Blood and Fire
Chapter 3
Matters of Life and Death.

The sun was setting over Queen Tara's Tower. Aidan and Flame Song sat together on the roof of the Tower itself. Ten stories above the ground they looked out over the twilight landscape to where the horizon was painted with gold and red and purple that shaded up to a midnight blue sky overhead. The darkness hid the signs of chaos on the landscape all around, and the evening air was quiet and serene.

Aidan leaned his head on Flame's shoulder and sighed deeply. "You know, I don't think I ever really appreciated sunsets before."

Flame chuckled softly. "No? Why not?"

He shrugged. "They were always there. They say you have to lose something before you can really appreciate it. I guess that's true. There weren't any sunsets in the Tyrant's dungeon, and... the sunsets before that were only a relief from pain, I wasn't exactly watching them to appreciate the colors."

She nodded. "Yes, I guess I see what you mean. Myself, I am appreciating the chance to just sit and do nothing, without having to worry about life, and death, and the end of the world. I've been missing that, these last weeks. It's very good to return to all the ordinary bits of everyday life."

"Life..." Aidan sighed softly, and his eyes were dark with memory. "I guess now I can actually appreciate life too. If you have to lose something, in order to, well... there aren't very many who can, but I can."

Flame put her arm around him and hugged him. She knew he still sometimes had nightmares about the dark world, about being a vampire. And she knew also that he had nightmares about losing her. He had woken calling her name more than once during the last few nights, and she had held him while he trembled and cried. But she didn't say anything about that. Aidan would recover eventually, she knew that. And now that they were retiring from the Queen's Own their lives should be much more quiet and peaceful. "We have several good reasons to appreciate life, I think," she said at length. "And the best one is yet to come." She put a hand over her stomach. It was still flat, as she was only seven weeks along.

Aidan smiled and placed his hand over hers. "Yes. Do you think it's going to be a boy, or a girl?"

Flame grinned. "Well, given my family history, it could be both, or even several of each." Aidan went a little wide-eyed. He hadn't thought of that! Flame's grin broadened. "Don't worry. I'm pretty sure there's just one. The cleric Radu said 'baby' not 'babies' and I think he would have been able to tell."

"That's good. I mean... I want to have more than one eventually, but a whole litter at once might be a bit much. I don't know how firecats manage it!"

Flame chuckled. "Firecat cubs grow up faster than human babies. But they are a handful. I helped my parents with their second litter, and it was all the three of us could do to keep up with them sometimes."

Aidan smiled at her. But then his eyes went distant and dark again, and she knew he was worrying. Seven weeks ago they had been in the middle of their first quest. They had stolen one single night together, on Baron Almaric's ship. That was the only time the child could possibly have been conceived. And at that time Aidan had been a vampire. He was worried that his undead state would have some effect on the child. He had wanted children so much, and now he feared that this would be like the stories of genies' wishes, that he would get what he wished for, but in a way that would make him regret ever wishing for it. Flame had no such worries. She was confident that the baby would be fine. But she hadn't been able to banish Aidan's concerns that easily.

The last light faded from the sky, and Aidan got to his feet. "We should probably go in. We've got a long day ahead of us tomorrow." He spread his angel-white wings and stepped off of the tower to glide down to the courtyard below. Flame rose and followed him, her own aerian wings cupping the cool night air as she circled down.