XIII - DEEP ANGER
The trio undressed in the square room and put on the transparent abyssal suits.
Nestor tried not to ogle Clémentine, but she was watching him, too, after all. Feyd didn’t care; he was used to being nude with people.
The atmosphere in the small space was tense. Nestor took an abyssike with two seats behind the jockey’s place.
They put all their clothes in the closet, where they hid the dead bodies of the concierge and the Thulu jockey they encountered along the way. Like Nestor, Clémentine spaced her clothes as far away from the bloody corpses as possible. But Feyd decided to put his own directly over the bodies.
“I’ll drive,” insisted Nestor.
He got up front, Feyd took the left seat, and Clémentine the right.
He started the immersion manoeuvre and descended deep under the water lock area.
Finally, in front of the central tunnel, he approached the VJ blue tube and leapt inside it.
He rode with an easiness, as if he had always done this.
I hope his plan will work, thought Clémentine, feeling a little stress dancing around her. She felt embarrassed that Nestor had already seen her naked. But she tried to focus her emotions on the mission: Kill the Harkonnen bastard and demolish all plans from his uncle here and with the Emperor.
A few minutes later, they arrived at the big sea gate. Nestor navigated to the lock rectangle to open the gate.
Feyd got off first. “It’s here?”
“Yes, wait for the gate to open a passage into the water. The labs will be here and the army.”
“Fine,” Feyd said before heading to the gate first. He entered.
Nestor and Clémentine used this moment to slow down before following Feyd.
“Are you ready to do it?” Nestor asked as he pulled out a blue knife from the abyssike’s storage.
She recalled what he told her before: “Every abyssike has a blue knife for the jockey; they made the blade of Meghardon teeth. Feyd doesn’t know that. I will distract him by showing him where the secret army is, and you’re gonna stab him. Then we will get the vessel, go to Kaitan, warn the Emperor, and ask him to nuke this planet and its spice.”
Clémentine pulled her mind back to the present moment. “Yes, I’m ready.” She took the knife and hid it behind her back.
Nestor stopped her before entering the gate and said, “Wait, I want to tell you something before we begin. It’s unrelated, but important to me.” He took a deep breath. “I knew your name because my brother knew you. His name was Hector Karfo. He was murdered on Giedi Prime five years ago.”
“Oh, so you are Nestor Karfo? Your brother told me a lot about you. We were in the same class at the academy. We worked together for a few years at the Corrino House, and then I went to the Atreides. Such a loss. I don’t know how he got captured. He was one of the best.”
Without planning to, Nestor let his emotions out and fully opened his inner scars to her, “When I was a novice spy, they assigned me to a low-risk mission on Giedi Prime. My task was simple: infiltrate the arena staff and get the uncensored list of participants. But I failed. My curiosity made me go further than what I had to see. They got me in a cell and prepared me for fighting in the arena. But at the last minute, Hector appeared with my arena clothes and my number. He had infiltrated the prison system to save me. I tried to stop him, but it was too late. Instead of a regular fighter, they sent Feyd against him. He was younger than Hector, but he poisoned his knife. I saw him kill my—,” he wept, “and it’s all my—”.
“Don’t say that, Nestor. He did that because he loved you. He was aware of the risks when he made that decision. It’s not your responsibility. The only one at fault is his murderer who cheated against him. I understand your quest better, now. Come, it’s time.”
They entered the room and saw Feyd walking angrily toward to them.
“Where is all the melange stock and my army, spy? I have found only a jar left!”
“Calm down. I will show you; we haven’t arrived yet,” Nestor explained calmly. Of course the army is not here; it’s only an archive room. But why has the last section of the archive disappeared? And why is this red spice jar here? Is he trying to trap us?
“Show me, Hector! I’ll follow you.”
“There is a secret passage that leads to the labs over here,” affirmed Nestor. He walked to the end of the room, followed closely by Feyd. Clémentine was distant. She was trying not to raise suspicion in the young mind of the Harkonnen nephew.
Nestor stood before the table. He looked at the crimson-coloured spice jar, and read, “Raw Pourpre Spice.” “Here is the passage; you need to move the table to unlock it.”
Within seconds, Feyd grabbed Clémentine by the throat and put his arm around her neck. The sudden movement choked her, and she dropped the knife.
Feyd looked down at the knife, then stared at Nestor straight in the eye. His eyes were filled with small red veins that exploded like a volcano of anger. “I see what you wanted to do—”
Nestor threw himself down to get the knife, but Feyd pushed Clémentine away to the ground and caught the knife first. Nestor then jumped on him. He tried to take the knife from Feyd’s hands, but Feyd grabbed Nestor by the back and sent him violently into the archive shelf. All the documents fell on Nestor.
“You tried to kill me! Little Imperial insects, I will crush you like the worthless bugs you are!”
Nestor got his back straight and put his fist in front of him, ready to defend, and attacked. He could sense his confidence draining, He is better than me with bare hands; now that he’s got a big, sharp knife, the odds are even smaller... Then a soft sound resonated in his head. The powerful, soothing whisper of the Wind blew away all his doubt and fear. The Wind. Right—I can use the Wind. Nestor ran to the jar, but Feyd followed him.“Oh, you want to dance, little fool? I will play with your bones, and the whore’s, too!” Feyd taunted.
