Aidan awoke again as the sun disappeared below the horizon. He yawned and sat up, looking over at the girl still sitting in the opposite corner. Her head leaned on her drawn-up knees and he realized that she was asleep. He got to his feet and stretched. The sense of complete calm was still with him. It was a bit strange to be in such dire circumstances and feel so at peace, but he was. He stretched out his wings, though he couldn't quite stretch them to their full span unless he wanted to stand in the exact center of the room and stretch them out towards diagonal corners, which seemed like far too much effort. He did wish he was out of this confining cell and back with his wife, but since he was stuck here he might as well make the best of it. I’ve come a long way, he thought, suddenly remembering his helpless despair all those years ago when the Tyrant Tara had held him prisoner. But there’s still a long way to go.

He glanced again at the girl and found her awake and staring at him. He folded his wings and smiled at her. “You know, I don’t even know your name,” he said.

“I’m Celia,” she said. “Are you really from another world?”

“Yes,” he replied, “I am. Not that it’s much different from your world, really.”

“Are you…? I saw you sleeping and it looked like you weren’t breathing. Are you a vampire?”

He sighed, needing to deliberately draw breath in order to do so. “Yes, I am.”

“But you said you wouldn’t hurt me,” she said, fear returning to her voice.

“I did, and I meant it. I won’t touch you. I promise.”

“I thought vampires had to have blood every night.”

He shook his head. “Not every night, no. I can go some time without feeding. And when I’ve given my word, I keep it. I won’t touch you.”

There was a long pause, and Aidan could tell Celia was thinking. At last she said, "I thought that all vampires were evil people."

Aidan chuckled softly. "Vampires are like anybody else, some are good and some are bad. The bad ones just tend to be more famous."

"Oh. But if you're good, why did you want to be a vampire?"

Aidan laughed. “I didn’t exactly have a choice. It was the last thing I wanted.”

“Oh.” She was silent again for a while, then opened her mouth to ask another question. Before she could they both heard footsteps and voices in the room outside. A moment later the door opened and someone was literally thrown into the room. Aidan and Celia both gaped, for it was the mirror Aidan. He picked himself up gingerly from where he’d landed. “You big oaf,” he muttered at the gnoll, who was already closing the cell door.

Celia stared at the mirror Aidan, the terrified look back in her eyes. She got to her feet and, staying as far as she could from where he stood in the center of the room, she made her way around until she was standing by the other Aidan’s side. “You were telling the truth, you really are his twin,” she said.

“Yes,” he replied, and put his arm around her protectively.

His double looked at them wordlessly. Then he crossed the room to the corner Celia had jut vacated and sat down. He looked downright depressed. Aidan, rather puzzled by his double’s presence, asked him, “What are you doing in here?”

“I’m in the dog house with Flame,” came the reply. “I’ve gone and ruined her little game, and she’s not at all happy about it.” He sighed. “There are days when I wish fervently I’d never met her, and this is definitely one of them.”

Aidan smiled wryly. “I can second that motion. I wish I’d never come here.” Then a thought occurred to him. “How was my wife? I presume she got the secret of how you’ve been spying on Radu from you."

"She..." a haunted look came into his eyes. "You... you probably will want to kill me. I didn't really think that..." He trailed off. Then he said, very, very softly, "I'm sorry."

Aidan's eyes blazed and he got to his feet and stepped forward with anger in every line of his body. "What did you do to her? If you killed her, I won't just want to kill you, I'll do it!" His fangs were bared, his wings half spread, and Celia shrank away from his sudden rage.

His twin flinched. "She lived when I last saw her, and I think that she'll survive, but not because of any action of mine." He put his head in his hands. "I'm sorry," he said again. "I had almost forgotten what regret felt like. But I hurt her, and I didn't want to, I didn't mean to. I could almost kill myself because of it. What have I become? Regret... gods, suddenly I feel like I could drown in it, and what I did to her feels like the worst of all that I've done." He looked up at Aidan, and Aidan was startled to see that there were tears on his twin's cheeks. "I'm so very sorry."

Aidan's expression softened, his anger draining away. "I guess I won't kill you then."

The other sighed softly. "It might be better if you did. Maybe like Van Helsing with Lucy, it would purify my soul. Though probably not. I've done much worse than she ever did."

Celia spoke up in the silence that followed. “I don’t understand. What are you talking about?”

"His wife," said the mirror Aidan. "Flame Song's twin as he is mine. And as he's a good person and I'm an evil one... well, my Flame Song is the most evil person I've ever met, and I think that his Flame Song is the most good. And I hurt her... After the kindness she showed me." His eyes teared again. "I came close to killing her, and she still just felt sorry for me."

"She is the best person I ever met too," said Aidan, sitting back down. "She is everything to me. Without her I'd probably have died in a gutter, good for nothing and amounting to nothing."

"Heh. And without my Flame I'd probably be living a perfectly wonderful life somewhere, probably teaching magic, mortal yet and without any stains on my soul." He put his head down again, a picture of utter misery.

"What did she do to you?" asked Aidan softly. His twin looked up at him, his eyes dark.

"What didn't she do? But mostly she did what I am sure she has tried to do with you. What she's doing right now with this girl here." He gestured at Celia. "She got me to take one step into the darkness. And then one step more. Every one of them seemed like it wasn't that bad. And she made them sound so good! I can remember... Gods. I can remember what it was like to feel uncomfortable, to know that something was wrong. But she convinced me that it wasn't all that wrong, and so I did it anyhow. One thing at a time, until I reached damnation.

"I was a good person once. Or at least not a bad person. I was only nineteen when I met her. It seems like an eternity ago. More than a third of my life spent with her now. I was a student, and as students often are, I was bored. Magic had been fascinating to me at fist, but after a few years it became easy, everyday, boring. I wanted more. I wanted excitement and adventure!"