"My people are quite likely dying right now! Maybe you care nothing for them, but I do!" Flame looked up, to see Brianna storming out of the monastery.

Seymore strode behind her, looking nearly as angry. "If we go now, we fail, and you will fail too! Your people will all die then." Brianna spun around, and she looked like she wanted to hit him, but then she turned again and stalked off without a word. Radu came out, somewhat more sedately, and spoke soothingly to Seymore.

Flame and Lavasida exchanged glances. Flame fretted and worried and wished that she could skip ahead to the day when the army would be ready to march, but she knew that the two weeks that had passed since they had finished gathering was too short of a time to train them. Even the month that Seymore had insisted on was not really enough time, but by the time a month had passed, she and her friends would have been here six weeks, and that was pushing very close to the limit that Jordanis had given them. Brianna knew that as well as she, and the frustration was obviously taking its toll on her.

"I wish we could go charging in right now too," Lavasida said. "I fully intend, once the castle gate is breached, to ignore all else and find my Brianna." He looked at Flame. "Will you do the same?"

She closed her eyes and sighed deeply. "I can't. Brianna is right, our people may well be dying. I can't risk missing a chance to find the crystal. So I will be searching for it, not for Aidan. Though I can hope... when we find it, there is a spell to pull us all home again. I think it will work even if we're not together. If he yet lives, it may rescue him. I hope. If not... If not I will have Jordanis send me back immediately, and I will search for him myself."

"If they're both prisoners, they're likely to be together," said Lavasida, with a smile. "Mayhap I will rescue him for you."

Flame smiled back at him.

"I couldn't help but overhear a bit." Flame looked up to see Radu standing nearby "If the spell your mage used is the type of spell I think it is, and any competent mage would use that type, then it will pull you all home. Even if he has died, it will return his body to your world."

"I'm glad of that then," said Flame. "Very glad."

Radu smiled, and put his hand on her furry shoulder. "Take heart. Though oft times we have wished it otherwise, Tara's soldiers are ordered to take prisoners rather than to kill if they can. She enjoys having prisoners available for her magics and for her amusement. But as frightening as those things are, they mean that there is a very good chance that both of your loves are yet alive. And we are keeping her busy enough trying to find us," he added, "That I doubt she has time for such amusements just now."

"Thank you," said Flame.

Radu lifted his hand and smiled down at her. "I have something else for you to take heart in as well. I think it is probably too early yet for you to have guessed, so I will share the good news with you. You're pregnant."

Flame blinked. "...what?"

Lavasida chuckled at her shocked expression.

"I suspected it when I first saw you, but it was only a few days grown then. Now it is much further along, and having touched you I am quite sure. Clerics know these things."

Flame just gaped at him. "I... I..." Then suddenly tears gathered in her eyes. "We wanted children so much... We've tried for so long. I can hardly believe this. He... I... oh gods, I wish he were here."

Lavasida put his arm around Flame. She turned to him with tears dampening the fur on her cheeks. "It doesn't seem possible. After this long..." Radu sensed his presence would only be awkward, so he withdrew.

"I suppose I should say congratulations," said Lavasida softly, with a smile.

Flame laughed, then sniffled. "Yes, I guess so." She leaned her head against him, though she was careful not to lean too much, she was four times his weight. "I... First Fire, this sounds so awful. But... if I lose him, now I have something of him, at least." She started crying again, and Lavasida stroked her fur and comforted her, though his own heart was near breaking. He and his Brianna had no children, and they had wanted them for many years. But his nature was always to give rather than to take, and so he gave the firecat what comfort he could, and put his own troubles out of his mind.