Falling With Ice Phoenix- -v1.00a- -f Project- Yu... (2025)

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

She took the hand.

Lian sat up, shivering but alive. “What happens now? Version 1.00a?”

“You’re repairing me,” Ysandre whispered. “With your… anger?” Falling with Ice Phoenix- -v1.00a- -F Project- yu...

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.

The cold was absolute. It didn’t just touch her skin—it entered her memories, her fears, her heartbeat. She saw the Phoenix’s past: a creature born in a vacuum-sealed lab, given a name (Ysandre), given a purpose (fly), and denied a single touch for ten millennia. She saw the F Project ’s true goal: to create a god that could endure the silence between stars, then be decommissioned like a broken thruster. The Ice Phoenix looked at her hands—no longer

No, Lian thought fiercely into the link. Not a god. Not a tool.

She smiled. A single, perfect tear of starlight slid down her cheek and froze into a tiny, perfect feather.

“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.” Lian sat up, shivering but alive

F Project Status: No longer a project. Now a beginning.

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