Day 4 | Morning | Parental Advisory

[Kannon]

The silence was telling. Not all was right about Leto's absence.

"Once his gambit works, I suppose. Whatever it truly is. Hawat and Paul may know more, but I don't. But he's been more severe and daring ever since the Witches took away his concubine. He really loved Jessica and wasn't marrying her for the sole purpose of leaving alliance options open. So I suspect he's doing something rather risky. In fact I know that on the homefront he is. I cherish Paul, he can be rather brilliant with all his quasi-mentat training, but leaving an inexperienced boy in charge of the planetary fief is a major risk. I am relieved your mission was a success. I was acknowledging much worse possible outcomes when I was sending your team into the jungles."

[Efren Lanville]

Efren nodded, "Paul is a good young man. He stepped into his role effectively on this mission when it became necessary. His future is bright... and his present is guarded by some of the best men in the Imperium. Master Idaho, Master Thufir, Master Halleck, you..."

He continued to look forward, "All of your presence is undoubtedly why the Duke thought his gambit to be possible... Whatever that gambit is."

[Kannon]

"You're likely right." Roger accepted Efren's bright outlook and confidence with a smile of his own. If his son's morale was soaring so high, he shouldn't be diminishing it by doubt. "Speaking of competence, have you reflected on how your combat training matched up to the mission?"

[Efren Lanville]

"I have my training to thank for the things that I accomplished on the mission. All the work my instructors put in over the years... all the effort and struggle. It was with me when I was scaling that mountain. With me when I had my small troop and executed our ambush of Marek." He replied with an honest tone.

"Marek... was no match for our training regimen as well. Maybe not the fairest comparison since he wasn't necessarily a warrior... But what he could do amounted to poisoning a woman-scholar and trying to poison the air around him as he died."

He let out a sigh through his nostrils, "I only wish I could have anticipated the level of his cowardice..."

He turned to his father, "Did the Lady Vim's condition change after you picked them up?"

[Kannon]

"The med team took care of her. I deployed right after to lead the ground operation."

But Roger did not relent on the other issue.

"The Tleilaxu have no honour, true, but they are deadly. Cowards kill as well as the valorous. With a poisoned blade, with a hunter-seeker, with chaumurky. Perhaps it's time you got your hands on a copy of the Assassin's Handbook, to know what you'll be facing. A Harkonnen wouldn't give you a fair chance either. With Marek, either you got lucky, or you misunderstand the edge embedded in your training. How exactly did you overcome Marek?"

[Efren Lanville]

"You're right... of course. I shouldn't let my hatred for what he was influence how I assess his threat." He replied.

"He had a spacecraft which possessed its own cloaking mechanism. We waited within the boundaries of the cover to assault him before he could escape. The member of our team we left to protect the comm relay, however, came down right as he emerged. Her presence put him on alarm... and he deployed some form of poison dart from his sleeves that hit the Lady Vim." Efren tried to be as thorough as possible after his father had probed further.

"The Lady Gray entangled him in one of the parachutes we had brought for the climb and I engaged him with my knife. Using a technique Swordmaster Duncan showed me once... I disengaged Marek's shield and then incapacitated him with my knife. I was hoping to keep him alive so we could use his person to unlock a pentashield he had placed on both the entry to the tunnels beneath the base, and the secret ship we had located. Before he lost consciousness... he clicked some sort of device within his mouth and shot a cloud of poisonous gas out of his mouth..."

[Kannon]

Roger appeared impressed, concerned, but also relieved and satisfied.

"It could have gone very wrong. Marek had the intent and the means to kill you all. Your ability to act was secured by Gray's tactical ingenuity, the deep realisation that everything in the environment can be a sword and a shield. But the thing you did with his shield makes me particularly proud. Normally, this technique used to be taught to only two groups in the whole Imperium: the Ginaz swordmasters... and the Sardaukar. And the Swordmaster School is gone."

He let that sink in.

