It was almost a full year later when they found a letter sitting on the couch, sealed with an elaborate letter D. Aidan shifted the new baby, just two months old, to the crook of one arm so he could pick it up. It was from Saint Drago.

My dear friends,
I write to tell you some news I thought you might like to know. Aidan, Celia, and Aldro have all joined my order and are each, in their own way, proving invaluable. Aidan has done more than I can say for us, though at first I was suspicious of his change of heart. But when he willingly consented to be tested by truth spell I quickly became convinced.. It is amazing how much he has changed. Flame Song, I am sad to say, has not, but without his help she has done much less harm. Some nine months after you left she had a child, a little girl. Aidan tells me he is certain it isn’t his, but as the girl is his spitting image I can perhaps guess at her parentage. Aidan and Celia mounted an expedition to kidnap the child, and while I ordinarily would not approve of taking an infant from its mother, in this case I felt it was the right thing to do. No child should have to grow up in the care of such evil. So the girl is here. Her mother named her Shadowfire, but Aidan has taken to calling her Serapha, which he tells me means “angel.”

Celia has been mothering her. She has also been giving Aidan a great many significant looks, which he seems to be oblivious to. Eventually, however, he is bound to notice, and I think I may be performing a wedding before long. If you want to make the trip between worlds again you will certainly be invited. I hope all is well with you. May all the gods bless you.

Sincerely,
Saint Drago

“Well,” said Aidan, “much as I’d like to see that wedding, I have no desire to go back there. I hope he’s happy with her though.”

“Do you think he will be?”

He shrugged. “I could never be happy with anyone but you, but in his case who knows?”

“It’s an odd coincidence that both girls have the same name, isn’t it? I wonder what the other girl will be like when she grows up?” asked Flame.

“Who knows? Maybe someday they’ll meet and find out. But we still have to wait and see how our own little Shadowfire grows up first.” He gently bounced the little dark-haired aerian girl. She giggled happily and grinned toothlessly.

“Does it bother you, not being sure if she’s yours?” asked Flame Song. She’d been wondering that since they’d first discovered she was pregnant again, but somehow she’d never found the right time to ask.

“Not really. And there’s no way for us to tell anyhow, so why worry about it?” The peace he’d found a year ago in that little cell was still with him. It had been shaken, perhaps, by the events that followed so soon after, but had held and he found that he could take whatever life threw at him with surprising calm.

“Hey Daddy!” Littlespark came running into the room, interrupting their conversation. “Look, I did a new picture of us!” She brandished a sheet of paper. Aidan handed Shadowfire to his wife and took the picture from his oldest daughter. Drawn in a childish but increasingly accurate hand was a picture of all six of them. There he was with his arm around Flame Song’s furry firecat shoulders. Littlespark had included herself in her half-and-half birth form, and Firedart was drawn the same way. Standing in front was Phoenixflare, his orange wings folded tightly against his sides. And lastly there was little Shadowfire, cradled in Aidan’s other arm.

Aidan looked at it for a long time. Right there was everything in the whole world that mattered. His heart was suddenly full. He felt as though he’d come through the fire last year and now he appreciated what he had more than ever, because he’d come so close to losing it all.

“Do you like it Daddy?” asked Spark.

“Yes,” he replied, trying to keep his voice from choking up. “I like it very much.”

The end of chapter 8