I've never cried so much in my life, swallowing my screams I wallow on the hard floor knowing it wouldn’t change what had happened. After what felt like hours or days they had dumped me with the rest of the prisoners. I was too tired to move so I just lay there, I think Leo said something to me but everything just sounded hollow for some reason. They had left us in a small cell room at the end of one of the corridors, no light just other slaves and darkness. 

"Shit, man you ok? That looks like it hurts." Leo grimaces as he looks at the many lashes that covered my body. "Why the fuck are they doing this to us?" 

The sick bastard had glided the knife all along my torso, making sure to stab in places that wouldn't kill me of course. He wanted to cause as much pain as possible, he told me himself. "I don't know man," I whisper struggling to wipe the tears from my face. "Are you alright?"  

Sighing Leo sits next me staring into the darkness of the room, "Should you really be worrying about me? Look at yourself man. "Struggling I prop myself along the wall next to him. "You were gone for hours what did they do to you?" 

Laughing lightly, I feel the water well up in my eyes, "Just a beating same as you, he wanted to know where we came from. When I told him it just seemed to piss him off."  

"Well, what did you tell them? Why did they imprison us we haven't done anything we're innocent." Leo retorts, his voice cracking.  

"It doesn't matter if you're innocent, you’re a slave now. Resist and they'll beat you, talk back and they'll beat you. If you had a life before coming here it would be best if you forget about it." A high-pitched voice mutters, looking I could see she was a woman but the room was too dark to make out any of her features the shadow stayed on the floor, clutching her knees tightly and staring off into space.  

"And what would you know?" I mutter. "Have you even tried to escape?" I can hear the shuffling in the dark as the shadow crawls towards us before sitting next to Leo. "No, but anyone who has tried was either tortured or killed. The skorpioner have no other entertainment than torturing slaves. Although it's pretty rare for them to kill one. You can't sell a dead slave after all." 

"What are the skorpioner?" Leo whispers, scooting closer to not attract the other slaves. "What are the skorpioner? You must be from the Capital." She responds in an amused tone. "skorpioner are part scorpion part man, they only live in Layfront. They don't mix too well with full-blooded humans anymore, not since the disappearance of magic." 

Leo's eyes widen, "There was magic here? What happened to it?" Even in our situation, he couldn't keep his curiosity at bay. "No one knows what happened to magic, it disappeared about 50 years ago around the time the late king vanished." Sighing the woman leans her head against the wall, "That's the basic history of Kies anyone on the continent would know that, so who are you exactly?" Sitting up quickly her voice slightly raises before dropping again. "Are you guys from another kingdom? How did you get here?" 

Glaring at the woman I retort, "Why does everyone keep asking us that? Why is it so damn important!" I snarl my voice echoing in the small room. Patting my back Leo tells me to calm down. Breathing heavily, I control my breathing before briefly apologizing for snapping at her. "It's fine, if you're gonna survive around here you need to have thick skin, you don't want to talk about it, it's fine. It's not my business anyway." Scratching her head, she chuckles awkwardly. 

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

"I'm Celeste, I've been down here for close to 3 months now." 

"What are they going to do with us?" Leo asks worriedly as he rubs his arms. I guess there's a chill. "Well" letting out a deep breath, Celeste continues. "Until they have someone who wants to buy you, you're stuck in the mines. This encampment produces most of the more the skorpioner use throughout Layfront. Some of it even gets smuggled passed the border." 

"I see." I, mumble "Celeste, was it? I'm Finn, and this is Leo." Her eyes sweeping from Leo to me her mouth forms a grin. "Well Finn, Leo, even in the dark I can see your bare ass." She snickers, before beckoning in the shadows. Three figures stand up and begin stumbling in our direction, sitting down next to us forming a small circle. They reeked of sweat, but I was too weak to complain about it.  

"Ren, got any extra scraps for the new guys?" Celeste said. 

The smaller guy reached into his pants pulling out 2 rolls. "Who did they piss off to look like that on the first day?" Ren snickers, handing us the moist bread, laying on his back he yawns softly.  

"I don't care they seem like trouble, Celeste why are you wasting your time on these guys, they're already half dead anyway." The bigger guy grumbled his muscles flexing as he crossed his arms. Even in the dark, I could feel his piercing gaze, trying to intimidate. After what I went through it would take more than that to scare me though. 

"It's not like we wanted this to happen to us!" Leo protests in frustration.  

"Ah, don't worry about Baltor he's always going on and on about stupid stuff." Ren pipes in, giggling softly. "You seem happy for someone who's a slave," I say, lying on my back staring at the ceiling. "Life is what you make it my bruised friend, I'm not going to die in these mines one day I'll be a free man."  

"Enough of all that!" Celeste barks, "Baltor just give them the extra rags, will you? They won't last a day here walking around nude like that, especially with wounds like that." Reluctantly he hands over the scraps of cloth, grunting under his breath. "Well as you can see the large man there is Baltor, and the rolls came from Ren," Celeste mutters. 

"And I'm Zefire" Glancing at him he seemed to be observing me, his figure was tall and thin. "Those are some pretty nasty slices there, they'll start to fester if you don't do something you know." Looking at the wounds the blood had stopped flowing. It didn’t make it hurt any less though. "You know what's good for cuts like that, urine." Ren snickers, giggling to himself. 

"Pee? That's disgusting, were not peeing on him." Leo whines in disgust. I wasn't opposed to it if it made the constant burning stop. "Listen," Celeste whispers huddling closer in the circle. "This is a brutal place, the skorpioner only let us out of here to sell us, or for us to work. We get food once a day if you call the slop they feed us food. You don't only have to watch out for the skorpioner but also some of the other slaves here." 

Leo glanced around slightly at the information, "Why would slaves attack us?" I mutter in a low tone, twiddling his thumbs Zefire looks down at the ground. "I said the skorpioner don't kill slaves but that doesn't mean they won't get another slave to gut you in your sleep. Some slaves have been trapped down here for years you'd be surprised how deranged they are." The circle went quiet for a moment no one looking at each other, stretching my sore arms and legs I sit up. "Telling us that, why should we trust you?" I proclaim with a smirk. 

Raising their heads everyone looks up at me, Baltor with an icy stare. "My point is you've done us a favor, for that thank you." Standing up, I bow in gratitude. The sound of Baltors disapproval is noticed, but I ignore it raising my head. Looking around the circle, there was only one last thing to figure out." So, who's going to be the one to pee on me?"