Day 4 LA: It gets everywhere

[Ahmina]

Sand is coarse, rough and, should you not be prepared, gets everywhere. The people of the city tend to be lax but the Harkonnen....ah....the Harkonnen...their misplaced pride and bluster creates all the openings a tiny grain of sand needs to get in and, just like water, sand accumulates.

Ahimina was walking alone in the deepest parts of the slums: A labyrinth of filth and debris that turned away anyone who did not have to be there...a perfect place to hide.

She was alert

She knew some of her kin was here but they were not the only ones who needed to hide.

[Kannon]

Yes, Fremen were quite safe here. Attacking one granted only minimal reward and created great risks for the assailants, so it was rarely attempted, and only when significant rewards were offered.

Fremen had boltholes here, and Ahmina knew where several of them could be found. She was looking for Farrukh, who often infiltrated the Graben to pass reliable news about Harkonnen intentions to Sietch Tabr in order to prepare for it. During onslaughts, Stilgar was taking them deeper into the desert to save the tribe. This relied on intelligence the Fremen had to obtain themselves.

[Ahmina]

Farruhk...She did not know him well but she knew how invaluable his help had been. This city was his domain and if she was to act she would need to follow his wisdom...

...now where to find him?

[Kannon]

One way was to find one of the boltholes and wait. The other, to check them one by one.

Farrukh was of Sietch Tabr. He had children there, and he spent time with them whenever he could, but it was true that he often operated away from the troop and was not well known to others. All she knew about him beyond his tasks was that he liked songs, and was a keeper of them. When he was coming back, some asked: Farrukh, sing us a song, and he almost always had a different one.

[Ahmina]

Waiting in a bolthole was likely the best proposition: less movement, less waste of moisture. She began to move in the direction of the nearest one but kept her ear up.

Perhaps she would catch one of his songs in the wind?

[Kannon]

She'd left a sign at the entrance to the bolthole so there was no misunderstanding when Farrukh finally arrived.



He looked older than he really was; that was part of his credibility, he resembled the people of Graben, and his narrow eyes didn't draw attention to their Ibad hue.

"Subakh ul kuhar, Ahmina. What brings you here?"

[Ahmina]

Ahmina peeled off the shadows of the location when Farruhk finally arrived and bowed her head respectfully

''Subakh un nar Farruhk. I have been tasked by the Dreamer to help guide the outworlder's auditors. Carthag is their current location.''

[Kannon]

"What do you think of them? I won't challenge the word of Liet, but I want to know what to expect. Even a dust devil changes the sands." He moved to the corner of the narrow space and sat, tiredness revealed in a sigh, still puffed through nostrils rather than mouth, to not waste water.

[Ahmina]

''I am not sure'' she replied ''But at least one have proven wise. Another does not understand our ways but seems to have a strong sense of personal honor. Yet another as proven to be a deadly fighter and fended off an ambush by the water union's thugs.''

she tilt her head

''They are odd but some seem to share a disdain for the Harkonnen and their ways and might be willing to defy then in their audit. That is useful.''

[Kannon]

"Ah. How is that audit going? The Harkonnen are insidious, aren't the auditors too stupid for them?" Farrukh pondered, having produced a strip of dried meat to chew on. He offered some to Ahmina.

[Ahmina]

''They have a few suspicions but will that be enough? I do not know'' she takes the dried meat with thanks ''They will need help...and I will need help in helping them''

[Kannon]

"Ah. You've come to ask if I know something that can help them." Farrukh hid the catchtube of his stillsuit. "Perhaps I do. What are they after right now?"

[Ahmina]

"They are following leads but I don't think they have a clear idea of where they are searching." She frowned, remembering

"Do you know if Liet has another daughter?"

[Kannon]

Farrukh looked strangely at her.

"Liet has a son, Liet-chih, who had been the son of Warrick and Faroula before she married Liet, and his own daughter Chani, who is now of our tribe. He has never taken a second wife. Liet would never make wrong by Faroula. She is the daughter of Heinar, of the naibs of the Red Wall Sietch, the sietch of Umma Kynes and Stilgar and Farok, he would not turn so many naibs against him following some call of his loins."

He, however, didn't ask 'why this question'. For the Fremen, causality worked in strange ways. Ecologically, they had it all covered, but minds wandered in strange places, hearing Shaitan's whispers that had no logic to them.

"Harkonnen sins are as apparent as steps on the drumsand. If they can't notice those, they choose to be blind. We send blind people to the desert, don't we? They belong to Shai-hulud." There was some humour to his voice. "They need to pass their Tahaddi al-Burhan, the trial of proof. One learns no truth without facing the desert."

[Ahmina]

She frowns

''He would not have wronged Faroula...If you have the occasion to send a message to him ask if he can contact me. And as for the auditors, two of them and I encountered some of Rajifiri's people yesterday. One was the wise one I spoke about and managed to resolve thing peacefully, Rajifiri's choosing to trade rather then take their water.''

She paused

''We are going to the False Wall tomorrow, I think...what do you know of the Harkonnen operations there?''

[Kannon]

"A cielago will be sent." He said simply. "Rajifiri is a vicious man, but not all in his tribe are so. I think you met Chatt the Leaper. I heard he is a good, wise warrior, one of the best now in Ichwan Bedwine. He killed many Harkonnen. I hope for the day when he challenges Rajifiri."

Farrukh paused, thinking. "This is a good direction, close to the mother desert. What I know is that the Harkonnen have been moving things there. But I haven't been there myself. Too risky to call a worm in the Erg right now."

[Ahmina]

''We will try to find what they are moving then. It will be useful, one way or the other'' she nods ''Thank you for the information''

[Kannon]

"It's all for the tribe, Ahmina." He chuckled. "And I always liked your mother. Be careful with your water."

[Ahmina]

''So do you Farruck...this place is dangerous'' before she left she asked one last thing ''Do we have someone in the Southern false wall?''

[Kannon]

"Our tribe does not. There are at least several sietches there though. Hard to tell how many now, tribes go south when pressed too hard by Mudir Nahya. But Coanua Sietch is hard to find. Keke the Lame can't run fast so he makes sure that his tribe has no need to run. He is no friend of Stilgar, but he respects Liet."

[Ahmina]

''I will try to find him then'' she frowns ''That...will be quite a task''

[Kannon]

"You've been taught." Farrukh said in this unerring confidence that sietch education consisted of all the preparation for things a Fremen would ever need to do. He then started humming an old song, one of the earliest Ahmina would hear in the sietch.

"Oh, worm of many teeth,
Canst thou deny what has no cure?
The flesh and breath which lure thee
To the ground of all beginnings
Feed on monsters twisting in a door of fire!
Thou hast no robe in all thy attire
To cover intoxications of divinity
Or hide the burnings of desire!"

[Ahmina]

Ahmina smiled when she hear the song, remembering the less complicated times. She began to sing it as well...it had been too long

[Kannon]

She recalled the education of performative repetition of names and actions important to life... and that Coanua was the sietch of clothmakers, the pretty ones, using dyes on spice fiber. Tharthar, wife od Stilgar, and Harah, wife of Jamis, had dresses from Coanua, but they were rare in Sietch Tabr because of dislike between Keke and Stilgar.