[The fire pulses under Johnny's hand, hot enough to leave a welter of shiny new scalds, not hot enough to blister, and Paul breaks out of the nightmare like he's coming up from the black sea, gasping and wild-eyed. He stares at Johnny's silhouette against the dark unseeingly, silver-gold light fleeting in the blown out green rings of his irises.
He has spent almost all of his life cherished. His body remembers what to do, even if all other sense has left him, his arms coming up to clutch at his sensei with desperate tightness as Paul hides his face against his shoulder. His heart hammers at his ribs like an anvil, easily felt through his thin, soaked shirt, and his cooling fingers hook into the back of Johnny's.
He hitches out, still wrapped in the delirious, trembling tatters of his dream, with a voice too young for what he is and what he has done:] Dad.
[And with that, Paul Atreides, Duke of his House, Kwisatz Haderach, bloodied and severed left hand of an Emperor, bursts into exhausted, shivering tears.]
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goldlight fleeting in the blown out green rings of his irises.He has spent almost all of his life cherished. His body remembers what to do, even if all other sense has left him, his arms coming up to clutch at his sensei with desperate tightness as Paul hides his face against his shoulder. His heart hammers at his ribs like an anvil, easily felt through his thin, soaked shirt, and his cooling fingers hook into the back of Johnny's.
He hitches out, still wrapped in the delirious, trembling tatters of his dream, with a voice too young for what he is and what he has done:] Dad.
[And with that, Paul Atreides, Duke of his House, Kwisatz Haderach, bloodied and severed left hand of an Emperor, bursts into exhausted, shivering tears.]