That’s when she saw it.
Not feathered. Architectural. Each pinion was a fractal of frozen latticework, radiating a faint, subzero luminescence. She was an Ice Phoenix—the mythical core-driver of the ship’s experimental quantum engine. A living, thinking, feeling singularity. Falling with Ice Phoenix- -v1.00a- -F Project- yu...
Help me fall, or burn up alone.
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. That’s when she saw it
And the Ice Phoenix did.