Work Text:
The woman in front of her stumbled, falling to her knees, and the guards swooped in, their whips raised. Instantly, Yuri darted to try to put herself between them, wincing when a twin set of lashes struck her outstretched arms. She didn’t need to look to know that behind her, Ryui and Shala were helping the woman to her feet as she glared at the men.
“Hitting her won’t make her work any faster!” she cried out furiously, unflinching as their unfriendly gazes turned to her.
“We have no use for weak slaves,” one of them informed her harshly. “Now get back to work unless you’d like what she’s getting.”
“She wouldn’t be weak if you gave us a reasonable amount of food and water. Even your animals are treated better than your slaves!”
“I said get back to work!”
The whip cut through the air between them again, landing on her shoulder hard enough to tear through the thin linen and draw blood, making Yuri bite her lip. But as both men closed in, their faces hard, Shala hissed from behind her, “Yuri!”
Reluctantly, she turned away to crouch by her bag of stones, heaving it onto her back again before rising to her feet. The whips snapped at her ankles, but she ignored them as she trudged forward, catching up with the twins who had managed to get the victim out of the way.
Even though they did what they could to help, more and more people were succumbing to the backbreaking work and the harsh treatment. But it made no sense to her: regardless of a person’s origins, they were still human. If all the countries agreed to a code of conduct for their prisoners of war and slaves, they wouldn’t have to fear this sort of outcome if they had the misfortune to be captured in turn.
Maybe her perspective was unique since she’d come from a different time, but at the very least, Ryui and Shala agreed with her when they’d talked about it, and she knew that Kail would listen to her if she suggested it. But there was no way that she could speak to Prince Mattiwaza. He might have been called the Prince of Darkness, but he didn’t seem like a foolish leader, not with what he’d been able to achieve. Even if he was cruel, he had to understand the benefits of such a proposal.
But here, she was only a slave. Among the others, they whispered the name “Ishtar” and prayed for her blessing, but if those whispers reached their enemies’ ears… none of them knew what would happen, but it seemed highly likely that they’d try to kill her.
As it was, it seemed like they were trying to do that to all the slaves, anyway. But she wouldn’t let that get to her. She was sure that Kail would come for her, so she had to stay alive until then. Stay alive, and help as many people as she could.