Paired Opposites [Day 0]

[Kannon]

"All kinds of plants have their place in the Heliophagos."

The Bene Gesserit knelt to touch the soil of the nearest plantation.

"Is it good to help plants thrive? Or should one withdraw the helping hand to see if they survive on their own?"

[Nirilli]

"I was taught that treating plants and animals with compassion is considered a charitable gift - sadaqah. It is a good act. Good for the soul. A moment of connection to God. And plants in particular - there can be two moments of sadaqah. The good done to the plant that it might live, and then the second gift of food to the one who eats its fruit, if it is food producing. That is true of food generating animals also. But not animals used for pleasure, sport, or work - like a guard dog."

"There is always a reward for serving any living being."

"There is nuance in practice, of course. To let one plant survive on its own to understand what is required to feed a population with limited resources? The one opportunity for good is balanced against the other."

"But when nothing else is at stake, it is good to treat plants and animals and people kindly."

[Kannon]

Salomea listened.

"There are twenty date palms growing in the courtyard of the Residency in Arrakeen. To survive the scorching heat of the planet's day they need to be watered with 40 litres each every day. It equals water consumption of several people per palm. It is those palms or over a hundred people every day. Would you keep watering them, Nirilli, or would you let them die? And what do you think the answer of your Zensunni brethren there is to this question?"

[Nirilli]

She looked thoughtful.

"If it was my duty to tend the garden, I would tend it. Duty is required of us. Charity is ... as we are able."

"In the abstract, were I making the decisions, were it in my power to do so, I might say more people should live, and fewer date palms. But humility is a virtue also. What do I know of the value of twenty date palms in a desert to the power of the lord of the place? It communicates wealth and stability, love of the beautiful, perhaps hope for the future. A specific kind of leader. A specific kind of power. Perhaps in the end, that keeps the people who do survive freer and in a more peaceful environment. People do not survive constant war either."

"And perhaps there are ways to adapt. To need less. So that marsh plants can become cacti? A different beauty, but one that belongs and endures."

[Kannon]

"Ah, so this is who you are, Nirilli. A person who in the face of a clear dilemma extrapolates from it so much that it no longer feels like one. Life for your brethren on Arrakis is not like that. Principle and necessity must be one. If principle does not match necessity, it is ill-defined. To the real, unhypothetical dilemma I presented to you, they do have an uneqivocal and uncontextualised solution. They would caution you like this: Adopt the knife's attitude. Cut it where it must end, and it has no other end."

Salomea's gaze sharpened. She then gestured around.

"The Arrakis Zensunni, the Fremen, intrinsically understand ecology."

[Nirilli]

That was probably a fair assessment of her. She did her best to make sense of her lot.

"I am different from them likely because I have been raised in a very different environment." Wasn't that the idea of ecology? "And just because it is my nature, yes."

She paused and then added "I am sorry if my answer disappointed you." She was sorry for that. She admired the Lady. She wanted to make a good impression.

"What is their solution?" The unequivocal and uncontextualized solution. The knife's attitude?

"I don't understand what the knife's attitude is. I want to. But I have to admit, I don't." But that was necessary to learn. To just admit you didn't understand yet.

[Kannon]

"Ecology is the science ruled by the law of the minimum. The most limiting factor in any given environment must be acknowledged and inform action. Moral compunctions and religious precepts need a steady match with a practical muscle that makes them immediately applicable in that environment. If it means consigning any form of life to death, this decision must be made without second thought. Every delay in doing the necessary risks contributing to the collapse of the ecosystem, especially if it is a fragile one. Knife is a metaphor for doing away with speculation, postponement or debate once one is aware of the consequences. The Zensunni on Arrakis have no privilege to be ignorant of the consequences."

Salomea paused.

"Look at these gardens, Nirilli. Why are they not outside?"

[Nirilli]

She nodded, expression thoughtful.

"I see. Knife-sharp thought. Rapid. Unbending. A principle that is so clear there is no thought at all. Only action."

What would it take to be more like that? If that was important in the place of God's testing, it was important! God surely saw what happened here also.

"There are pieces of being an entertainer that are like that. Choreography known in the muscle, no time for thought. Pitches in the ear. No thinking or naming the note. Only expressing it."

"But there is also a lot of thinking, over-thinking, about how to please, what is pleasing, what will thrill, what is fashionable, what will not offend. Maybe I get in my own way. The perfect entertainer probably doesn't have to think that about that part either. It becomes as natural as breathing. Instinctive. Original. And..." - an entirely new thought to her - "perhaps they do not even care? Nothing but the art for its own sake?"

