Transfixed - Destiny Mira- Valeria Atreides - S... -

"I don't want your power," Destiny said. "I want your story. All of it. And then I want to walk out of this cave and live a life that is mine ."

Valeria smiled. It was the saddest expression Destiny had ever seen.

The histories said Valeria had died three thousand years ago, the last true heir of House Atreides before the Tyrant's Peace. A rogue Reverend Mother who had rejected the Golden Path and vanished into deep space. Legend claimed she had discovered the secret of prescient immortality—not through spice, but through something far more dangerous.

Valeria's eyes were open. They were the pale blue of a Fremen's after decades of melange, but deeper— infinite . Her skin was the color of old ivory, flawless, and she wore a gown of woven sandtrout leather, still glistening. Transfixed - Destiny Mira- Valeria Atreides - S...

Or she could step back. Let the Sisterhood hunt her as a failure. Let the empire crumble without her intervention. Let the future remain uncertain.

It was choice .

Valeria rose from the throne. She was taller than any hologram had suggested, and when she stepped onto the black water, she did not sink. She walked across it as if it were glass. "I don't want your power," Destiny said

Here is the story. The desert moon of Kanakal had no name worth remembering—only a number in the Imperial survey logs: IX-β. But Destiny Mira had come here to forget numbers. To forget the blood on her hands. To forget the Bene Gesserit training that had made her a weapon without a war.

"Because I have been alone for three thousand years," Valeria said, stopping an arm's length from Destiny. "And even a god tires of speaking only to ghosts."

She found instead a tomb.

Destiny stopped at the water's edge. She could not move. Could not breathe. The transfixion had her completely.

She reached out. Her fingers were cool as river stones against Destiny's cheek.

"Why show me this?" she whispered. "Why not kill me the moment I entered?" And then I want to walk out of

Transfixed again. But this time, Destiny understood. It wasn't fear. It wasn't awe.