Day 3 | Afternoon | The Third Dream

[Kiran Alsahar]

"What I have been doing to humanity cannot be described in your gentle words. No garden enjoys pruning. You should know that Bene Gesserit call me Abomination. I have never protested that description."

"Good for them," they responded blandly regarding the Bene Gesserit. "They say a lot of stuff. Some of it'suseful, some of it isn't."

"But you do it because you want the plant to be healthy, even if it doesn't understand why it's being cut," they assessed. "Human motives, human memories, if I'm reading the situation right. This is an ailar vision, and because of the difference from the others and the fact that I'm learning things about you I couldn't have assessed on my own, this conversation is really happening through the medium of ailar and... that scent has to be spice, right?"

[Laila Bridger]

"Your words, not mine. He's better than that, and worse at the same time. There is no more high nobility, he has unmade them all. There is only him, the God Emperor, and all those who linger as a part of his design."

"Sounds to me like he just made it so he and his servants are the nobility, then. They all like to talk about purpose, but it's really all about power. If this Golden Path of his calls for only one center of power, then it's not that different from what we were doing back in the day. The only difference is that he's succeeded where the Corrinos never really did."

[Kiran Alsahar]

"Sounds to me like he just made it so he and his servants are the nobility, then. They all like to talk about purpose, but it's really all about power. If this Golden Path of his calls for only one center of power, then it's not that different from what we were doing back int he day. The only difference is that he's succeeded where the Corrinos never really did."

"I don't think that's quite what's going on," they said. "I think I have the shape of it, though."

[Kannon]

"No drug would allow this in itself. Our medium is Duncan."

Duncan shook his head in disagreement, but he didn't explain what he disagreed with, or why. The voice interceded.

"Whose hands would you vest power over humanity in if you could take it away from me? Answer it honestly and you will find me back at the end. Start with this: every despot is finite."

[Laila Bridger]

"Whose hands? If you know me as well as you seem to think, then you know how I'd answer. I had one fealty proven to be idiocy in the eyes of everyone, the second was no wiser. All the same, people were shocked and disapproving when I walked away from it."

[Kiran Alsahar]

"No drug would allow this in itself. Our medium is Duncan."

Duncan shook his head in disagreement, but he didn't explain what he disagreed with, or why. The voice interceded.

They shrugged and nodded. "Duncan with chemical aid, then, unless you plan to... I don't know, possess his body when he's sober and have a time-detached chat." They glanced to him and smiled apologetically. "Sorry, didn't mean to talk about you like you're not here."

Aside from that clarification, they stood back to listen to Laila's side of the conversation.

[Kannon]

"Whose hands? If you know me as well as you seem to think, then you know how I'd answer. I had one fealty proven to be idiocy in the eyes of everyone, the second was no wiser. All the same, people were shocked and disapproving when I walked away from it."

"There is no escape from the terrors of the universe. No corner of it will offer you peace, nothing known will offer you safety, no matter how enticing the illusion. If you want power dispersed to each human, watch how quickly it will coalesce back into another fantasy of good rule. Unless the game changes, it will replay itself into oblivion. I am the change, by giving the likes of you the Golden Path, an aeon of stagnation."

A slither closer, and a dangerous tone.

"Your resentment is too weak to change anything, mere platitude to defiance, defensive and directionless, a facade for gentle needs. The universe you want requires people you are not. Yet."

A longer pause.

"The Litany has said it long ago. Terror distils humanity."

[Laila Bridger]

"Your resentment is too weak to change anything, mere platitude to defiance, defensive and directionless, a facade for gentle needs. The universe you want requires people you are not. Yet."

A longer pause.

"The Litany has said it long ago. Terror distils humanity."

"The Litany? What the hell are you... Whatever. So what, you're going to make everyone so goddamn miserable and afraid that they become what you think we need to be to overcome you and things like you?"

[Kiran Alsahar]

"The Litany Against Fear," Kiran fills in quietly. "It was drilled into my head as a kid."

"I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."

They added, louder, "So, the cycle of human history is building giant empires, drawing graffiti on all the walls, then it burning down and starting again. So what comes after? What are you aiming for that's better, at least in your own mind?"

[Kannon]

"Worse things than me will befall humanity after I am gone. What I will have accomplished is that the empire-builders become irrelevant to the course of humanity."

A pause.

"I haven't sought you out. You are memories I already have. Duncan has brought you to me, his subconscious having some purpose to it despite knowing it most likely means death. His mind seeks escape through time. Don't ask him though, he wouldn't know yet. What he has needs... patience, his and mine."

Suddenly, the slither surged, the heat skyrocketed.

"Are you indifferent to your own deaths?"

[Laila Bridger]

"Not anymore."

The words came out, almost unbidden.

"For the past three years, yeah. Didn't really care. I didn't mind dying, I just refused to be defeated again. That's changed. Maybe it's a longshot, maybe I'm an idiot- I mean, there's plenty of evidence of that- but no, I'm not indifferent to it."

[Kiran Alsahar]

"Of course I'm not indifferent to it. I have a lot I want to do. I like living, and I love people, despite everything. Humanity is a bunch of amazing idiots, and I want to see all I can of the world and what we can do." They smiled at that, brief and bright despitethe threat and the searing heat. "But I'm also not afraid of it. That wouldn'tserve any purpose. Are you going to kill us?"

[Kannon]

"He is going to have a fit soon." Duncan warned.

"Leave and live. Stay and die."

[Kiran Alsahar]

"I think we hit a little too close to home," they said, resisting the urge to laugh. And they made an effort to fight through the dreams fog and leave. They didn't want to stick around and see what slitherbutt had in store for them.

[Laila Bridger]

"Mind telling us how we can leave? We didn't choose to be here. And if we're here because of Duncan, I doubt simply turning on our heels and walking out will do the trick."

[Kannon]

Seeing how they mistook a warning for a discussion topic, Duncan grabbed them mid-sentence and pulled them out just as the worm overtook the man.

---

They awakened to sweaty darkness and torments of captivity. The dream was fleeting fast, lodging itself in the deepest recesses of their consciousness, unlikely to emerge as a memory in all but the most unusual circumstances. But one lesson from this oddest of experiences could be saved with all the mental effort before the dream would vanish.

[You can choose to remember nothing, or to choose one short, simple sentence, a meaningful term or an action, that would linger in your mind as a strong impression: a challenge, a lesson, a pursuit...]

[Kiran Alsahar]

Kiran sucked in a sharp breath as they came to, one thought remaining: Make the path.

[Kannon]

Kiran sucked in a sharp breath as they came to, one thought remaining: Make the path.

In the situation they were in, what could be more poignant?

"Kiran, Laila, Xard, you there?" A quiet, laboured whisper of Duncan's voice that had become so familiar to them lately, reached out. The man had apparently bitten through his gag.

[Kiran Alsahar]

In the situation they were in, what could be more poignant?

"Kiran, Laila, Xard, you there?" A quiet, laboured whisper of Duncan's voice that had become so familiar to them lately, reached out. The man had apparently bitten through his gag.

Kiran tried to answer, but it came out something like a muffled, "Aa. Ee-ah."

[Kannon]

"Guess that's one of you. Good. Hey, if you could squirm a bit without cutting your wrists off, can you feel around for a sharp rock? If I get one, I could possibly pull a trick. I did it once, that's why they tied me up like a pig for roasting."