Exile

A few days later Sana could be seen walking in a park alongside her friend. She hadn't visited him in quite a while. Despite what her parents said to her before, they insisted that she had to take a day off sometimes since, apparently, it isn't healthy to do nothing else but train every day.

"Come on, it wouldn't be hard to get you a teacher. I'm sure even Lord Father himself would make sure you get one," Sana tried to argue.

Kenta simply shook his head. "No Sana, I told you I don't want to become a Martial Warrior. I don't know why you even started training considering we will go to become Immortals in just two years. You should know Martial Warriors don't stand a chance against a true Immortal. It's just a waste of time," he finally declared with a confident tone.

Sana looked away pouting and replied, "Well, if you want to just sit around dozing off, you can do what you want." Kenta simply shook his head. He knew that she would start nagging him again before the day was out. They played for a while longer and Sana insisted to show him some moves her father taught her the day before.

They were intercepted by a pair of city guards on the bridge spanning the river flowing through the city. "Excuse us for the interruption Lady Sana," one of the started with a bow, "the City Lord demands your presence at the central plaza. Immediately," he added with some urgency.

Sana was startled but quickly composed herself and traded a look with Kenta. He nodded to her with a small smile and they said their goodbyes before she was ushered along.

During the rushed walk towards the plaza, Sana noticed the tense atmosphere and quickly gathered the reason for the commotion from the surrounding discussions and couldn't help but frown. Apparently, someone had been killed just this morning, and the killer was to be publicly judged in line with the laws of the city.

With the crowds on the street giving way to their little group, they quickly reached the plaza, and she was led to a group of people consisting of her mother, her uncle, and the elders of her clan. Next to them was Lord Mara, the head of the Mara clan, and their elders. A bit further away, at the center of the plaza, she could see a man kneeling on the floor with her father's hand on his shoulder, keeping him in place. Her father's face was tense and focused.

"Sana," her uncle called her over, "I have decided to include you in more duties of the clan. Bearing witness to this trial is one of those responsibilities." Having said his part her uncle looked around once more and approached the center of the plaza. Her mother led her to the front of their group in between Elder Bara and herself.

Noticing her uncle's actions the other people in the plaza calmed and clustered together to watch the proceedings. He stopped in front of what she assumed to be the killer and turned towards the crowd. He raised his hands and waited for silence. "We are here to judge Karas Mara for the greatest crime a man can commit. He stands accused of murdering a member of his own family. He was discovered standing above his dead wife covered in her blood with the knife that killed her in his hand." With that, he turned towards the kneeling man and approached him.

"If you wish to challenge this judgment, you may speak now." The man didn't respond and Sana thought he looked like he couldn't hear anything at all by the stunned, blank look on his face. The silence dragged on for another half minute as her uncle simply waited for a response. "Very well," he continued with a nod, "does anyone else wish to challenge this judgment either by themselves or in his stead?" He turned towards Lord Mara.

"No." That was all the head of the Mara clan said in response, and Sana saw a surprised look flash across her mother's face even though nobody else seemed to find anything strange.

After waiting another half minute in silence her uncle continued, "then his punishment will be in accordance of tradition, exile, out of this and all cities in these lands. The head guardian will now bring him to the gate and all the surrounding cities will be informed of his punishment."

Still a bit stunned by the quick procedure of the trial Sana was ushered to the side to let her father push the now exile along the road towards the gate. The man simply shuffled along, looking at the ground in front of his feet, still dead to the world around him.

After watching them disappear along the road, Sana and her mother walked towards the plaza where her uncle and Lord Mara were talking. They turned towards the approaching women, and Lord Mara frowned at first at seeing her mother but slowly started to smile upon seeing her. "Ah, the new future Immortal of our city. Congratulations on your exceptional results in the test. If you'll excuse me, City Lord, I will need to discuss today's events with the Elders." and, with a nod from Lord Tekiel, he left.

Her uncle turned towards the frowning face of her mother, "I know you don't trust him, but he has Sana's best interest at heart. We aren't in the Twilight Lands and neither should you behave like you were." Her mother's face twisted into a grimace, which she relaxed with a sigh. "I know, but it's hard not to be paranoid if it's about my own daughter." Sana hugged her mother tight and Aria looked down at her with a soft smile.

Shortly after, they excused themselves and started the walk back home. On the way, Sana started thinking about the man who was exiled and the woman who was killed and realized she felt nothing, which made her confused. In the books she read, with Kenta of course, the hero always felt angry at the bad guy and sad at their victims, but thinking back at the other people's calmness, she simply concluded that it must be normal not to care and that the books were simply trying to be entertaining. With that cleared up she put it out of her mind and simply walked through the streets next to her mother.