In a dank room that was the fetid cross between a root cellar, an outhouse and a castle dungeon, a group of twenty or so, men, women and children huddled in the dark.

They were all kept huddled on the side of room, with the thickly barred enclosure. Their stomach making sounds of pain and hunger and frustration as they stared at the crates their own food and goods, that were being stored on the other side of the room, in another cell.

On their arms and legs they wore chains and manacles. On their necks they wore the ensorcelled collars worn by slaves across the globe.

Amongst this band of the sickly, bruised and miserable, was a boy around twelve years of age. Stick thin and gangly, with his long limbs and large head, he looked a bit like an insect.

His light brown skin, was covered in a sticky sheen of sweet. And his breath grew increasingly labored as he huddled up in his little corner of the room. Shivering violently despite the humidity within their cramped quarters.

Whether it was the bruises on his body, the fever that was boiling his blood, or the weeping wound on his side from where a bone broken just badly enough to puncture his skin, one thing was clear. The boy was not doing well.

Hours ran on, while they all sat, in the dark humidity and, one by one, the weaker amongst their number succumbed to their wounds and illness.

Eventually, the boy with pale brown skin and the light pink hair, fell as well, slumping over in his corner.

A day and a night went by. And their kind hosts, former kinfolk who’d turned their backs on the people in the cage came to remove the bodies, for the sake of keeping the rest of their salable stock alive.

One of the guards came to take the boy, hefting the light corpse over his shoulder and dragging it up the stairs.

Tossing the body, onto the heap of bodies that lay by the door, lying in a pull cart.

The guard then went to go and retrieve other bodies, for sake of filling the cart, and avoiding a second trip.

In the meantime, the corpses were left exposed to the heavens. Left exposed to the light of the planet’s three waxing moons. One white. One yellow. One a luminous pale red.