His hair was blue like the sky when the snowclouds parted, but there was silver in it too: steel. It shone like a sword encased in ice, shorn off at his chin.

Zephyr marveled at the amount of blood Ares' body contained as he stood, broadsword dangling in his hand, blood running in rivulets down its surface. The blood on the snow steamed, and vapor rose from his sword, too, as it condensed and frosted over.

"Zephyr? What did you do?" Kuru's voice was frantic.

He heard Kuru behind him and turned away from the decapitated corpse, breath coming in gasps. I didn't – didn't mean to – not my fault – not me, he thought of saying. But that was ridiculous. No one would believe a story like that. Not when Ares's blood was on his sword. No one could know. He would just say they both had attacked him.

His sword flashed and glinted as he leapt at the other Aelar, teeth bared in a vicious snarl.

"Shit!" was all Kuru said as he stepped back and put the haft of his spear in front of his chest to block. The wooden pole splintered as Zephyr's sword made impact and it drove downward, cleaving into Kuru's chest. Zephyr planted his boot on the dying man's chest as he lay in the snow and yanked hard, freeing the broadsword and sending up a thin red mist that quickly froze and drifted down again.

He paused, spat on Kuru's face, then, gathering his cloak tighter around himself, ran.

An Aelar flanked him on either side, holding his arms and pushing him through the doorway into the tribunal. A third Aelar marched behind holding a spear.

They had caught him as he fled. The game was up, all right. He'd heard the guards talking outside last night: they said everyone thought he did it and would say so. They said he would be executed.

Then, as the guards walked him to the center of the domed wooden chamber, they let go of his arms and said, "Elder, we've brought him."

The Elder studied him from his elevated granite podium. It gave Zephyr a chance to look around.

There were people all around him, on all sides, standing, watching; people he'd known all his life. Auren, Jash, Kelena, Gelelr. There was wizened old Melekr here, and over there Hana's little boy Spheros stood holding his mother's hand.

"Zephyr," the Elder said, "you stand accused of murder."

Zephyr nodded. There didn't seem to be much else to do.

"Do you wish to contest these charges?" the Elder asked.

Here was his chance. He'd been thinking about this all night, and it was the only way he could think of to get out of here alive. "They attacked me, sir. They tried to kill me. I –" he stumbled "- I had to fight back, sir."

The Elder lifted his bushy white eyebrows. "Ares and Kuru?"

"Ares and Kuru," Zephyr confirmed. "Both of them."

"Interesting," the Elder said, rubbing his chin. He looked at one of the guards who had dragged Zephyr inside. "Bring me Sera."

Sera, as it turned out, was a woman not more than sixty years old – middle-aged, by Aelar standards – with flowing green hair streaked with copper. She was rather plump.

She stood in front of the Elder, between him and Zephyr. "Tell me what you saw," the Elder said.

"Three young men were outside in the street," she began. "I saw them while I sewing. When I looked up again, one of them had his sword out. I kept watching and I saw the one who had his sword out cut off one of the other's head. The third one tried to talk to him, then he killed him too, and ran."

The Elder flicked his eyes to Zephyr for a moment, then fixed them again on Sera. He pointed his hand at Zephyr. "Is that the murderer?"

Sera looked Zephyr full-on in the eyes. "That's the murderer," she agreed.

His hands were clenched and his teeth grinding against each other. His fingernails dug painfully into his skin. All that, all that thinking. And a woman had seen the whole entire thing!

Shit. Was this his life? Would they kill him now? Shit. He'd never really thought about dying before, but now that he faced the very real possibility, he thought about it a lot. What would happen?

Was there an afterlife?

Zephyr realized he would go down in history as a villain, as an evil man, a petty evil man who killed his friends with no motive.

But … that was what he was. He had killed Ares for no reason. Ares had been insufferable about his skill with the bow and bringing down that deer from three hundred yards away – it had been a fluke shot, nothing more, both Zephyr and Kuru told him – but Ares hadn't shut up. He was going to be this and that, he would make up for whatever Kuru and Zephyr didn't shoot with his skill. He would single-handedly save Aelarune from starvation this winter, he said.

Well, he was dead now and he wasn't saving anyone. And Kuru had died because Kuru had seen what Zephyr did.

The Elder heaved a heavy sigh. "Zephyr," he said, waving Sera to the side. "Come forward." When Zephyr was only five feet away, the Elder held up a hand for him to stop. "You are a liar, Zephyr. You are a murderer."

The Elder squared his shoulders and took Zephyr's broadsword. He could barely lift it, so old and frail was he. "Zephyr, you are guilty of the murder of Ares and Kuru."

"What is my punishment?" Zephyr could barely ask.

"You are banished, Zephyr. You are Branded. Never return."

A murmur spread through the crowd at this.

"Zephyr Darkblade," the Elder named him, "that is your new name, so that all may remember the darkness in your sword and your heart. You are banished. You are forsaken forever, murderer, Creature of the Void. Leave now. Never return."

The Elder raised his arms, eyes closed, chanting.

"By the powers granted me by Sol," the Elder began, the people of Aelarune following him in a trailing echo, "you are banished. By the purity of Anemos, you are forsaken. By the vision of Ael, you are broken."

He opened his eyes, staring into Zephyr's.

"Leave."

The crowd parted for Zephyr Darkblade, and he was out the door, running past the houses, the memories, the snowy roofs and whiteswept streets. He would not return to Aelarune for twenty-two years.

(I hope that was enjoyable – please tell me what you think, and if you find any errors or discrepancies or anything be sure to tell me. Although 2,000 years gives me a lot of leeway, so keep that in mind. Thanks for reading!)