FOrging Ash of the Beloved
Book One: Air and Ash and All We Lost
By Jesse Annette
Posted: July 16th, 2026
Approx. Length: 4.6k words
Content Note: 4x Hot
Daria- Presentiment
Austra was more than just off or distracted. She wasn’t just grieving. Something was wrong. Austra didn’t hide fear well. She hid pain and anger, even want. But fear made her pupils go wide and her posture lock too tight, like her body was bracing for impact.
Daria left her sleeping as she went for an early morning jog through the training caverns, and when she returned, she found Austra sitting in the bed staring at the ceiling. Her shoulders jerked like she’d been caught mid-thought, and her eyes slid away too fast. “You’re awake early.”
Austra nodded without looking at her. “Yeah. Just… couldn’t sleep.”
Lie. Too fast. Too brittle. Daria crossed the room slowly, the way she approached skittish animals and armed hostiles, steady, nonthreatening, ready to pivot. She brushed her fingers down Austra’s arm. A touch that usually melted her. This morning, Austra flinched, small, just enough. Daria’s stomach twisted.
“What is going on with you?” she asked softly. “You’re…” She searched for the word. “You’re terrified.”
Austra’s breath caught. She forced a smile so thin it hurt to look at. “I’m fine.”
Daria met her gaze. “You’re lying.”
Austra swallowed. “Daria…”
“No.” Daria stepped in, bracing a hand against the wall beside Austra’s head, blocking the easy escape. “Not now. Not with me.”
Austra’s chest rose too fast. Daria watched her the way she watched battlefields: jaw tension, micro-flinches, breath cadence, eye movement. Fear. Deep, structural fear. The kind that came before losing something. Or someone.
Daria’s voice dropped. “What happened?”
Austra shook her head, eyes bright with unshed tears. “I just… there’s a lot going on. With the squad. With the Collective. With your mother pushing for this meeting…”
“Don’t.” Daria cut in sharply. “Don’t hand me politics when you won’t look me in the eyes.”
Austra froze. Daria lifted her hand, cupping Austra’s cheek, gentle and grounding. “Talk to me.”
Austra’s gaze slid away. “I can’t.”
The word landed harder than shouting ever could. Daria pulled back a fraction, breath tightening. “Can’t,” she said quietly. “Or won’t?”
Austra closed her eyes. Tears gathered, shimmering but contained. “I don’t want to lose you.”
Something in Daria broke and softened at the same time. She caught Austra’s hands, holding them between her own. “Why would you lose me?”
Austra didn’t answer. Her silence begged Daria to stop asking. That scared her more than any truth. Daria leaned in until their foreheads touched.
“Whatever this is, you don’t have to carry it alone.”
Austra inhaled sharply. Then she stepped forward and collapsed into Daria’s arms, clinging to her. Fingers digging into Daria’s back like she was slipping off a ledge. Daria wrapped around her instantly, stroking her hair, feeling the tremor under her skin. Every instinct in Daria screamed to pry. To demand. To drag the truth into daylight. But Austra was shaking. Barely holding herself together. So Daria did the only thing she could.
“I’ve got you,” she whispered. “Whatever this is… I’ve got you.”
Austra made a small, broken sound and held tighter. Daria closed her eyes. Something cold settled beneath her ribs. Austra wasn’t pulling away. She wasn’t wavering about them. She was afraid of an incoming impact. And Daria’s instincts, honed by blood and loss and too many dead, whispered a truth she didn’t want: Whatever Austra was running from…it was already in motion.
Austra- The Order
Daria fell asleep curled against her chest after another night of slow, wrecking tenderness covering panic and dread. It took everything Austra had to slide out from beneath her. She lifted Daria’s arm carefully. Tucked the blankets back around her shoulders. Daria exhaled. Rolled. Slept. Austra pressed a trembling kiss to her temple, then she left.
Left the warmth. Left the only future she wanted. She moved through the tunnels like a ghost…like the operative she had been trained to be. The rebellion was on partial lockdown after Mika’s death with extra patrols, tighter checkpoints. For most people, slipping out unnoticed would have been impossible. But Austra knew how to hug the shadows, use forgotten passages, and slide under a collapsed support beam. She timed her movement to an argument between two outer guards about shift rotations. Within minutes, she was breathing Pyronous night air. Every step deeper into the city felt like tightening a noose.
