''Yes'' came as a simple reply ''You might become one of us yet''

"Still want to see," he says.

"What do you want to see?" A voice from the depths of the cave. It was not unkind, slightly pompous, perhaps provocative. Or it could be just the cave? It was a whisper, but audible.

"Rulers of Arrakis," he says to the disembodied voice.

"You can go into the desert, and you will be found." The voice replied. "Why do you want that?"

"To understand." He replies, taking a moment to clear his throat. "To know Arrakis. Ignorance can't help."

"What makes you think you should begin by seeing a worm?" The voice paused. "It's not Arrakis to us. It's Dune."

The constant questions from one that knows the world to one that doesn't was not how one learned. "Recognize my place. See differences," he says in answer, but then turns around and poses a question himself. "Where does understanding begin?"

"With learning about the ways you can die. Do you know why?"

"Learn how to live," he says, as though that was a lesson he had learned long ago. Certainly in different circumstances. Surviving this planet and surviving repeated attempts on his siblings lives were very different experiences. But knowing how to keep himself alive had ben an important part of that. The idea may be similar in his mind, but there is no transfer of knowledge there. Not really.

"Maybe that too." The voice chuckled without mirth. "But knowing how you can die lets you choose between deaths. A Fremen always chooses death the takes the smallest toll on the tribe. The flesh is their own, but their water belongs to the tribe. It's a sacred trusteeship you are given on birth and you are released from on death. Those who are reckless with their water, those who give it away like it was coin, are better killed outright than endanger others, so that their water can be guarded by those better than them. I see that you are someone who can fight, off-worlder, but you are still water-spoiled. The water-spoiled never survive on Dune."

The voice paused and a figure emerged. Ahmina didn't know this man. He held his hand next to the sheathed knife at his hip.



"I see someone has given you one of our stillsuits, and you come here with a Fremen. This is why you still live. This is why we talk." The wiry man with graying curly hair didn't explain his line of thinking any further. "What did you want with the gesture that you made? Was it your inept way to offer a water bond?"

"Inept from ignorance," he replied. "No teacher."

Bomilcar kept a wary eye, his hand keeping mirroring the new mans own over his dagger. Without actually thinking about it he interposed between Ahmina and the other Fremen. Instinct.

"Are you not his teacher?" He asked Ahmina in Chakobsa. "Why is he seeking to know about us?"

''I am the eyes, ears and hand of the Dreamer'' she replied in the same fremen tongue ''I am to guide and help as long as it serves our purpose but...'' she paused ''...I do not think I have the experience or wisdom to properly teach him''

she frowned

''As to his motives...I am unsure. I know he has sense of honor, however, so his word is good''

The man nodded after some thought and withdrew his hand from the blade on his hip.

"I am Korba. You stand at the entrance to a sietch. Sietch means a place of assembly in a time of danger. The storm puts us all in danger. I cannot offer you countenance as I am not a naib. My naib is away. But I will offer you Fremen hospitality for the storm if your companion agrees to be responsible for your stay. There are places in the sietch only a Fremen can see. You will respect it or you will die."

He paused. "About the water bond, understand it before you offer it again. She says your word is good, but she cannot speak for all, and others may invoke Amtal rule."

"Will you explain?" Bomilcar asks. Knowing more would make further interactions much easier in the future. "Or maybe Ahmina?" he asks the woman that was with him.

"Later." Korba said. He waited for Ahmina to declare her custody over Bom.

''I will be responsible, Korba'' she stated before turning to Bomilcar with hard expression

The hard expression from Ahmina got a look of understanding from Bomilcar. He had no intention of forfeiting either of their lives. And to that end he moved to a reasonable distance and began listening for the sound of the oncoming storm. "Ahmina. Not a simple servant. Story?"

''I am what I am needed to be, sahid'' she sighed ''I always was Fremen, I never hid that''

He nods at that. It was always obvious that she was a Fremen. "But there's more. Time with auditors. Different purpose."

''The audit must succeed...there is enough proof but you cannot see''

Korba led them deeper, to the moisture seal so well-hidden at just above the level of sight that Bom would walk within a metre of it and might not have noticed. He let them climb up to it first, and re-hid the entrance after that. They came into a moisture-lock, where stillsuits could be relaxed, and later taken off. As the door to the sietch proper opened, Bom was hit by a cocktail of odours that were all too familiar to Ahmina but absoultely unsual for him: a mixture of must, urine, flint, burnt bat feces and a dozen of others, all conjoined with the cinammon aroma of spice.

Korba breathed in and allowed himself a small smile of exhileration.

"No tribe currently lives here, but several have passed over the last month. You can settle on this level in a yali of your choosing." He spoke to Ahmina. "There are supplies, the food will be brought to you. That storm won't pass until the next moonrise, so you have time to rest and check your equipment."

He had taken to wearing very little under the stillsuit and only putting accoutrements over it like a jacket, utility belt and some military webbing. So when he relaxed the stillsuit, it was only bare skin that shown through.

The scents were new, but not more or less pleasant than the nostril burning smell of crude on a rig or gasoline at a refinery. But it was certainly interesting trying to pick out the different scents. He didn't have a nose for such things.

"Water bond. Exchange or promise or both?" he asks.

She nods to Korba and replies ''Thank you'' before letting him answer Bom