VII: Away

"Ow. Are you pulling out all my hair?" I growled.

Vishti stood behind me, tearing my hair line out one hair at a time in the promise of a braid being the result.

"Tender head," they said, as if to themselves.

Aishti wore a scarf braided in her hair. I wanted to look just like that.

"I'm only tender because you're ripping."

I was irrational - and I knew it.

Seeing Feyd's training had made me sick in ways that made me sicker with anger.

Why did I care? Why did that image bother me so?

He was heir to the whole of Harkonnen regime. Slaves were aplenty. He tended to prefer them in groups, but he could enjoy them in other ways. I did not have an inkling of what he did with himself when I was not around.

I'd known in the castle – because he had his harem and visits from him were far between.

Arrakis changed things. For us. For me.

"My fingers do not hold any looser, my lady. Any looser and they fall out."

I sighed through my lips. "Right. Just do what you need."

A cloak of numbness draped over top of me.

"You in need of rags?" Vishti then asked.

I could have screamed. "No. I am not. I'm just -."

Suddenly the door latch opened.

Any who dared not knock bared one name.

I glared at his face as he entered my chambers on nothing but his own want to be there. It was not by my permission.

It did not need be. My life was not lived by my permission. He took what he wanted because that was what I was.

Another slave.

Glorified, yes.

Enslaved nonetheless.

He tilted his head. "Leave us."

Vishti tied a quick knot at the half braid and laid it gently against my shoulder. The passing comfort of their company left me cold all over.

I stood from the settee. "Na-Baron."

He grimaced as he strode ahead. The darkness of his eyes deepened as he observed my face harder, stronger until my eyes found his.

"How was your training?" I asked flatly. My lips held in a thin line.

"Relaxing," he answered.

He was close to me now.

"I did not expect you to come see me tonight."

"Here I am." He leaned. His lips pressed against my neck.

A breath shot through my nose.

"It is not so often I got to see you before. Does na-Baron not intend to make another…group?" I felt his body stiffen against me. My voice faltered. "You had them for so long."

Feyd grimaced and shook his head. "That time is over."

"You don't want more lovers, na-Baron?"

He pulled away. His throat scoffed a loud, awful sound.

"Your interest is surprising. I did not know it mattered to you."

The jab flustered me.

"It doesn't!" I sputtered. "My curiosity was of my own concern."

"What concern," he questioned.

Valid question. Now I had to create a concern as to not seem caring of his actions.

"If the na-Baron has his lovers openly, does it matter if I have my own?. As long as it does not disturb you, of course."

I was wretched off my feet. He gripped my waist to the point of tears. Our bodies collided on the wall he pushed me against. Him on top, crushing me against it.

The show of his dark teeth bared like an animal did not scare me.

Nor did the heavy panting of his breath against my face.

"Who?" He barked.

I remained silent. My eyes looked to the wall, refusing to meet his gaze.

A knee slid between my legs to hold me in place. He jerked my chin to bring my attention back to his. "Who," he bayed with gravel in his tone.

The change was so sudden. It was a chance to use his own anger against him. I could be pierced by his blade released into a quick death.

Was it time? Did I dare use it?

"No one," I answered.

He stared into my eyes for a tense minute. Anger rolled down his shoulder to his arms. The might of his menace peeked through.

"I am so close to all I need," he said lowly. "My plans near success. Soon the power to overthrow the Baron will be mine alone, if only we walk a thin fucking line. Do you understand? How precarious my position is. I do not need this, Mintha."

Feyd stepped away. My feet fell to the floor.

He strode through the chambers to the bathing room. Pieces of his clothes were thrown as he made way.

He did not beckon me to follow, so I did not.

But my curiosity got better of me after a long while of total silence. I tiptoed into the open doorway to see just what he'd done with himself. He laid in a large depression of the floor with water up to his neck. Water, absent of soap, showed his entirety stretched through the pool.

Down to the pool were three thick steps carved in stone. I curled in a ball on one near the edge not disturbing the silence of the room nor the surface of the water.

