mouth. Her vomit came up and she hurled over the edge of the railing. The vomit going into the large blood filled barrels.
She stepped away from the railing, her back slamming into the wall. She wiped her mouth and the tears that formed due hacking up her breakfast.
Takana placed a hand on Sous's shoulder. "How about a break?"
Sitting outside was a stark contrast to what it was like inside. Outside, it was colorful, riddled with flowers, insects, and animals that ran freely through the terrain.
Inside, the smell was embedded into one's memory. The walls were painted red and black from fresh blood to dried blood. The animals were depressed and sad and then there was a magae species that was treated no different than the animals.
"This seems so cruel."
Takana heard her whisper and gave a small smile. "You make it seem as if this is something we pride ourselves in doing." Sous looked at him. "We're a country that just can't get a break. We had a witch that plagued us with demons and we're plagued with wolves using us for their own gain. Do you know our history?" Sous just stared at him. "There was a time when this island was completely vacant." Takana turned his head up to the sky. He stood up and held his hand out to Sous.
Sous took it and stood up.
"I'm sorry. This was a lot to see. I guess I gotten immune to it. Guess we all have."
Sous stood in her bedroom in her pajamas. She had walked to the castle from the facility by herself since Alana had royal duties to attend to that evening.
Alana walked down the hall and knocked on Sous' guest room door. She walked in when Sous opened the door. The elf princess walked to the edge of the bed, sitting on it.
"How was your first day?"
The room was completely dark besides for the natural light that came from the moon. The window was open with the curtains drawn opened.
"What is the history of this country?" She asked the princess.
Alana's face dropped, not expecting that question. The history of this island was just filled with so much darkness.
She walked to Sous and sat on the bed with her. "I don't really like talking about our history," she admitted.
"Apex?"
Alana remained quiet for a while, like she was thinking of her next words. "I hate that pack." She whispered.
Sous' eyes got wide, the first time she ever heard the princess say something so blunt and with so much disdain.
"That pack is going to ruin us all." Alana said.
Sous reached over and gave Alana a hug. It was unexpected for the elf but the other magae felt it was best. That was what they both needed that day: a hug.