Healers are strange creatures...
Aurick didn't understand. What were these people trying to do with him? What did they want? He listened to one of them shout things for a little over a minute, mostly threats of violence and death if they didn't cooperate. Most of the people around him seemed terrified. Some were crying. Two or three looked resigned to their fates, whatever it was going to be.
And then a heavy word slipped out of the shouting man's mouth. Slaves. They were all going to be sold into slavery.
How utterly... unbelievable. All the young man could do was stare at his captors in surprise and mild disbelief. Words slipped from his mouth in a clipped accent before he really had time to think about them. "What, really? Slavery? I thought this continent had abolished that barbaric practice years ago, when the-"
A sharp backhand to the face from the slaver nearest him brought silence and more surprise, but no visible reaction to the pain. He just looked at the man in confusion and a touch of bemusement. The man looked back at him in wary hostility, and when he got no other reaction, a touch of unease. "This is a weird'un. Watch 'im," he muttered to another man, who'd walked up beside him at the slight commotion.
Aurick blinked at them both, tawny gold eyes staring at the man who'd hit him, and said nothing. His unphased expression made both of them look at him oddly before the one walked away. Then someone else began working his way up the line and putting cuffs on all of them, restraining their hands behind their backs.
The cold iron felt uncomfortable on his wrists, but it didn't cut into the flesh, padded so as not to damage more than a bruise. It wouldn't have mattered much to him either way, but he was glad for the rest of them. They probably didn't have the same advantages that he did.
Slavery. Huh. Who knew?