Arrakis - Sietch Tabr - Wednesday Morning & Afternoon

[atreideslioness]

It was around dawn when the scent of food began wafting up from the kitchens. Fresh baked bread, coffee, and the lilting tones of Fremen chattering in a mixture of Galach and Chakobsa as they went about their lives.

If they were a bit more outgoing and less-wary of the visitors than they had been the day before, well, going out into the desert to meet with Shai-Hulud had shown a certain daring and respect, and those were two traits that the Fremen held very dear.

The portal would arrive to pick them all up around three, but until then, the visitors from Fandom had the run of Tabr.

Although it still didn't make you safe from the Aunties.

[OCD UP]

Comments

Re: Underground Reservoir

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"If I had let her live, all she would have done is return to attack Camelot again," Merlin replied tightly. "Or put Arthur in danger again. I won't allow that."

Re: Underground Reservoir

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"I don't--" Dinah hugged herself, rocking a little, and said, "She scared me. What I saw of her, in your dream. Badly. She reminded me of--" She cleared her throat. "Someone I met once." She shook her head, looking away, still wanting to cry. "I know you had to do something to her. Maybe you even had to kill her, I don't know, I don't know anything else about her, but she seemed-- really evil." Then she looked at Merlin, and finally blurted it out: "But you scared me too, Merlin. Not the power. You."

Re: Underground Reservoir

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

She was something like what Merlin felt he could have been in another place.

"Because I killed her?"

Re: Underground Reservoir

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah nodded, then shook her head, then put her head in her hands. "Partly. I think? But, it was more than that. You were so cold, Merlin. Not like you. Not like the person I know."

Re: Underground Reservoir

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"I'm simply--me. It hasn't come up here like it does in Camelot."

Re: Underground Reservoir

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah stared at him, then said, "So this happens a lot? No questions? Someone threatens Arthur with magic, and you just-- kill them?"

And she'd called him the Secret Service guy, but she'd been thinking how he'd saved Arthur's life and gotten his job as a manservant and not-- "Wait. Is this what happened when you saved Arthur's life the first time?"

Re: Underground Reservoir

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"She was going to kill him."

Re: Underground Reservoir

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"I got that part," Dinah said, half-sharp, half-upset, because yeah, that wasn't a fun thought either. "I did, I mean, I understand it. That's not-- I'm not questioning that, okay?" Her breath hitched. "I don't know what I'm questioning!" she burst out. "Or why you-- why this scares me so much. It's not like it's really news, that sorcerors try to kill people in Camelot."

Re: Underground Reservoir

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"They try, yes." And he stopped them. Every bloody time. "And people try to kill them as well. It's not like Fandom, Dinah. Things do not end neatly. If I was discovered, my head would be on a pike on the ramparts as a warning to anyone who wanted to practice even the most harmless of magics."

Re: Underground Reservoir

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah was noting that, and some part of her brain was thinking Hmmm and also wait and also you need to think about what this means exactly but another part was too upset to process the implications yet.

"If-- if I'd thrown something at Arthur? Or lost my temper and picked him up, and shook him sometime, way back when?" Dinah was watching him now, more carefully than she wanted to. "Would you have-- what would you have done to me?"

Re: Underground Reservoir

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

Merlin looked down for a moment. "I would have stopped you."

Re: Underground Reservoir

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Stopped-- stopped how? Called a teacher?" Dinah hated that her voice sounded like she was going to cry. "Gotten Arthur a sword? Talked to me?"

Re: Underground Reservoir

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"It would depend on what you did," He said carefully. "But you're not a killer. It isn't that sort of worry."

Unless she made it one.

Re: Underground Reservoir

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Guess we're both lucky, then, hunh." She knew she was too upset to make sense of this, but there were too many things scaring her about Merlin right now. Even while she still wanted to hug him, how weird was that? "Or maybe just me?" Was that fair, or unfair? She couldn't even tell. "I'm sorry. This is all beyond me. And I did kill someone once, Merlin, so it's not just that."

Re: Underground Reservoir

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

It wasn't the same thing.

"I understand." Kinda.

Re: Underground Reservoir

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah nodded, then said, "You're still my friend. You are," she said fiercely, as much to herself as him. "I just have to think about this. Figure out how to be okay with it. Somehow."