On Rossak, Reverend Mother Raquella leads a dangerous training exercise for new acolytes on a polymerized treetop canopy. Valya Harkonnen assists alongside Sister Ninke, while Raquella frames the lesson with a quotation from the Sisterhood’s Azhar Book and warns that carelessness can be fatal.

Raquella uses the exercise to demonstrate the power and fading legacy of the Sorceresses of Rossak. Karee Marques and three other surviving pureblood Sorceresses describe how their kind once killed cymeks with psychic force, though such victories cost Sorceress lives and depleted their bloodlines. The women levitate through mental concentration, awing the acolytes and reminding Valya that such powers remain beyond her unless dangerous transformations succeed.

The lesson turns to the Sisterhood’s philosophy. Raquella asks how humans surpass machines, and the acolytes answer with qualities such as creativity, adaptability, foresight, and love. Ingrid, a new acolyte from Butlerian Lampadas, defends love and faith as central human strengths after Raquella slaps her to provoke hatred. Raquella challenges Ingrid’s Butlerian assumptions and insists that the acolytes must become Sisters first, setting aside former beliefs.

That evening, Valya attends Raquella in the old cave chamber once associated with Zufa Cenva. Raquella discusses her long vision for the Sisterhood, including the use of computerized breeding records and the placement of trained women as advisers, wives, and confidantes among powerful houses. A sealed message from Sister Dorotea arrives from Salusa Secundus: Emperor Salvador wants his sister, Anna Corrino, sent to the Sisterhood because of a court scandal. Raquella decides to travel personally to Salusa to receive Anna and chooses Valya to accompany her.