❝we have different destinies, paul.❞
❝bullshit. we choose our own destinies, and i choose you. over and over again. always.❞
When House Atreides must uproot itself and move to Arrakis, Lia finds herself worrying more and more about Paul and the dema...
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I would like to think home was Caladan, but the truth is that Caladan stopped being home a long time ago. Caladan was my childhood and I loved every moment I spent running through the green grass and swimming in the cool ocean. It was warmth. It was comfort.
More recently, Arrakis had become my home. It was where I got to have and love my son. It is where I learned and assimilated into a whole new culture that I never fathomed existing. It brought beauty to my image of the desert.
But Arrakis is still not my home. It was for some time, but right now my heart doesn't really feel at home on a single planet. I don't think any planet would fill that feeling of melancholy and unease. My home is with a person, and he is who I'm here to find.
I made my way through the empty halls of the palace. There were no familiar faces or important people on their way to meetings. It was odd to see no one other than the few guards that guarded the different entryways. It was as if everyone had gone on vacation to celebrate the end of a war. Perhaps that is exactly what had happened.
I loved the minimalist architecture of the building. Even more, I loved the odd exotic plants that could be found at every other corner of the building. A sign of life and wealth on a planet where greenery was non-existent. It reminded me of where I was, and it reminded me of my insignificance and unimportance in a building full of very important people.
The halls felt endless, and I wasn't sure where I was headed, but I knew I'd run into him eventually. I was not worried about not finding him, I was scared of what I would say when I finally did.
I wasn't sure of my emotions. The tightness in my chest told me that I was still angry. I was still hurt. I still had so many questions for Paul and I was not sure I was ready for his answers. Was my anger misplaced? Were his actions justified? I didn't know. I didn't want to feel crazy anymore. I needed to understand.
I could hear audio lectures quietly coming from one of the dark rooms. I came to a stop just in front of the doorway where I couldn't see anything in the pitch-black room except for the white light of the hologram which filled the room with different visuals and texts. The faint light was illuminating a young girl's face as her eyes scanned the air, processing the information.
"Alia?" I called.
The girl turned and I could see her familiar round face and bright eyes, though she appeared much older than the last time I saw her. She was growing at such an alarming rate, I remember how Jessica was expressing her concerns a few weeks ago about when her aging would slow to a normal human speed.
Alia's expression, which was once narrowed in curiosity, softened at the sight of me in the doorway. "Hello, Lia. How are you?"
I peered into the room. It was safe to say she had been studying something to do with the stars, some sort of astronomy.
