Planet
Malok
The prison world of the Arazian Empire: a single building in the middle of a salt desert, from which no one has ever returned under their own power.
Malok belongs to the Arazian Empire, and the Empire has built only one thing there: a prison. It stands in the middle of a white salt desert that circles the planet. There is no city, no port, no road.
The house of salt
The Arazians call it the house of salt. It is a low block, with no visible window, set upon the white like a stone on a tablecloth. Ordinary criminals are not sent there: Malok receives those whose names the Empire would rather have forgotten — high-ranking traitors, fallen members of the great houses, prisoners whose trial never took place.
The desert that guards
The prison has almost no guards, and that is deliberate: the true keeper is the desert. The salt of Malok is flat, blinding and utterly sterile for thousands of kilometres. There is nothing to drink, nothing to eat, no shelter from the day. Three escapes have made it past the walls. None reached the horizon.