Secret Gardens [Evening 1]

[Kannon]

"Having visited Caladan, are you familiar with ailar?" Salomea asked after a pause.

[Cuyler Gray]

"I have heard of it." She nodded. "Not much, just general information."

[Kannon]

"It is an alternative spectrum enhancer, also as a communal experience. But the strains available in circulation have varied, sometimes lethal, levels of toxicity. Our Reverend Mothers are immune to toxins, but I wouldn't recommend treating it as a substitute of melange to anyone else." She sighed. "If I were you, I'd start with understanding what you have already seen."

[Cuyler Gray]

She nodded. "That is why I began looking into the Zensunni. In my vision, I was a girl, an ancestor, being sung to by a Zensunni boy. He may also have been an ancestor."

[Sister Shinah]

“The bakka – the weeper who mourns for all mankind – has filled the marshes of Harmonthep from her weeping. May it not drown today."

"She..." she hesitated and then dropped her voice to a whisper.

“The weeper cries because there is imbalance. La, la, la, she cries. She cries because the wanderers suffer. She cries when the wanderers suffer."

"But also, she cries because she has foreseen that the planet itself will not outlast our memory of her. Wanderers, she warns, this cannot be your last home. This is not the promised land. This is not sihaya, the paradise to come."

“The next migration will happen when it will happen, in God’s time, and on God’s plan, but we must be as ready as we can be. But that it must come… That is ijaz. Prophecy that cannot be denied.”

"I see." Shinah replied with a degree of reverent awe.

Truly, the Missionaria has done its work here. Shinah thought to herself, carefully keeping her features unreadable.

"And you sing the same songs as these bakka. Are you to succeed them someday, carrying forward the burden they carry now?"

[Kannon]

She nodded. "That is why I began looking into the Zensunni. In my vision, I was a girl, an ancestor, being sung to by a Zensunni boy. He may also have been an ancestor."

"Well." Salomea began. "This is something you can get much better insights on from Reverend Mother Cordana." She looked in the direction of the resting crone.

[Nirilli]

"I see." Shinah replied with a degree of reverent awe.

Truly, the Missionaria has done its work here. Shinah thought to herself, carefully keeping her features unreadable.

"And you sing the same songs as these bakka. Are you to succeed them someday, carrying forward the burden they carry now?"

"I have only been taught of a single bakka. The weeper who mourns for all mankind, and for the wanderers, in particular. I ... I don't know. I have always assumed there was only one, and that she is eternal. Spirit. So she could not need a successor. Though..."

She tilted her head, thinking. Reaching the edges of what had been taught to her before she was taken as a slave. As a child.

"There shouldn't be weeping, in the promised land, should there? So maybe she does not need a successor, but she earns a rest? In the fullness of time?"

She nodded, stitching it together in her own mind. That must be right.

"And we give her a little of that rest - a glimpse, a taste - when we sing a happy song. And add to her burden of sorrow when we sing of pain."

[Cuyler Gray]

"Well." Salomea began. "This is something you can get much better insights on from Reverend Mother Cordana." She looked in the direction of the resting crone.

"Understood. I appreciate your time." She excused herself and approached Cordana.

[Sister Shinah]

"I have only been taught of a single bakka. The weeper who mourns for all mankind, and for the wanderers, in particular. I ... I don't know. I have always assumed there was only one, and that she is eternal. Spirit. So she could not need a successor. Though..."

She tilted her head, thinking. Reaching the edges of what had been taught to her before she was taken as a slave. As a child.

"There shouldn't be weeping, in the promised land, should there? So maybe she does not need a successor, but she earns a rest? In the fullness of time?"

She nodded, stitching it together in her own mind. That must be right.

"And we give her a little of that rest - a glimpse, a taste - when we sing a happy song. And add to her burden of sorrow when we sing of pain."

"Perhaps there will be time to meet this bakka when upon we travel to these villages." Shinah's tone suggested this was more of a planned certainty than mere idle speculation.

"I am..." A pause. "Curious. I would have answers."

[Nirilli]

"Perhaps there will be time to meet this bakka when upon we travel to these villages." Shinah's tone suggested this was more of a planned certainty than mere idle speculation.

"I am..." A pause. "Curious. I would have answers."

Nirilli smiled. "I'm sure you would be welcome to come with us. You seem like a keen observer. You may help us find an important clue as to why this terrible thing happened."

