It started during the midday water break.
Gareth, one of the newer slaves, barely three months in the quarry, was struggling with a granite block that had to weigh twice what he did. He was also like Aiden in some way. As some of his manners suggested, a bit refined upbringing.
But manners didn't make it easy for you here in the quarries.
His first mistake was believing that if he was good to everyone, everyone would be good to him in return.
And his second was catching Overseer Kaine's attention when he stumbled under the block's weight, sending it crashing on the floor with a sound like thunder.
"You clumsy bastard!"
The overseer's voice cracked across the work site as he strode over. His leater whip already uncoiling from his belt.
"That stone took three men half a day to cut! You think the Consortium keeps you alive and feeds you in luxury for you to destroy their property?"
Gareth straightened. His young face flushed with exertion and maybe a little bit of defiance.
Third fault.
"I'm sorry, Overseer. The block was heavy and I..."
The whip caught him across his chest before he could even finish his excuse. He stumbled backward, more shocked than hurt, one hand rising instinctively to the burning line across his ribs.
"Did I ask for excuses, slave?" Kaine stepped closer, his small frame vibrating with barely contained violence.
"Have you ever heard the butcher talk to cattle?"
Around the quarry, work had slowed as other slaves stole glances at the confrontation. Everyone knew what came next.
Kaine would work himself into a rage, Gareth would take his punishment, and they'd all get back to work with another reminder of their place in the world.
But Gareth wasn't playing his part.
"I said I was sorry, overseer," he replied. There was some steel in his voice that his fate has not yet brushed down. Aiden's blood ran cold. He winced and hoped that the young man would stop speaking now.
But fate. When has man ever run away from the ever pursuing wings of that monstrosity!
"The block was too heavy for me. It would have been better if two of us..."
The quarry went dead silent. Even the wind held its breath and moved a few steps away from Gareth. For even the wind knew that it wasn't the land of the free.
Kaine's face went through several interesting shades of anger before settling on a red that suggested imminent violence.
"Too heavy, your highness," He whispered, almost mocking a bow. "I would make sure that I assign you some slaves of yourself to do the heavy lifting for you, your lordship."
And then the whip lashed out again, licking his flesh.
Gareth's eyes glowed a faint light.
Aiden could practically hear Marcus's dreams shatter. If one of these slaves even dared to use whatever remained of their energy after the shackle against the overseers. That would mean the consortium investing in better shackles or even newer ones. And that would seal their fate. Curb their dreams of freedom.
So Aiden tried to stare a message into the stupid boy's head.
Don't do it, you....
"I think," Gareth said, his voice carrying a little bit of shrillness that someone who had practiced their power for quite some time had, "that you should step back and reconsider your approach."
The whip writhed in the air like a living thing. The overseer activated a skill and the whip lit up in red flames. Hurriedly eating up the oxygen from the surrounding.
Every slave in the quarry almost forgot how to breathe as they waited for the whip to land.
Gareth raised his fingers and activated a skill of his own which made a shimmering weak shield between the whip and his bare skin.
The whip lashed down, reasserting the reality with the force of a falling mountain. And Gareth instantly collapsed on his knees with a strangled cry as the fire singed his skin.
He tried to speak, but the whip wrapped itself around his neck. Burning his flesh. The smoke making some of the other slaves cover their nose.
While the others struggle to not look away. Scared that doing so would promote them in the list of slaves awaiting this end.
Gareth clawed at the burning whip uselessly, trying to fight with whatever strength he was left with.
"Let this be a lesson," the overseer announced to the watching slaves. His voice carrying across the quarry easily.
"Some of you seem to have forgotten what happens to goats who start thinking of themselves as wolves instead of what they are."
He pulled on his whip and the whip left Gareth's neck leaving the flesh seething. He was about to channel another spell, when Overseer Drayton made his entrance.
Everyone mentally smacked their head and try to hide their presence inside the very stone surrounding them.
"What do we have here, overseer Kaine," Drayton said. Almost amused.
"Just a rat trying to bring this mountain down with its teeth!"
Drayton laughed. And then he gestured casually.
Gareth's struggling body rose into the air. Suspended like a pupper on invisible strings. The young man's arms and legs flailed wildly as he tried to break free, but Drayton and his telekinetic abilities went hand in hand.
What followed wasn't a fight. It was a systematic destruction.
Aiden tried not to watch. And he failed miserably.
Drayton didn't let go of the poor boy thinking that the burn on the neck had been enough of a punishment. NO. Instead he used his power with surgical precision. Breaking Gareth's bone one by one while keeping his victim conscious and aware.
Making sure the audience watched and heard every single snap. Every single movement.
The sound of snapping bones echoed through the quarry like gunshots. Fingers. Toes. Ribs. Each bone separated from its cousins with the methodical efficiency of a master torturer.
Through it all, initially, Gareth had tried to scream. His voice scraped against the soul like nails on a slate. And then had died down only a few seconds into the process.
And even then the screams have driven themselves home into the late night adventurers. And Aiden.
And what was the worst part about all of this wasn't the screaming. It was when the screaming stopped and Gareth still hung in the air, broken, bleeding, convulsing, his eyes rolled back and tears still streaming down his face. Saliva drooling from his mouth.
"Still feeling rebellious?" Drayton asked pleasantly.
When Gareth didn't respond, or to be precide, couldn't respond, the overseer smiled.
"I didn't think so."
He called onto another overseer and asked her to take Gareth away. Probably for healing or for more punishments that awaited the poor fellow.
Everything was finished in some five minutes. Even though everyone felt like they have been witnessing this for their past five lives.
They watched the overseer casually lifting Gareth's body like a sack of potatoes in the wind and take it from here at a casual pace. All that while Gareth's head hanging at the side staring at nothing.
"Back to work!" Drayton clapped his hands. "And please if you start feeling a little tickle, report it to the guards on duty and remember what you have seen here today!"
The slaves scattered like frightened birds. Throwing themselves into their tasks with desperate energy. No one wanted to be the next demonstration. They were already feeling lucky that Drayton hadn't deemed the instruction insufficient and picked up another volunteer.
But Aiden found himself frozen in place. Staring at the blood stains where Gareth had fallen. He still could see the body hanging there and the sound. He hadn't seen anything like that in the years he had toiled his back here.
That could have been me, he thought. If I had been stupid enough and had some power awakened inside my body.
He obviously did not know how all of that worked. The overseers in such operations rarely ran tutorial classes for the uninitiated awakened.
And even Marcus hadn't told him everything. Or if he had, Aiden hadn't memorised it all.
But still the thought that this could have been his body instead of someone else's filled him with fear. It reinforced the hard earned lesson that survival in these places meant submission.
The lesson that the only slaves who spoke against the overseers were dead slaves.