Nothing remains but the air he breathes. Banks of earth redolent of death protect him still. Another shell lands close, mud and metal raining on motionless brothers. An eye peeping above the parapet sees an azure sun swallowed by a buttercup sea and he knows. There will be another day.

Peter Li-ping walked in the City Square long before the Beast came and he knows he will do so again, long after the Beast is broken.