Someone is patiently warming an egg.
If you warm it with love, then surely it’s happiness that will be born.
It will be filled with love and joy.
Someone is patiently warming an egg.
If you warm it with rage, what will be born?
I am also warming an egg.
I am warming it with gas, so it’s doesn’t matter which kind of egg it is.
From “The Shintosunni Sutras Volume II” by Frederica Bernkastel
Hanyuu trained a little more that morning, it was mostly stretching and some breathing exercises, this would be a light day for her and she was thankful for it. Rika seemed stern at times, but she never made Hanyuu hate the training she was given, a good equilibrium between hardship and resting, the way of House Furude, a house of three, but a House nonetheless.
Satoko began explaining once more, adding a few new variables since history is ever changing, the variables are never static. Everyone has plans within plans within plans, yet Satoko’s own plans were never obvious, Mion had learned this quickly, Satoko’s advice was rarely straightforward. She always assumed other Mentats had an underlying plan and planned accordingly herself.
“The Emperor has already bought us enough time as is. He did not want the Jihad, it just happened, but his army cannot be contained even by himself. Mion managed to buy some time, as well as you by waging war against the Harkonnen. Fremen thought of you as a local hero and this helped. Though we are not part of their religion, Tannans do not bow to the emperor, they venerate their own God incarnate, Furude Rika. The Jihad will arrive, and it will be soon. When it happens the first target they’ll have is you. You and your child”
She looked at Hanyuu “We have only two options Lady. To bow before the Emperor, to reject your godhood and say he was the one guiding your hand. Or to escape”
Rika sipped her tea. She looked at the temple, in her mind, Rika was already using prescience, an ancient ability of the Furude, to live out a life in which she chose to bow before the Emperor, how in the end this would turn the Tannans against each other, how they would eventually drive themselves to extinction. The other life where they stayed, this one she begun to check, and her prescience allowed her to see how soon the Jihad would arrive, how brutal her death would be.
She kept meditating, aided by Satoko, she had already provided her two options, the rest were certain death. It was probably what the Emperor did for his plans, but his Mentat abilities allowed him to see further into the future, reject bad choices as he spoke. Rika was no Mentat, she had to walk through those paths. Satoko helped her in some way, but neither of them could compare to the terrible Muad’Dib of Arrakis. It was a good thing he did not want to spill blood, or not yet, he perhaps imagined how the three minor houses were a potential threat. After all they held a planet, they had a religious figure, a Mentat of good quality and a Swordsmaster with skill that made Fremen shiver. The three houses of Tanna would indeed become a threat, they would never be able to overthrow the empire, but with what they had, they could indeed do harm.
Rika did see those timelines too, out of curiosity. Yes it would be a fruitless attempt, but they would go down in glory, seen as one of the toughest planets to cleanse in the Jihad, though the Emperor would not even bat an eye at the destruction, a spec on the sea of his awareness. It was there, there when she saw him. Standing in her path of awareness, in a future only she could see and he knew she could. “Run” He said “Listen to your mentat, do not underestimate your mentat. After all she and I share the same blood”
Rika was pulled out from the trance, or rather, pushed away by that terrible man. Satoko was slightly concerned, Rika had seen many terrible futures, this one was probably one that she saw. Rika looked at her friend she tried to hide it in her face, but the impression was too much.
“He knows” Satoko said in surprise
Rika noticed how she didn’t find the Emperor until she thought of the path of destruction. They were a threat, he stood in the paths that would make them a threat, the choices that would make them bring their world into chaos, both hers and the Emperor’s. Yet he told her to take another path, he talked of Satoko as if she were a close relative, she was, but as if she knew her personally, he probably did, but with the familiarity you have with someone you like. He knows, but he approves of her. Rika thought to herself. Satoko was an ally the Emperor allowed her to have, a tool for their survival, a last chance for them to escape.
So that was the Harkonnen blood, some hidden gene that allowed them to see plans within plans. The old Baron would had been a great Mentat, so would Feyd, but neither of them had the proper upbringing. A bloodline doomed by their own debauchery. The emperor himself knew how dangerous Satoko could be, how dangerous Rika was with her own prescience, but he also knew they did not seek to harm his empire, they just wanted to survive.
“We would need to escape somewhere where the Emperor couldn’t find us, even if he threatened the guild… Do you think it is possible to hijack a heighleiner?” Rika smiled
Satoko narrowed her eyes, trying to see something inside of Rika, what was her plan exactly? “Of course, it is… But even after taking it, what would you do with it? Do you want to gamble with our lives and go through foldspace to some empty corner of the cosmos? Finding a planet is impossible under those conditions”
Rika smiled proudly “I think I could handle it”
Satoko was aware of Rika’s prescience, but just until then, she understood how strong it was so she could act as a steersman. She can see the paths we would take if going through foldspace. Oh how formidable it was, a Mentat and a Prescient Reverend Mother. The mentat to trim the branches of time that would led nowhere, and Rika allowing to see which path would be the best. Only Great Houses of the Landsraad had a team like this, only the old Emperor had a team of Mentat and prescients to figure out the future.
Rika’s own prescience was great, but she could only study one timeline in a moment, the old Emperor had a team like that, and we all know how it turned out for him. What was three minor Houses against the great threat of the Jihad? Against the Kwizatz Haderach, the abilities he possessed already existed, Rika and Satoko were great examples of it, both holding a piece of the puzzle, but the Kwizatz Haderach is stronger than the pieces combined, they knew this much.
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