The Red Ember Bar matched her briefing files exactly. Dirty and crowded; perfect for vanishing. Her mother sat alone in the darkest booth. Hood down with posture immaculate and radiating authority like a gravitational field. Austra stopped breathing. A year and a half…and she looked exactly the same. Her mother didn’t stand as Austra approached her. Didn’t smile. Didn’t reach for her.
“Sit.”
Austra obeyed. The High Commander studied her like a blade left too long in its sheath.
“You look… integrated.”
Austra kept her voice steady. “I’m useful.”
“You’d better be,” her mother said. “The Queen grows impatient.”
Cold slid down Austra’s spine. “What do you need?”
“Final positioning.”
Austra frowned.
“We are striking the GPR.”
The world tilted.
“Our forces move at sundown in seven days. We wipe the main cavern. Eliminate splinter cells. Afterward, we neutralize the Torch Collective.”
Austra’s stomach turned. “And me?”
“You eliminate leadership.”
Her pulse roared.
“The Priestess. Her successors.”
Austra swallowed. “Successors?”
“Her children.”
The words landed like gunshots.
“Daria Cross. Darvin Cross.”
Austra felt hollow. “That’s unnecessary,” she said hoarsely. “If the Priestess falls, Daria could be—”
“Recruited?” her mother snapped. “Pacified? She is her mother’s blood. She will never bend.”
Austra’s hands curled into fists. “You’re wrong. Daria wants peace.”
Her mother’s eyes sharpened. “You speak as if you know her.”
“I do.”
Silence stretched. “Explain.”
Austra walked the thinnest line of her life. “She’s strategic. Protective. She wants Pyronous safe. Not Zephyra destroyed. If the Priestess is removed, she could push for treaty. Coexistence.”
“Peace,” her mother said flatly. “With rebels.”
“Yes.”
Disbelief flickered across the Commander’s face. “She will turn hostile when we strike.”
“Then don’t strike,” Austra said. “Let me —”
“No. The Queen has decided.”
“And the Cross siblings?” Austra whispered. “They don’t have to die.”
“They do.”
“Mother—”
“You have your orders.” The High Commander stood. “Return in three days for infiltration maps.”
Austra stared at her. “And if I refuse?”
Her mother’s gaze turned lethal. “You won’t.” Because in her mind, Austra was still hers. Still a soldier. Still a blade. Still loyal. Then she was gone. Austra sat there shaking. Daria. Darvin. The Priestess. The squad. Her home. She had entered the bar trying to figure out how to confess. She left knowing Zephyra was coming. That the strike was real. That Daria was marked for death.
Austra forced herself to move. Forced herself back through the tunnels. Forced herself inside the mountain. When she reached Daria’s quarters and saw her sleeping, warm and unguarded and alive…A silent, broken sound tore from Austra’s chest. She bit her fist. How do I save you? How do I tell you?
She slid into bed and curled around Daria.
She stirred. “Austra…?”
“I’m here,” Austra whispered. Voice shaking. Heart splitting. “I’m here.”
And she knew that suddenly, she was out of time.
Daria- Shadows
Austra had slipped into a strange, trembling quiet. Daria could tell she was breaking, and she had no idea why. No matter how hard she pushed, Austra wouldn’t let her in. She barely met Daria’s eyes. She moved like a shadow, like her thoughts were miles away, like every breath cost her something. Daria cornered her outside the strategy hollow.
“You’re avoiding me,” she said bluntly.
“No, I’m…”
“Austra,” Daria snapped, stepping directly into her path, “I’m not stupid.”
Austra’s throat bobbed. “I know.”
“Then talk to me.”
Austra’s gaze flicked away. “I’m trying.”
Daria caught her wrist, firm enough that Austra had to stop. “Trying isn’t enough anymore.”
For a heartbeat, Austra looked like she might speak, her mouth opening, breath shaking, then she closed it again. Like the truth was too sharp to touch without bleeding.
Daria felt her frustration spike. “I need to know what’s going on with you.”
Austra whispered, “I just… need time.”
Time. The word landed in Daria’s chest like a misstep in formation.
“How much?” Daria asked quietly.
Austra blinked. “What?”
