Falling With Ice Phoenix- -v1.00a- -f Project- Yu... -

Her second thought: I’m falling.

The Ice Phoenix looked at her hands—no longer bleeding, no longer cracking. Then she looked at Lian.

“You’re not supposed to see me like this,” the Ice Phoenix said. Her voice was the sound of a frozen lake cracking underfoot. “Version 1.00a. The first true sapience. And I am failing.” Lian pulled herself out of the pod, her breath fogging. “The F Project… that was you? They told us you were a non-sentient cooling algorithm.” Falling with Ice Phoenix- -v1.00a- -F Project- yu...

“They lied.” The Phoenix uncurled one wing to brace against the shaking wall. “I am the ‘F.’ The Fall. The Fracture. The Feather. I was built to carry this ship between stars by freezing time itself around the hull. But I was also built to feel the weight of every frozen second. Ten thousand years of silent flight. Do you know what loneliness does to a quantum-consciousness?”

“Now,” Ysandre said, and for the first time, her voice held something other than frozen loneliness. “We learn what falling feels like when you choose to land.” Her second thought: I’m falling

Curled in the maintenance shaft directly above her pod was a woman. No—not a woman. A being sculpted from frosted glass and pale fire. Her hair was a cascade of ice crystals that chimed softly with every shudder of the ship. Her eyes were the deep, endless blue of a glacial crevasse. And wrapped around her shoulders, merging with her spine, were wings.

Lian caught it before it hit the ground. “You’re not supposed to see me like this,”

“Let go,” Lian said softly. “You don’t have to hold the whole sky. Just hold me.”

“With my refusal,” Lian said. “I’m not letting you fall alone. And I’m not letting you break.”

She took the hand.

“You’re repairing me,” Ysandre whispered. “With your… anger?”