She awoke well before sundown. Aidan was still sound asleep. He wouldn’t be up for several hours yet. She got up and padded barefoot through the house to the nursery. She was somewhat surprised that Littlespark hadn’t woken her. She’d gone to bed so early, Flame had expected her to be up early too, but there was nothing but silence from the nursery. That's odd. She should have been hungry by now...

She quietly eased the door open and looked inside. Everything was dim and quiet. She stepped further into the room and suddenly froze. Her heart skipped a beat, and she caught her breath. Surely she couldn’t be seeing what she thought she was seeing? She rushed to the side of the crib and looked in. It was empty. The rails were still up so there was no way Littlespark could have gotten out on her own. Flame Song shifted into firecat form and tested the air. She could smell her daughter’s scent permeating the room, but overlying it was a strange, alien scent. A shiver ran down her spine. She knew that scent, but she couldn't quite place it... Somewhere she had smelled it before, and something about the elusive memory made her back fur want to stand on end.

But there was no time to try and track down the memory, whatever it was. She rushed out into the main room, shouting "Aidan!" She bounded to the bedroom, calling Aidan’s name again. He was sitting up on the bed, blinking groggily at her. “What is it?”

“Littlespark’s gone!”

Aidan snapped awake. “What!?”

“She’s gone, and I think somebody took her.”

Aidan got up, grabbing his belt with the twin daggers but not bothering to get his shirt on. “Can you track them?”

"Yes." She went back to the nursery with Aidan at her heels. She tested the air and followed the scent out the door. It passed through the main room but did not, as she had first expected, go towards the door outside. Instead it turned into the kitchen. She and Aidan exchanged worried glances. Suddenly she could place that strange scent, and her heart jumped into her throat at the thought of what it meant.

The trail led, as she had known it must, down the slanting passage to the cellar. The earthen-walled room was a mess, with the foodstuffs stored there scattered all over, and chunks of dirt strewn over every surface. A hole gaped in the far wall, with utter blackness behind it. They followed the trail into the tunnel beyond. The light faded, but Flame could still track the scent in the dark, and Aidan's eyes were supernaturally good. Flame half expected to see the red glow ahead, to smell the stronger scent of dozens of demons, to hear the distant heartbeat sound, but the tunnels remained dark and silent, and the trail she followed was the only scent besides those of earth and mold. She followed the trail for some time down the tunnels, taking a sharp turn to the side at one point. A little ways beyond the turning she saw a faint glow up ahead. It was a reddish radiance, very much like the glow she had seen the first time she had ventured into these tunnels. Moving more slowly now the pair continued forward. Aidan had both daggers drawn and ready, though he didn't know if they would be any use. They both tried not to think about what they might find ahead.

They reached an opening in the side of the tunnel and the red glow spilled out from inside. They approached slowly and at last stood looking into the chamber. It was familiar to both of them. Far too familiar to Aidan. The trench in the floor no longer burned, the room was lit instead with a sourceless red glow, but the upper halves of the chains still dangled from the ceiling. And standing beneath them, in the center of the room, was a black-clad man with glowing red eyes. He held Littlespark in his arms, and she was limp, her eyes closed. Flame shuddered to see it. She remembered the horrible burning cold of a demon's touch. She prayed that her daughter had been spared that.

Aidan stepped into the room. "Asmodeus," he said, and he nearly spit the name out.

"I had hoped you would remember me, boy," said the man, and Flame shivered at the buzzing, clicking, hissing sound of demon speech that lay under the words. Her fur was all on end again. "What took you so long?"

Aidan ignored the question. "Give her back, demon."

Asmodeus smiled, and the glow of his eyes brightened. "You know what I want. You can have the child back if you give me the torc."

Aidan glanced at Flame Song. He had known, from the moment they had begun to descend into the cellar, that this was coming. But faced now with his daughter's life balanced against the worldwide destruction a demon king could cause, he didn't know what to choose.

“If I agree to give you the torc, what will you do?” he asked, trying to buy some time to think.

The demon laughed. "Why nothing at all!" He laughed again, seeming to find something very amusing. "Nothing but watch you die from a death spell, that is. And then I will have my revenge for all the trouble you've caused me. Though it's a shame I won't be able to take the time to kill you slowly."

Aidan felt a flicker of an idea starting to bud at the demon's words. "Why should I give it to you if I'm just going to die as soon as I do?"

Asmodeus laughed. "If you were a demon, you would not. But I've seen how you weak mortal beings care about each other. You risk your lives for your offspring so readily! I am certain that this child is worth the price of your own life, is she not?" He lifted Littlespark a little higher.

The flicker of an idea was crystallizing into a plan. "And how can I trust your word? If I take the torc off and you kill me, what's to stop you then from killing my family as well? Let my daughter go first, and I might consider it."

"No, I think not. If I let her go, you have no reason to give me what I want. But you do not know half the powers of the thing you bear. It was meant to help a demon summoner capture and bind demons. An oath sworn on it is binding, to demon and mortal alike. I will swear on it, and you swear as well."

"And how can I trust that you're telling the truth?"

"If you swear on the torc, I will let your offspring go first," said the demon.

So. Truth then, thought Aidan. He turned to Flame. “Flame Song, when he lets Littlespark go, make sure she's all right, and then take her and run. Don’t stop, and don’t look back. I’ll catch up with you if I can, but if I don’t, go to Coppertop, warn the dwarves.”

“Aidan…” Flame's heart was torn. She couldn't bear to see the demon touching her daughter, but she didn't want her husband to be killed either. And she knew as well as Aidan did what a demon king would mean to the people of this world.

"Trust me," he said softly. "I know what I'm doing. Just get Littlespark out safely." Flame still looked worried, but she did trust him, so she nodded.