“How much time,” Daria pressed. “Hours? Days? Until the Collective moves? Until my mother forces this meeting? Until whatever you’re carrying detonates?”
Austra didn’t answer. That was the answer.
Daria released her wrist, jaw tightening. “Time isn’t something we have,” she said with certainty. “Not right now.”
Austra’s shoulders hunched. “I’m not asking you to wait forever.”
“But you’re asking me to wait blind,” Daria said. “And that gets people killed.”
Silence stretched between them, thin and taut.
The next day brought another summons from the Priestess. Her mother’s chamber was suffocating. Too warm. Too quiet. Too full of expectation.
“You delayed contacting the Torch Collective leaders,” the Priestess said, eyes glinting.
“I need more intel,” Daria countered.
“You need conviction.” The words struck like a slap. “The Queen will not weaken herself again,” the Priestess continued sharply. “The Collective is an asset now. We use them, or they will burn us. Set the meeting. Do not stall further.” Then, softer, more dangerous. “You understand the endgame, Daria.”
Daria forced her chin up. “I understand,” she said, though the word tasted like ash. Endgame. Assassination. War. More bodies. More Mikas. What came after the Queen? What came after the strike? What came after she drowned Pyronous in blood because her mother demanded it?
The Priestess gestured sharply. “Dismissed.”
Daria bowed, fists clenched so hard her nails bit into her palms. By the time she reached the corridor outside, her breathing was ragged. She rested her forehead against the wall. What happens after? The question Austra had asked her followed every step. Because Daria didn’t know the answer. And the more she searched for one, the more hollow her future looked.
Training became an outlet, sharp and relentless. The squad felt the shift instantly. Rill faltered under the increased pace. Varn muttered that they were still mourning a friend. Darvin, usually the buffer between Daria and the squad, pulled her aside quietly.
“You’re pushing them too hard,” he murmured.
“They need to be ready.”
“For war?” he asked softly. “Or for something else?”
Daria stiffened. She didn’t answer. Darvin sighed, clapping a hand on her shoulder. “We’re grieving, Daria. We’re not machines.”
She nearly flinched. She knew. Gods, she knew. But pushing them kept her from thinking. From feeling. From drowning in questions she didn’t want answers to. And from watching Austra in the corner of the cavern, trying to look strong while fear rolled off her like heat.
That night, Daria hunted Austra down, firm and urgent. She found her near the outer tunnels, alone, staring at nothing.
“Austra.”
Austra startled, guilt flashing across her face.
Daria crossed her arms. “Talk to me.”
“I… can’t.”
“Then tell me why you can’t.”
Austra’s gaze darted, searching for escape. “It’s complicated.”
“Complicated is not an answer.”
Austra’s breath hitched. “Daria…”
“No.” Daria’s voice broke despite herself. “You promised you’d let me in. You promised you’d trust me. And now you’re…” Her breath caught. “You’re disappearing.”
Austra shook her head violently, tears gathering but not falling. “I just need time to figure things out.”
“Figure what out?” Daria demanded. “Why you look like something is about to tear the world out from under you? Why you’re shaking every time someone mentions the Collective? Why you look like you’re preparing for a goodbye you won’t say?”
Austra crumpled, shoulders shaking with the effort of holding tears back. “Daria,” she whispered, voice breaking, “I’m trying to protect you.”
Daria’s breath stopped. Something cold wrapped around her spine. “From what?” she whispered.
Austra looked at her then, really looked at her, like she was memorizing her. Like she was bracing for something she didn’t want to survive. “I can’t tell you yet,” Austra said, voice shredded. “But I’m choosing you.”
The words struck Daria like an arrow.
Austra reached for her hand, hesitant, trembling. “Please,” she whispered. “Let me choose you.”
Daria’s anger faltered. Her fear sharpened. Her heart ached. She stepped forward and pulled Austra into her arms, holding her fiercely, burying her face in Austra’s hair.
“I don’t want you to choose me,” Daria whispered. “I want you to trust me.”
Austra’s breath trembled against her neck. “I’m trying.”
But Daria heard the truth beneath it. Austra wasn’t just trying. She was breaking, holding everything together by sheer will. Trying to protect Daria from something she couldn’t name. Trying to outrun a truth that was eating her alive.
