The Sun from Both Sides
Novelette 16,497 words Recommended by 4 award/anthology sources
Eva and Didecus lived together happily in exile on an obscure planet, but they were important people once, and the universe has a way of coming looking for important people—even when they thought they were retired.
Content warnings 2
deathslavery
Quasar links out; the story lives on Clarkesworld, where the author gets the click.