Schools of Dune, #1
Sisterhood of Dune
by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson
Contents
75. The first person to …
Overview
The Sisterhood’s use of the Rossak drug rapidly expands, producing sixteen Reverend Mothers but killing many volunteers. Valya refuses to risk the transformation herself, choosing survival and strategy over a gamble that could end her ambitions.
Anna Corrino’s reckless attempt to claim independence by taking Valya’s stolen capsule throws Valya into a crisis. Rather than seek help, Valya prioritizes self-preservation and moves to frame Anna’s poisoning as a theft from Karee’s lab, deepening Valya’s moral compromise and raising the stakes with the Imperial family.
Summary
After Dorotea becomes a Reverend Mother, more Sisters attempt the dangerous Rossak-drug transformation. Three more succeed under Dorotea’s guidance, then eleven more succeed in the following week, while ten die in agony. Raquella personally guides four volunteers, but only one survives. In all, sixteen women cross the mental barrier and become Reverend Mothers.
Valya keeps the capsule Dorotea gave her but cannot bring herself to take it. Though Valya believes she is capable and ambitious enough to benefit from the transformation, the high death rate makes the risk unacceptable. Valya thinks of Griffin and her larger goals, deciding that survival is necessary rather than cowardly.
Instead, Valya tries to advance through her relationship with Anna Corrino. Valya accompanies Anna to the acolyte quarters and offers to study or discuss Anna’s unusual ability to influence fogwood trees and burrowers. Anna instead reveals that she wants to take the Rossak drug and become a Reverend Mother so she can gain independence and power at the Imperial Court.
Valya tries to stop Anna, warning that Anna is unprepared and that Emperor Salvador would forbid the risk. Anna insists she controls her own fate and reveals a dark-blue capsule she stole from Valya’s quarters, just as she had once stolen a passkey to Karee’s lab. Before Valya can take the capsule away, Anna swallows it.
The drug acts immediately. Anna collapses in convulsions, and Valya realizes that Anna may die. Valya considers calling for medical help but fears being blamed for endangering the Emperor’s sister, especially if Dorotea can prove the capsule came from Valya or may have manipulated events to trap her.
Seeing no way to save Anna and fearing the destruction of her own plans, Valya decides to protect herself. She plans to make it look as though Anna stole the drug from Karee’s lab on her own, then replace the missing capsule so Dorotea will believe Valya still possesses it. Valya leaves the suffering Anna behind and hurries to Karee Marques’s jungle lab to create the evidence she needs.
Who Appears
- Valya HarkonnenAmbitious Sister who refuses the transformation and chooses self-protection after Anna takes her capsule.
- Anna CorrinoEmperor Salvador’s sister; recklessly swallows the Rossak drug to seek independence and power.
- DoroteaNew Reverend Mother whose guidance helps produce more transformed Sisters and whose capsule implicates Valya.
- Reverend Mother RaquellaSisterhood leader who guides volunteers through the transformation, with mostly fatal results.
- Karee MarquesAbsent Sister whose jungle lab Valya plans to use in framing Anna’s poisoning.