“You’re hiding something,” Daria whispered.
Austra turned away. “I can’t.”
Daria’s voice cracked. “You always could before.”
Over the next several days, Daria watched her unravel thread by thread. She felt it under her feet, the pressure building, the ground shifting. Austra was carrying something too heavy to hold.
Austra- The Plans
On the third night after her mother ordered her to destroy everything she had grown to love, Austra slipped out of Daria’s room with her breath held. Daria slept curled warm in the blankets, trusting, soft in a way the world never got to see. Austra left anyway. She moved through the tunnels like she used to, silent, efficient, a ghost with a mission. Her stomach churned the entire way.
Outside the Red Ember Bar the air clung damp and cold despite the heat breathing up from the vents. Her heart thrummed so loud she swore it would give her away. Inside, she gave the code to the bartender. He didn’t look at her when he slid a sealed envelope across the bar. The plans. The maps. Austra’s breath left her in one thin, useless exhale. She tucked the envelope under her cloak and slipped into the back alley.
There, with the paper shaking in her hands, the reality landed like a blunt weapon: Her mother didn’t expect results. She expected a purge. A massacre. Austra skimmed the details and tasted bile. Four days…Four days until Zephyra descended on the caverns with steel and fire. Four days until the Crosswinds, her Crosswinds, were slaughtered. Four days until she was ordered to personally kill the woman she loved. And Darvin. And the Priestess. And anyone who tried to stand between Zephyra and dominance.
Austra’s vision blurred. She pressed her forehead to the stone wall until the cold bit. This was the plan she’d been dreading without admitting it. A final strike. A cleansing. She couldn’t let it happen. Not to Daria. Not to Darvin. Not to Rill or Varn. Not after Mika. Not when grief was still fresh on every face. But how did she warn Daria without telling her the truth? How did she say: I didn’t come here by accident. I was sent to spy on you. To betray you. I have lied every day I’ve loved you. And I am choosing you anyway.
Would Daria believe her? Forgive her? Could she?
Austra shoved a fist to her mouth to choke down the sound rising in her chest. She couldn’t lose Daria. Not now. Not after almost a year and a half of nights tangled together. Not after letting herself fall so completely she barely remembered how to breathe without her. But if she did nothing, she would lose her anyway, along with everyone else.
So she started moving. Fast. Boots whispering on stone as she tore through half-lit corridors back toward the GPR tunnels. Each step was a countdown. Each breath a rehearsal. Tell her now. Tell her everything. Tell her so you can fight together. Tell her so she won’t die thinking you never loved her.
Then fear surged hot and choking. What if she sent her away? What if she hated her? What if the truth cut faster than Zephyra’s blades ever could? Austra rounded a corner and saw the faint glow ahead. Home.
Her home…whether she deserved it or not. She stopped just shy of the entrance and let dread paint the worst versions for her: Daria’s eyes going hard and cold. Darvin’s expression turning to stone. Rill stepping between them. Varn’s quiet disappointment. The squad’s betrayal. Her pulse hammered like a death bell. Then she imagined the other outcome. Daria dying in the tunnels. Darvin cut down beside her. The squad fighting hopelessly against Zephyrian soldiers. The Priestess slaughtered. The caverns burning. No.
No. No. No. She would not let Zephyra take Daria. She would not let her mother write Daria’s death sentence. Austra clenched her fists until her fingers ached. She would tell Daria. She would save the squad. She would stop Zephyra. She would find a way to take the Priestess out of the equation without handing Pyronous to chaos. She would put Daria where she belonged, leading the GPR toward peace, not annihilation. And maybe…maybe…she could still save herself too.
“Please,” she whispered to the stone, to the mountain, to whatever gods still listened. “Just let her hear me.”
Then she rushed toward the cavern entrance, heart hammering. Four days left. And everything was already cracking.
Daria- Confession
Austra had been vibrating all day. Daria felt her in the space between breaths. In the half-beat hitch in her steps. In the way her gaze slid away whenever Daria drew too close. Like a tinderbox waiting for a spark. By the time night fell, Daria’s nerves were stripped raw. She found Austra in their quarters, sitting on the edge of the bed, hands tangled in her hair, staring at the floor like she was bracing for impact.
“Austra.”
