Chapter 17

[Freakzilla]

Production growth and income growth must not get out of step in my Empire. That
is the substance of my command. There are to be no balance-of-payment
difficulties between the different spheres of influence. And the reason for this
is simply because I command it. I want to emphasize my authority in this area. I
am the supreme energy-eater of this domain, and will remain so, alive or dead.
My Government is the economy.
-Order in Council The Emperor Paul Muad'dib

Paul's old Fremen guide leaves him on the street to Otheym's house, it's a dead end street in one of the new suburbs, the air thick with the smell of a reclaimation still which points to a lack of water discipline. Paul hesitates before continuing in order to keep pace with his vision. At Otheym's house he knocks and a dwarf answers the door, this troubles Paul because there is no dwarf in his visions but they often have such differences and still hold true but it gives him hope. He wonders if it was wrong to chose the lesser of two evils. He meets with Otheym, who has contracted some dissease on the Jihad. Paul offers to help him but he had allready spent all his money on the finest doctors. Otheym tells Paul of the conspiracy and that the dwarf is a human distrans containing the names of all the traitors. Paul deduces that the dwarf is prescient , this is why he isn't in the visions. Paul takes the dwarf and leaves.

[Freakzilla]

Revised, clean.

[gurensan]

he air think with the smell

The air stank with the smell?

[Freakzilla]

he air think with the smell

The air stank with the smell?

Fixed, thank you!

[georgiedenbro]

"Bijaz, what do you fear?" Paul asked.
"I fear the spirit seeking me now," Bijaz muttered. Perspiration stood out
on his forehead. His cheeks twitched. "I fear the one who thinks not and will
have no body except mine -- and that one gone back into itself! I fear the
things I see and the things I do not see."
This dwarf does possess the power of prescience, Paul thought. Bijaz shared
the terrifying oracle. Did he share the oracle's fate, as well? How potent was
the dwarf's power? Did he have the little prescience of those who dabbled in the
Dune Tarot? Or was it something greater? How much had he seen?

Paul takes this passage to be a sign of prescience in Bijaz, although Paul doesn't explicate the precise reason he concludes this. Earlier Bijaz had said "I have now-sense," which to me indicates prescience; recall Paul's comment after taking the WoL, "Not the future. I've seen the now." But the funny thing about the quoted Bijaz comment is it really reads to me like...shall we say...a ghola message, rather than a prescience message. Maybe Paul assumes Bijaz has had prescient visions of 'ghola things' (won't say more about that here). After all, Bijaz's oracular protection didn't have to have come from himself.