So who is the culprit, you ask?
Finding that out is part of the story, right?
So who is the culprit, you ask?
Do you even know what is the culprit in the first place?
So who is the culprit?
Who is the culprit that’s gonna kill me?!
—From “Autobiography” by Frederica Bernkastel
Rika had to wait for Rena’s signal to jump into action as well. She would have to be there to act as Mion’s truthsayer, the plan would fail, she was certain of that, Muad’Dib was in many places at once, that future was one of those places, it was clouded by him, but past him she could see success. The streets of Arrakeen were full of an odd sandy dust that got into every place possible. Rika wiggled inside her stillsuit, how many of those things did Rena have? Rika could remember Rena dealing with a great amount of them, it never downed on her that the number was actually much larger than it seemed, the Jihad was closer than they ever knew.
It was then when she saw him, not inside the paths of the future, or in her awareness, but right there, walking in the streets of Arrakeen, his stillsuit covered his face, nobody could see who he was, and thus they avoided him the same way people would avoid any other Fremen. Rika looked at him at the eye, there was an air of sadness in his gaze, though it was not intimidating, he was not trying to intimidate her.
He could see the fear in her, but so was every other Reverend Mother when they met him, even his own mother was afraid of him. Rika in her own prescience explored timelines where she stabbed him on the back, instead of flinching he turned around to see the streets. He was completely unaware of who would drive the knife into his back, he did see futures in which he could die, but he did not know who the culprit would be.
Rika turned around to see him. Muad’Dib knew she was a Reverend Mother, he knew she was aware of who he was, but he did not know who she was. He could not see her with his inner eye. It was then when it hit her, she looked into possible immediate futures, in all of them she could openly attack him, he was wide open to her, though when Rika’s actions began to affect people around her, then those futures would have him acting right away. He can’t see me! He cannot see those who can see the future, we are invisible to him.
Though there he was, in her future paths, the clouded path she had chosen. Why was he there? Why could he see her? She began meditating, right there in the street, seeking her own answers. There he was again, in her path, blocking it. Hanyuu, the original Hanyuu stood besides her, the personality of her ancestor, protecting her from all the personalities that came with an Abomination. Hanyuu looked at Muad’Dib too. Rika decided to launch towards him, overwhelm the awareness of this Muad’Dib. He quickly ran away from Rika and Hanyuu, a mask that shattered to show a formless being.
Hanyuu looked at the shadow running away “Just like you before you were born… That is not Muad’Dib, that is his son. His son saw the threat in you and clouded our path, so we were not a threat to him”
“Scared by a baby” Rika thought, Hanyuu nodded when hearing the words “All this time, we were actually immune to his vision, his son was the one scaring us!” Rika began to follow the Fremen Emperor. She had to face him, to directly face him. Rika did not see that she was being followed as well.
It looked like another Reverend Mother, slightly younger than she was. Another abomination, Muad’Dib was not protected by just his son. Rika felt the poison needle through her neck, she quickly began to metabolize the poison, to break it down to harmless components. Hanyuu noticed it after it was too late “Alia… Alia is just like us, Alia has probably seen Muad’Dib’s son”
Rika grabbed her knife and turned to face her attacker. Alia’s eyes met Rika’s, the same aggressive Harkonnen eyes Rika had seen in Satoko, this time though, the intent to kill was not a mere intimidation trick. Alia was here to kill Rika. She noticed how Rika was processing the poison, how her body was fighting it, and winning.
“Now they send an abomination after my brother. This is quite new” Alia said, she touched Rika’s yead, a simple graze with the tip of her fingers. Though that touch Alia shared memories, memories of pain and despair, just those for Rika to enjoy. Alia saw how Rika fainted from that touch alone. She knew how hard was to keep the personalities at bay, all she had to do was give Rika a push and everything would crumble. The poison would now do its work freely.
Rika’s mind was a castle, in the rooms there were past personalities of her, all of them guarding the dungeons, a place where one personality made everyone else shiver in fear. Rika’s mind was slowly rotting away, the awareness of pain began torturing Hanyuu who absorbed most of it, its own personality slowly deteriorating.
The door of the dungeons shook, all of Rika’s ancestors tried to hold it close. It shook again, her entire mind palace began to crumble. Rika continued repeating the litany against fear while attempting to metabolize the poison, ignoring what was happening inside of her mind.
The door broke open, laughter filled Rika’s mind, she was yanked away from the light, and tossed to the side along with the other personalities. The poison was quickly destroyed by this personality. Rika turned to see who this was, she froze in fear, the witch of miracles, the founder of Shintosunni religion.
Alia would had done things differently if she knew whose ancestors were on Rika’s blood. Bernkastel, the mad conqueror who drove her own jihad in the universe in times before the Butlerian Jihad. History had almost forgotten about Bernkastel, but there she was, in a body fully trained in the Bene Gesserit ways.
Yes it was the Bene Gesserit who made Tanna a soft planet, they mellowed out their population. Some gene in its population made them more prone to violence than any other human, so much so that it was common for them to kill each other under the right conditions. Bene Gesserit had trained the leaders of said planet to avoid exactly what was happening, the people revolting against the Empire. Mion and Shion would had been great for stopping the insurrection, but their loyalty was with their people before the sisterhood. Bernkastel had seen this path back when she was in her original body.
She knew which parts were clouded by the Emperor’s son. She managed to fool Rika to walk into this trap, a miracle had happened, she was back among the living. First, she had to talk to the Guild. Attacking the Emperor would be easy enough, but there were people already at that. Yes, without knowing they would lay the groundwork necessary to take over herself, a newly built empire can easily take over. Handed to her by the sisterhood that neutered her planet so that this very thing would not happen.
First Bernkastel had to share a secret not even the emperor knew to the guild. A secret that was lost to time and was about to be revealed back to humanity. She could easily take away the power from Muad’Dib this way. Let the conspirators continue their work, let them do the hard part for her take over. The time of the Witch Empress of the universe was nearing, a miracle again, she rolled the dice ahead of time and now it was paying out.
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