Austra jerked, startled.
Daria closed the door. Slowly. Quietly. “What is going on with you?”
“I…Daria, I’m…”
“No.” Daria’s voice snapped hard enough to surprise even herself. “You don’t get to do this. You don’t get to unravel in front of me and then tell me nothing.”
Austra flinched. Good. Because Daria had been flinching for weeks. She crossed the room in three strides and caught Austra’s chin, firm enough that Austra’s breath stuttered.
“Look at me.”
Austra lifted her gaze. Her eyes were glassy. Wide. Terrified. Wrong.
“Austra,” Daria said, quieter now, “something is coming. You feel like a storm about to break. Talk to me.”
Austra shook her head, breath trembling. “I don’t know where to start.”
“Start anywhere.”
“I can’t.”
“Then I’ll make you.”
Daria shoved her backward onto the bed and climbed over her before she could think better of it, straddling Austra’s hips, one hand sliding to her shoulder, holding her there. Anchoring. The other hand braced beside Austra’s head. Austra gasped. She didn’t fight. She didn’t push Daria away. She let the distraction build in her silence.
“Tell me,” Daria demanded, face inches from hers. “Tell me why you’re shaking. Tell me what you’re hiding. Tell me what you’re afraid of.”
A shudder rolled through Austra’s body. Then she broke. “I’m afraid of losing you.”
The words hit Daria like a physical blow. Austra surged forward, fists clutching Daria’s shirt as Daria’s legs wrapped around Austra’s waist, sitting on her lap.
“I’m afraid of losing you to Zephyra, or the Collective, or, gods, just losing you because I say the wrong thing too late.” Her breath hitched. “I’m terrified, Daria.”
Daria leaned closer to her without meaning to, their foreheads nearly touching. Tension burst out of Austra in gusts of air around her shoulders.
Austra kept going, voice unraveling now. “I can’t lose you. I can’t, after everything, after Mika and the Collective, after more than a year of falling and trying not to fall, I can’t…because I…” Her voice shattered. Tears finally spilled as she exhaled, “I love you.”
The world stopped. Austra froze the instant the words left her mouth. Horror. Hope. Devastation. All at once. Daria crashed forward and kissed her. Hard. Desperate. Devoted. Austra’s air magic burst between them in a sharp gust.
Daria’s mouth moved down Austra’s throat, to her collarbone, biting gently at her shoulder. Her hands slid beneath her clothes, pulling fabric aside with impatience. When Daria returned to her lips, Austra sobbed into the kiss, tiny, broken sounds that shattered Daria and rebuilt her in the same breath.
“Austra…” Daria breathed against her lips as Austra’s nails scraped up her back. Little prickles of flame were left in the shadow of her fingers. Austra broke the kiss to tug Daria’s shirt over her head and tossed it away, hands trailing over her bare skin and settling on her breasts. Orange sparks crawled up Daria’s spine, her hair glowing with ember warmth.
Daria let the flames grow at her fingertips as she tenderly traced a scorched path through Austra’s top, tugging it off at the burnt seams. Austra looked at her as if she were holy, as if she were a glowing angel saving her from her pain. Daria shoved her backwards onto the bed and straddled her, grinding into her as their eyes locked and Austra moaned beneath her. Flames crested her shoulders and rippled across her back, and she kissed Austra like she’d been drowning for months. Kissed her like the confession had been a torch lighting a cavern she’d pretended was dark. Daria relished in her, biting gently at her shoulder, hands massaging her breasts.
Austra arched into her. “Daria—”
Daria shivered. She leaned back as her hands wandered over Austra’s body, taking in the storm of a woman beneath her. She caught the shadow in Austra’s gaze when their eyes locked, then sighed and leaned in to nibble at her ear while her hands tangled in her hair. She realized Austra was still hiding something beneath her love and want. “How can you be so closed-off,” she whispered, “and still look at me like you need me more than air?”
“Because I do,” Austra breathed, her nails digging into Daria’s back as she arched into her and buried her face in Daria’s neck. “I love you,” Austra whispered again.
Daria lifted Austra’s chin to look at her with that damn shadow still lingering in her eyes. She swallowed the words with a kiss, deep and slow. She did not say them back, because they were too true. Because saying I love you back, right now, felt like sealing a pact she didn’t fully understand, like stepping forward while the ground beneath them was already cracking. She pinned Austra’s shoulders beneath her as she leaned back to take in the view of her.
