Chapter 101 - Mine Before Birth

At once, immediately after the announcement was made, everyone who had gathered near and far away from the scaffold bowed their heads. The motion was swift, a wave of submission rolling through the crowd like a tide pulled by an unseen moon. The sound of rustling fabric and shifting feet filled the air, a nervous murmur of silk and leather and worn boots scraping against packed earth. It was followed by a heavy silence that felt charged with expectation of what would happen today at the scaffold. The silence pressed down on everyone, thick and suffocating, as if the air itself was holding its breath.