Siegfried look out through the gaps in his window blinds at the carts slowly moving past. Another five large cages with people rolled towards the old castle. Almost every day, carts with prisoners moved towards the stronghold set against the mountain that once belonged to Lord Baldor, before the dark forces overran this land north of the mountains and butchered the old elite. Now two brothers ruled this land with an iron fist. Bront and Lolwin, two people who could not be more dissimilar. The first massive, brutal, and dull. The other of small build, agile, evil, and intelligent. They commanded a large contingent of equally brutal forces, mostly human and recruited from the local area.
Siegfried's eyes caught the gaze of a horned, sad looking creature in one of the cages. Maybe he would be one to be killed or beheaded at the weekly "tournaments", where the soldiers liked to fight against already tortured and weak prisoners for fun. Or they would be transported further, into the mountains, apparently to the seat of Queen Morghesa who would eat them alive. Or so the stories go in the pub.
Things have changed in the last 40 years after the queen's goblins, hobgoblins, and undead went through on their way north. Siegfried and his two suns have to work the smithy every day until they drop of exhaustion, just to get enough food to survive. His daughter killed herself 2 years ago after being repeatedly raped by Bront's "neighborhood protectors". The little bit of resistance that was there, in the beginning, has long stopped. You can only lose so many sons and daughters.
He looked after the carts a while more before going to bed. They will bring them to the prison, a large area filled with cages and pits. He can look at the new arrivals tomorrow, on his way to the furnaces again.
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