Slowburn | Enemies to lovers | dark romance | false prophets | Space Opera | triangle | strong femme characters | eventual Romance | Eventual smut |
A desperate Baron.
A yearning Duke.
A woman who weaves destruction with an army of fire.
In the m...
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The inconsequential moments of the previous months stacked themselves atop Eidan's crown, and suddenly felt quite consequential indeed.
They all looked the same, nine high houses with nine high names. Atreides in black military garb, chin held high. Fenring, graying hair despite his youth. The sisters of Ginaz and Halleck in armored gowns. They could attempt to distinguish themselves as masters of their own existence, but as each took to the dias, their eyes fell on the emperor.
"Fix him," Hawk whispered in his ear through gritted teeth.
Feyd Rautha appeared paler than usual, even coated in crimson. He navigated death with a hunched over frame, knife in his chest, gaze to the stone.
"That is beyond me," Eidan said, waving Sempir over. The Alica lifted Feyd as if he were nothing more than a sack of calcite. "They'll do their best."
Hawk was unconvinced, but lowered her resolve with a tremor of her hand. Her palm was cold on his shoulder, pushing him down the steps. "Then at least make them pay for it."
This is your only opportunity to end this, Collette whispered in head.
Don't you touch him, boy, Another feminine voice broke through the bricks of his mind. The Bene Gesserit on the hill, too far away to use a proper command.
Women would almost certainly be the end of him.
Eidan crossed his hands and cleared his throat. The gallery looked upon him as something to savor, to memorize and repeat as inciting dinner conversation. Fools, the majority of them. Lost, the rest.
"Duke Atreides," Eidan started with him, because his face flushed in the way that all men with honors should in the face of so much violence, "You too, have felt the weight of betrayal. Were you not forced to send your men to die in the Assassins war, despite the loss of many of your men?"
Leto did not nod, but he didn't have to. A shame swept across his brow, turning to puzzlement, and finally curiosity.
"House Metulli, we are long overdue for a formal apology to one another for our houses ire, steeped by that of a man who has pinned us against each other time and time again. Sir Fenring, are we not one in the same? Disregarded for our intellect and capabilities, cast forth into a fight for valor and offered nothing in return?"
The emperor sighed, briefly wishing away this show of treachery before lifting his eyes. Eidan peered directly into them, to the fraying fabric of his order, to the loss.
"Stand with me," Eidan said, cocking his head, "or against me, I suppose it doesn't even matter."
Hawk lifted her hand at his side, the Galicine thumping their axes at her gesture. They screamed a brief war chant into the blackened skies and quieted with the drop of her fist.