I looked at the monster with confusion swirled in my mind. He was part monster, part animal, part human. Pieces blended when moments of his nature were explained by his tongue. It was aweing to see the man so vulnerable in afloat in my bathing pool. His body was monstrous, yes. The trusted blade of choice sat next to the rim of the pool, also yes. Yet there was a shattering look that reflected my naked body in moments when I considered it in a mirror. Fleshy parts showed wounds, scars, the vulnerability of my body no different than his.

Feyd kept his eyes closed.

"You're going to overthrow the Baron." My voice was small in the large room. I felt it answer back to my ears like a small child. "How?"

"Carefully," he answered.

My arms hugged my knees tighter against my chest. "Does my being lady matter in these plans?"

"Yes." He turned his head. "As does your being a witch."

"Neither that I truly am."

"What is a title, but a name someone was given by a person in power? Birth means little when you know the right person." He tilted his head into the surface of the water. His body floated atop the water. "You know the right one."

Feyd sat again. Water beads dripped down his face. "Join me, my lady."

I shrugged off my jumpsuit. It was silent when it crumpled on the floor.

Our bodies faced one another in the pool. I held my hair up from the water. Vishti would be pissed if I messed up their work.

Feyd's eyes watched me situate to comfort. One hand hoisting the half-braid high to keep it dry.

"One day, you will be an emperor's consort. What do you think of that?"

What a loaded question. What would I think of it?

If Feyd became Emperor, I'd be in a comfortable yet dangerous position as the side piece.

Of course, I would be party to the destruction of the galaxy. A Harkonnen throne that extended beyond the reach of one planet meant destruction as a currency. The ending of so many.

"Killing the Baron will not open the throne, na-Baron."

"No. But there is good information - proof - of the Emperor's betrayal to the Great Houses. If they were ever to learn of this, they would revolt. And the Emperor. Well, he is weak. I can destroy him, I know. I can seize the throne with the support of the Houses."

A shiver ran down my spine. He mistook it for a chill. His arms pulled me across the pool of water into his embrace just between his legs. My back rested against his chest. Each arm wrapped around me.

He said it with confidence. So easily done, becoming emperor.

"Would the Houses accept you? As Emperor, I mean."

Feyd nuzzled the back of my neck. "I'd take the Emperor's daughter as my wife to ensure they did. They are fickle about such things."

"Oh," fell from my lips fast. My body burned with a sudden icy numbness.

"She'd die within the first year," he continued. "Long enough to avoid suspicion."

The calm confidence of his plans gave no hint of the blood loss they would incur if he followed through.

"I'll have a stated witch in my house, so there will be little suspicion that can be drawn from her death. The Imperium would not believe a Truthsayer would disguise a killing."

"Truthsayer?"

"A witch who forces the truth," he said. "The Emperor's will be lost in the crossfire. You, my sweet dear, will inherit her position when I am crowned Emperor."

"And if they discover I am not?"

He shrugged. "They can bought. Or killed. Manipulated if needed. It does not matter. I will be Emperor. I'll change the rules."

So much risk weighed upon him. A precarious line to walk through an assassination of his uncle and an Emperor and a marriage.

All to be given power.

He hugged me close. "What do you think of that? Me and you on a throne that reigns over everything. Every world commanded by us."

"Na-Baron is too generous with his favor. A mere prisoner of war being made a royal consort is favor enough."

"Favor." He twisted my chin upward. Down from their height his eyes reigned over mine as a god. The high cheekbones of his pale flesh caught against the hazy light. it darkened the pits of his cheeks. All at once, he was a skull.

His hand snaked between my breasts to the base of my neck. Fingers wrapped around my throat. They forced me to look at him with no reprieve.

He was all there was. All the complex conflicting abusing manipulating firm parts of him that made me so horrified that I could not look at another.

"If there be another man who wished to touch you, you know what I'd have to do to him, don't you?"

I swallowed.

He felt it within his grasp. It made him smile.

"Mmm. It is better this way," he murmured.

Feyd spent the rest of his night spreading me around every surface of that room. My hands savagely scratched whatever I could reach as orgasms ripped through me.

