Fortunately they arrived at Corinne’s house without further incident. Flame knocked softly on the door, and a tall, willowy woman with long silver hair answered it. There was a hint of slant to her eyes, a touch of a point on her ears, and Aidan realized she was a half-elf.

“Flame Song! I didn’t think to see you again so soon,” she said. “Come in, come in.” She motioned them into her house. “Ariana is playing out back, Spark, if you want to go see her,” she added. Littlespark looked up at her mother who nodded permission. She darted off with a happy giggle. Then Corinne turned her attention back to Flame Song. “What brings you here?”

Flame grinned. “I’m here on business.”

“Ah! How wonderful,” she said with a twinkle. “And who is this handsome young man?”

“Corinne, this is my husband Aidan. Aidan, meet Corinne.”

Corinne held out her hand and Aidan had a moment of awkwardness. He didn’t want to shake it, since the cleric’s touch would be rather painful, but he didn’t want to be rude either. Corinne dropped her hand and looked at him oddly when he didn’t take it.

“Er, I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be rude,” said Aidan, trying to think of the best way to explain himself. “It’s just that I, um…” Bother, he thought, how do you explain to a cleric that you can’t shake her hand because you’re a vampire?

Corinne looked at him closely, head cocked to one side in a birdlike gesture. Then her eyes widened. “Oh! You should have mentioned he was a vampire, Flame. I've never met one before."

Flame shrugged and smiled. “I'm sorry, I suppose I should have. But now that the introductions are done with, I'd like to get back to the reason I'm here."

“Oh yes! You said you’re here on business, does that mean what I think it means?”

“You tell me,” said Flame. Corinne brushed a strand of silver hair out of her eyes and placed one hand of Flame’s flat stomach. She paused for a long moment, and she seemed to be listening intently. When she looked up she had a wide smile on her fine-boned features.

“My dear, you are indeed in a family way.”

“Can you tell if it’s a boy or a girl yet?” asked Aidan.

Corinne laughed delightedly. “Well, one of them is definitely a boy, the other I’m not quite certain about.”

Aidan’s eyes went wide. “Wait a minute, you’re saying there’s two?”

“Congratulations, you’re having twins,” said the half-elven woman with a twinkle in her eyes.

Aidan shook his head in amazement. “Twins!” Then he asked, “Why can’t you tell what the second one will be?”

“Because most of my patients are at least humanoid, but your wife is not. The little boy is a half-and-half, like your daughter, but the other one seems to be all cat. My guess would be that it’s also a boy, but I’m not as familiar with feline physiognomy, and they are only about a month along, so I can’t be sure. Come back in another month and I will be able to tell you for certain.”

“We’ll be sure to come regularly,” said Flame. Then she turned to Aidan and her smile was radiant. “Twins! I can hardly believe it.”

An hour or so later the couple departed, daughter in tow. Corinne had given them a great deal of good advice. Flame was very glad she’d met her. She had tried not to show it at the time, but having Littlespark all alone without anyone to tell her what to expect had been a frightening experience. Only the fact that Aidan had been so panicked had kept her from panicking herself. Keeping a calm facade for his sake had somehow helped her to become truly calm.

Aidan was just glad that the woman had been so accepting of their odd family. He’d met people who were disgusted at the thought of having a non-humanoid like Flame for a wife, or at the idea of her being married to a vampire, but Corinne hadn’t batted an eye at either situation.

They passed through the market square, now empty as the sun set, and Aidan though of one person who was definitely not so tolerant. But the manic preacher didn’t put in an appearance, and the three of them made their way back to the inn without incident. There was no reason for them to stay, so they just returned the key and headed home.