DUNE-A False Haderach (OC X Shishakli) (OC x Alia)

Part 38

Chapter 38

INZAL KAZAB CORRINO

After accepting the challenge of kanli, Inzal found himself in his solar with most of his closest aides alongside him as Lady Jessica hounded her son for answers.

"What is the meaning of this, Paul?" she shouted and screamed. The boy in question simply sat there, unbothered by the ruckus around him, staring Inzal in the eye.

"Why would you do such a thing?" she shouted, and when received no answer.

"WHY? ANSWER ME DAMNIT! ANSWER ME!" she screamed, and yet there was no answer, only silence.

Chani had been quiet ever since her arrival, only looking at Paul with a resigned and complicated expression.

When Paul refused to budge, he saw Jessica turn towards her.

"And you. You knew of his lineage, of how he was the Harkonnen heir," she asked, and he raised a brow.

"I had my suspicions," he answered, not hiding the truth from her.

"You need to change your mind, deny Paul this madness that he seeks. I shall have him imprisoned for insanity and take back the challenge," she argued, trying to make sense, but there was no way such a thing would even work.

"Leave us," he ordered and saw everyone in the room perk up at his words.

"Bu..."

"I said leave us," he repeated, looking at Lady Jessica sternly, and her lips thinned as she huffed and began to walk out of the room, everyone else soon followed suit, leaving him alone with Paul—or more exactly, the stranger now inhabiting his body.

Inzal leaned back as he looked him in the eye, as he broke the silence.

"When I had Paul undergo the ritual, I was not really expecting you to show up, Leto?" he taunted, testing out his own hypothesis about just who was it that had overpowered Paul to take control of his body.

And he saw Paul's lips turn up slightly as the boy nodded.

"I should have known that you would figure out my identity," the boy spoke in Paul's face. And that had been his miscalculation. When making his plans, Inzal had accounted for mostly the past, ignoring the future that was no longer set to happen.

And yet he had forgotten that it had been Paul's blood that had given birth to a boy who would go in to change the entire galaxy, ruling over it after Paul for thousands of years. His name is enshrined in history as the God Emperor.

"Though I am surprised by your actions, Leto. Why do you stand against me, stand against your own liberation and happiness? Afterall, my actions have only liberated you and your father from the accursed burden you thought fate had levied onto you," he added. And a great burden it was, the burden of foresight and hindsight rolled into one. The ability to perceive the future and the calamity that lay hidden in it.

It had driven them both into solitude, depriving them both of their humanity and a chance at happiness.

"You have done an admirable job, indeed. But you do not understand the things you are meddling with," Paul answered, and there was an inflection in his voice, one that made it more rusty and ancient.

"So, you still seek the Golden Path?" Inzal asked, and Paul's eyes widened for a second.

"You know of that too," he was surprised by his knowledge.

"As I told your father, I know much more than you think," he answered cryptically.

And Paul was quiet for some time as he continued to stare at him.