His cock splintered me. He held my legs, rubbed my clit, stuck his fingers inside my mouth, and gripped my throat to push the orgasms through me. Their devastation built after each one.

My throat loosened a few hollow calls - a thing I tried hard to resist doing - that encouraged him to try harder.

His prowess as a swordsman made it easy for him to hold me against a wall or wrap my legs around his waist to bounce on him that way.

Little nothings - not sweet, because he was no such thing - rambled from his mouth as he fucked me. I was spread eagle over the edge of the pool with an ankle held in each wrist when he probed me to banter with him.

"You feel just fucking right at the end of my cock. You know that? Tell me how to please you. Let me thank this pussy for being so perfect."

"Na-Baron does well-."

"Mintha." He growled my name. A sharp hot pain went through my spine as it went rigid. "Use me." Hips moved in soft thrusts. They tickled and teased places but were not where they needed to be. "I want all your pleasure. What do you want?"

To stop? To leave? To die?

My mind spun. "Your m-mouth."

A grin slid across his lips. He climbed up to my face to run his plump lips across my cheeks and down my chin.

"What does the lady want with my mouth?"

He caressed my neck with his lips. Kisses peppered across my body as I struggled to use words.

Dignity held my tongue in place. It refused to release control to the ways of lust brought on by him. He was my enemy, my jailer.

The rest of my body disagreed. It did not cower from its adoration of his touch. Even my throat yearned to bay for more of it.

"Does my mouth please my lady?" He teased. "You like it when it tastes you."

I nodded.

"Tell me then." His tongue licked the length of my clavicle. "Say how you want it used."

"Please, na-Baron." The words were harder to say. My dignity held out. I had to cut it out completely. "Your mouths touch is talented."

He chuckled against my flesh. His words did not taunt again. They went to work between my thighs despite having spilled his seed inside me twice before. My slit was worshiped by the massaging of his tongue, I forgot -pretended- who he was.

Two arms laced up my body as he ate our mixed excitements from my hole. He did not hide his own pleasure from it. He hummed and groaned against me which vibrated my clit just so. My hands dragged down the backs of his arms. I gripped his biceps and let my fingernails pierce through as he made me cum straight onto his tongue.

A shine coated his lips. "Have I satisfied you?"

"Yes." I groaned. "Perfectly."

"Good." He slipped inside me once more and made me painfully cum all over again.

By the end of his taking, I was too weak to walk. My arms couldn't have dragged me back to the bed. I lay against the cold floor trembling in every muscle I had.

Feyd bent down, lifted, and carried my naked dripping body to the bed.

"You tire too easily, my witch." His warm body slipped next to me. He'd spent himself more than once and yet, an erection pressed against my backside as he curled around me. "You must train. Build up strength."

The lack of friction still had a heat inside. I'd been stretched and used for so long that I probably lacked the water needed for my own juices to refill.

I reached over to the small glass pitcher that Vishti left by the bedside each night. "Na-Baron can find another to use if I am unsatisfactory."

"An unsatisfactory woman. Ha!" He chuckled a harmonious sound without a hint of cruelty. My hand nearly dropped the glass to the table at its sound. "Is that legend, my witch? There is no such creature as an unsatisfactory woman."

I sank deeper into the bed. The weight of his body sank with mine. He moved so close.

The lines were blurred between us. I saw that now.

I felt it deeper when I awoke as he moved from the bed. My body groaned its resistance from his fleeting warmth. For a monster of cold cruelty, Feyd generated plenty of heat.

I rolled into his vacated spot of the bed, moaning as its dense warmth again coated me.

His lips pressed against mine in passing.

Although I must have fallen back asleep, Vishti was there a second later to wake me for practice. Aishti required an intensive day. Vishti declared so as I moved slow into clothes and even slower into breakfast. All I wanted was to sleep and recover. I was too embarrassed to admit why I couldn't move as fast.

Vishti's fingers finished the work of the braid before tapping my shoulder. "Off. Off you go."

The fire inside my loins was not up for dancing.

Aishti, though, revealed when I got to the main hall that it was not the day for dancing. What luck, I believed.

