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Sterile as Snow
“Dia, calm down, collect yourself! You’re literally burning alive in my arms,” Lussi frets, concerned, as he lands in the ice garden in the royal courtyard. Diamond Vidagol pears and crystal fruits grow, tender to the taste in this orchard of beauty and sorrow.
“I hate you and Lexa’s parents,” I seethe. “Not one goddamn immortal has ever parented well. If – if we had kids, if Malik and Lexa had kids – we’d be different. We’d love our bairns and sing them songs of moondrop fairy lullabies and give them all the treasures of the world. I don’t care if you’re a tyrant to some – you’re a fair ruler. And I’m sick of mock murdering you.”
I walk a pace away from him and sit by the Norn’s fountain, with Lilith, Eisheth, and Agrath carved in Triplakon, giving Chavah’s fruits out in watery spouts of offerings.
I dab at my eyes in anger. I am w
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