Inferno

Star-children aren't an oddity, but Ember, volatile like fire, born of death and new light, sure is-a very troublesome, talkative one, who has been kidnapped (twice) by a very miffed warrior, survivor of an apocalypse yet to come.
Duly named Miff, said warrior has the mission of challenging Time itself and its rule over History. After a first merciful, failed attempt he must find another way to avoid the rise of a tyrant to lunacy.
To avoid Inferno.
Two stubborn people on the run from governments and monsters, from the past that becomes the future, with the task of saving the universe twice-once each. If they don't drive each other crazy first.

Focusing on the interactions between Ember and Miff, this novelette places weight on their conversations and makes use of well-loved tropes, like time travel, reluctant allies to reluctant friends, self-fulfilling prophecies and the struggle against fate, to explore how the burden of society's greed and expectations brings about the downfall of the individual and of itself.