Chapter 10 chapter Ten

"I must tell you something," said Jessica, "though what I say will stir up many memories of our common past and put you at risk." She paused to see Ghanima's reaction. They sat alone, occupying a low sofa in a stone room in Taib's Cave.It took considerable skill to manage the meeting, and Jessica wasn't sure if she was alone.Ghanima seemed to foresee and reinforce each of these steps. It was now almost two hours after dark, and the excitement of meeting and getting to know each other had died down.Jessica forced her pulse back to a calm state and focused her consciousness inside the stone cabin with its dark hangings and yellow sofa.To deal with the mounting tension, she found herself silently reciting the Bee Geist Prayer Against Fear for the first time in years:

"I must never be afraid. Fear kills the mind, lurks death, destroys a person. I will bear it, let it pass over my heart, through my body and mind. When this is over, I will open Eyes in the depths of the soul watch its trajectory. Fear is like the wind, and the wind passes without a trace, but I am still standing." She finished reciting silently and took a deep breath calmly. "Sometimes it works," Ghanima said. "I mean the prayer." Jessica closed her eyes, trying to hide her shock at her observation.For a long time, no one has been able to read himself so deeply.This is disturbing, not least because the person who reads himself is the intelligence hidden behind the mask of a child.Facing her fear, Jessica opened her eyes and knew the source of her inner turmoil: I was afraid of my grandchildren.Neither of the two children had yet displayed the traits of an aberrant spirit like Alia.Leto seems to be hiding something on purpose, though.It was for this reason that he was excluded from this meeting.

On impulse, Jessica dropped her ingrained mask of emotion.She knows that this kind of mask is of no use here, it can only become an obstacle to communication.She has never taken off her mask since those tender moments with the Duke passed.She found the gesture both relaxing and painful.Behind the mask are facts that no curse, prayer, or scripture can wash away, and neither can Star Trek leave them behind.They cannot be ignored.The future that Paul foresaw has been reassembled, and this future descends upon his children.They are like magnets in empty space, attracting evil forces and pathetic abuses of power.

Ghanima watched the look on her grandmother's face, marveling at Jessica's abandonment of self-control. At that moment, their head movements were surprisingly unanimous.The two turned their heads at the same time, looked at each other, saw the depths of each other's soul, and explored each other's heart.Without words, their thoughts communicated between the two. Jessica: I want you to see my fear. Ghanima: Now I know you love me. This is a moment of absolute trust. Jessica said: "When your father was a boy, I took a Virgin to Caladan to test him." Ghanima nodded.The memory of that moment is so vivid.

"At that time, we, Bi Geist, had already paid great attention to this issue: the children we raised should be real people, not uncontrollable animal-like people. Whether it is a human or an animal, this kind of thing can't just look at the appearance to make a judgment." "That's the kind of training you've had," Ghanima said.Memories flooded her mind: that old Bee Geist, Keith Helen Mohiam, coming to Caladan Castle with the poisonous gorm thorn and the box of cauterization.Paul's hand (Ganima's own, in shared memory) was in excruciating pain in the box, while the old woman said calmly that if he took his hand from the pain, he would be executed instantly.The Gorm stab against the child's neck represented certain death, and the old voice was still explaining the motivation behind the test:

"Have you ever heard of it? Sometimes an animal will bite off one of its own legs in order to escape from a trap. That's a trick of beasts. Humans will stay in the trap, pretend to be dead, and wait for the opportunity to kill the trap. trapper, remove his threat to his own kind." Ghanima shook her head at the pain of the memory.That burn!That burn!At that time, Paul felt that the skin of the painful hand in the box was rolled up, and the flesh was charred and fell off in pieces, leaving only charred bones.And it was all just a deception - the hand wasn't hurt.However, affected by the memory, beads of sweat still appeared on Ghanima's forehead.

"You obviously remembered that moment in a way that I couldn't," Jessica said. For a moment, led by memory, Ghanima saw another side of her grandmother: the woman who had been trained in the Bi Geist school in her early years, and that school had shaped her mental model.Driven by this mental set, what would she do?This question brings back old questions: What is Jessica's purpose in returning to Arrakis? "It would be folly to repeat this test on you and your brother," Jessica said. "You already know its laws. I'll just have to assume that you are real people and won't abuse your inherited abilities."

"But you don't actually believe it," Ghanima said. Jessica blinked, realizing the mask was back on her face, but she immediately took it off again.She asked, "Do you believe in my love for you?" "Yes." Ganima raised her hand before Jessica could speak, "but love doesn't stop you from destroying us. Oh, I know the reasoning behind it: 'It's better to kill the beasts among people than Bring it back to life.' Especially if the man is of beastly Atreides blood." "At least you're real," Jessica blurted out. "I trust my instincts."

