Chapter 2 Chapter two

As was Freeman's custom, the Atreides rose an hour before dawn.In the two adjacent secret rooms, they yawned and stretched at the same time in a mysterious harmony, sensing the activities of the cave dwellers.They could hear servants preparing breakfast in the antechamber, a simple gruel with dates and nuts soaked in a liquid extracted from half-fermented spices.There are globe lights in the vestibule, and a soft yellow glow shines through the open arched doorways into the bedrooms.In the soft light, the twins dress quickly and can hear each other as they do so.The two had discussed in advance to put on the distillation suit to resist the hot wind in the desert.

The twins rendezvous in the vestibule and notice a sudden silence among the servants.Leto wore a brown cloak trimmed with black over his stillsuit, and his sister wore a green cloak.The collars of their cloaks were fastened together with a pin in the shape of the Atreides eagle.The brooch was made of gold with rubies set in it to represent the eagle's eye. Seeing the ornate attire, Sassa - one of Stilga's wives - said, "You are dressed like this for your grandmother." Leto picked up his bowl and looked at Sassana. A dark, wind-wrinkled face.He shook his head and said, "How do you know we didn't dress like this for ourselves?"

Sasha met his teasing gaze and said without fear: "My eyes are as blue as yours, and I can see as clearly as yours." Ghanima laughed out loud. Sasha was always at ease in this Freeman-esque game of bickering.She went on: "Don't mock me, child. You are of royal blood, yes, but we all have the brand of spices on us - we don't even have the whites of our eyes. Which Fremen would need more than that?" How many fancy clothes?" Leto smiled, shaking his head ruefully. "Sasa, my dear, if you had been younger and had not married Stilgar, I would have married you."

Sasa calmly accepted this small victory, and motioned to the other servants to continue tidying up the front hall and getting ready for today's important scene. "Eat your breakfast well," she said, "You need energy today." "Are you sure our clothes won't look too fancy for our grandmother?" Ghanima asked vaguely with gruel in her mouth. "Don't be afraid of her, Gany," Sasha said. Leto fed a large spoonful of porridge into his mouth, and looked at Sasa with questioning eyes.This woman is really full of folk wisdom, and she can see the meaning of gorgeous clothes at a glance. "Will she think we're afraid of her?" Leto asked.

"Probably not." Sasa said, "Remember, she is our Holy Mother. I know what she is capable of." "What does Alia dress like?" Ghanima asked. "I haven't seen her yet," Sasa replied briefly, before turning to leave. Leto and Ghanima exchanged glances, shared some sort of secret, and then bent down to finish their breakfast quickly.Soon, they came to the wide central passage. "So we'd have a grandmother today," said Ghanima, in some ancient language from their shared genetic memory bank. "It bothers Alia," Leto said. "She has so much power that no one would give it up," Ghanima said.

Leto smiled briefly, it seemed odd to hear an adult voice coming from such a young body. "And that's not all." "Can her mother's eyes see what we see?" "Why not?" Leto asked rhetorically. "Yes... that's probably what Aria was worried about." "Who can know the spirit better than the spirit?" Leto asked. "You know, we could be wrong too," Ghanima said. "But we are not wrong." He then quoted a passage from Bee Geist's "Aza's Religious Analysis", "reasonable reasoning and terrible experience make us call people who have memories before birth called distortion evil spirits. Because, who knows, if some lost and cursed character from our evil past will take control of our physical body?"

"I know the history," Ghanima said, "but if that's the case, why haven't we been subjected to this attack from within our bodies?" "Maybe our parents were protecting us," Leto said. "Then why isn't Aria the same protection?" "I don't know. Maybe it's because one of her parents is still alive, or maybe it's just because we're young and tough. Maybe when we get older and more cynical..." "We have to be careful with this grandmother," Ghanima said. "And no discussion of the missionary who roams our planet spreading heresy."

"You don't really think he's our father!" "I'm not judging on the matter, but Alia is afraid of him." Ghanima shook her head vigorously. "I don't believe these nonsense about the deformed evil spirit!" "You have as many memories as I have," Leto said. "Believe what you want to believe." "Do you think it's because we haven't dared to try spice mash yet, but Alia has?" Ghanima said. "That's exactly what I thought." They fell silent, and then merged into the flow of people in the central passage.It was cool in Teb's cave, but it was warm in the stillsuits, the twins throwing their hoods behind their red hair.Their faces revealed that they shared the same genetic traits: large mouths, wide-set eyes, and pure spice-addicted blue eyes.

Leto was the first to spot their Aunt Alia approaching them. "Here she comes," he reminded Ganima, switching to the Atreides wartime secret. Alia stopped in front of them, and Ghanima nodded to her and said, "The trophy greets her illustrious aunt." She also said this in Chicobusa, emphasizing The meaning of his name - spoils of war. "You see, my dear aunt," Leto said, "we have made special preparations today for your mother." Alia is the only one among the royal family who is not at all surprised by the twins' adult behavior.She looked at the two twins separately, and said, "Watch your mouths tight, both of you!"

