Xilan stood atop the square.
The crowd that had originally gathered in the square had either joined the ranks of the uprising or scattered, hiding in their own homes.
The rebels had completely surrounded the palace.
The execution posts, chopping blocks, ropes... Various execution devices were stained with different blood traces. They seemed like martyrs' names, eternally engraved here.
Xilan looked up to see the body that hung high above.
The body was exposed to the elements.
In the eyes of the Three-eyed Ape People, hanging was the most humiliating of punishments. First, the condemned would suffer great pain before death, and second, their bodies were exposed post-mortem, sometimes for as long as thirty days, to declare their crimes.
Xilan cut down the rope and took down the body. The tightly closed eyes and lips showed no trace of the horror of facing death, at the gallows where Xilan stood, the blood had already dried.
Daniel was dead, died as a martyr.