Then she showed me what I had to do instead.

It was my hell.

"Your body. It is stiff. These." Her palms flattened and boxed in my hips. "They no move. They should be smooth like silk and move like sand. This dance is the people of the deserts. Their bodies are limber. They move as they want. Stretched as they command. Their bodies listen."

The fibers of my body did not listen. They did as they wanted.

They did not want to be bent over with palms flat on the floor. Nor did they want to have my foot stretched out behind me, with the other leg curled below me, so that my foot might nearly touch my head.

"You are limber, lady." Aishti's dark eyebrows rode high. "Only, you move like a stone."

My face fell. "Aren't you supposed to help me?"

My entire body was on fire. I'd overworked the night before with Feyd's fuckfest and now it was overworked from this practice.

"Do you trust Aishti?"

Um. "Sure."

She motioned me to lie down.

"On the floor?" I asked as I hesitatingly leaned back. "All the way?"

"Yes, yes." She waved me backward until I was flushed with the stones.

Aishti then stepped over top of me. A thought of panic rushed through me. She then dropped low. Her body was astride mine.

"It is just how you make love, yes? Circles. They move round and round."

She moved her hips in small circles. They made a rhythm.

I kept my eyes wide to experience it fully. I'd never sat astride anyone like that. My hips were not skilled in that way.

But as she demonstrated how, I was obsessed with how beautiful and powerful she became. Her energy flowed. She moved with purpose, confidence in every motion.

Then she took my hands up and instructed I 'feel'. I held onto her hips.

"See?"

I nodded like an idiot.

She climbed off and reclined next to me. "Now. You try."

"What?"

"Come, lady. You try."

My knees wobbled as I took the position atop her midsection. I felt droplets of heat descend my spine as I eased against her.

"Now." Aishti grasped my hips. She guided them through the motions. "Like this. It feels good, yes? It is better on a man. But this. This is how they need to move to dance."

"This works on a man, Aishti?"

She was very surprised by the question. "Oh. Yes, my lady! Very good. Na-Baron will like it very much."

The demonstration helped practice for this dance now that the motions were known by my hips. I felt more at ease with it.

Aishti and I spent hours practicing until I could physically not swirl my hips or balance on one leg anymore. I'd dragged myself back to my chamber when I got word from a messenger. I then had to ready for another meeting with Feyd's advisor board to discuss things. What things? I had no idea. My mind was focused upon the dance that approached. I'd been told there was an event happening soon.

Soon was not elaborated on, but I knew it would be the one I would need to perform at.

Feyd was in the dark about my plans. Harkonnen's did not care if they honored the people of the planet they had. Relieving his brother of his position was all Feyd considered to assume control.

He would control, but not rule.

The consent of those below him mattered. It was not by force that people served masters, but their beliefs of who should.

Since Feyd plotted to usurp his uncle, he needed more than brute force. He needed success. He needed standing.

My life rested upon his fate, too. For if he failed to assassinate the Baron again, it was my life that rested in the Baron's hand.

He'd not be kind enough to allow Feyd to slaughter me himself. Though my body was not the Baron's liking, I would be raped and tortured daily for Feyd to see.

However…Feyd enjoyed those things. He liked blood. Pain excited him. I had heard he'd spent all his night with his harem after he won his birthday duel. The cuts on his body were replicated on theirs as he pounded his glory into them. Blood, the currency of their affairs.

Who was to say that my pain at the hands of his uncle was not all he dreamed of?

The table of advisors held a handful of people when I entered the room. There were many items on the table. All of their information was held within those books and gadgets. The whole world ruled in a small stack.

This time, a chair was open for me to use. It was at his left.

A hologram of Arrakis levitated center. The shimmery gold and brown was the planet just outside the walls.

"Information on Fremen is limited, na-Baron," one man said. He wore long black robes down to the floor. A head that floated through the air, much like the others in their shapeless garb.

"Count Fenring gathered some general areas whilst in Arrakeen."

Another head floated on black robes to speak. "The Lady Fenring believed them accurate."

"She would know," one of the other men stated.

