Chapter 25

Hwi Noree is summoned late on the Festival’s third day and guided deep beneath Onn. Moments earlier, her assistant Othwi Yake reported citywide Fish Speaker killings of Face Dancers after a Tleilaxu attempt on Leto’s life. Escorted past empty streets and a spiral ramp, Hwi meets Leto in his intimate private room.

Leto engages Hwi in guarded talk—his Taquiyya, pseudonymous histories, and Ixian aims—then reveals the shock: her Embassy had been infiltrated and its personnel replaced by Face Dancers; the original Yake is dead. He confirms Bene Gesserit Anteac helped detect them and that Fish Speakers are eliminating the impostors. Leto promises Fish Speaker protection for Hwi.

Turning to religion and power, Leto critiques Bene Gesserit “engineering,” recounts how he seized Fremen monotheism—consecrating death-water and staging a “miracle” with Ghanima’s urn—to become their deity. He warns Hwi never to imply inheritance of godhood before Fish Speakers.

Leto then discloses the price of his transformation: after his death, awareness will fragment into countless mute “pearls” within sandworms and sandtrout—an endless, helpless dream. He frames religion as planets circling a sun—death—the energy source of belief, and hints his transformation prevents a future catastrophe.

Moved and frightened, Hwi pledges discretion. Leto admits Duncan Idaho grows impatient but asks Hwi for patience; he will tell her more at the Citadel. He intimates marriage, noting some intimacies are impossible and, if children are desired, he would choose the father. He ends the audience, leaving Hwi shaken yet bound to return.