Sietch Tabr, Arrakis, Wednesday evening 10,224 AG

[future_sandworm]

The light of glowglobes lit up the main hall of Sietch Tabr, and most of the tribe had gathered there. Leto took a step closer to Alice and smiled at her, not sure how she felt about being at the center of attention. Well, Alice and Hania. Leto felt he couldn't blame any of them for their curiosity. Also, Harah had no doubt retold the story of how

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[notyourpawn]

Alice had to hope the rest of the story had not circulated; she could not believe she would be receiving a warm welcome if they knew that she had abandoned Leto and her child.

Perhaps the Fremen understood madness. To live amongst the sand might bring one very close to it. If the blind were sent into the desert, what did one do with the mad?

She would ask Leto later. For now, she was dressed simply, in a style she hoped would seem Fremen. She felt as though she belonged here, somehow; she hoped they would not see her as an imposter

[future_sandworm]

Not improper, but not the custom. Leto didn't mind deviating from tradition in this, though, and leaned in to kiss Alice, despite some snickering behind his back. They were kindly meant however. He had brought a wife and a child here - a wife in reality if not in name. That was approved of.

At this point Harah interrupted, before Stilgar had time to stop her. "Let me show you how to braid those into your hair."

She was also rather eager to give Alice a tour of the sietch and introduce her to people and things a woman should know of.

[notyourpawn]

The ceremony was a formality, and she knew that; it was only an official declaration of things that they had determined long before. And yet at the same time, it felt like a sea change. As if the ground she was standing upon was firmer.

Here she was not consort, or concubine, or accidental mother; here she was wife. Why that mattered, she could not say. She had told Humpty-Dumpty that words could not mean whatever he wanted them to mean, but what she and Leto were to one another was greater than to be encapsulated in any one word. She had never felt the need to label it.

And yet here, it transcended label, perhaps. Here it simply was. They were a family. She was a wife. These words had power, not because of the words, but because of the concrete reality underneath

[future_sandworm]

Leto shot Harah an amused look, but said nothing. Her words showed that she had accepted Alice as family.

"I'm sure you will have better things to do than braid your hair every day," Harah replied. "Is she sleeping well?" She nodded towards Hania.

"I believe she sleeps as much and as briefly as newborns do," Leto replied, and then Stilgar interrupted: "Perhaps food should be offered before they both starve?"

He knew well enough Leto wouldn't starve, but he also knew his wife.