She let the flames around her grow as her hands left trails of sparks over Austra’s skin. Austra’s eyes fluttered closed as she moaned softly, the wind around her creating firestorms across her skin in the wake of Daria’s touch. Daria could feel the tension under Austra’s skin. The way her breath hitched like she was bracing for impact. The way she clung, not just for closeness, but for reassurance against something she wouldn’t name. And still, she was staggered by the devotion sewn into every inch of Austra’s body as she writhed beneath her, moaning her name.
Daria loved her…and that was exactly why she didn’t say it. Instead, she showed her love in the easiest way she knew how; she poured the truth into the pressure of her body on top of her. Into the heat of her tongue against her skin. Into the way her hands gripped her shoulders, pinned her into this moment, kept Austra here. If Austra was afraid of losing her, Daria would make that fear impossible to believe. She kissed every trembling breath. Touched every place Austra held tension.
She tore off the rest of their clothes and then pinned Austra’s wrists above her head with one hand, while the other traced down her body with reverence she didn’t have language for. Her flames licked over her torso and gently brushed across Austra’s skin as her fingers traced lazy patterns down her abdomen. Daria nearly moaned when the flames at her fingers were dampened by the wetness between Austra’s thighs.
Austra looked up at her, glass-eyed, hopeful, wrecked. “Daria…”
Daria lowered her forehead to hers as her flames started to wrap around Austra. “I’m here,” she said. “I’m right here.”
Her hand pressed harder between Austra’s thighs, slow, grounding, intimate, an answer in flesh if not in words. Austra’s breath hitched. And Daria whispered, voice low and fierce as her flames fully engulfed them tenderly on the bed, “Whatever you’re afraid of, I’m not letting it take you from me.”
It wasn’t I love you. But it was the boundary she could hold without breaking them both. Because Daria loved her. And until Austra stopped hiding…this was how Daria could say it. She lingered in the look on Austra’s face as she slid her fingers slowly inside her, memorized the sound Austra made for her as she bucked up into her.
She released Austra’s wrists above her head to massage her breast, and Austra’s hands immediately tangled in Daria’s hair, pulling her into a deep kiss. As she moved inside her, Austra’s wind tore across the cavern in a dance with Daria’s flames.
Austra broke, release and shadows tangling together, and Daria held her through the unraveling, kissing her again, and again, and again. She caressed her gently with molten sparks, kissing each inch of skin as if committing her to memory.
Austra whispered, shaking, “Daria, you’re… everything.”
Daria stilled. She kissed Austra deeply and said against her mouth, “And you are mine.”
Austra lit up with warmth and sorrow. Daria kissed her like a vow she would never speak aloud. Like something sacred. Like she was giving pieces of herself she had sworn never to give anyone. Her fingers tangled in Austra’s hair as she trailed nips and kisses down Austra’s throat and over her breasts. Austra’s breath hitched and she could feel the warmth rising in her again.
She pulled back and knelt above Austra for a moment, gutted by her love for this women, then she lowered her head between Austra’s thighs and devoured her with smoldering heat, her fingers interlacing Austra’s as she undulated beneath her. Tiny cyclones erupted around Austra and entwined with Daria’s flames as she crested into her.
Austra pulled Daria on top of her, Austra’s hands roaming and mingling with the flames across Daria’s skin as Austra kissed her deeply. A rough moan escaped Daria as Austra’s fingers traced a path toward her thighs, and she bit Austra’s lip. Heat rose further as Austra’s wind pushed Daria harder onto her, fingers dancing mesmerizingly between her thighs. When Daria broke their kiss to lock eyes with Austra, she lost all control and exploded into molten rivers around Austra, who held all her fire with adoration.
Daria collapsed on top of her as Austra wrapped around her with devotion. She kissed the side of Daria’s neck once, and whispered into her ear, “I love you, Daria.”
Daria held her harder than she ever had. Because whatever was coming was close. Because Austra was fraying. Because Daria’s heart had already chosen her, whether she said it or not.
© 2026 Jesse Annette. All rights reserved.
Forging Ash of the Beloved 
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