"Now, that is wise, Shoel. I'll bet you were the best student they ever had, the quickest and the -"
"I thought it was interminable nonsense."
"You didn't!"
"Until one day I read a little twitch in me. It wasn't the movement of a muscle or something someone else might detect. Just a... a twitch."
"Where was it?"
"Nowhere I could describe. But my Fourth Stage instructor had prepared me for it. 'Grab that thing with gentle hands. Delicately.' One of the students thought he meant your real hands. Oh, how we laughed."
"That was cruel." She touched his cheek and felt the beginning of his dark stubble. It was late but she did not feel sleepy.
"I suppose it was cruel. But when the twitch came, I knew it. I had never felt such a thing before. I was surprised by it, too, because knowing it then, I knew it had been there all along. It was familiar. It was my Truthsense twitching."
She thought she could feel Truthsense stirring within herself. The feeling of wonder in his voice aroused something.
"It was mine then," he said. "It belonged to me and I belonged to it. No separation ever again."
"How wonderful that must be." Awe and envy in her voice.
"No! Some of it I hate. Seeing some people this way is like seeing them eviscerated, their guts hanging out."
"That's disgusting!"
"Yes, but there are compensations, love. There are people you meet, people who are like beautiful flowers extended to you by an innocent child. Innocence. My own innocence responds and my Truthsense is strengthened. That is what you do for me, my love."
The no-ship of the Honored Matres arrived at Gammu and they sent her down to the Landing Flat in the garbage lighter. It disgorged her beside the ship's discards and excrement but she did not mind. Home! I'm home and Lampadas survives.
The Rabbi, however, did not share her enthusiasm.
Once more, they sat in his study, but now she felt more familiar with Other Memory, much more confident. He could see this.
"You are even more like them than ever! It's unclean."
"Rabbi, we all have unclean ancestors. I am fortunate in that I know some of mine."
"What is this? What are you saying?"
"All of us are descendants of people who did nasty things, Rabbi. We don't like to think of barbarians in our ancestry but they're there. "
"Such talk!"
"Reverend Mothers can recall them all, Rabbi. Remember, it is the victors who breed. You understand?"
"I've never heard you talk so boldly. What has happened to you, daughter?"
" I survived, knowing that victory sometimes is achieved at a moral price."
"What is this? These are evil words."
"Evil? Barbarism is not even the proper word for some of the evil things our ancestors did. The ancestors of all of us, Rabbi."
She saw she had hurt him and felt the cruelty of her own words but could not stop. How could he escape the truth of what she said? He was an honorable man.
She spoke more softly but her words cut him even deeper. "Rabbi, if you shared witness to some of the things Other Memory has forced me to know, you would come back seeking new words for evil. Some things our ancestors have done debase the worst label you could imagine."
"Rebecca... Rebecca... I know necessities of... "
"Don't make excuses about 'necessities of the times'! You, a Rabbi, know better. When are we without a moral sense? It's just that sometimes we don't listen."
He put his hands over his face, rocking back and forth in the old chair. It creaked mournfully.
"Rabbi, you I have always loved and respected. I went through the Agony for you. I shared Lampadas for you. Do not deny what I have learned from this."
He lowered his hands. " I do not deny, daughter. But permit me my pain."
"Out of all these realizations, Rabbi, the thing I must deal with most immediately and without respite is that there are no innocents. "
"Rebecca!"
"Guilty may not be the right word, Rabbi, but our ancestors did things for which payment must be made."
"That I understand, Rebecca. It is a balance that -"
"Don't tell me you understand when I know you don't." She stood and glared down at him. "It's not a balance book that you set aright. How far back would you go?"
"Rebecca, I am your Rabbi. You must not talk this way, especially to me."
"The farther back you go, Rabbi, the worse the evil atrocities and higher the price. You cannot go back that far but I am forced to it. "
Turning, she left him, ignoring the pleading in his voice, the painful way he said her name. As she closed the door, she heard him say: "What have we done? Israel, help her."
The writing of history is largely a process of diversion. Most historical accounts distract attention from the secret influences behind great events.
- The Bashar Teg
When left to his own devices, Idaho often explored his no-ship prison. So much to see and learn about this Ixian artifact. It was a cave of wonders.
He paused on this afternoon's restless walk through his quarters and looked at the tiny comeyes built into the glittering surface of a doorway. They were watching him. He had the odd sensation of seeing himself through those prying eyes. What did the Sisters think when they looked at him? The blocky ghola-child from Gammu's long-dead Keep had become a lanky man: dark skin and hair. The hair was longer than when he had entered this no-ship on the last day of Dune.
Bene Gesserit eyes peered below the skin. He was sure they suspected he was a Mentat and he feared how they might interpret that. How could a Mentat expect to hide the fact from Reverend Mothers indefinitely? Foolishness! He knew they already suspected him of Truthsay.