So they went about their lives and waited. Surprisingly few weeks had passed when a knock came at their door about noon. Aidan opened his eyes, but couldn’t quite summon the energy to get out of bed. With a yawn Flame Song got up and threw on a robe. She went out into the main room and closed the door firmly behind her to make sure that no trace of sunlight would leak into the bedroom. She opened the front door to find Belak standing in the entryway. She blinked at the brightly sunlit landscape that silhouetted him.

He looked at her and blushed just a little. “Sorry, did I wake you?”

“It’s all right Belak. So what brings you here?”

The dwarf held out a small package. “This. It arrived just this morning. Seems Zenobia Starchaser, ye know her, was in port when your letter arrived, and she made a very fast trip to Tara’s tower and back again.” He shook his head. “I think she might be a wee bit mad, sailing this early in the year, but she got it here quick enough.”

“Thank you for bringing it by Belak.”

“Ach well, it wasn’t much. I’ll let you get back to sleep now. I forgot that you all would likely be keeping odd hours these days.”

Flame Song waved goodbye as Belak left. Then she shut the door and returned to the bedroom. “Aidan, did you hear?”

He was sitting on the edge of the bed, pulling his trousers on and blinking the sleep out of his eyes. “Yeah! Let’s go and test it out now!”

“I…” Flame Song hesitated. What if it didn’t work? Aidan would be dead, just like that. She shook her head. No, she trusted Tara too much to really doubt her, but she couldn’t help but worry.

Aidan grinned at her as he slipped the amulet over his head to rest on his bare chest. It was circular and set in the center with a red stone. “It matches your other one,” said Flame, pointing at the demon-stone torc that Aidan always wore around his neck. She had never seen him take it off.

“Yeah. I’m getting a collection of jewelry I can’t remove. Now all I need are a couple of rings, a bracelet, and maybe an earring to match.”

Flame Song laughed. It was good to see Aidan in a good mood again. He left the room and strode to the front door. Drawing a deep breath, he jerked it open. Diffuse light flooded into the room. The sun was too high in the sky to shine directly into the house, but only a few feet in front of Aidan in the entry tunnel, the shadows ended and the sunlight began. “Well, so far so good” he said and drew another deep breath. At the back of her mind, Flame Song was wondering why in the world he was doing that, since he didn’t need to breathe anymore. Just force of habit I guess. Aidan stepped forward quickly, as if he didn’t want to put this off any longer. His bare feet entered the sunny patch, then the rest of him gradually moved into the light. From behind he seemed like an angel, haloed in golden radiance.

“It works!” Aidan laughed out loud and repeated, “It works! It really works!”

Belak, now nearly half a mile off on a low rise, heard the joyful shout and turned around. He saw Aidan laughing with his face tilted up and his arms reaching out towards the sun. He smiled at his young friend, and then turned and headed home.

Aidan stood with the warm sunlight washing over him. It seemed like now he could live again. He looked at Flame Song, who was stepping out of the tunnel behind him. She came and stood next to him, smiling widely. He looked at her with the sunlight on her face, a sight he had thought never to see again. He remembered their earlier conversation about her age. I don’t want to ever live without her, he thought, but maybe, just maybe, 200 years together will be just long enough.