[Alia huffs softly, indignant, nearly, even as she buries her face against the man’s chest, breathes in the unfamiliar scent of him, the unfamiliar shape pressed to her own body. She doesn’t pull away, just jerks up her hands to cover her ears after another resonating crack of the fireworks overhead. Her mind knows it can’t be stone burners, it can’t, those are for Arrakis and the galaxy she knows.
But her body still shivers, presses closer.] He was never meant to be happy. Neither of us were. [Alia squeezes her eyes closed, thinks of the children, of the desert, of the empty space after her brother had vanished among the sands.] But he’s my brother. It isn’t fair.
[Tipping her chin upwards, Alia’s wide eyes catch the man’s, distraught and pained and helpless.] Why not someone else? Why him?
no subject
But her body still shivers, presses closer.] He was never meant to be happy. Neither of us were. [Alia squeezes her eyes closed, thinks of the children, of the desert, of the empty space after her brother had vanished among the sands.] But he’s my brother. It isn’t fair.
[Tipping her chin upwards, Alia’s wide eyes catch the man’s, distraught and pained and helpless.] Why not someone else? Why him?