Pankratos came to her mind. He was so effortlessly good at all the sports. She had assumed that was practiced. That he was anxious each race, but hid it. But maybe he wasn't anxious in the first place? She didn't know him well enough to know.

Was that what the Lady felt when she gardened? Beauty for the joy of it alone?

The gardens. Why were they inside?

"The gardens are inside because inside every variable can be controlled. And the people intended to see the gardens are inside." Her best guesses.

[Kannon]

"The conditioning can become your nature. There is more to humans than their innate talents, natural leanings, abstract potentials and designated roles. In negotiating your place in existence, however, there is pain and terror. Just like at birth."

Salomea looked at Nirilli with strange intensity. She didn't dismiss Nirilli's answer, but gave her own.

"This garden is inside because it cannot survive outside. It is sheltered from the world as is. If suddenly exposed, it would wither and die. Some plants would survive but the diversity would be gone. Its superficial role is to please, of course, to satisfy, to nourish. But its purpose is to evolve to the point it can stand before its sun rather than just keep leeching on a sliver of its power from a hiding place. This hasn't happened yet. It may not happen soon. But I, as its gardener, do my part. Gardening is an exercise in patience."

[Nirilli]

Its superficial role was to please. Like her! But its purpose was to evolve. Was that like her, too? Or like her people?

Her people already survived outside the palace, on the surface, just fine.

If anything, she was evolving to survive within it. The Archon was her protection - her indoor garden, the space within which she could exist. Protected. Displayed. If anything happened to the Archon, she would likely die, yes. Or if the Archon tired of her, like the little plant she had just re-planted. Was she learning enough that she could survive? What would it look like to survive within these walls or some other place without that entire dependency?

In negotiating your place in existence, however, there is pain and terror. Just like at birth.

There was pain and terror in change. There was pain and terror in freedom. But there might yet be ... survival.

"How do you help ready the plants in the gardens here to one day survive? Are you gradually exposing them to more sun? Less water? More water? Less controlled conditions? Less protections?"

[Kannon]

To that, Salomea raised a brow and responded with a proverb popular in her order.

"Any road followed precisely to its end leads precisely nowhere. Climb the mountain just a little bit to test that it's a mountain. From the top of the mountain, you cannot see the mountain."

But as it dug in, she offered more.

"Gardening is testing within testing. You push limits ever so slightly to establish new limits rather than to cross the old ones."

[Nirilli]

She listened. Curious. Absorbing as much as she could. Or trying to, anyway.

Just a little bit. Small steps. Testing steps.

It was all so interesting.

"If I could be anything in the world, I might like to care for plants. To garden. I heard that plants do better if you speak to them! Is that something you have tested? I ... I could chat with a few plants if you thought it a good test. Or sing to them."

[Kannon]

Salomea pressed, then relaxed her lips.

"I could use an assistant of your heart and dedication. Too few see Heliophagos as more than an amenity. Alas, your prime commitment is to the Archon, is it not?"

She allowed herself a smile in acknowledgement of Nirilli's enthusiasm.

"But if you find some time between your regular errands, please find me."

[Nirilli]

Nirilli smiled.

"My time is the Archon's. She will determine on any given day whether I have free time. It has varied in the past. But I will gladly visit as the opportunities present."

She felt sure the Archon would not mind. After all, nothing happened that the Archon did not foresee. There was nothing she could do that was not a gambit of the Archon's bearing fruit. The Archon would be pleased. Surely it was so!

"Thank you. Thank you very much. I look forward to it."

She gave a deep bow. It was a good reminder that her time was not her own, and she needed to get back.

[Kannon]

"The wise woman molds herself - the fool lives only to die."

She replied in Chakobsa with a piece of Zensunni wisdom that needed no elaboration. Such was the nature of the religion's philosophical whips, to cut through comforting rationalisations. But then, Salomea softened her voice.

"Let the future remain uncertain for that is the canvas to receive our desires."

Her words were imbued with solemnity, as if they held deeper meanings to her. Then she nodded, dismissing Nirilli.

[Nirilli]

Nirilli returned to the place she was instructed to be next or to await her next order. She had much to think and pray about!

She would share all that had happened with the Archon as the chance presented.

[Kannon]

The chance wouldn't present itself until later, but Nirilli still had a lot to do.

/scene