Aidan had to laugh. "I suppose we are opposites then. I have spent the last decade trying to find peace and having excitement and adventure despite all I could do."

His twin smiled a little at that. "Well, I don't know if you could call what I found adventure. But it was definitely exciting. She reeled me in like a fish on a line, and I eagerly took the bait. And at first it wasn't much. A half a step outside the law, a harmless little lark, nobody hurt. Pushing the limits, discarding the "arbitrary" rules that were holding me back. A gift of a forbidden spell book..." He trailed off then for a moment, his eyes suddenly darkening with remembered pain. He shook his head. "What harm is there in merely learning about the forbidden magics? And surely it's not that bad to try just one spell... I could have so much power and the price was so tiny! It hardly took me a year to descend from an innocent to a monster." He shook his head. "And then I kept on going. And she did too. She... plays games. That's what we were doing, playing a game." His voice was bitter. "And I wanted to play it, wanted to match her, to show her... I never even thought of the people we played with. They weren't important. All that mattered was trying to get an edge over her, trying..." He trailed off again. "That's what I was trying to do when I became a vampire. I thought it would finally give me the edge to get out from under her. But it didn't. All it did was give her another way to manipulate me."

Aidan blinked. "You turned yourself into a vampire deliberately?"

"Yes. I assume from your tone that you didn't?"

"No! I would have given just about anything to have avoided it! Even now I'm still not sure if I'd turn it down or not, were I given the chance to be mortal again. It was only because Flame Song was there, because she loved me and didn't want me to go, that I didn't kill myself just to end my misery. And because of my daughter. I didn't want to leave her fatherless."

"You have a daughter?" The look in his twin's eyes was surprise mixed with pain.

"Yes. And two sons now as well. She's nine and they are both six, they're twins. I take it you don't have any children?"

He was silent for a long time. Finally he said "No. Not... No, I don't."

There was a long awkward pause. Aidan tried to think of something to say. He got the feeling he didn't want to know what lay behind the pain he could see in his double's eyes. Eventually a thought came to him. "I can't pick this lock, but you're a mage, couldn't you open it and get us out?"

The other Aidan shook his head. "No. I was a complete idiot to do it, but Flame can be very persuasive, and this chamber is sealed very thoroughly. There's no way to cast any kind of spell from inside it. I've tried, believe me. I did a little too good of a job making it."

Aidan sighed. "Oh well. I wish I'd brought my full set of picks, I could have had it open within ten minutes of getting chucked in here. But... oh well."

"Picks?" The other raised an inquisitive eyebrow, which gesture reminded Aidan all over again of how odd it was to be sitting here talking to himself, so to speak.

"Yup. I'm the best thief in all of Tara." He grinned. "Er, retired thief, that is. But I didn't know I'd be dealing with magic when I came here, so I just brought the regular ones. And they're gone now anyhow. I... left them behind somewhere."

"I don't think I would even know where to start, if I had to pick a lock. I'd just magic it. That's what I don't get. Both of our partners are shape-shifters, and seem to have all the same abilities, but we... I mean how is it that I'm a mage, and you're not?"

Aidan shrugged."Don't ask me. We seem to have a lot in common, but there are plenty of differences too. My life story is more or less an exact opposite of yours, I think."

"Tell me about it." The mirror Aidan was suddenly curious about his twin.

Seeing no reason not to, Aidan said, "Well, I was born on Earth. I assume you were too, you talk like it. I was sucked in by a portal and taken to my version of this world when I was fourteen. I thought all my dreams had come true for a while, but... I'm no hero. This wasn't a storybook, and I wasn't the lost heir, or any of that nonsense."

The other chuckled softly. "I thought I was going to be the hero. The dashing young mage who always saves the day. And here I am, the dastardly villain instead." He sighed and shook his head.

"Funny how things don't go how you plan." Aidan smiled. "But once the wonder of being able to fly wore off, I didn't know what to do with myself. I wandered around for a while and ended up in Aerievale. I was an aerian now, so why not? But the only skill I had was stealing. And that doesn't get you much of anywhere. But it was what I knew, and in a way I loved doing it. I still like the chance to use those skills legitimately, when it comes up. Back then though... I didn't care about the law, except for not getting caught, and I certainly didn't care about morality, or about anyone else. I was out for myself! Then I stole something I shouldn't have." He tapped the torc at his neck. "I don't know how you got yours, but mine was swiped, and I was stupid enough to put it on. Or lucky enough, I'm still not sure. They might just have taken it if I hadn't. Or they might have killed me to be sure they got it, I don't know."

"They being the demons."

"Yes. They couldn't magic me, and they couldn't kill me, but they could still hurt me. They carried me off and I guess I can thank whatever gods watch out for thieves and idiots that they're really not very good at torture when they can't use their powers, or it would have been a lot worse. But Flame Song happened to find me, and she pulled me out of there and saved my life. She's saved me I don't even know how many times by now."

His twin was giving him an odd look. "I didn't think that yours could possibly be the same as mine, but it sounds like it is. You've been running around wearing that thing, with no magic to use it, for ten years and you're not dead?!"

Aidan shrugged. "A little more than ten years, actually. But yes. I have a very good ward that a friend cast for me, and it's been sufficient to at least keep my troubles down to a survivable level. Remember what I said about looking for peace and not getting any?"

"I suspect that's the understatement of the year. Gods."

"What about yours?"

"What about it? I made it, I used it, I don't really care for it now but I'm stuck with it."

This time it was Aidan's turn to give his twin an odd look. "You put the spell on that thing and put it on, knowing exactly what it would do?" He didn't say it, but his tone added "Are you insane?"

He shrugged. "It seemed like a good idea at the time. And I could say the same to you. You picked up an unknown magical item and put it on? That's probably every bit as crazy."

"Heh. There is that."