Nestor got the jar in his hand. He tried to quickly open it, but Feyd stabbed him in the chest and threw him again on the ground. Blood flowed from Nestor’s upper torso. He felt defeated, motionless, lying on the ground. He struggled to breathe. The blade is in my lung. This is the end.
Feyd crouched down in front of him, “You are an idiot for thinking that you could play me like that!” He took his knife out of Nestor’s chest. The open wound let more blood escape. “You will die, now!”
“Bastard!” Clémentine shouted as she violently smashed the glass jar over Feyd’s head.
Shards of glass fell into Nestor’s open wound, and then Feyd’s unconscious body fell on his chest, which amplified his pain extremely. Nestor closed his eyes.
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Spice. He couldn’t see it, but he smelled it, felt it. The raw Poupre Spice was all over him and Feyd. The spice poured into every one of Nestor’s open wounds. His state made him more vulnerable to the spice effect. His inner vision was troubled; his six new eyes opened. Inner eyes. His soul flew away and ascended ever higher.
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I need to find the Wind. She will help me.
He found the throne; it was empty.
He came closer, but nobody appeared.
Not Her. Not Him. No Wind.
The throne glowed red as his hand touched its surface.
If only I could… And his spirit drifted.
The melange finally hit his blood cells. Pourpre over pourpre.
I can.
He slowly seated himself on the throne. An explosion of colour made his world change. He was now in the archive room, alone and well. His vision could not go far; it obscured the distance. He stood up and saw a light approaching, smooth feet. Feyd-Rautha rushed to him with a sharp blade, the right arm of Nestor tried to stab him with a red knife, but Feyd’s body vanished elsewhere before. What was that? I didn’t try to hit him, Nestor pondered. Then he saw another light body approaching. This one was shining, and it was naked. He recognised her. It was Clémentine. She ran to him with something in her hand. He watched her calmly approaching. He felt attacked and stabbed her. Her body burned, and her left hand revealed a beating heart. A heart? I saw a knife! And I did not make the move. She turned into ashes. He felt confused. What have I done? I don’t understand. Does she love me? Why did my hand kill her? I don’t know who I am.
Nestor walked without direction, blinded by his endless tears. He dried his tears and found himself in front of a mirror. “What am I?” he asked aloud. He saw a man, just like him, but with red starlit eyes. Nestor stared into his own pourpre eyes. He blew as hard as he could against the glass. It shattered, and reality imploded into a distorted maelstrom. He elevated into the cosmos and flew to Salusa Secondus, the prison planet. He placed his hand in front of his mouth and blew Pourpre Spice to the Sardaukars. They exhaled it and their eyes turned red. They ascended to the sky with Him.
They then arrived at Arrakis. He found Shai Hulud. He tamed it with a single blow. The worm turned red and became gigantic. The sandworm engulfed the entire sand planet. Now, Shai Hulud was as wide as Arrakis. A million Sardaukars got on his back. All led by Him, their light in the eternal darkness.
They raided Giedi Prime and slaughtered everyone in the name of the Pourpre Wind. He turned every corpse into a Pourpre Protector. With hundreds of worms and a thousand legions rallying to His cause, he attacked Kaitan, the Emperor's home planet.
After the bloodbath, He stood alone before the Emperor, the last opponent of this universe.
He placed his blade against the Emperor’s old throat. In this intense moment, a thought revealed itself to Him. He felt that there was something else beyond this paranoid maniac. Someone controlled more, the true creator. His mind split and constructed a new hidden layer of complex consciousness.
In this extra dimension, he imagined his vision. He wanted to close the open world, turning each man into a warden of their own. Shrinking the human spirit to the molecule, closing all possibilities of creation and thinking. With his firm hand and his celestial breath, he would control the universe. But to do this, he had to kill its master first. “‘The One who flows’, that is my target. I see his face. He stares at me silently, but his eyes speak ceaselessly. I cannot reach him.”
The little familiar voice said, “These are the limits of the Wind; it cannot go against the current. The Wind destroys and cannot create. My power is a burden. I do not wish it on anyone, but I will have to pass it on soon. But not to you. Now get out!”
“Why not me?”
“Observe how the Wind has turned you. You are not made for that. It is already too late, and you knew it. You realised you are dying now, so you let the Wind blow the weakest dream to you. Please, my dear Nestor, come back to me.”
The little hand reached for him and took him out of his void.
He was now standing in front of the Emperor, holding His sharp blade against his neck. He hesitated, and fear and hatred consumed him. The world darkened to crimson again. “If I can’t be the creator, I can be the Emperor!” he claimed.
And then, the little voice whispered to Him, “Do you really want that for life?”
He dropped the blade and began to strangle the Emperor, ignoring the voice.
“I have not lived. Do you really want to become that? I have not lived, but you can.”
“You told me that I am dying! So I don’t care anymore about the ancient world. I will do it!”
