It was just short of a year later when they found a packet sitting on the couch, with a small card attached that read "For Aidan and Flame Song, from Radu." Aidan shifted the baby from one arm to the other, and went to pick it up, but stopped just before he touched it. He could feel a kind of prickling heat radiating from it. "I think you'd better unwrap it. I get the feeling that I don't want to touch it any more than I have to."

Flame chuckled and walked over. She opened the packet up. Inside was Aidan's dagger, looking just the same as it always had. There was also a folded sheet of paper. Flame set the dagger aside and opened it.

My dear friends,
I write to tell you some news I thought you might like to know. Aidan and Celia have both joined my order and are both, each in their own way, proving to be invaluable. Aidan has done more than I can say for us, though at first I was suspicious of his change of heart. But when he willingly consented to be tested by truth spell I quickly became convinced. It is amazing how much he has changed. Flame Song, I am sad to say, has not, but without his help she has done much less harm. Some nine months after you left she had a child, a little girl. Aidan tells me he is fairly certain it isn't his, but as the girl is his spitting image I can perhaps guess at her parentage. Aidan and Celia mounted an expedition to kidnap the child, and while I ordinarily would not approve of taking an infant from its mother, in this case I felt it was the right thing to do. No child should have to grow up in the care of such evil. So the girl is here. Her mother named her Shadowfire.

Celia has been mothering her. She has also been giving Aidan a great many significant looks, which he seems to be oblivious to. Eventually, however, he is bound to notice, and I think I may be performing a wedding before long. If you want to make the trip between worlds again you will certainly be invited. I hope all is well with you. May all the gods bless you.

Sincerely,
Radu cel Stranic

“Well,” said Aidan, “much as I’d like to see that wedding, I have no desire to go back there. I hope he’s happy with her though.”

“Do you think he will be?”

He shrugged. “I could never be happy with anyone but you, but in his case who knows?”

"I wonder if it means anything, that the girls both have the same name," said Flame. "I wonder if they'll be opposites too?"

“Who knows? Maybe someday they’ll meet and find out.” He gently bounced the little dark-haired aerian girl. She giggled happily and grinned toothlessly.

“Does it bother you, not being sure if she’s yours?” asked Flame Song. She’d been wondering that since they’d first discovered she was pregnant again, but somehow she’d never found the right time to ask.

“Not really. And there’s no way for us to tell anyhow, so why worry about it?” The peace he’d found a year ago in that little cell was still with him. It had been shaken, perhaps, by the events that followed so soon after, but had held and he found that he could take whatever life threw at him with surprising calm. Though that might be tested even further by what was to come.

He handed Shadowfire to Flame Song and looked down at the dagger. He didn't make any attempt to touch the blade, but he reached out to take the hilt. The warmth turned into a pricking, almost-but-not-quite burning sensation as he touched it. It was not exactly pleasant, but it wasn't unbearable either.

He pulled the dagger he'd been using from its sheath and set it aside. He sheathed this newly magical blade in its place. The pricking faded to that slightly uncomfortable warmth as he let go of it.

"Are you going to be able to use it?" asked Flame.

He nodded. "Looks like."

"So... you're going to have to go hunt down the demon then."

He nodded again, soberly. "Yes. But not right now," he added with a smile. "I want to be here for Shadowfire's first year, at least. We should be fine for that long, after how long we've lived with this. But then..."

She nodded. She looked worried, but she knew it had to be done.

“Hey Daddy!” Littlespark came running into the room, interrupting their conversation. “Look, I did a picture of us!” She brandished a sheet of paper. Aidan took the picture from his oldest daughter. Drawn in a childish but increasingly accurate hand was a picture of all six of them. There he was with his arm around Flame Song’s furry firecat shoulders. Littlespark had included herself in her half-and-half birth form, and Firedart was drawn the same way. Standing on all fours in front was Phoenixflare, his orange wings folded against his sides. And lastly there was little Shadowfire, cradled in Aidan’s other arm.

Aidan looked at it for a long time. Right there was everything in the whole world that mattered. His heart was suddenly full. He felt as though he’d come through the fire last year and now he appreciated what he had more than ever, because he’d come so close to losing it all. He might yet lose it, there was a long way yet to go, but for now he had everything he could possibly want.

“Do you like it Daddy?” asked Spark.

“Yes,” he replied, trying to keep his voice from choking up. “I like it very much.”