ᵉⁿᵍˡⁱˢʰ Bloodsport [Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen]

08

In the end, it was up to Irulan to pay his respects to the dead baron. Respect for the family was part of it. And it wasn't Raitaila, as it should have been, because it was supposed to be her older sister who married Baron Kadjar's son.

At least one person should go, even if the wedding hadn't taken place yet, Irulan thought, and her father wouldn't do it, not to mention Raitaila, who preferred to go to the Harkonnen. The gods knew why.
One stopped being a ruler and took responsibility, the other went to the humans, where brutality was the order of the day, forgetting what it meant to be a princess.

One thing Irulan couldn't let go of, not since then, because it didn't fit with her sister's fiancé, and it came up again at the funeral, was that Lezeur simply disappeared. Without a trace, mind you. Even at the Baron's funeral, years after the disappearance, she was asked by his mother if she had heard anything. Anything at all. Anything at all.

Irulan didn't believe in pretending to know nothing about the whereabouts and condition of her own son. The grieving widow seemed sincere to her.

"A body can tell many stories, and your sister didn't even try to hide this one. Did you really think all those cuts and marks were accidental?" her father replied after Irulan had returned and the evening had begun anew, "It's a wonder Lezeur took it so quietly that his future wife wouldn't give him an answer to the question of what happened. He was a fool."

"Not a fool. Just in love. No one is waiting.... Was?" Irulan asked, now noticing the past tense, "Why was?"

"Because he's dead," replied Shaddam, who couldn't hear it, didn't want to hear it, and finally wanted his peace, "For many years.... If his ship is found in the desert, do you really expect him to be alive?"

A very good question.

Was it possible to survive in the desert without ever having been there or having any training? Maybe yes, maybe no.