Ice and Fire

'I may be ice: as frigid and deceptively fragile as frost at dawn-an apt crown for aphelion of the tantalising warmth that has ever tempted but never thawed me. Yet I'm also summer: mesmerising menace masked by mirth, debauched bearer of every earthly delight, purveyor of such luminescence that I rival Sol, although I'm damned myself to gloom that only a half-denizen of the Void can know.

'He may be fire: as fervid and dazzlingly ferocious as wildfire at zenith, subjugated to the furious tempest that rages within him, mercilessly as surf ravages scar, demanding immolation on a protean pyre-for whom does he burn tonight? Yet he's also winter: winsome woe of reckoning, scourge to the sublime and dread of the decadent, although all he covets in these worlds are the halcyon days he's due.

'We are both creatures of contradictions. It's why we understand one another. But it's not lost on me that ice and fire cannot mingle without the frailer's demise, that summer and winter never meet anywhere but the Ice. We tried for temperance.

'We failed.'
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What if Cassius and Darrow were lovers? A reimagining of Red Rising, told from Cassius' perspective.
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Crossposted on A03, with commentary over there. See the link in my bio for more information.