Just a plot bunny. I'm writing this without my books- so any incongruities are asked to be kindly overlooked. Suggestions are very welcome.
The hallway was infinite, stretching from beneath where she stood into a river of polished, ebony stone. Her feet, bereft of any coverings, relished the sensation of pressing against the smooth surface- strangely warm for a stone floor. The indeterminate length gave her no sense of fear or trepidation, some memory long forgotten soothed her- told her that she would meet the mouth of this black river and that, once there, she would have nothing to fear.
Walls to her right and left spit from the almost viscous floor like monoliths breaching a glassy lake, rising so high they were lost amongst the shadows of the ceiling. Her eyes pressed into that darkness above for but a moment, knowing there must be a covering somewhere over her head, yet, she was unable to discern its place in the impenetrable black.
Slowly, her eyes returned to the hallway, not in the least surprised to see, just a few paces in front of her, a smallish door wreathed in warm, orange light. There were no markings on the surface of the door- no handle, nor lock, nor guard stood to prevent her passage into the pleasing glow that slipped through the crack of the open doorway. If she stared for a moment at the light, she noticed a flicker; as though the source was hundreds of candles, playfully spreading their tender yellow fingers against the walls in shadows and shapes that only fire, in its uniqueness, seems able to produce.
Her wonder melted away as she reached out and pulled the door towards her, releasing a flood of the warming light that fell on the glossy black floor as a sheen of gold. That illusion, though wonderful in the eyes of others, brought a shudder to her shoulders, crawling down the length of her spine and resting uncomfortably in the small of her back. It was quick to pass, but left its bitter traces in the hidden folds of her mind- to be saved for sleepless nights.
The doorway opened into a room much smaller than the hallway, or indeed the rest of the palace around her, would have suggested. The walls were smoothed and rounded into the shape of an inverted bowl, brought together in the middle of the ceiling by an orange glow globe, hovering just below the deep red roof. In the middle of the otherwise empty room stood a man she had never seen before, and yet knew as intimately as her Ixian creators. His shirtless torso pulled light into his skin, giving back a warm glow that pressed close to his body, shrouding him in soft, golden light.
"Leto."
The young man smiled.
Standing before her in a body he had never really known, in a time and place that would never find a hold in his life despite his millennia of living, stood the God Emperor. No longer was his face buried within the cowl of the mighty Shai-Hulud; his body no longer stretched into the crude segments of worm intermixed with man. He stood before her now in a form he could hardly remember, lost to time and the pain of thousands upon thousands of years.
"How can this be?" Her words came out a whisper, lost to her fear and confusion.
With the implacable smile of a father speaking to a child, Leto spoke softly.
"You are dreaming, Hwi." He held his hand out to her, beckoning her forward. She, unable and unwilling to stop, stepped forward and felt the sensation of her skin press against his wash across her body in violent, shuddering waves.
"Do not fear me, Hwi." Her eyes found his, resting quietly within their dark blue depths.
"How can I fear you?" They had reached the center of the room; Hwi's feet stopped at the edge of a crimson rug she had not noticed upon entering. Leto dropped her hand and sat upon the rug, gesturing for her to join him. Hwi, still feeling an existential force guide her actions, dropped to her knees, coming face to face with Leto. Her eyes followed the sloping curve of his jaw, and she suddenly felt an overwhelming desire to touch his face. Her fingertips hovered just above his skin for a moment, his spice saturated eyes never moving from her own.
Leto closed his eyes as Hwi traced the contours of his face with her fingers, moving over his eyelids, following the bridge of his nose down to his lips.
"If this is a dream, I never want to wake." She spoke to brook tears that threatened to overspill her eyes. Leto reopened his eyes, picking up her hand from his lips, and slowly turned his thumb over her palm.
"All dreams must end." He dropped her hand and turned his eyes to the floor. "We can not live in the false hopes of our dreams."
"Then why did you allow this?" Hwi followed the lines of the room around her, coming to rest once again on Leto.
"I wanted something more than memories. More than the remembrance of love- an ideal which passed from my life when Ghanima died. You brought many beloved memories back to me." Her hand pressed against the bare skin above his heart, its slow, rhythmic beating calming her every sense. Sacrilegious tears slid the length of her cheeks, coming to rest in wet rivulets upon the skin of her neck.
"Seeing you as this- I cannot bear the thought of the truth. Your agony runs more deeply than any could ever know."
"You know, my dear Hwi. But despair not…you shall not remember this dream upon waking." Leto quietly raised himself to his knees and cupped her gentle face within his hands; his human hands. Hwi looked up at him with large, wet eyes, wishing the tightness around her chest would relinquish its hold. He smiled once more, and brought his lips down to the nape of her neck, pressing against its warmth, feeling the life within her trembling.
Slowly, quietly, Leto laid out upon the mat, Hwi following him and resting on top of his chest. She dared not close her eyes, allowing him to draw his fingers through her tresses as she traced her fingertip across his heart.
"May I remember this dream?"
"If it is what you wish." Hwi closed her eyes, succumbing to a sudden sleepiness that would not be ignored. Her own voice sounded distant as she replied, "It is what I wish."
Hwi's eyes opened to the familiar sight of her canopied bed, and beyond that her room within the palace. Slowly closing her eyes she spoke quietly to no one.
"Thank you, Leto."