"...Tch."
Whatever sudden rage had surged up dissolved into helplessness across the distance of centuries.
Raphael exhaled and looked more carefully.
The cages were small,designed for pigs, barely a meter and a half, and every one of them held people.
Different ages, different faces, different expressions.
Some were boys and girls with wide frightened eyes, bodies unmarked, not yet beaten, newly purchased or freshly delivered, staring at an unknown future with undisguised terror.
Some were young men and women who were actively scanning their surroundings, hands wrapped around the bars, studying angles and distances, still looking for a way out, the set of their jaw still holding some thread of resolve.
Most showed bruising. Taken by force.
Some were middle-aged couples, two people crammed into a cage built for one, pressed against each other, breathing with difficulty, wounds long since scabbed over.
They had been here for some time.
