Father chided me for being reckless, but I took all due precautions. I posed as a cult recruit, and I crept away while the rest of the Maas Kharet were engrossed in the climax of their profane rite. I cannot express the powerful pull of my curiosity to watch it to its conclusions. Father will never know the restraint I exercised tonight.

To a layperson or Harkonnen agitator, the Maas Kharet are just another form of Fremen, strange people doing rituals among the dunes. I could point out a thousand and one subtle signs that they are just a crazed cult wearing Fremen trappings, but I will focus on one obvious point, something even the most obtuse observer can see.

The Maas Kharet pray to the worms, make sacrifices of water (stolen from water transporters or the bodily fluids of unfortunate prospectors) to Shai-Hulud, the adopted avatar of their “Fremen” god. To true Fremen, such a sacrifice would be a spiritual perversion of the sacred rite of the Water of Life, or at the very least an unforgivable waste.

Ever the praises to the Tyrant Worm. Yah! Ever the praises and abundance to Shai-Hulud. May your fluids honor Him. Yah, Shai-Hulud! Yah! May the Tyrant Worm bless you. May we all be drained of doubts and the poisons of a sick society.

From the gulfs of space, from the fire of His belly, from the coils of providence, let us make sacrifices for wisdom. And it has come to pass, oh Tyrant Worm. Shai-Hulud!

Ever the praises to Sayaadina Nahla, the wise messenger to whom all things must be told. Ever the praises to Sayaadina Nahla, who translates the holy tremors of Shai-Hulud. O, Sayaadina, bringer of strange joy!

We spill our water! We honor the Tyrant Worm. The uninitiated forfeit their water!

Salvation lies in the crawling belly. Salvation lies within Him!

Yah, Shai-Hulud!

Yah! Yah!

I have become the Sayaadina of the Maas Kharet. This is the way it must be. I shaped their beliefs. Originally, I shaped them through Albion Moushav. When he was killed, I stepped forward. This is as it should be.

I was commanded to find the Fremen. I was commanded to awaken the sleeper. When I could not find the Fremen, I did the next best thing. I created my own, better Fremen. I am their prophet. I need not believe. I only need to shape their belief. I will make my own awakening. I will complete my task in my own way.

I am Sayaadina.

I shape their belief.

Their belief shapes reality.