All that night and into the next day his thoughts spun and churned. He normally would have slept during daylight, but his pain and guilt wouldn't let him. He thought over not only this fresh betrayal but also his one night with Shauna, and he thought too of every other weakness, of every wrong done, of every excuse that justified them. He turned his long list of faults over and over and over in his mind. He dozed fitfully for a time, but when the sun set he woke with the same litany of failures running through his head. That second night was long, and painful. He examined his many excuses with pitiless honesty. He thought of his justifications, of the reasons why, in the heat of the moment, he allowed himself to put wrong and right from his mind. He examined each one and found it wanting, rejected it. And when the sun finally rose he had reached a state of calm. He had never faced himself like that before. He had always blamed the outside world, and fought and railed against it for all his problem. But each and every problem, from his pain and grief at his betrayal, to his imprisonment here, to even the attacks and threats of the demon Asmodeus, all these things were not the fault of some distant god of fate. They were his fault. They were things that happened because of his choices. They were the consequences of his actions. They might not be just, or fair, but they were still his responsibility, and no other's.

Finally understanding, he was able to let his pain fall away. He took responsibility for what he had done. He would face the consequences of it, hard as they might be. He would no longer believe the excuses he told himself that said his actions weren't his fault. They were, always. He knew he might still sometimes listen to those excuses, might still fall short in his actions, but he would no longer place the blame on anyone but himself. And with that knowledge came peace, deep and profound and still. As the sun slipped above the unseen horizon he slept, deeply and peacefully and without dreams.

So when the door opened showing the dark Flame Song and her gnoll servant standing in the hallway he didn’t react with the fear and confusion that might have otherwise filled him. The calm he’d found was deeply rooted and not easily upset. He felt he could accept anything that came. What did come was a little bit surprising, though he might have anticipated it had he thought. Flame Song wanted to break him, to bend him to her will. And so she had played on his weaknesses, his hunger, his low resistance to temptation, and gotten him to do something that ran against his nature, something wrong, even evil. She wanted to humiliate him and make him think he was helpless in her power. And now that she’d gotten him to give in to her in one way, commit one evil, she was trying another tack.

The gnoll held a girl with her hands tied behind her back. She was young, about fifteen or sixteen years old, with blond hair and brown eyes that were wide with terror. The creature propelled her into the cell. She stumbled and fell but couldn’t catch herself with her hands tied. Aidan darted forward and caught her before she could hit her head. He looked up at the mirror Flame Song questioningly.

She smiled down at him with a malicious gleam in her eyes. “I thought you might appreciate a meal, so I’ve brought you one. Enjoy.” And with that she turned and left, the door shutting firmly behind her.

Aidan gently put the girl down on the floor. She continued to stare at him with that look of wide-eyed terror. He dug out his tiny hidden belt dagger, having left the less obvious boot dagger and the lock picks with his boots, which were presumably still in Flame Song's bedroom. With one quick slash he cut the rope that tied her. He re-sheathed the knife and stepped back to give her some space, going to stand in one corner. The girl didn’t get up; she just scooted to the opposite corner of the room. She pressed against the wall as if she would melt back into it to get away from him.

"It's all right, I won't hurt you, I promise," he said softly, gently.

She just pressed back against the wall harder, hugging her knees in a fetal position.

“Here now, you’re over there and I promise I’ll stay over here. In fact,” he said as he again pulled out his hidden dagger, “I’ll let you have this. If I take even one step in your direction you can peg me with it.” He put the dagger on the floor and slid it across the room. It came to a halt a foot in front of the girl. She looked at it for a moment as if it might bite her, and then snatched it up.

“Why did you give me this? You’re Aidan, right? Aren’t you going to… to…” she couldn’t finish the sentence, though Aidan was sure the unspoken words had to do with his vampirism.

He sighed. “No, I’m not. And I’m not Aidan either. At least not the one you’re thinking of. You could say I’m his twin.”

“You’re not Aidan?” She was still terrified, but she was also a little bit curious.

“No.”

"Then who are you?”

“Well, that’s a rather complicated question. My name is actually Aidan. I’m from another world, one that’s a kind of mirror of this one. So I’m a mirror of the other Aidan.”

“Oh.”

“You don’t have to trust me, in fact it would be better if you didn’t. I’ll just stay over here and you can stay over there and we’ll both be safe.”

He sat down in his corner and leaned his head against the wall. He could sense the sun, still beneath the horizon but steadily rising towards it. Sunrise was only an hour or so away. They sat, each in silence, Aidan feeling calm still, but also saddened, and weary. The girl obviously feeling nervous, but at least no longer looking utterly terrified. Eventually he sensed the sun meeting the horizon, though no hint of its light reached into the cell. With the sun rising higher in the sky a deep tiredness and lethargy stole over him and it wasn’t long before he fell asleep.

Sometime during the day he came halfway awake, dimly aware of a presence looming over him. It took a moment for his brain, still fogged with sleep, to realize who it was. The girl, whose name he still didn’t know, was standing over him, no doubt with his dagger clutched in her hand. He remained still, keeping his eyes closed and waiting to see what she would do. She stood there for a very long time before she turned and retreated to the far corner. Aidan relaxed and went back to sleep.