"Oh, are we trying to get Leto to heed? To heel? To hear wisdom?" Ghanima asked as she entered, arms full of scrolls. "I didn't realize it was already the first of April for such tricks, Stepmother."
Ghanima loves you, Irulan, but really.
"These are for you," she said, dumping them on top of the documents already on Leto's desk. "My observations from the last three 'negotiations' with the Landsraad you had me oversee. It will make interesting reading, if nothing else, once you hit the parts where I start speculating how many times people were dropped on their heads as children."
"Ah, thank you for keeping me entertained for the rest of the day," Leto said cheerfully. "And Irulan was merely trying to get me to tell her why I invited our grandmother to visit. An invitation which she has just accepted, by the way. How do you suggest we greet her?"
Ah, and Ghanima, perhaps better than Leto, understood why and how Irulan felt about Jessica.
Still, she regarded her twin bemusedly. "With tea and Farad'n to distract her while I flee back to Fandom before she starts clucking at me for grandchildren. You do realize Jessica is going to poke her nose into everything? What are you plotting?"
Glancing at Irulan, Leto replied: "You are right, of course. Will you let Farad'n know what we expect of him? I was hoping she would be content to see Hania, but you know her better."
Ghanima had always been closer to the women among their ancestral memories, after all.
Then, switching into Ancient Greek, a language Irulan didn't understand, he continued: I need a Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother with no loyalties to their order. Can you think of a better one?
Ghanima flicked a silent apology to Irulan using the Bene Gesserit finger language, then folded her arms. Besides us? she counted in the same language. She gave Farad'n the oath, but he doesn't have the whole depth. Irulan has no more loyalty to them than Jessica, even less, considering." Jessica had once come to Dune to test both twins for Abomination, and Irulan had only ever tried to protect them. "But she is no Reverend Mother."
"But, depending on what you want one for, we can assure Jessica's loyalty is to us and no other. We have the leverage." Hania, Farad'n, Ghanima herself. All three could be positioned to keep Jessica where Leto wanted her, emotionally.
Besides us, a Reverend Mother, and not on Dune. She's the obvious choice, and as you say, we have the leverage.
At this point, Irulan gave them a familiar look, shaking her head. It was hardly the first time they excluded her through the use of a long dead language. "Let me know when you decide you no longer want to hide your plans from me." She turned swiftly, leaving the twins alone.
Leto looked at Ghanima. "She's more upset than usual."
"She has the same fear she had when Jessica came to Dune the last time, only with different players; that Jessica returns as Bene Gesserit to judge Hania, or you, or both, or that you plan to take your daughter from her and give her to Jessica to raise, leaving her alone with her tomes," Ghanima replied. "Irulan has no greater fear than no longer being needed, than being made irrelevant, than having no one left to love and care for."
"What is it that you need our grandmother for?" Ghanima cleared a corner of his desk to sit on. "What events are now in motion that require a Reverend Mother from offworld?"
"That fear would make her vulnerable, were we not here to protect her," he observed, then turned to Ghanima's question.
"I need a military force. Not Fremen, certainly not Sardaukar. Something new. And what could be better than to start with select parts of Bene Gesserit training?" If he looked entirely to pleased with himself, it was because the long line of Reverend Mothers within him were furious about it.
His inner voices weren't the only ones pitching a fit. "You know, I think they're angrier at you right now than they ever were about my training of Reno," she said, sounding slightly awed as she tilted her head and listed to the turbulence inside her genetic memory. "The idea of you at the head of a Bene Gesserit-trained army is giving them a collective apoplexy."
"Just that is worth it, don't you think?" There was mischief in his eyes. "There will be a need for it, though, a few centuries from now. They won't be Bene Gesserit, of course, but they will be an order of women only. I have considered it for some time."
And not mentioned it until now.
"Naturally I won't tell our grandmother the whole extent of my plan, which will annoy her even more than it does Irulan."
"You're terrible." It was said with great fondness. "--and don't you dare steal any of my students for it. I've already put too much work into them to have you come along and muddle things up."
No, Leto, you can't have Ringo -- or any of the others -- for your Fish Speakers amazons, Ghani won't allow it.
"You do realize that you can tell Irulan, and she'll stop fretting?"
"If I did, she would fret about why I did tell her," Leto said. "Which isn't half as entertaining. As for your students," and here he offered Ghanima his most innocent smile, the one that he knew she'd never be fooled by, "Don't you think there are a few of them who would appreciate Jessica? And the pleasant climate of Caladan? Besides, think about how they would..." confuse "...intrigue our grandmother."
And Ringo had been so cheerful! His Fish Speakers amazons should be less serious than the Bene Gesserit.
"And I tried to send you a new one, to compensate."
She got a bop on her nose back. "I'll see what I can come up with without them. Are there new Jedi this year? Which reminds me, you haven't told me about your new students."
Ghanima loves you, Irulan, but really.
"These are for you," she said, dumping them on top of the documents already on Leto's desk. "My observations from the last three 'negotiations' with the Landsraad you had me oversee. It will make interesting reading, if nothing else, once you hit the parts where I start speculating how many times people were dropped on their heads as children."
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Still, she regarded her twin bemusedly. "With tea and Farad'n to distract her while I flee back to Fandom before she starts clucking at me for grandchildren. You do realize Jessica is going to poke her nose into everything? What are you plotting?"
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Ghanima had always been closer to the women among their ancestral memories, after all.
Then, switching into Ancient Greek, a language Irulan didn't understand, he continued: I need a Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother with no loyalties to their order. Can you think of a better one?
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"But, depending on what you want one for, we can assure Jessica's loyalty is to us and no other. We have the leverage." Hania, Farad'n, Ghanima herself. All three could be positioned to keep Jessica where Leto wanted her, emotionally.
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At this point, Irulan gave them a familiar look, shaking her head. It was hardly the first time they excluded her through the use of a long dead language. "Let me know when you decide you no longer want to hide your plans from me." She turned swiftly, leaving the twins alone.
Leto looked at Ghanima. "She's more upset than usual."
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"What is it that you need our grandmother for?" Ghanima cleared a corner of his desk to sit on. "What events are now in motion that require a Reverend Mother from offworld?"
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"I need a military force. Not Fremen, certainly not Sardaukar. Something new. And what could be better than to start with select parts of Bene Gesserit training?" If he looked entirely to pleased with himself, it was because the long line of Reverend Mothers within him were furious about it.
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"Mother approves, of course."
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And not mentioned it until now.
"Naturally I won't tell our grandmother the whole extent of my plan, which will annoy her even more than it does Irulan."
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No, Leto, you can't have Ringo -- or any of the others -- for your Fish Speakers amazons, Ghani won't allow it.
"You do realize that you can tell Irulan, and she'll stop fretting?"
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And Ringo had been so cheerful! His Fish Speakers amazons should be less serious than the Bene Gesserit.
"And I tried to send you a new one, to compensate."
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He would, too.
"Perhaps I should try adding the next batch of Jedi to their ranks, just to make you jealous."
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