Alia's blond hair was pulled back in two golden rings.Her duck-egg-shaped face was frowning, her large mouth was marked by a life of indulgence, the muscles around it were tensed, and her pure blue eyes were fringed with crow's feet from over-concern. "I've warned you how to behave today," Alia said, "and you know why as well as I do." "We know your reasons, but you may not know ours," Ghanima said. "Gunny!" Alia shouted angrily. Leto stared at his aunt and said, "As usual, we won't be pretending to be giggling babies today."

"Nobody made you giggle," said Alia, "but I don't think it would be wise to arouse some dangerous thoughts in my mother by what you say or do. Irulan agrees with me." Opinion. Who knows what Lady Jessica decides to play? After all, she's a Bee Geist." Leto shook his head, wondering: Why can't Alia see what we're suspecting?Did she go too far?He paid special attention to the subtle genetic imprint on Alia's face, which gave away the secret of who her maternal grandfather was.Baron Vladimir Hackney was not an easy man to live with.Thinking of this, Leto felt dazed and irritated: He is also my ancestor. "Lady Jessica was trained to rule," he said. Ghanima nodded, "Why did she choose to come back at this time?" Alia scowled. "Is she coming back just to see her grandchildren?" Ghanima thought: My dear aunt, this is just your wish.But this is obviously impossible. "She can't rule here," Arya said. "She's got Kaladan already, and that should be enough." Ganima said reassuringly, "When our father went into the desert to seek death, he appointed you as regent. He..." "Do you have any comments?" Alia asked. "It's a reasonable choice," Leto took up his sister's words. "Only you know what it's like to be like us." "There are rumors that my mother has returned to the sorority," Alia said. "You two know what Bee Gist thinks..." "Distortion Evil Spirit." Leto continued. "Yes!" Alia said viciously through gritted teeth. "As the saying goes, once a witch is always a witch," Ghanima said. Sister, you are playing a dangerous game, Leto thought.But he went on with his sister and said: "It is much easier to judge our grandmother than to judge her kind. You have her memory, Alia; you can surely guess what she will do." "Easy!" Alia shook her head.She looked around, at the crowded central aisle, then turned back to the twins and said, "If my mother's mansion hadn't been so deep, you wouldn't be standing here now—and neither would I. I would Becoming her first child, and all of this..." She shrugged, her body trembling slightly, "I warn you two, be careful what you say and do today." Alia looked up, "My The guards are coming." "You still insist that it's not safe for us to accompany you to the spaceship landing site?" Leto asked. "Wait here," Alia said, "I'll bring her here." Leto and his sister exchanged a look, and said, "You have told us many times that the memories we inherit from our ancestors are somehow useless, and only when we have accumulated enough through our own bodies These memories are not fully available to us until we experience them. My sister and I believe this. We figured that something dangerous would have happened within us when Grandma came." "You have to be ready," Alia said.She turned around and walked quickly along the central aisle to the cave VIP passage surrounded by guards.The orthopter was there waiting for them. Ghanima wiped a tear from her right eye. "Water for the dead?" Leto said softly, taking his sister's arm. Ganima took a deep breath and analyzed the situation of her aunt she had just observed based on the experience she had gained from her ancestors. "Is she like that because of the spice soup?" she asked, knowing what Leto would say. "Do you have a better explanation?" "Just to explore, why didn't our fathers... even our grandmothers... fully succumb to Spice Soup?" He looked at her carefully, and then said: "You know the answer to this question as well as I do. They have formed a fixed character and personality before they came to Arrakis. As for the spice soup-well..." He Shrugged, "It's not like they were born with the memories of their ancestors, but Alia..." "Why didn't she believe Bee Geist's warning?" Ghanima bit her lower lip, "Alia, like us, draws information from the same memory bank and makes decisions, but why does she..." "They're calling her a ghost already," Leto said. "It's very tempting to find yourself stronger than anyone else, don't you think..." "No, I don't think so!" Ganima avoided her brother's inquiring gaze, trembling slightly.She scoured the Genetic Memory Bank, where the Sorority's warning came alive: Those born with memories could easily grow into bad adults, possibly because... once again she shuddered. "Unfortunately, there aren't many people in our family history who have memories before birth," Leto said. "Maybe we have." "But we've...ah, yes, we're back with the old unresolved question: do we really have access to the entire memory of each ancestor?" Through his chaotic thoughts, Leto sensed that the conversation had disturbed his sister's emotions.They have explored this issue several times, but each time to no avail."Every time she pushes us to use maze, we have to push, push, push. Especially avoid overdosing on spices; it's our best bet," he says. "For us to overdose, the dose would have to be very high," Ghanima said. "The doses we can tolerate are probably well beyond the average person," he agreed. "Look at Alia, what a dose she's taking." "I sympathize with her," said Ghanima. "The spice must have seduced her, subtle and seductive. It stalked her until..." "Yes, she was a victim," Leto said. "The spirit." "We could be wrong too." "possible." "I've been wondering," Ghanima mused, "if the memory of my ancestors I could find came from..." "History is beside your pillow," Leto said. "We have to create opportunities to talk to our grandmothers about this." "That's what the message she left in my memory urges me to do," Leto said. Ghanima met his gaze and said, "Too much knowledge and information to make easy decisions. It always has been."