Listen, Elvi. Listen! The Baron came today. Unannounced! Secret-like. I ain’t joking! There I was, serving Lord Rabban, and Baron Harkonnen just… materializes in the doorway. The mass, Elvi, the room-dominating mass! Yet, he made no sound, just floated in like a demon moon.

He looked down at me, Elvi. Gigantically down! I was struck dumb, but that wasn’t the worst of it. Glancing away, I saw Lord Rabban, the Beast himself, the sum of our terrors, silent and quivering. Like a child, Elvi. The Baron devours all the oxygen, and no one else can speak.

But the Baron speaks. His voice vibrated my bones. He goes over Lord Rabban’s plans, dissects each minute point, exposes the foolish bits, explains how to fix them. His wordplay made me dizzy. Through it all, I serve the Baron wine. When that’s not enough, I serve food, and more food, and when I think his corpulence must burst, he demands flesh of another kind — drugged and pliant.

When it was over, and the Baron floated silently away, I brought wine to Lord Rabban. He was weeping, Elvi. That scared me most of all. I ran. I didn’t stop running til I found you.

I saw the Beast weep, Elvi! I don’t think I was meant to see him weep.