We've both lost someone we love. I wish you had returned to better news.
( and that makes for a shared, terrible understanding between them. misery, alina has found, is a stronger bond than any debt paid or alliance offered. )
You can repay your debt by showing Alia mercy. I don't expect you to forgive her, but ... Some people will hear of your death, and think of her as a monster. But she's just a girl who never meant for any of this to happen.
I have grown used to news such as this, I fear.( to lose a loved one, though Baela stands different than the rest for above all else she was to be his wife. she stands in a different place than Harwin Strong, Aunt Laena, his father, Princess Rhaenys and Luke; it hurts in a different way. )I do believe those we have lost, you and I, would want justice above all else.
( and then there is a pause between his next response, the bubbles of text appear and disappear. then: )Have you seen her use her powers before?
Paul would want them dead. Your betrothed might be more practiced in forgiveness than my husband.
( shame constricts her chest. baela, who had only wanted justice for her betrothed. alina, who stands in the same miserable position a girl younger than her had weathered with far more grace. she can't bring herself to share the same clemency for the animal way paul had been put down, all the same, like a sick dog.
she lapses into a pause, considering. it's not so much a fabrication to say yes — paul, not alia, had used the same compulsion, the same gift, to manipulate her as a doll might. a control alina had a hand in welcoming. a control jace had not been permitted. she shutters that knowledge of paul's gifts away, into a locked box, not meant to spill out.
house atreides has suffered one exposure too many, already. )
She swore to me she didn't remember that night. Now you know she was telling the truth. Whatever took hold of her, it wasn't Alia.
( the greater question alina grapples to answer: had it been the ancestors housed within the walls of alia's body, or the manor dangling them by their strings like puppets in a child's play? )
I don't think we've been given a choice but to play our roles. Paul, he was
( it feels worse sharing this with jace than it had alicent. a fresh horror, for a dead man walking. )
He was dead when we brought me to shore. This game will use us as pawns until it's finished with us.
I do not doubt her honesty in this, Lady Alina. For my heart to wholly know it is true, I will need to hear the words from her myself.
( and then she tells him more and he cannot fathom an answer to this. )He had already succumbed... I am sorry.
If the magic here is strong enough for such a thing, I do not doubt the wolves amongst us will not be able to resist. The question becomes is will something happen to those with other roles as it did with Paul beyond his death?
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no subject
( and that makes for a shared, terrible understanding between them. misery, alina has found, is a stronger bond than any debt paid or alliance offered. )
You can repay your debt by showing Alia mercy. I don't expect you to forgive her, but ...
Some people will hear of your death, and think of her as a monster. But she's just a girl who never meant for any of this to happen.
no subject
( and then there is a pause between his next response, the bubbles of text appear and disappear. then: ) Have you seen her use her powers before?
no subject
Your betrothed might be more practiced in forgiveness than my husband.
( shame constricts her chest. baela, who had only wanted justice for her betrothed. alina, who stands in the same miserable position a girl younger than her had weathered with far more grace. she can't bring herself to share the same clemency for the animal way paul had been put down, all the same, like a sick dog.
she lapses into a pause, considering. it's not so much a fabrication to say yes — paul, not alia, had used the same compulsion, the same gift, to manipulate her as a doll might. a control alina had a hand in welcoming. a control jace had not been permitted. she shutters that knowledge of paul's gifts away, into a locked box, not meant to spill out.
house atreides has suffered one exposure too many, already. )
They were used on me, once. Why?
no subject
What did she look like then? Was there a change in the colouring of her eyes?
no subject
( she can't speak to what baela would consider forgiveness, but as for the rest of it — her eyebrows furrow, pinched. )
No. Alia's eyes are blue, like stars. Like Paul's.
That's never changed.
no subject
That night they were naught but pools of black.
no subject
Now you know she was telling the truth. Whatever took hold of her, it wasn't Alia.
( the greater question alina grapples to answer: had it been the ancestors housed within the walls of alia's body, or the manor dangling them by their strings like puppets in a child's play? )
I don't think we've been given a choice but to play our roles. Paul, he was
( it feels worse sharing this with jace than it had alicent. a fresh horror, for a dead man walking. )
He was dead when we brought me to shore.
This game will use us as pawns until it's finished with us.
no subject
( and then she tells him more and he cannot fathom an answer to this. ) He had already succumbed... I am sorry.
If the magic here is strong enough for such a thing, I do not doubt the wolves amongst us will not be able to resist. The question becomes is will something happen to those with other roles as it did with Paul beyond his death?