"The witch is not above trickery," Feyd said.

My attention perked.

A lady witch.

I did not realize they were a reality beyond Feyd's invention.

"We will check these locations ourselves. With our own witch," he said.

Great. So now if some other witch lied, it would be my fault.

"This one is nearest." A finger crossed the open sand desert on the planet and pointed to a spot on the hologram that still showed nothing but sand.

"We will investigate once we've taken Carthag from Glossu. Right now, our focus needs be on assuming control of his lordship."

Plans were laid like it was open war. They spoke defense and numbers and morale and weaknesses.

I listened as intently as I could pretend to. Feyd required my attendance for reasons unknown to me, but some reason still.

"Tomorrow we will go to Carthag," he said. "By then we will have all the information we need. Full force. I'll need all my men ready at first call."

Tomorrow. I looked at him.

I was going to be left here as he went off to battle.

He caught my eye. His eyes narrowed a split second.

"Me and my men will go first," he said. "Once we have taken control of the palace, my house will follow. We will officially announce our control. Party and celebrate. They will be eager for it. Knowing Glossu, there have been none since he was reinstated."

"We will make it a whole celebration. A holiday for the city," one of the advisors said.

That night when Feyd entered my chambers, he was not alone. A servant stood behind him with a bucket in hand.

"In here," Feyd said.

The bucket was placed on the table.

I rose from the settee, venturing closer to observe what he'd brought and faltered when I caught Feyd's attention on me.

"Na-Baron."

"In Geidi Prime, before battle we paint ourselves. It is done by those who wish to see us return. Said to be their good will that protects the body." He shrugged. "The good will I do not need. It has not aided me all these years. But the paint. It is a tradition nevertheless."

My hand held onto the solid bed frame. "Would na-Baron prefer I think bad thoughts so you might overcome the challenge?"

He grinned. "You pain me, my lady."

He was anything but pained.

My lips swallowed a smile. "A blade would work better to pain you with."

"Ah." He clicked his tongue. "Do not make promises you cannot keep."

My vague threat did nothing but arouse him. His hands held my face as he kissed me. "You may be the only one who wishes not to thrust a blade between my ribs.," he murmured. "How much I wish you would, sweetness."

"Is pain all you want to feel?" I breathed. "Is there nothing more?"

He shook his head. "There is only pain. So, it is the only pleasure."

Pain was all I'd feel if he tried to penetrate me. My body ached. It was a tolerable mildness, but the na-Barons rough touch only forced my limits to their height.

I swallowed. "Does na-Baron want me to hurt him?"

It was the best I could do. The only hope I had to avoid being ripped in half at my own seam.

Feyd groaned a monstrous sound from the depths of his darkness. "As much as I want it, there is a more important tradition on the night before battle that I observe."

"Oh."

That was a relief.

His hands released me. "It makes the victory all the sweeter."

Alright. I had a full day's rest. That should be long enough.

"Then my cum will fill you up for days on end."

It took the breath from my chest. My body stilled in place.

"I'll wear your teeth marks on my shoulder. My armor will drag along them every time I move, reminding me of what pain you give. And I'll come back to get some more." I forced a calm through myself. It was the exact haunted mood that he liked to probe for my fear. "I'll have made you cum so many times that it will make you cry to walk." He said in a sort of promise that felt threatening at the same time. "And any man you'd think to look at will be forced to smell my cum. Your skin will taste of it. Your mouth will taste of mine. Every essence of me will linger on you."

I swallowed again. It relieved less and less each time.

Feyd did not care.

"Your throat will be sore from all the screams." His finger ran along the soft center of my neck. "I'll take you in the middle of the throne room with the entire city within its walls. No one will question whom you belong to."

"You do not have to prove that, na-Baron."

"Oh yes, I do. I must prove to everyone, including you, that I'm the only one meant for you."

"Na-Baron is too generous-."

His grimace made an actual sound. He snapped his hand around my neck and pulled me flush a with his hardened chest. I felt the muscles beneath my touch.

