xii. Skeletons in the Closet





ACT TWO ━━ CHAPTER TWELVE
Skeletons in the Closet





WHEN SHE OPENED HER EYES, Lovisa was met with the same intricate carvings on the sandstone ceiling that she saw before she passed out. While she had thankfully made the journey to Sietch Tabr, once they were immediately ambushed by the other sietch members, Lovisa had collapsed.

Paul was ridiculed for killing Jamis, Jessica was called a witch, and many accused Lovisa of being a spy. She could still recall all of the blue eyes boring into her own, belonging to Fremen who screamed so close to her face that she could smell their spice-laden breath.

Lovisa's eyes slowly moved away from the ceiling and down to her own body. A tube was sticking into her forearm, pumping a clear liquid — water, presumably — into her veins coming from a vaguely oval-shaped pouch. Lovisa felt considerably better, but needed to know what was happening.

"You lost a lot of water," a voice spoke in Lankiveilan. Lovisa's eyes flitted up to see her mother enter the room with her hands clasped in front of her. "That pouch is delivering water intravenously." Taika stopped at Lovisa's bedside and gently picked up the pouch, feeling its weight. "It's almost finished."

Lovisa averted her gaze from her mother. She didn't know where to start their long-awaited conversation — and truthfully, didn't want to talk to her at all. For all Lovisa knew, the woman she remembered to be her mother didn't exist anymore. The woman standing beside her was simply a stranger with an identical face to the mother she once knew.

Taika noticed Lovisa's reluctance to have a conversation, but she continued speaking regardless, "Listen, tytär, you must understand that you were loved..." Lovisa's eyes unwillingly looked towards Taika in interest. Taika exhaled heavily, "...you were taken from us."

Immediately, Lovisa was suspicious of her mother making a final, desperate attempt at somehow gaining her trust.

Her eyebrows knit together in confusion, "...what?" Before Taika had the chance to answer, Lovisa backtracked, outstretching the palm belonging to her non-pricked arm, "Nevermind. I don't want to talk to you."

"Lovisa —"

"No —" Lovisa stood, ripping the tube out from her arm, the few remaining droplets of water running onto the cot she was previously lying on. "— I don't have to listen to any more of your lies!" Taika didn't try to stop her stubborn daughter from leaving the room, certain that she would not listen to a word Taika said until she cooled off.

Lovisa stalked out of the room and looked both ways of the hallway, stumbling a half-step backwards when she noticed the girl who stuck to her mother's side like glue waiting beside the doorway. Lovisa did a once over of the girl, who wordlessly nodded in the direction where the other Fremen were congregating, along with the two Atreides that Lovisa arrived with. Lovisa followed the girl's direction, not bothering to glance spare her another glance.

"She will come around soon enough," Taika reassured the girl. Daphne. "Lovisa continues to be as stubborn as a bull, just as she was from a young age." Daphne didn't pay any attention towards her mother.

Instead, she watched as the ghost of her sister walked down the hallway, and disappeared around a corner further inside the sietch.

After turning down another corridor, Lovisa found the open room where the Fremen whom she had arrived to Sietch Tabr with were eating on the floor, naturally separated into smaller groups. Lovisa easily spotted Paul and Jessica, who sat alone with one another. They sat side-by-side, silently eating the indescribable food in their bowls.

"Here," a voice beckoned in Chakosba. Lovisa turned to see a Fremen, no longer dressed in their stillsuit, whom she hadn't noticed before. A bowl of an indeterminate concoction laid outstretched in their hand. If Lovisa had to guess on appearances alone, she would presume it was some kind of meat combination, but she also noticed the glint of spice sprinkled across the dish.

Lovisa was too hungry to be picky, so she immediately scarfed down a bite. She was pleasantly surprised at its flavor. It wasn't revolting, especially in comparison to the bland food on Ginaz that was meant to deliver the correct amount of nutrients at every meal, and the nearly spoiled-tasting food on Salusa Secundus.

