Alia examines the remains of a young Fremen woman found dead in the desert after a courier detects an impossible water trace. The body is badly eroded by wind, but Paul’s experts determine that the woman was about twenty, addicted to semuta, and killed by a subtle Tleilaxu poison called “the throat of hell.” Because semuta addiction among Fremen is rare and the poison is suspicious, Paul has sent Alia to read the scene with Bene Gesserit-trained perception, but Alia finds no clear answer.

Hayt waits with the mortuary attendants, and Alia’s attention keeps turning from the corpse to the ghola. Alia questions Hayt about the death and about his own nature, and Hayt admits that references to Duncan Idaho provoke emotions, flashes, and almost-memories. During the flight back toward Arrakeen, Alia orders Hayt to circle El Kuds, the tomb containing Duke Leto’s skull, because Hayt hopes nearness to Leto’s remains may awaken memories.

As Hayt looks down at the tomb, Hayt weeps and feels the sensation of a friend’s arm on his shoulders, suggesting a buried Duncan Idaho memory. Alia is shaken because Hayt gives water to the dead in Fremen fashion, and Alia calls him Duncan. After Hayt regains control, Alia explains that Alia knows her father through Jessica’s memories because Alia awakened before birth to Reverend Mother awareness.

The conversation shifts into a sharper confrontation. Hayt challenges Alia’s reliance on prescience and symbols, says Alia has grown careless with power, and admits that Hayt was designed to destroy Paul. Hayt argues that Paul was already destroying himself through empire, flattery, ritual, and the myth of natural law, while Alia angrily defends Paul and the Jihad before being forced to reckon with Hayt’s reasoning.

After landing at the Keep, Hayt reveals that Hayt told Paul the hardest task is enduring oneself, and that Paul must judge by keeping friends and destroying enemies rather than pretending to dispense abstract justice. Alia calls Hayt dangerous, but Hayt says that is not why; then Hayt kisses Alia, exposing a desire Alia does not want to admit. Hayt’s startling candor sharpens Alia’s thoughts, and when Alia says the desert death keeps making her think of Face Dancers, Hayt tells Alia to report that thought to Paul, suggesting the dead woman may not be who she seemed.