“You will die, but remember that others have died for you. Do you remember them?”
A vision opened in his mind. He saw a bulky woman torturing a man. The young man screamed to death.
“Where is he?” she screamed.
“I don’t know!”
She broke the bone of his arm with her bare hand. The young man screamed in pain.
“Where is the real Nestor?”
“I don’t—”
She broke all his bones, one by one. The lad screamed in absolute agony.
Virgo? Is that you? Nestor wept. He burned from the inside out at the disarray of this vivid scene. He who was powerful in front of everything was now helpless in front of the martyrdom of a faithful friend. Virgo, I’m so sorry for everything, I—
Before he could continue to mourn his friend, a new vision appeared. He saw his dead brother awaken from his own bloodbath. He came close to Nestor and said, “You need to live, little brother. It was all my fault. You need to live.”
“You need to live, Nestor,” repeated the little voice.
“You need to live,” reiterated Virgo.
“Live,” said Hector before disappearing.
“LIVE!” yelled the little voice.
Everyone around him vanished in red melange. He, himself, felt the Pourpre Spice falling out of his eyes. He fell down, back in front of the throne.
A little shadowy figure spoke, “They have sacrificed for you, to let you make this world a better place. You have already done that by uncovering the Pourpre Conspiracy. But now you are dying; it’s your turn to balance the scales and die for someone else. Let go of your hatred and sorrow, and love your fellow.”
“If this is not the real world, why are our actions here so important?”
“Nestor, you did not fully understand what it was here. We are in the land of possibilities; it does not reflect everything you do here in the physical world, but if your soul mirrors perfectly through the wall of reality with someone, you can make this happen. We will use that later.”
“But all the things I have already done, will they be applied to reality if we use a mirror later?”
“No, because thankfully, I was able to erase what you have done, but killing the Emperor would have been too hard to fix. It’s currently the nerve centre of this world; it would have been its downfall if I hadn’t convinced you to stop. You see, we are in a web of the unknown. We don’t know all of these subtleties yet. One thing is for certain: we will find out soon enough, because it’s time to act, Nestor.”
“You told me that you never live. I don’t understand,” wondered Nestor.
The shadow around the Wind flushed out, revealing a dead foetus flying in the cosmos. “My mother has borne me with love, but before I was born, they tortured her where you were. When they extracted me, I was already dead. They put me inside a jar before throwing me into the deep sea, like I was only a proof to erase. They previously used the jar for stocking raw crimson-coloured spice, so my dead body came into contact with the remaining spice residue. The substance was so powerful that I had a brief moment of consciousness that allowed me to store that energy—that special and constant connection with that spice. It was through the training of the Reverend Mother that my mother endured that I gained her mastery and powers. That’s why I’m here, living inside the spice vision,” explained the unborn child.
“That’s horrible! …But if they tortured your mother here, then your mother is Jessica Atreides, the Duke’s concubine!” Nestor deduced in astonishment.
“Yes, Jessica was my mother. Because of this Bene Gesserit nature, we shared a special link. She told me a lot about Paul, my brother, and Leto, my father. But when she was here, the link was broken. I think my name would have been Alia. But for now, I am the Wind. The residue of spice maintains my astral projection, but what remains of my body now wanders in the deep sea.”
“I’m sorry, Alia, for all you have suffered. I now know that I want to live. But what can I do now that I’m dead on the other side?”
“You have a reason to live here for a moment. Your physical life may be over soon, but your astral life has only begun, and you have an important task to do now. You see, I’m getting weaker, and it will get worse because I have almost consumed all the spice residue in the jar. I plan to give my power to someone who has just begun their new life. And I have found the perfect successor: Her. You will stay here for Her, and you will bond to Her, to make a forever link from this world to the other. I have never been able to meet someone in the real world, but you have made it. You can create this bond that will help Her succeed in the future wars the world will know.”
“That’s a lot to understand, but who is She?”
“Oh, you know Her; She’s Clémentine Ash.”
“Clémentine! Oh no, I have forgotten her! What I have done to her?” said Nestor in anger at himself. “I didn’t want to do that, but my hand did it—”
“Do not worry, Nestor; it was the Bad Wind’s doing, not yours. You see, it’s a good thing that she is in that state; it’s a perfect opportunity for her to be reborn into the real world.”
“I have to help her now!”
“No, Nestor, I will take care of her. As for you, you have to handle a visitor. I have held him in a closed dimension. Keep him away from me; I’m counting on you,” commanded Alia the Wind.
Alia the Wind approached him and blew onto his heart a powerful wind while holding his hand. Her astral body looked even more tired and old. “There, I gave you half my Wind. Now, I’m going to give the rest to Clémentine.” She closed Nestor’s palm and went away.
A wide void opened and sucked Nestor to another astral plane. He saw a familiar face, one he could never forget.
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Astral Hector Karfo [https://res.cloudinary.com/dxtl7maxi/image/upload/v1661078194/Art/Pourpre%20Conspirary/astral-hector-karfo-avrip-and-the-machine.png]
Astral Hector Karfo - Avrip & The Machine