I wrote this into response to Alicia's most excellent Nocturne series (now finished!) and hope eveyone likes it. Standard disclaimers.
Through Fire
by Riana
fire burns
scorching soft fragile flesh
too tender to stand the flames
and survive;
but fire burns
forging cold steel
razor edged
in brilliant deadly perfection
never yielding
until past the point
when even the strongest steel
shatters
into a thousand pieces
like a knife through the tenderest
heart.