"Not once have you said my name. Not once have you regarded me as more than your na-Baron. Not once have you showed a shred of favor toward me when I have given every ounce of favor back to you." He rested his forehead against mine. A shiver of humility through his tongue. "Why do you deny me that?"

I expected Feyd to stay; part of me remained shocked as he marched out my chamber door without return.

My stomach twisted and heaved as I recalled the interaction with a wish that I had said something. Anything. Made him stay.

But the pleasure of living in this life was pain. It pained me to continue. It hurt to know I was gifted with things others were not. My heart burned as I ate and drank my fill when I'd seen others succumb in bodies shriveled to bone. My body remained intact when others were robbed of their lungs, kidneys, eyes.

Feyd brought on the most of my pain. The more time I spent in his comfort, the worse it became. He was an animal of frightening tastes, unashamed of what he was. The monster which he grew did not hinder his pleasures. He did not cower.

The pleasure he gave - for me and my body - was monstrous in form, twisted and dark, but he invoked the deepest of pleasures for me to hide behind.

We were in bodies designed for us yet only one of us struggled to embrace what she was - what she'd become.

My sorrow compounded the later the eve wore on. I called for Vishti. Food would not solve the guilt of my belly nor the burn of my soul, but a companion would distract the effects.

Vishti wore a face veil when they first entered my chambers, but it was tossed over their shoulders once the door closed.

Rich brown eyes drooped. They followed me through the room.

Words were spared. They knew.

I remained so still as I ate my food. My tongue did not taste their exquisite flavors. Nor did I wince as the tea scalded my throat.

A trunk was pulled from the wardrobe. The blue griffin centered beneath the latch. The smooth metal popped open when Vishti's old fingers brushed below the griffin's wings.

Dresses, undergarments, shoes of ridiculous height - I hated all of them - and my limited jewelry were packed inside its hold.

I gulped down my moist dripping piece of meat. "My journey back to the Baron?"

Vishti shook their head. "You travel to Carthag in the morning, my lady. Na-Baron has demanded your belongings be brought."

"Carthag is where Glossu Rabban lives."

"Yes. The Beast. That is where he is."

"What is he like? Glossu," I asked. My eyes burned holes in the chamber door. "Is he like na-Baron?"

"No, no. No na-Baron. He is a beast. Big and fat, well-fed on the backs of the people."

Feyd ate people, too.

Perhaps he was a beast like his brother.

"Is he a good fighter?"

Vishti held their back as they stood straight. "Fight. No. It is not fight when they are tied." Their hands waved in distaste. "He is abomination. He dines on children. The planet suffers. People thirst because of his gluttony. Na-Baron will be right to kill him."

My eyes fell to the plate in front of me. The meat.

A sudden upheaval filled the back of my throat. I clamped my lips together.

Children? He ate youth.

I could not loose my eyes from my meal. What meat would Feyd serve me? Would I dine, too, on the slain children for Harkonnen delight?

I ran to the toilet. My throat rippled as it forced out the meat. My body was gripped violently, shook, as it heaved from my insides.

Tears - their hot touch dribbled down my cheeks.

A hand stroked my head. The cool wrinkled hands cupped my cheeks, wiping the tears away.

"Come, lady. Come, come. You rest now." They pulled me to standing. The line of vomit slobber fell down onto my toes. Vishti wiped it away, along my face and tears. "Big day tomorrow. You must be ready."

Nothing in me felt alive. It moved on its own accord. The brush of blankets and the caress of the mattress was nothing against my flesh. It refused to register the touch of comforts.

What horrors I became complicit in. What my presence here did worsened for others.

Why had I not taken courage to end it already?

The day was greeted with an intense headache. It pulled at the back of my eyes.

Vishti took great care when they dressed me. They slipped a pain tablet in my hand. My entire body was covered by my dress. It was loose and comfortable. Feyd would hate it. It was the only reason I continued to move toward his office.

I was awoken early when his first wave of soldiers was expected to disembark toward Carthag.

The large conference room was filled with the advisors. Many high ranked soldiers stood within the room, too. Their black armored suits lined the walls.

