Aidan had noticed, among the gathered clerics, a man wearing distinctive deep purple robes. He got to his feet and approached the man now. "Sir, am I correct in assuming that you follow the the Lord of Chaos and Forbidden Knowledge?"

The man gave him a curious look, but nodded. "Yes."

"Would you care to assist me in upsetting the current order of things?"

The man smiled at that. "I would be quite willing to assist in that, yes."

Aidan turned back to the judge. "Sir, Branson has held up, as proof of my evil nature, the fact that his holy symbol was able to damage me. He says that his goodly symbol harms me because it is good and I am evil. Now is the Lord of Chaos considered to be among the good gods?"

The judge chuckled. "No. In fact on several occasions the clerical council has considered banning his order entirely. He is not exactly considered evil, but good? Definitely not."

"In that case, if Branson is correct, then nothing at all should happen were I to touch this gentleman's holy symbol, right?"

The judge nodded.

Aidan turned back to the purple-robed cleric. "If you would, sir?"

The man grinned, and removed an irregularly shaped medallion from around his neck. Aidan held out his hand, palm down this time. The cleric pressed the symbol against the back of his hand. Aidan clenched his teeth and hissed in pain. After a moment the cleric withdrew it. Aidan shook his hand, still looking pained, and then held it up for the judge to see. The mark of chaos was branded deeply into the back.

A murmur ran around the room at that. The judge smiled. "Well. You have proven your point quite effectively. And I apologize for the necessity of injuring yourself in doing so."

Aidan nodded, and returned to his seat. Branson was gaping, looking utterly shocked.

The judge addressed the room. "I believe we should alter the law, given the evidence we've just seen, and remove vampires from the list of creatures considered evil, and judge each on a case-by-case basis." He looked at Branson then. "And in your specific case... you attempted to kill a man who had done you no harm. Had he truly been the menace you feared, you should have acted within the bounds of the law and had him arrested. Taking the law into your own hands is not something we can encourage. We have been content for some time to allow you to find your own way, but this cannot pass unpunished. It is my judgment that you are guilty of attempted murder and should be stripped of all clerical rank and power, and that this punishment be enacted immediately."

He nodded to the other clerics in the room. As one they rose and circled Branson. Aidan felt a twinge of something that wasn't quite pain. One of them was casting some form of clerical spell.

When they stepped away Branson no longer wore his holy symbol. He looked suddenly smaller, an expression of stunned bereavement on his face. Aidan could almost feel sorry for him. Almost.

The judge rose and left the room by a door behind his seat. Everyone else rose too, and began filing out of the room. Flame Song, Aidan, and Littlespark rose to their feet as well and made their way to the door.

Outside Aidan let out a sigh of relief. “Thank heaven that’s over with.” He paused and watched as the two watchmen escorted Branson out of the courthouse. Branson’s gaze fell on Aidan as he was led past and his forlorn look was replaced with an expression of pure rage. Suddenly he tore free of his escort and flung himself at Aidan. Aidan stumbled back, Branson’s hands at his throat. He had a moment to think, why is this idiot trying to strangle me? I don’t need to breathe, before he realized that Branson was after his sun medallion. His mind was suddenly flooded with panic. It was mid-morning and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. If Branson got the medallion off, Aidan could very well die. The guards tried to haul Branson away, but they couldn’t get a grip on the flailing madman.

Aidan managed to grab the raving ex-cleric, whose touch was no longer painful now that he’d been stripped of his clerical power. He flung Branson away from him as hard as he could. But in that same instant, the ex-cleric wrapped his fingers around the medallion. The chain snapped from the force of Aidan’s own strength and Branson shouted in triumph. His shout was abruptly cut off as he hit the side of a building across the street hard. He slid limply to the ground.

In the same instant that the chain of the medallion broke Aidan screamed in incredible pain. He stumbled forward, trying to escape the merciless light that hammered him with an almost physical force. He fell, his skin visibly reddening.

All that had happened in a matter of seconds, before anybody in the surrounding crowd could even register what was going on. Flame Song was the first to realize what had happened. She was at her husband’s side even as he fell, half carrying him back toward the courthouse. They entered the building’s shadow and Aidan’s screams stopped. He moaned terribly. Every inch of exposed skin was reddened and blistered. Flame gently lowered him to the ground. Corinne reached their side a moment later, Ariana and Littlespark in tow.

“Is he all right?” she asked.

Flame shook her head. “He’s not going to die right now, but if we can’t get him totally out of the sun soon he might.”

One observant watchmen bent over Branson’s limp form. He picked up the sun medallion from where it had dropped from Branson’s grip and came over to the huddled couple. “Here,” he said, holding the medallion out. Flame took it and placed in over Aidan’s heart. At its touch he stopped moaning and opened his eyes. Flame breathed a sigh of relief.

“Are you all right?” she asked.

“No,” was his faint, shaky reply. “But I think I’ll live.”

“That’s more than you can say for him,” said the watchman, motioning to Branson. “His back’s been broken. He’d dead."

Aidan’s eyes closed again. “I’m sorry,” he said.

“Well I’m not!” said Corinne. “He tried to kill you twice, and came all too close both times. He deserved what he got.”

The watchman nodded his agreement. “He was insane to try and attack you again. You were only defending yourself.”

Aidan sighed. “Yes, but I still wish I hadn’t done it.”

“You’re a better man than I am then,” said the watchman with a shake of his head. “I guess I had better tell the judge what happened.” He left the little group, telling the gathered crowd of curious onlookers to go home, there was nothing more to see. He and his partner soon had the crowd dispersed, and while the one went into the courthouse the other carried Branson’s body away, leaving the little group gathered in its shade alone.