Day 3 | Evening | The Last Dream

[Kannon]

The four of them were in a courtyard of a well-fortified compound. The buildings inside, while austere, were doused with greenery, providing shade and comfort against the sun. It felt like summer on their faces and naked arms as they waited for the next training regime Patrin would impose on them. He was a hard taskmaster, and mean at times, but not sadistic. Duncan, Kiran, Laila and Xard knew he was a necessary counterbalance to the Reverend Mother Shwangyu, whose designs were well-obscured but often substantiated in physical and mental torment.

Their pause in training was caused by the recent arrival, another Reverend Mother. Her aba hood was off as she was in a quiet but rather intense conversation with Shwangyu. The contrast between this luscious woman and the nasty crone couldn't be more stark.

"Damn, I didn't know they can be that pretty. Or rather I forgot." Teenage Duncan remarked, apparently transfixed by this new Reverend Mother, with some telltale signs of arousal. "She reminds me of someone but I can't figure out who."

"Maybe she's our new teacher?" Xard commented, with some hope in his voice.

"I wouldn't mind that! Since we can't know what the Witches are cooking up for us, let it at least be easy on the eyes."

[Laila Bridger]

Laila rolled her eyes.

I know familiarity breeds contempt, but damn it, we're right here.

"If the Bene Gesserit are giving you boys a pretty face to drool over, rest assured it's for their benefit and not yours."

She didn't like them being called "witches," either, but she kept that part to herself. The boys wouldn't understand why it bothered her.

[Kiran Alsahar]

Kiran actually elbowed him a little bit, raising an eyebrow. "It might be worth taking to being manipulated with a little less uh..." They glanced down and then back up with a smirk. "Enthusiasm."

[Kannon]

"Of course it's for their benefit. They need us for something. Else they wouldn't be getting through all this trouble. This compound. It's not like it seems to be having any other purpose than us." Duncan gestured around. "Patrin trains us for violence. Maybe it's time for something else. You tell me, what can she be good at?" He just grinned at Kiran after the elbowing, apparently not ashamed.

[Laila Bridger]

"A different sort of violence, most likely."

Violence was all she had known for a very long time. Carrying it out, enduring it, waiting for it.

I wanted- I WANT something else out of life, but this is not the time, nor the place, it may never be the time or the place...

[Kannon]

"Like what?" Duncan turned more serious. "The way they behave, there seems to be a disagreement between them. I am willing to give some benefit of the doubt to someone who disagrees with Shwangyu."

[Kiran Alsahar]

"Maybe," Kiran murmurs. "I wish I could read lips. Methods aren't usually what they disagree on, though. A lot of people seem pretty passionate about the idea that you can somehow get a better future for the humanity based on its worst aspects."

[Laila Bridger]

"You're asking like what when she's manipulating your body from all the way over there? Ask yourself... in what way could she hurt you that Shwangyu never could?""

Laila shook her head.

Boys are idiots.

But then again, we do figure it out sooner because we have to.

[Kannon]

"I thought it is the Honored Matres who use sex to hurt and enslave. If the Bene Gesserit do that too, what is the moral difference then?" Duncan might be a bit naive, but his principled compunctions were well-awakened. "I don't want to fight for an evil organization."

[Laila Bridger]

"Motive, maybe, but... it could also be that she's here to teach that sort of violence precisely because of who the enemy is."

[Kannon]

The new Reverend Mother got the cowl back on her hair and by some inexplicable process she lost most of her sexual appeal, projecting maternal impression instead. Without asking Shwangyu for acceptance, she approached the group of teenagers and sat near them.

Lucilla.jpg (11.73 KiB) Viewed 1698 times

"I am Reverend Mother Lucilla. You are correct I am here to teach you something, and you are correct that my methods may turn unorthodox. The major distinction between me and any Honored Matre is while they are driven by the need to make servants, I am driven by the need to serve. It is in the definition of a teacher to empower the pupil." She smiled gently. Her resemblance to someone from Duncan's past was unsettling and uncanny. "We shall start tomorrow, but if you want to ask me questions now, I may answer them."

[Kiran Alsahar]

"I thought it is the Honored Matres who use sex to hurt and enslave. If the Bene Gesserit do that too, what is the moral difference then?" Duncan might be a bit naive, but his principled compunctions were well-awakened. "I don't want to fight for an evil organization."

"The Bene Gesserit are shades of gray, I think. There are exceptions, but most things aren't as easy as good and evil," Kiran said, shaking their head.

"We shall start tomorrow, but if you want to ask me questions now, I may answer them."

"What are you here to teach?"

[Laila Bridger]

"And to whom?"

[Kannon]

"I can teach you the reasons you can choose to fight for. I'll teach it to anyone who wants such learning. Your diversity is not an obstacle."

[Kiran Alsahar]

"I can teach you the reasons you can choose to fight for. I'll teach it to anyone who wants such learning. Your diversity is not an obstacle."

"Specific reasons you already have in mind, or our own?"

[Laila Bridger]

"A lot of the fighting in my memory was for dogshit reasons. Fighting well in bad causes. Still did it. What're you offering that might make a shred of difference?"

[Kannon]

Lucilla smiled gently.

"Unlike Duncan, who is our repository of the genetic will of the Tyrant, both of you have had some functional Bene Gesserit training preceding this, likely by sisters in extremis, but without much substance. Mother Shwangyu doesn't want you to succeed so she hasn't taught you either. The Mother Superior, however, believes the crucible we're at requires you to be aware. Primarily, of yourselves."

She reached out for hands of Laila and Kiran, but looked at Duncan. Her touch was soft, comforting. Their bodies read it as loving in a way a family member would.

"You know we are old. We have seen humans go through their repeated cycles of self-creation and self-destruction and had our part in them. We made a series of mistakes that led to the Tyrant. But Until the Tyrant, we hadn't understood well our very own creed. We gave him Sister Chenoeh, and he gave her back to us with understanding that only now can we start comprehending and appreciating. There is truly only one goal for any aware human being to take up as the beacon of their actions. To perpetuate our story. To navigate the narrow paths among all that would write it to its end, and to emerge on the other side, into a universe of surprises."

Having their register, by then Lucilla had already attuned herself to them, making them as receptive as circumstances allowed. Turning to Voice, she began imprinting.

I am a Bene Gesserit. I exist only to serve. I stand in the sacred human presence. As I do now, so should you stand some day. I pray to your presence that this be so. Let the future remain uncertain for that is the canvas to receive our desires. Thus the human condition faces its perpetual tabula rasa. We possess no more than this moment where we dedicate ourselves continuously to the sacred presence we share and create.

When she finished, orbital bombardment began, and their compound would soon be overrun by the Matres and their Tleilaxu allies. The dream wouldn't let them know whether they lived or died, and how, as ailar let go and searing headache was all they could think of.

[This concludes the Last Dream.]

[All they would take away from this encounter is the Bene Gesserit Oath embedded deeply in their subconscious mind. Should their personal values are or ever become convergent with it and they genuinely wish to take it, they would know the words, becoming members of the Bene Gesserit Order by dedication, and would be recognised as such by other Bene Gesserit.]