through the tempest, be it deluge or sand [closed to friends of hers]

[worm-dancer.livejournal.com]

Gore dripped from the magnificent body of the worm, running in warm gummy runnels down the thick leathery hide. It wasn't its own gore; the creature's body was mineral. But water was poison to it. Its internal fires burnt out of control to compensate, raging and magnificently hot. Celluler water, black and stinking but still dangerously wet from the zombies....

The pearl of Leto Atreides' consciousness within the scaly body reached out. Sister...daughter...wronged one...

Sheeana arrived just in time to see the great body dissolve into sandtrout. She dashed onto the sand in the converted swimming pool. She could only hug the body of the magnificent dyer. She collapsed onto her side as the last of it flowed away.

No. Not like this. No. What if it's poisoned the sandtrout? They'll try to encyst the necrotic water and...then i'll...be... This had been the man/worm/hybrid who had taken her village from her, had been her constant companion, who she had mothered back into existence in those years on Chapterhouse, who had looked out with her from portholes at the burning of her homeworld, who had accompanied her into exile. Without Leto and his Golden Path, it had all been for nothing.

She let out the Fremen wail of grief: Lalalalalala... a repeated 'no', painful to the ears.

She shed water for the dead.

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[worm-dancer.livejournal.com]

Sheeana leaned back into her Sister's embrace on the sand, shoulders hunched and shaking. "Five...thousand years...of sacrifices...My family...my village...Rakis...Chapterhouse..." The words came out broken. Full sentences were unnecesary. Arha alone knew the signifigance of the Leto-worm to her. "You saw it. How?"

[ladyofthesands.livejournal.com]

"Shai-Hulud," Arha murmured simply, cradling Sheeana in her arms. This world of thiers was a cruel one at best, leaving them with little to stand upon--and less, now, with the Leto worm's dissolution. There was nothing right to say here, nothing that would ease the suffering. It was not an ailment to be cured, though she had wished she had gotten to the worm earlier (she was not sure it would have mattered, not even she could heal a whole worm from such a thing without killing herself).

"Had I been able, I would have done more," she said.

[worm-dancer.livejournal.com]

"It couldn't be helped. Shai-hulud responds to vibrations and Leto...responds to human need. I know you would have saved Him if you could." Fatalism wasn't a Bene Gesserit response. This was a statement of cruel facts.

"If He is truly dead and there is no way to revive him...You know what I will have to do. Will you still be my Sister even then?" If the man who was the worm was dead, it would soon be time for a woman to replace him in that capacity.

[ladyofthesands.livejournal.com]

"I would take it for you, if you would let me--is this not why I was struck down, for the possibility?" Arha said softly and then was silent for a long while. "Sheeana," her voice was a soft whisper as her fingers brushed at her hair. "Sheeana, I shall not abandon you, no matter what course of action you take. I shall be as your own until you yourself direct me to go, and even then, I will not name you as anything other. I am, as always a Heretic for such ideals I suppose, but I am myself."

She rocked Sheeana gently and laid her cheek against the top of her head.

"You are my Sister well beyond the point of my own death and you are loved. Both are such that I would never forsake. You know this, but you shall hear me say it if it helps."

[worm-dancer.livejournal.com]

"I would not. The order has already asked too much from you." She said, nestled in her shoulder. It was hard to believe they were related, one was so much taller and blonder than the other. "I know it, but it does help to hear it." She raised her communicator and tapped in a few buttons. Sisters rotated a few inches high: two sleek white figures in robes, the taller one with her hands at the other's shoulders. The bases were long and stylized, spiraling into a helix. "If I ever find this sculpture I will dedicate it to you."

[ladyofthesands.livejournal.com]

"I would do this thing for you and take that path because you are my Sister. You are my family and I know it is perhaps a selfish thing, but I do not wish such a hard thing upon you," Arha said the slight shift of her cheek against Sheeana's hair a shake of her head. "But, yes, I know...this is your choice. I cannot interfere."

She watched the statues turn and murmured wordlessly for a moment.

"That is a beautiful thing," she said quietly. "I would be honored with such a dedication."

[worm-dancer.livejournal.com]

"I absolutely forbid it. If I have need of you, I will say it, but for now I only want you to be as happy as you possibly can be." Sheeana was gradually starting to come back to herself. The hole was still there, that place where purpose once dwelled and she would fill it with the self-destructive sandskin if she needed to.

"I am so very tired, Arha. I haven't slept since a day before the fighting started and during most of that I was using the Weirding Way at its full power. You must be as well."

[ladyofthesands.livejournal.com]

Arha let out a soft noise.

"I can but take in what happiness I can find," she said, murmuring. Arha felt gritty, still, and as weary as she had been after the battle. It came and went in waves. "And yes, I am very tired. I do not sleep well, but I do try. If you do not wish to be alone, I will stay with you and perhaps we shall both sleep. It is time for rest."