Alex hurried to the room where his wife lay exhausted on their bed. She was hidden- almost completely- by an elaborately-embroidered coverlet, leaving just her face, and the red one of their child, exposed. The rain had stopped outside, and the clouds had miraculously cleared. Alexandru rushed to the bedside and knelt beside his wife.

“It is a daughter then?” he asked, his eyes shimmering in the rosy light of the new day. His wife nodded, her mouth curling into a slight frown. “No, no… don’t fret, my love. We will call her Aurora, after the morning sun she has brought us. Soon she will have a brother.” Doina nodded, but her face remained disappointed. The scarlet, pinched child in her arms opened its tiny mouth in a long yawn, and Alex laughed.

“She is the most beautiful child in all Pannonia.” she crooned, smiling to herself, finally happy with the daughter God had given her. She would raise her daughter to marry well, possibly a son of the great king, Alaric.

“My little princess Aurora.”