I noticed one with an arm in a sling. He wore a scowl that only deepened when I caught his gaze. Since he stood on his own in wait for his orders, I felt confident enough to approach.

"Captain Rurik."

His head tilted slight. "My Lady."

I bet that name burned him more than it did me.

I glanced at the arm sling. "What did you do to your arm?"

"My shoulder slipped out of socket."

"How?"

He shrugged. "It just fell out."

"On its own accord. Really." Liar. "Is that why you were hanging from that post the other night?"

He spoke through gritted teeth. "It is related, yes."

An anger seethed within his skin.

"My lady." Feyd's voice spoke loudly over the hum of conversation.

Captain Rurik's scars trembled as he flexed them to sneer. My face turned placid.

"Na-Baron," I replied gently. My head bowed at him.

Let Captain Rurik see how a bought lady behaves. I would show him that I was not here to consume the horrors they provided. Nor did I enjoy it as he thought I did.

Feyd stepped through the mess of black robed advisors. A black cloak brushed the ground as he moved. A dense plated armor suit covered him. It was reinforced in the joints. His cod piece, larger than necessary. As was the whole armor. It bulged his body larger than his already massive prowess.

His eyes roved my face with greed.

He then turned his head to Captain Rurik. "Your lady came to see you off, captain."

The large muscled and scarred man dropped to a knee. "Thank you, my lady."

My lips pressed together to keep a smile at bay. The spiteful submission embroiled my heart with lovely fires of satisfaction.

"Of course, captain. Go with all the good will I can extend."

The good will I extended to him was a death, in a ruthless and dishonorable way.

Feyd smirked. He stood center of his inner circle as a god of war compared to their small fragile bodies.

"You have your orders," Feyd proclaimed.

It startled boots into movement. A short minute passed before the room cleared of witnesses.

Feyd turned to his office. I followed.

His hands spread to remove the curved shoulder pieces of his armor.

"Time is short. We cannot do as much as we should."

A bowl of black paint rested on the desktop.

He stood topless as a blank canvas. His head tilted.

I dragged my fingertips through the surface of the paint. "How does na-Baron wished to be decorated?"

"It is not my choice. It is yours."

I hesitated in front of him. My fingers cloaked within the cover of the deep inky color, not unlike the shade of his eyes.

"Can I touch you?" I asked.

The strength of his attention snapped to me. It held me gently, although firm. Finally, he nodded his approval.

I dragged my fingers along the edges of his shoulders in a crescent moon shape, then a matching spiked line opposite.

His eyes watched the work. A flex wrinkled his forehead.

Each shoulder held the design. Then once more in the center of his ribs straight above his animal heart.

"You said you wanted my bite on you." I wiped my fingers on cloth. "These will have to do for now."

The depth of his stare grew. It held me locked inside his.

"This is your good will, Mintha," he asked.

Good will need not. A Harkonnen brutally ravaged its way. Justice did not stand way in the reality cut by Harkonnen blade.

"I thought na-Baron would see this as a promise upon his return," I said. "You need not reason to stay alive. Only something to look forward to."

Feyd took hold of me. His lips crashed against mine. A tongue slipped through my loose lips to tangle with mine. The strength of his need was a force against my own weakness.

I let myself fall into his embrace.

"I must go," he finally said. "I'll send for you when my mission is successful. A thopter will bring you to me."

My body did not want to be released from his arms. It was too comfortable against him. I was lost to it.

But it did end.

He had to leave.

I walked with him to the thopter that meant to take him away. It's thrumming through the air I felt long before I saw it.

Pieces of me clawed to the surface. A sliver of sorrow, distaste, the flick of metallic fear atop my tongue. I shoved them back away - far away.

If he died, I would be that much closer to death.

I'd jump from the balcony of the palace. Or walk out into the heat of the daytime.

No one would care. My life's merit would be gone when Feyd was not there to hold my life in his palm.

"Goodbye, na-Baron." I gulped the emotion back. "Good luck."

Dust flicked into the wind as he walked away. The thopter sent much of it into my eyes and mouth and face.

I returned inside once the black fleck of the machine was lost to the sandy air.