She made good time so it was only an hour or so after sunset when she returned. She found Aidan curled up under several of the furs in front of the fire. He was very happy to divest her of her burdens and help her off with the harness. He pulled out the clothing she'd gotten and quickly picked up a pair of thick trousers. Then he glanced at Flame Song. "Uh... I'd like to put these one, but, uhm, is there somewhere I can change?"

Flame suppressed a giggle. "Sure, the spare room there should be fine." It was amusing, but also rather heartening. Nobody worries about being naked in front of an animal, she thought. He thinks of me as a person. I'm glad.

With at least his legs no longer freezing, Aidan set about altering the heavy shirts and the coat that Flame had found for him. Flame curled up near the fire and watched him. His fingers moved nimbly back and forth with the needle between them. Flame was always rather fascinated by how dexterous humanoids were. She still felt a little clumsy in human form. She wasn't sure she'd be able to work with something as tiny as the little sliver of metal that Aidan held. He altered the coat first, and did a rather hasty job of it. Apparently not as shy about this, he stripped off his tattered shirt and put the coat on instead, twisting around with a flexibility that a firecat might envy to do up the fastenings he'd added to the back.

"Much better!"

Flame smiled. "I'm glad."

"Now if I could just have a bath, everything would be perfect."

"Sorry, I can't help you there. There's no tub here, and no plumbing either. Though if you want to wash I could at least heat up some water and you can use a washcloth. I've got one around here somewhere."

Aidan considered that for a bit. "That sounds good. I feel completely grimy. But, uh... would you mind going elsewhere while I wash? I don't want to leave the fire, but, er..."

Flame smiled. "I don't mind. I want to go down and have another look in the cellar anyhow, make sure it's thoroughly sealed off. I told a dwarven official about finding the tunnels, and so hopefully something will be done about them, but for now I at least want to be certain they no longer connect to my basement."

Aidan shivered. "Yeah. That's a good idea."

Flame dumped out the rabbit bones, which had been thoroughly picked clean, and filled the pot with water. While it was heating she asked, "So how did you end up down there anyhow?"

"My own stupidity," said Aidan. "I was in Aerievale, as I think I've mentioned. I am, uh, well, I'm a thief. I guess there's no point in my coming up with euphemisms for it. I'm a pretty good one too! But I stole something I shouldn't have." He touched the torc at his neck. "I really should have known better, I knew it was magical, but I just have itchy fingers and it seemed like a good idea at the time. So I swiped it and put it on. And then couldn't figure out how to get it off! I think I've got that figured now, but I'm not going to try it, because the minute I take it off, I could have one of those demons popping up to snag it. See it's meant for a mage who's into demon summoning. Keeps the various demon powers from hurting you. In their shadow forms they can't even touch me at all. And demon magic gets bounced off of it, and is really bad for the demon who cast the spell. You can't take it off of somebody by force, only the wearer can remove it, and though they never mentioned it, I'm betting that killing the person wearing it messes up something in the magic, otherwise they'd just have killed me and that would be that.

"As it is they caught me just a few minutes after I swiped it. Their leader, that guy who looked almost human, told me what it was. I don't think he understands people very well, he seemed to think that if I knew it was something he really wanted that I'd get scared and give it to him. I suppose some people might have. But no way was I going to! I said no the first few times out of pure stubbornness, but once I figured out his angle I was saying no because there was nothing else I could possibly do. Demons fight among themselves a lot. I saw it a couple of times while they had me. So a demon that could wear this thing would be immune to other demons and could beat the stuffing out of all of them! He'd end up king of the demons. Right now they almost never bother people because they'd rather fight each other, but if they were united... No way. It'd be horrible. And I knew I couldn't let that happen, even if it meant I would die, so I just kept saying no.

"They couldn't use their magic on me, but they could still physically hurt me. They tried that for a while. I guess they're not really very good at physical torture, I've heard stories about way worse things than they did. I think they're used to relying on their powers. It was still not much fun though.

"Anyhow, they had me for a couple of weeks, and I was pretty sure they were going to just let me die even if it did screw up the magic, after all that, and then you came along and saved me. So thanks again."

Flame smiled. "Well, I couldn't just leave you there."

"Some people would have,"said Aidan, looking sad. Flame suspected there was a story behind that look.

"Not me," she said.