"When we stormed Ix those fifteen years ago to reinstall House Vernius, the Tleilaxu had Sardaukar support. Don't ask me why, I never learned what stakes Emperor Elrood may have had in Tleilaxu control of Ix. There was maybe one legion of them, and we threw all we had. Before Duncan defeated their leader, Cando Garon, they had been massacring us with this technique. They knew how to penetrate the shields in the heat of battle with their bare hands, turned them off, and carved us however they liked. We prevailed, but fewer than every second man survived. We've learned our lesson, and your training and your accomplishment is exactly what the Duke has been aiming at all those years, combining all the expertise Duncan and Halleck could bring to the table. But now consider what would happen if the Emperor knew we're on track to having as good fighters as his. Had Marek escaped, he would no doubt use this against us."

He glanced at Efren.

"This is but a taste of responsibility that comes with power, son."

[Efren Lanville]

Efren listened carefully and then nodded.

“I will be cautious about when I use this…”

He then asked, “Does the Duke expect us to have to fight the Sardaukar again? Is that what we are preparing for?”

[Kannon]

"Our Duke has been preparing us for many eventualities. The politics of the Imperium is in constant flux. See what happened with Ix. We bled so much for them and it all turned to naught just in one generation, after Rhombur died. His son Bronso has proven too young to hold onto power, letting it slip to the ruthless technocrats who used to collaborate with the Tleilaxu. We don't know if our alliance with the Hagals or the Ecazi will survive their imminent successions. We must cultivate alliances, but also stand with our own strength."

He inhaled.

"The relationship between Leto and Shaddam... is a complex one. They are distantly related, and the Emperor keeps addressing him as his cousin. He saved Leto and House Atreides when we were this close to forfeiture of our fief after the death of the Old Duke. Quite recently, during the bombing of Otorio, our Duke saved his life. But then, Leto's voice in the Landsraad sometimes carries more weight than the Emperor's... Shaddam also has this special relationship with the Harkonnen, letting the Baron squeeze his most prized fief. I am no mentat to put this all together, I just know something has to give at some point. Shaddam has no male heir, the damn Bene Gesserit made sure of that. At times, he is said to treat Leto as a son he never had, and he keeps the Princess Royal, Irulan, unwed even though she is definitely of the age."

A pause.

"I don't know. We should trust our Duke, and Hawat. It's all we have."

[Efren Lanville]

Efren listened intently trying to understand the complexities of the motivations of those who held the lives of entire worlds in their hands. Their legacies all tied up with the children they did or didn't have... The danger that surrounded the end of a legacy.

At his father's last suggestion Efren nodded, "Then that's what we do."

Efren felt comforted by the internal peace given by following his duties. Life was simpler when one did not have to think incessantly about all the decisions that confronted a person. He was grateful he was being introduced into this world of higher decisions before he would have to make such decisions himself. He could still give part of himself up to those in charge... be less an individual... and part of a house.

[Kannon]

In a way, his father was the same. He never cared much for governance, having a grasp of it only by necessity, letting the rest of the family handle it collectively, each according to their own capacities. Cassandra was a good resource manager, bringing in her own family's talent for organising efficient agriculture, Efren had to give her that, and Roger was satisfied with the arrangement even if their marriage wasn't otherwise ideal. His father was primarily a warrior, a teacher or warriors. He wore a uniform even when he didn't have to, and his free-time indulgence was knife practice once everyone else turned festive, like in Cidrit Town. At some point in the past he must have decided that if he were to be the blade for the Atreides, he'd better be a good one, and would never get dull.

"We will. By the way, Hawat will want your report. Mentats can do their jobs only if they have data."

[Efren Lanville]

“Yes, sir. I’ll get to it right away.” He replied a bit more crisply as his mind started to get its legs under it.

[Kannon]

"Then do it, and I'll fly us in before Hawat can dress us down."

[Efren Lanville]

Efren nodded and did as instructed.

It was a lot to write down... to sift through what was important personally and what was important broadly.

On the physical notepad he wrote down the things that were important broadly.

On the notepad of his heart he wrote down the things which were important personally.

Neither would ever recapture the reality he experienced... but he hoped to remember as much as he could of both as long as possible...

For this mission now formed a core memory of who he was.

[Kannon]

Roger would keep his part of the deal, unaware of the deep thoughts his son was having. He delivered them to Cala City before Hawat would turn impatient.

[End of Thread]