"I don't know that we will meet the bakka. What an honor that would be! I prayed to see her - to glimpse her - at the endpoint of the haj. When our barge followed the water-veins to the deepest point each year. The pool without bottom. Our sacred pilgrimage. I prayed each year to catch a glimpse of her. But I think she is at the very bottom, the unreachable bottom, beneath the infinite well of tears."

"But it may be possible to hear her song! It is supposed to be possible to hear in the silence between breaths when we wanderers are gathered together. Like in the villages."

[Kannon]

"Understood. I appreciate your time." She excused herself and approached Cordana.

"I read lips well enough to not make you repeat yourself, Cuyler." Cordana smiled gently, patting the bench next to her. "And I can read between the lines a little bit too. I see you understand your role here as diplomatic, but I might lean on honesty more when discussing things of the sort that is on your mind, as long as you are ready for it."

[Cuyler Gray]

"I read lips well enough to not make you repeat yourself, Cuyler." Cordana smiled gently, patting the bench next to her. "And I can read between the lines a little bit too. I see you understand your role here as diplomatic, but I might lean on honesty more when discussing things of the sort that is on your mind, as long as you are ready for it."

"Very well." She nodded. "But, I am the one coming to you. You will have my gratitude for any assistance you might provide, even if I am not the only one who benefits from it."

She glanced at Dr. Vim.

[Sister Shinah]

Nirilli smiled. "I'm sure you would be welcome to come with us. You seem like a keen observer. You may help us find an important clue as to why this terrible thing happened."

"I don't know that we will meet the bakka. What an honor that would be! I prayed to see her - to glimpse her - at the endpoint of the haj. When our barge followed the water-veins to the deepest point each year. The pool without bottom. Our sacred pilgrimage. I prayed each year to catch a glimpse of her. But I think she is at the very bottom, the unreachable bottom, beneath the infinite well of tears."

"But it may be possible to hear her song! It is supposed to be possible to hear in the silence between breaths when we wanderers are gathered together. Like in the villages."

Nirilli's answer did not appear to be received well by Shinah.

"I would have answers." She repeated, in a tone to suggest she was thinking aloud.

(Is there anything I'm not picking up on in this exchange? I think I'm narratively at an end point here and am covering ground already covered.)

[Nirilli]

Nirilli's answer did not appear to be received well by Shinah.

"I would have answers." She repeated, in a tone to suggest she was thinking aloud.

(Is there anything I'm not picking up on in this exchange? I think I'm narratively at an end point here and am covering ground already covered.)

Nirilli nodded.

"I should return to the Archon and see to her needs, and confirm her permission to join the trip tomorrow. It was a pleasure to speak to you, Sister Shinah."

"I'm sure Lady Gray will confirm the time and details of when to meet up before setting up." Such messages were easily circulated by page.

She paused, staring in the direction of the noble woman now talking to the Reverend Mother.

"She remembered a song from an ancestor while we spoke earlier. Perhaps that was the bakka singing into her heart, because another Zensunni was present. Though I think it was not the first time the song had come to her mind."


((I'm okay to advance the scene. I think you've got a good sense of Nirilli.))

[Kannon]

"Very well." She nodded. "But, I am the one coming to you. You will have my gratitude for any assistance you might provide, even if I am not the only one who benefits from it."

"I have no great interest in trading favours, Cuyler, or to make you feel bound. I am mostly curious about the nature of your visions. Would you say that they have been uniformly of the past?"

[Nirilli]

NIrilli bowed to all present and quietly departed, to make her way to the Archon.

[Cuyler Gray]

"I have no great interest in trading favours, Cuyler, or to make you feel bound. I am mostly curious about the nature of your visions. Would you say that they have been uniformly of the past?"

"I'm not sure." She admitted. "My initial experience was just a voice, really. It was like a lecture on the ecology of Arrakis. I'm not sure if ir was an event that actually happened or just how my mind processed the knowledge I gained. The other one, the song. That felt historical. I believe that happened, here."

[Kannon]

"Did the lecturer refer to any events that were already in the past when you had that vision?" Cordana straightened a fold on her aba. "Would you describe the voice as domineering, or too pervasive? Has it ever returned?"

[Cuyler Gray]

"It did. It referenced events that I had not been aware of. But, it was focused largely on the ecology of the planet. Like a lecture from a planetologist. "

[Kannon]

Cordana leaned harder against the wall behind her.

"Was the voice like dr Vim's then?"