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“Do you think I’m enjoying this! I sent you there because I knew you could handle it! You would be the one to pull through! What do I find instead? A coward! Atraiter willing to let his friends and country men die! And what reason do you give for these actions!” Damien swung his sword hilt down and smashed in the man’s nose.

“Now have you thought of a better excuse or are you continuing with the same one?”

He spit blood into the grass, held his nose in between his hands and snapped it the other way. Lifting his eyes to the road he replied, “I had something to lose, something I couldn’t lose.”

Damien kicked him in the stomach. The man leaned forward coughing. Damien kicked him in the face and side repeatedly. He slowly got up and spat out more blood.

They say that at that moment a thousand angels cried. Why? For the deaths he caused, for his own about to come? Or was it both, the death of his life and the others? No one knows why the skies, filled with tears the whole day, decided that now they would let their sorrow be shown. The tears fell hard and long cleaning all they touched.

Damien turned to the soldiers watching. “This is the man who let your brothers, sons, friends die. He has committed an injustice against you. For this act alone he deserves punishment but for the deaths of all those innocent men out on that field, I believe he deserves to die. I will let anyone of you carry this out, but if you all are tired of the shedding of blood, I will do it to uphold the law.” With these words he turned about looking for a man willing to carry out the sentence.

The man looked up at them, each one in turn, meeting every eye. Some men in the crowd began to step forward but then held back. There had been enough death that day at their hands. A boy about the age of sixteen stepped forward and said, “I will do it. My younger brother died today. When I tell my parents, I wish to be able to say that I at least tried to avenge him.” The boy took a few steps forward but began to sway. The man on the ground stood up and caught him before he hit the ground.

When the boy regained his balance he punched the man in the nose. Then spat in his face. “I need no help from a traitor as you! I loved my brother, and now he’s no longer here to love!” A grandfather came forward and took the boy away. “My little brother…. I loved him….”

“There is no need for any others to come forward. I can see that your sorrows are too much to bear at this time. Leave now, so that my actins here will not weigh on your conscience. It must be done, the boy has showed us this much.” Damien waited till all who wished to be gone had left. Bending down he whispered.

“I will never know why you have acted in this way. But you should know that all here lost someone, and that I hold you responsible for that. Let their deaths be on your conscience.” He took his sword and began to clean it.

The man looked back towards the road and whispered his message to the wind. He then knelt down and waited for Damien to finish with his ceremony. He did not flinch when he heard the sword make a slicing sound as it was drawn up. As Damien brought it down the man looked up and whispered.