[Paul and Alina's gifts come together, in jewelry boxes set on their pillows. There are cards for each, as well as odd bits and pieces tossed into the boxes -- pine cones, feathers, rocks dug out of the frozen earth and thawed, bits of string and ribbon. All things Alia treasures, all things she adores.
But the gift itself: matching star-shaped pendants, to remind her moon, her sun of who she is to them, of how she glitters and shines around them both. The stone at the center, though, is no gemstone found on earth -- or anywhere else. The metal itself is the same material, formed exhaustively into each point, hard as diamonds, gleaming in the lamplight.
Paul will know what the necklace is made of as soon as he touches it. Alina may need to be told, or she may recognize the gleam, know it to be formed from the one thing Alia had of Arrakis: her crysknife, her tooth of Shai-Hulud, taken and shattered and reformed into a sign of her love, her devotion, her rejection of everything she had been before.
Alina's brother's letter reads:]
Alina Atreides, Empress of the Known Universe, sister-mine, my just-Alina, my beloved always,
My memories began eons ago. I took my first breath on Arrakis. I have been a queen and a goddess and a saint, a she-demon and a weapon and a curse. I have been abomination and miracle.
delivery; christmas eve 12/24
But the gift itself: matching star-shaped pendants, to remind her moon, her sun of who she is to them, of how she glitters and shines around them both. The stone at the center, though, is no gemstone found on earth -- or anywhere else. The metal itself is the same material, formed exhaustively into each point, hard as diamonds, gleaming in the lamplight.
Paul will know what the necklace is made of as soon as he touches it. Alina may need to be told, or she may recognize the gleam, know it to be formed from the one thing Alia had of Arrakis: her crysknife, her tooth of Shai-Hulud, taken and shattered and reformed into a sign of her love, her devotion, her rejection of everything she had been before.
Alina's brother's letter reads:]
Alina Atreides, Empress of the Known Universe, sister-mine, my just-Alina, my beloved always,
My memories began eons ago. I took my first breath on Arrakis. I have been a queen and a goddess and a saint, a she-demon and a weapon and a curse. I have been abomination and miracle.
But my life began when I met you.
I choose you, today, always. I choose us.
- Just-Alia