Terrible Purpose (Dune Fanfiction)

Chapter Two

This chapter is brought to you by: Dreams - The Cranberries

Nyla and Paul emerged into Mediation Chamber that evening with a stubborn slowness. Paul stared at their mother as though she were a stranger, and wariness veiled Nyla's eyes when she glanced at the Reverend Mother, but this time she nodded to her, the nod one gives an equal.

Their mother closed the door behind them.

"Children," the old woman said, "Let's return to this dream business."

"What do you want?" Paul said.

"Do you dream every night?"

The two children shared a look, giving silent consent to each other to continue. "Not dreams worth remembering," Nyla said. "I can remember every dream."

Paul added, "Some are worth remembering and some aren't."

"How do you know the difference?"

"We just know it." Paul replied.

The old woman glanced at Jessica, then back to the children. "What did you both dream last night? Was it worth remembering?"

"Yes." Nyla began. "I dreamed of a cavern...and water. There are people all around me, with eyes all blue and no whites in them."

Paul added, "I dreamed of a girl there: very skinny with big eyes with that same blueness. I talk to her and tell her about you, about seeing the Reverend Mother on Caladan."

"And the thing you tell this strange girl about seeing me, did it happen today?"

Paul thought about this, then: "Yes. I tell the girl you came and put a stamp of strangeness on me."

"Stamp of strangeness," the old woman breathed, and again she shot a glance at Jessica, and returned her attention to the two. "Tell me truly now, Nyla and Paul, do you often have dreams of things that happen afterward exactly as you dreamed them?"

"Not always." Nyla said.

"I've dreamed about that girl before."  Paul added.

"Oh? You know her?" the old woman questioned.

"He will know her. I see her too, but not as frequently as Paul." Nyla supplied.

"Tell me about each of your dreams."

Nyla began. "We're all in a little place in some rocks where it's sheltered. It's almost night, but it's hot and I can see patches of sand out of an opening in the rocks. Everyone's...waiting for something...to go meet some people."

Paul continued. "The girl is frightened but trying to hide it, and Nyla and I seem excited. The girl says: 'Tell me about the waters of your homeworld, Usul. Isn't that strange? Our homeworld's Caladan. I've never even heard of a planet called Usul."

"Is there more to this?" Jessica prompted.

"Yes, but maybe she was calling me Usul," Paul said. "I just thought of that." Again, he closed his eyes. "She asks me to tell her about the waters. And I take her hand. And I say I'll tell her a poem. And I tell her the poem, but Nyla has to explain some of the words - like beach and surf and seaweed and seagulls."

"What poem?" the Reverend Mother asked.

Paul opened his eyes. "It's just one of Gurney Halleck's tone poems for sad times."

Nyla began to recite it:

And shadows under the pines -

Solid, clean...fixed -