"Ara, you have committed a crime that is traditionally punished by execution," king Demin was speaking at the end of the court session. "But given the circumstances you presented in your defense, the council has agreed to reduce the sentence to exile."

A gasp traveled through the crowd and my mother glanced up with a small glimmer of happiness in her gaze. Her fear of her first born being put to death was quelled. I guess knowing he's still alive, even though she would never see him again, brought her some kind of comfort.

The opposite effect hit me, and my anger rose. In my mind, I had tricked myself into wishing that he was dead, but in my heart, I knew I would be crushed at the sight of his death.

"The Sha will escort you to a ship that will take you away from our island." The king finished. The two Sha elite at his sides forcefully took hold of his shoulders. Ara angrily shrugged them off, freezing there feet to the floor without making a single move with his hands or any source of water anywhere close to him. (I would find out later that he had found the key to controlling moisture in the air)

"I'll go on my own," he growled, pulling his wrists apart and breaking the chain that connected the cuffs on his hands. He never took them off, a symbol to constantly remind him of his shame, he explained to me.

While the two sha tried to unfreeze there feet, Ara strode away, lowing his his head to try and hide his tears. As he passed us by, he lifted his head slightly, and gave my mother and me the saddest look I had ever seen upon his face. Mother burst into tears, trying to run forward and hug him, but I had to hold her back, knowing the law of the land stated that no one may touch one shamed by the grand court. Her wails followed him as he stepped beyond the great doors and out into the village.

I wouldn't truly realize the selfishness of my actions and the pain it would cause my mother until her death almost a week later.

Ara wandered to the edge of the city away from the dock, watched closely by the Sha who were ready to take him if he didn't start walking towards his ship. Too deep in anger and sadness, Ara didn't care, ignoring them completely when they shouted orders at him.

With his fists clenched, he continued on in weeping silence toward the edge of the glacier, staring out into the vast ocean as the sun started to set above the horizon, casting the orange hue across the sky as if signaling for the moon to rise. He stood as close to the edge as possible, considering whether or not he should just give himself to the spirit of the ocean, or let fate decide.

After a few seconds of debating, Ara spread his legs shoulder width apart and placed his hands at his waist level, palms facing downward with his fingers spread wide. As if pushing an invible force, Ara's hands lowered and the ice a few feet behind him cracked, sliding off the main glacier and becoming an ice floe that fell to the waters. With one last glance over his shoulder at his home, Ara sat down, and laid on his back upon the freezing surface, and cried as the current carried him away.

After he was a good mile or so away from our village, he stared intensely at the stars and moon, remembering all the ledgends he loved hearing as a youngster about the gods of the moon and ocean. Closing his eyes, he began praying.

Completely lost, nowhere to call home, never to return to his own home, never to see his mother or little brother again, there was one place to turn to.

In his prayers, he hoped someone would protect me and mother, and for himself, he wished for death.

Ara didn't keep track of the time, but it was days and days as the ice floe drifted, carrying him further and further out. Hypothermia could set in at any moment, and his stomach clenched with hunger and thirst.

And then it seemed the spirits would grant him his wish as a great storm erupted around him, and he was thrown from the ice flowe and into the violent waters. Closing his eyes, he lost conciousness when his body gave way to the freezing cold. Death was welcome, but it never came.