Seeing her sincerity, Ganima said, "But you are not sure about Leto." "yes." "Evil spirit?" Jessica just nodded. Ghanima said: "At least not yet. Both of us know the danger. We can see it in Alia." Jessica covered her eyes with her hands and thought: Not even love can protect us from the unwelcome fact.She knows that she still loves her daughter, and she weeps silently at the unforgiving fate: Alia!Oh Alia!I ache over the responsibility I have to bear. Ghanima cleared his throat. Jessica dropped her hands, thinking: I can grieve for my poor daughter, but there are other things to attend to right now."So, you've seen what happened to Alia," she said.

"Leto and I watched it happen. We were powerless to stop it, although we discussed various possibilities." "Are you sure your brother is not under this curse?" "I am sure." The assurance implicit in the words was clear, and Jessica found herself accepting her word.Then she asked, "How did you escape?" Ghanima explained the theory she and Leto had posited that they didn't drink the spice maze, while Alia did regularly, a difference that contributed to their different outcomes.She then reveals to Jessica about Leto's dream and the plans they've talked about—even Jakrutu.

Jessica nodded. "But Alia is from the Atreides family, which is a huge problem." Ghanima fell silent.She realized that Jessica still missed her Duke as if he had just died yesterday, and she would protect his name and memory, protect them from any encroachment.The memories of the Duke's life flooded Ganima's consciousness, which deepened her thoughts and made her understand Jessica's feelings better. "By the way," Jessica said in a brisk tone, "what's the matter with that missionary? After that damn cleansing ceremony yesterday, I received a lot of disturbing reports about him." Ghanima shrugged. "He might be—" "Paul?" "Yes, but we haven't been able to test it yet." "Javed scoffed at the rumour," Jessica said. Ghanima hesitated, then said, "Do you trust Javid?" A grim smile played on Jessica's mouth. "Don't trust him any more than you do." "Leto said Javed always laughed when he shouldn't," Ghanima said. "Stop talking about Javid's smile," Jessica said. "You really believe my son is alive and back here in disguise?" "We think it's possible. Leto..." Suddenly, Ghanima felt her throat go dry, and a memory of fear gripped her chest.Forced to suppress her fear, she recounted other prophetic dreams Leto had. Jessica's head was shaking from side to side, as if hurt. "Leto said he had to find this missionary and make it clear," Ghanima said. "Yes... of course. I should never have left here. I was too cowardly." "Why do you blame yourself? You did your best. I know it, and Leto knows it. Even Alia knows it." Jessica put a hand on her neck, patted it lightly, and said, "Yeah, and Alia." "She has a certain mysterious attraction to Leto," Ghanima said, "and that's why I'm meeting you alone. He also thinks she's hopeless, but he's trying to be with her anyway... Studying her. It's... it's very worrying. Whenever I try to talk him out of it, he's always sound asleep. He—" "Did she drug him?" "No," Ghanima shook his head, "he just has some kind of strange sympathy for her. Also...in his dreams, he always talks about Jakrutu." "Jarklutu again!" Jessica recounted Gurney's report on the conspirators who had been exposed at the landing field. "Sometimes I suspect that Alia wants Leto to search for Jakrutu," Ghanima said. "You know, I always thought that was just a legend." Jessica's body shuddered. "Terrible, terrible." "What shall we do?" Ghanima asked. "I am afraid to search my entire memory bank, all my life..." "Ganima! I warn you not to do that. You must not take the risk of—" "Even if I don't take the risk, the ghost thing can still happen. After all, we don't know exactly what happened to Alia." "No! You should be freed from this... this attachment." She gritted her teeth and said the word "attachment", "Okay...Jarkrutu, yes? I have sent Gurney to look up this place - if it exists at all." "But how could he... oh! Through smugglers, of course." Jessica fell silent.This sentence once again shows that Ghanima's mind can coordinate those other life consciousnesses that exist in her body.My consciousness!It was so strange, Jessica thought, that this little body could hold all of Paul's memories, at least the memories of before Paul broke with his past.This is an invasion of privacy.Jessica's first reaction to this kind of thing was disgust.The Bee Geist Sisterhood has already passed its verdict, and believes it: Evil Spirits!Jessica now finds herself increasingly affected by this judgment.But there was something lovable about the child, a willingness to die for her brother, that could not be denied. We are one being, groping our way in a dark future, Jessica thought.The same blood runs through us.She forced herself to make up her mind to stick to the plan she and Gurney Halleck had made: Leto must be separated from his sister and trained as required by the sorority.