The night was a suffocating shroud over Arrakeen. The only sound was the low, rhythmic thrum of the palace's moisture seals—until the air suddenly turned cold.
Lady Jessica sat upright in her darkened chambers, her Bene Gesserit nerves screaming. The atmosphere had shifted; the subtle vibration of the palace's security field had flatlined. Someone had silenced the house.
She moved with a lethal, fluid grace toward the door, but it hissed open before she could reach it. Dr. Wellington Yuehstood there, his face a twisted mask of grief and mechanical betrayal. In his hand, he held a high-frequency nerve-inducer.
"I am sorry, My Lady," Yueh whispered, his voice cracking. "They have my Wanna. I have traded the Duke's life for a ghost."
Before Jessica could use the Voice, the inducer flared. The world turned into a white-hot scream of neural static, and she collapsed into the silk rugs.
The Gathering of the ShadowsMinutes later, the palace was a labyrinth of smoke and muffled gunfire. Paul had intercepted Jia in the Grand Corridor. The maid was a whirlwind of dark silk and blood, her crysknife already stained from the Harkonnen shock-troops she had carved through in the dark.
"The Princess!" Jia hissed, her yandere-level panic making her eyes look like those of a wild animal. "They've cut the power to the North Wing. I can't hear her, Paul! I can't feel her!"
"My mother is down," Paul said, his voice a cold, terrifying rasp. He held a pulsing lasgun, his gaze fixed on the heavy plasteel doors of the royal nursery. "We don't stop until we reach her."
They found Jessica staggering in the hall, her face pale but her resolve made of flint. Together, the three of them—the Mother, the Brother, and the Shadow—burst into Anastasia's private chambers.
The Heart of the BetrayalThe room was bathed in the flickering red glow of the emergency lights. Anastasia sat in the center of her oversized bed, her "naive" eyes wide with a confused, heart-wrenching terror. She was still wearing the Imperial Bridal Braids from the afternoon, the diamonds in her hair sparking like cold stars.
"Paul? Mama? There are men in the garden... they have red eyes," she whispered, her voice trembling.
But she wasn't alone. Standing on either side of the bed were the sixteen-year-old twins, Lila and Mina. They weren't cowering; they were standing with a cold, military posture, their hands gripping poisoned needles.
"Get away from her," Jia roared, her possessive rage exploding as she lunged forward.
But the air in the room suddenly hummed. A heavy gravity-net dropped from the ceiling, slamming Paul, Jessica, and Jia into the stone floor. They struggled against the invisible weight, their muscles straining until they bruised.
The UnveilingLila stepped forward, her blue-tinted eyes devoid of the "fanatical devotion" she had performed for weeks. She reached down and gripped a golden braid of Anastasia's hair, pulling her head back with a cruel, rhythmic yank.
"The Baron sends his regards, Goddess," Lila sneered, her voice no longer a shy whisper but a harsh, Giedi Prime rasp. "Did you really think two sand-rats could be so 'kind' for free?"
"Lila? Mina?" Anastasia's voice broke, her "naive" heart shattering in real-time. "But... we were friends. I gave you my ribbons."
"We used your ribbons to mark the entry points for the Sardaukar," Mina laughed, a jagged, ugly sound.
From the shadows of the balcony, a massive, hovering silhouette drifted into the room. Baron Vladimir Harkonnenlooked down at the three Atreides pinned to the floor, then at the petite, golden-haired girl trembling in the center of the bed.
"A beautiful cage for a beautiful bird," the Baron rumbled, his laughter a wet, suffocating sound. "Tie them. I want the Duke to see his 'Gem' in chains before he dies. And the maid... leave her for Feyd. He enjoys breaking things that think they are loyal."
As the Harkonnen guards swarmed the room, Anastasia looked at the twins—the girls she had treated with nothing but kindness—and for the first time in her life, the light in her eyes began to dim.