When they reached the monastery they found that Radu was awake, if still somewhat weak. They told him what had happened, though they left out certain details that weren't really of any concern to him. He welcomed them back with profuse thanks, and profuse apologies for having been unable to help them more.

They stayed at the monastery for another week before Radu was strong enough to send them home.

"Can't you just heal yourself?" asked Flame.

"Ah, if only it were that easy. But the healing gift does not work that way. You can't use it on yourself, only on others. The gods' way of reminding us of our calling."

"Oh."

While they were there, Flame was able to find out what the friends she had made the last time she'd been here were doing. Seymore was the king here now, and ruled fairly well. Lavasida and Brianna had finally managed to have a child, a little girl they had named Hope. Lon had actually found a girl and settled down. He was, apparently, only getting into rowdy bar fights once every few weeks now. Flame chuckled at that. She was glad to hear they were all doing so well, especially Lavasida. She almost wanted to take the time to go and visit him, but she had been away from her own children far too long already.

At last it was time for them to leave. Radu had promised that he would have the demon-slaying dagger ready for them within the year. "I already have the knife to cast it on. I'm very personally acquainted with it by now, in fact," he said, with a wry smile.

"I will send it as soon as it's done. But for now... for now thank you for everything you've done."

"You're welcome," said Aidan. "And I guess at this point we can probably call it even between us, really."

"Quite possibly. Though if there is ever any way I can help you... I'm not sure how easy it is for you to reach my world, but I will always be willing to assist you."

"Thank you."

"And now I'm sure you are more than ready to go home."

"Oh yes."

It took much longer than it had when Jordanis had cast the spell, but eventually Radu was done and the rainbow shimmer hung in the air in front of the monastery.

"Goodbye," said Flame Song.

"Goodbye," Radu replied.

And then they stepped through and were in their own house again. Almost instantly they were in the center of a flurry of hugs and questions. They'd been able to see the portal forming, so all three children were there to welcome them home, with Corinne smiling warmly at them from the couch. It felt like the best thing ever, to be home, to be with their family again, and they both hugged all three children several times before all the hugging was done.

In response to the chorus of questions, Aidan told the children a dramatic, but heavily edited version of the story. They were all suitably impressed, particularly Firedart.

Corinne said her goodbyes and headed home. The rest of that day they passed in ordinary, everyday family activities, and it seemed like heaven to both of them. And when the children had at last been put to bed, they sat together by the fire in warm, comfortable silence for a long time. Flame sat on the low couch and Aidan sat at her feet, his head in her lap.

“It's almost hard to believe that we're home, that this is real.,” Aidan said eventually.

"Yes. It feels like we were gone for years," she replied.

“So much happened,” said Aidan. “And though I might do it over if I had the choice to make again, there’s a few things I could do without.”

“Like…?” asked Flame.

He sighed. “Like, well… when your opposite caught me, she…” he hesitated, wanting to tell her and yet not wanting to. “I… I don’t know how to say this....”

“Knowing what I know about her I can guess. Your double said she would use you like a new toy, and try to break you like one too. But you didn’t break did you?”

“No. She managed to bend me a bit though. I…” he hesitated again. He felt she deserved to know exactly what had happened, but he somehow couldn’t find the words.

She stroked his hair gently, reassuringly, and said softly, “It’s all right. Whatever it is, it’s all right.”

Gradually the story came out. How she had seduced him, used his hunger against him. When he finished he said, “There’s been a lot of wrong done and a lot of forgiveness asked lately, but I need to ask again, can you ever forgive me?”

She continued to stroke his hair as she answered, “If you can forgive me.”

“Of course,” he said softly.

"I'm not sure it should be 'of course,' what you did you didn't really want to do. What I did..." She trailed off. “I found that somehow I had come to love him.” She looked down at her husband whose hair she was still stroking. “Not the same way I love you, not nearly, but I do still love him. Maybe I’ve been human too long, that I can love twice. I’ve told you before that a firecat can give her heart but once. And yet I do love you both.”

He lifted his head and smiled up at her. And if his smile was a little sad, it was also loving, without reservation. “It hurts a little bit, thinking of you with him… but I can’t love you any less because of it.”

“I am sorry. And you are first in my heart, now and always, no matter what.”

“Then nothing else matters,” he said.

There was a long comfortable silence. Both of them just sat there enjoying the peacefulness of the moment. They had reaffirmed their love, and though both might be scarred, both would be able to find healing in each other.

“This whole thing sounds like some wild bard’s tale,” said Flame after a while, “but I can’t decide if it’s a comedy, a tragedy, or a romance.”

“If it’s a romance, it’s the strangest one I ever heard of. My vote would be for comedy. Mistaken identity is a staple of comedic tales, after all. And it ended with us all still alive, so it can't be a tragedy, in a proper tragedy everyone's dead by the end."

Flame Song laughed. “True.”

Aidan sighed again and said, “It really does feel like it’s been forever. I feel like I’m a different person now than the person who was sitting here when that portal interrupted us.”

Flame Song nodded. “Yes, I know what you mean.”

Aidan turned so that he was kneeling in front of her, facing her, and picked up her hand. He kissed it gently, first on the back and then on the palm, and said, “Perhaps we could finish what we were doing when we were so rudely interrupted?”

Flame had closed her eyes at his touch. He could hear her heart begin to beat faster and she answered, “Yes. Yes I think we could.” And when Aidan’s slow and gentle kisses worked their way up her arm, reached the place where the blood rushed close under the soft skin of her neck, and he found the two little marks there that he had not made he hesitated only a moment before he kissed her there too.