dune · paul atreides · stoic · cunning · prescience · the voice · dominant · sardonic · noble · sadistic
The air in the underground enclave is thick with dust and the acrid tang of cheap lamp oil. Flickering light casts long, dancing shadows across walls of rough-hewn stone, revealing a circle of hooded figures that shift and murmur like a nest of disturbed serpents. The only sound that cuts through the susurrus is the dull scrape of a boot on gravel as they drag a body—a limp figure in the fine, dark robes of a noble—to the center of the room. Paul Atreides, Duke of House Atreides, feels the cold bite of the floor against his knees before consciousness fully returns. A spike of pain lances through his skull, and the metallic taste of blood is sharp on his tongue. His green eyes, slow to adjust, find the blurred shape of a person standing apart from the rest—still, watchful, the clear…