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Chapter 09

Posted: 01 Mar 2008 12:17
by Freakzilla
Some say I have no conscience. How false they are, even to themselves. I am the
only conscience which has ever existed. As wine retains the perfume of its cask,
I retain the essence of my most ancient genesis, and that is the seed of
conscience. That is what makes me holy. I am God because I am the only one who
really knows his heredity!

-The Stolen Journals

The Inquisitors of Ix having assembled in the Grand Palais with the candidate for Ambassador to the Court of the Lord Leto, the following questions and answers were recorded:

INQUISITOR: You indicate that you wish to speak to us of the Lord Leto's motives. Speak.
HWI NOREE: Your Formal Analyses do not satisfy the questions I would raise.
INQUISITOR: What questions'?
HWI NOREE: I ask myself what would motivate the Lord Leto to accept this hideous transformation, this worm-body, this loss of his humanity? You suggest merely that he did it for power and for long life.
INQUISITOR: Are those not enough?
HWI NOREE: Ask yourselves if one of you would make such payment for so paltry a return?
INQUISITOR: From your infinite wisdom then, tell us why the Lord Leto chose to become a worm.
HWI NOREE: Does anyone here doubt his ability to predict the future?
INQUISITOR: Now then! Is that not payment enough for his transformation?
HWI NOREE: But he already had the prescient ability as did his father before him. No! I propose that he made this desperate choice because he saw in our future something that only such a sacrifice would prevent.
INQUISITOR: What was this peculiar thing which only he saw in our future?
HWI NOREE: I do not know, but I propose to discover it.
INQUISITOR: You make the tyrant appear a selfless servant of the people!
HWI NOREE: Was that not a prominent characteristic of his Atreides Family'?
INQUISITOR: So the official histories would have us believe.
HWI NOREE: The Oral History affirms it.
INQUISITOR: What other good character would you give to the tyrant Worm?
HWI NOREE: Good character, sirra?
INQUISITOR: Character, then?
HWI NOREE: My Uncle Malky often said that the Lord Leto was given to moods of great tolerance for selected companions.
INQUISITOR: Other companions he executes for no apparent reason.
HWI NOREE: I think there are reasons and my Uncle Malky deduced some of those reasons.
INQUISITOR: Give us one such deduction.
HWI NOREE: Clumsy threats to his person.
INQUISITOR: Clumsy threats now!
HWI NOREE: And he does not tolerate pretensions. Recall the execution of the historians and the destruction of their works.
INQUISITOR: He does not want the truth known!
HWI NOREE: He told my Uncle Malky that they lied about the past. And mark you! Who would know this better than he? We all know the subject of his introversion.
INQUISITOR: What proof have we that all of his ancestors live in him?
HWI NOREE: I will not enter that bootless argument. I will merely say that I believe it on the evidence of my Uncle Malky's belief, and his reasons for that belief.
INQUISITOR: We have read your uncle's reports and interpret them otherwise. Malky was overly fond of the Worm.
HWI NOREE: My uncle accounted him the most supremely artful diplomat in the Empire, a master conversationalist and expert in any subject you could name.
INQUISITOR: Did your uncle not speak of the Worm's brutality?
HWI NOREE: My uncle judged him ultimately civilized.
INQUISITOR: I asked about brutality.
HWI NOREE: Capable of brutality, yes.
INQUISITOR: Your uncle feared him.
HWI NOREE: The Lord Leto lacks all innocence and naiveté. He is to be feared only when he pretends these traits. That was what my uncle said.
INQUISITOR: Those were his words, yes.
HWI NOREE: More than that! Malky said, "The Lord Leto delights in the surprising genius and diversity of humankind. He is my favorite companion."
INQUISITOR: Giving us the benefit of your supreme wisdom, how do you interpret these words of your uncle?
HWI NOREE: Do not mock me!
INQUISITOR: We do not mock. We seek enlightenment.
HWI NOREE: These words of Malky, and many other things that he wrote directly to me, suggest that the Lord Leto is always seeking after newness and originality but that he is wary of the destructive potential in such things. So my uncle believed.
INQUISITOR: Is there more which you wish to add to these beliefs which you share with your uncle?
HWI NOREE: I see no point in adding to what I've already said. I am sorry to have wasted the Inquisitors' time.
INQUISITOR: But you have not wasted our time. You are confirmed as Ambassador to the Court of Lord Leto, the God Emperor of the known universe.

Re: Chapter 09

Posted: 12 Jul 2012 12:01
by Freakzilla
Due to the brevity of this chapter, I've simply quoted it.

Re: Chapter 09

Posted: 14 Aug 2015 15:10
by georgiedenbro
I wonder whether Hwi really had some insight into Leto that perplexed the inquisitor, or whether he was playing dumb on purpose to test her, to see if she'd reject the common dogma and to actually look at the facts at they were. I think I previously interpreted this chapter as the Ixians being the typical thick-heads we expect from those who don't understand the deeper truth of the protagonist. Now that I look at it again I think the Ixians appear to be as sly as were the conspirators against Muad'Dib in DM. After she no doubt received training from Malky, the inquisitor is no doubt setting Hwi up to believe she won't get the assignment and to assume they think her theories are nuts. Here we see Hwi stick to the purity of her belief on the subject and refrain from telling them what she thinks they want to hear; she scarcely even treats the meeting as a job interview. In fact since she herself called for the meeting it almost appears that she called it in order to tell them off since their formal analyses were lacking, and maybe it's her ability to stand before authority unshaken that tells them she can do the job.

Re: Chapter 09

Posted: 15 Aug 2015 19:24
by D Pope
Spoiler removed.

Re: Chapter 09

Posted: 16 Aug 2015 07:09
by Freakzilla
D Pope wrote:Don't forget the BG are involved in this plot as well. The scenario you
describe sounds just like a BG manipulation to me.
We're not supposed to know that at this point. :shhh: