Aidan turned back to the demon. He put his hand against the blood-warm metal of the torc. "Very well demon." His face was hard as he spoke, and he found that he was almost as angry now as he was afraid. "I swear by this stone that once you have released my daughter and she is out of this room, I will take off the torc. Will that do?"

The glow of the demon's eyes brightened and he smiled in triumph. "Yes, that will do."

"Then let her go."

Asmodeus set Littlespark down on the floor. Flame Song shimmered into human form, darted forward, and scooped the child up.

"Is she all right?" asked Aidan.

Flame looked her over, heard the steady breathing of deep sleep. "She seems to be, yes."

"Then go. Run," said Aidan intensely.

Flame Song turned and ran, Littlespark held close in her arms. She resisted the urge to look back. She could only trust that her husband did indeed know what he was doing.

As soon as Flame left the room, Aidan felt a compulsion. He had some experience with fighting such, and so he managed to slow himself, taking time to carefully and meticulously sheath each dagger, then slowly lifting his hand to his neck. He pressed the hidden catch at the back of the torc, and with a click it came free of his neck and dropped into his hand.

Asmodeus's eyes were glowing brightly and he was grinning. He watched Aidan intently. Aidan felt a strange sort of chill pass over him, and a lurching sensation in his chest, but nothing else happened. He calmly raised his hand and placed the torc back around his neck.

"What?!" The hiss-click of demon speech was stronger under the word. Asmodeus seemed to flicker for a moment, losing control of his human seeming. He went solid again an instant later, and snarled at Aidan. "That should have killed you!"

Aidan laughed. "You can't kill somebody who's already dead." His broad grin showed off his sharply pointed eyeteeth.

Asmodeus hissed. "So. You're undead. Then I can torment you until the end of time!"

"And how will you do that? You can't touch me with your magic, you don't have me outnumbered now, and I'm not a frightened boy any more."

"Well I can still touch your family," snarled the demon, his form flickering again.

"I think not," said Aidan, suddenly filled with cold rage. He drew both daggers and advanced on the demon. Asmodeus backed up a step, a look of uncertainty crossing his face. People didn't attack demons. People didn't fight demons. People ran away from demons! Aidan advanced again, and Asmodeus fell back once more. Aidan backed the demon into the wall, and then leaped, left-hand dagger leading the way.

The battle was brief. Asmodeus couldn't use magic on him, and had no idea how to fight physically. He kept flickering back to his shadow form, but he couldn't even touch Aidan that way, his reaching tentacles simply passing through him with no effect. He solidified and tried to grab Aidan, but Aidan was far faster and more coordinated. He was also an expert knife-fighter, and it wasn't long before he landed a solid blow.

Asmodeus shrieked and bled crimson light. "I will torment you for eternity! I will destroy everything you love! I will haunt and hound you until the end of time, and you will never know peace! I will make you wish that you had died here," howled the demon, the sound of demon speech almost drowning out his words.

"Yeah, sure," said Aidan. He took a step back and threw his left-hand dagger as hard as he could, the blade burying itself nearly to the hilt in the demon's chest. Asmodeus shrieked again and dissolved into shadows, then reformed, the knife still in place. He lifted his hand and power gathered around it. Aidan stood, knowing that the demon's power couldn't touch him, but the demon didn't cast his spell on Aidan. Instead he sent the power lancing upward, where it hit the ceiling with a sound like an explosion. The whole room rocked and then began to fall in.

Aidan spun around and ran for it. The tunnel behind him started to collapse, the roar of falling earth deafening. Aidan ran as fast as he could, and that was very fast, but the whole tunnel was coming down, and the destruction spread faster than he could run. He had almost made it to the place where this side tunnel joined the main tunnel when the falling earth reached him. Loose dirt and chunks of frozen soil rained down around him, battering at him. He fell and the dirt closed over him. The roar of its fall faded, and he was trapped in the silent darkness.

He panicked. He had never been particularly claustrophobic, but the earth around him was crushing, suffocating. Though he didn't actually need to breathe, he found himself struggling to do so anyhow. He clawed at the dirt, trying to dig his way free. After only a moment his hands broke through into open space. The collapse had ended where the side tunnel joined the larger tunnel, just a few feet in front of him. Calmer now, he managed to dig himself free of the tumbled chunks of earth. He ran down the tunnel, heading for the dim glow that marked the spot where the tunnel connected to his home.

He ran quickly through the empty house. The front door hung open and late afternoon sunlight streamed in. Aidan took to the air as soon as he left the entryway. From above he could see a kind of trench running along a formerly level area, the surface sign of where the tunnel had fallen in below. He could also see Flame, her orange hair vivid against the muted greens of grass and moss. He soared after her.

"Flame!"

She looked back and halted. "You're alive!" Aidan dived down and landed next to her. He hugged her and Littlespark too. She was awake, and didn't seem to be in any pain.

"Daddy!"

He smiled at her. "Yep, it's me. Are you all right?"

"I should be asking you that," said Flame "You look awful." Aidan looked himself over. He was covered in dirt and dust and his white wings were no longer white, but dingy gray. He shrugged wryly. “Asmodeus managed to collapse the ceiling on me. But I'm fine."

"What happened? I thought he was going to kill you..."

Aidan laughed. "Sure. With a death spell. But I'm already dead. Every time I've ever heard of an instant death spell, it's been meant to stop somebody's heart. Mine's not exactly beating anyhow, so it didn't hurt me. I couldn't be sure, but I had to risk it, it was the only thing I could think of."

Flame Song suddenly laughed too, though there was a little bit of hysteria in it. “You… Oh I don’t know whether to hit you or kiss you for that! I was so worried about you.”

He smiled. "I'm getting better at taking care of myself. I haven't been rescued in ages now."

"What about the demon? Is he dead?"

Aidan sobered. "I don't know. But considering that he survived being blown to pieces by magic four years ago, and this time all I managed to do was stick a dagger in him I'm not counting on it."

Flame held Littlespark a little bit closer. "What are we going to do then?"

"The first thing we're going to do is go to the dwarves and insist that they collapse the tunnels," said Aidan. "They should have done it when Tara and the Queen's Own helped them drive off the demons in the first place. The next thing... I think I need to find an expert. I want to find a safe way to get rid of this thing so I can get some peace! I am not going to live with demons constantly threatening my family in order to get it."