"Lovisa." She turned to see that Paul and Jessica had noticed her arrival, the former having called out her name. He rested his bowl on the ground beside him and looked like he was about to stand, but Lovisa walked towards the pair before he had the chance. She sat before the mother and son, creating a makeshift triangle with their spots on the ground.

"How are you feeling?" Paul asked, before his eyes immediately locked onto the actively bleeding wound from her forearm. His eyes furrowed in worry, "You're bleeding."

"I — ?" Lovisa began, confused before glancing down at her arm, herself. Where she previously had water pumping into her veins was bleeding, a trickle of blood beginning to roll down her forearm towards the earth. "Oh," she said off-handedly, still coming up to speed with her surroundings. Lovisa set her bowl on the ground before grabbing the bottom hem of her tunic, ripping it in order to gather enough fabric for a faux bandage.

The scratching sound of the tunic's fabric dividing caused passersby's eyes to look towards the foreigners, watching as Lovisa wordlessly used the circle of fabric to tightly tie around her forearm, constricting the flow of blood out from the wound. Although she didn't understand the meaning of it, their snickers did not go unnoticed by Lovisa. A few of the Fremen sitting near Chani continued to stare and smile amusedly, and Lovisa narrowed her eyes back in warning.

What, was she supposed to let herself bleed out?

Eventually, they lost interest and returned their attentions towards their bowls of nearly-eaten food. Lovisa, too, picked up her bowl and resumed eating. Paul watched her, cautious to not pry too deeply into where she had been for the past half-hour. His gaze flitted past her to a different group of Fremen, a bit on the older side, who watched Paul's movements with intrigue. They exchanged hushed whispers with one another, each of them glancing in Paul's direction at some point.

"Look how your Bene Gesserit propaganda has taken root," Paul mumbled to Jessica. Lovisa's eyes flickered upwards, interested in their conversation. "Some of them already think I'm their messiah. Others...false prophet." Lovisa waited for Paul's next words. She assumed that he was going to make a remark about renouncing his unofficial title given to him by the Bene Gesserit, and his mother by proxy.

Instead, Lovisa was taken by surprise.

"I must sway the non-believers." She turned her head completely towards Paul, in near shock at his words. Admittedly, Jessica didn't expect those words to come from her son's mouth either. "If they follow me, we can disrupt spice production," Paul continued laying out his plan. "That's the only way I can get to the Emperor."

"Your father didn't believe in revenge," Jessica replied, shaking her head.

Paul scoffed, "Yeah, well, I do." Lovisa and Jessica exchanged glances before the former trained her eyes on the boy sitting across from her. He was avoiding eye contact with either of the women, instead acting most interested with his food. As it passed through his esophagus, he suddenly felt a tinge behind his eyes. The same feeling before he received a vision.

Fremen bowed before a shrine of a skull. A hand-painted portrait of Leto laid beneath it.

...fanatical legions worshiping at the shrine of my father's skull.

Paul's perspective in his vision panned over to Lovisa. Rings were braided into her hair that laid loose over her shoulders, framing her face which heralded glowing, blue eyes of a Fremen. She looked downwards with the ghost of a smile on her face. Paul followed her gaze down to her bulging, pregnant stomach which she stroked fondly with both of her hands.

Lovisa slowly lifted her head to look towards Paul, her lips morphing into a larger smile.

"Paul..." she spoke softly. Goosebumps arose on Paul's skin upon hearing her gentle voice, almost too gentle to come out of Lovisa's mouth. "...Paul..." she repeated.

Paul blinked, his vision slowly being clear, returning to the bowl of food in his hands.

"Paul?" He glanced beside him at the same voice heard in his vision, now for the third time. Lovisa — the true Lovisa, with her hazel eyes and flat stomach — watched Paul with concerned eyes.

Paul back peered down into his bowl, tilting it so that the sunlight could hit it at different angles, "There is spice in the food." Lovisa glanced down into her own bowl and tilted it around, similar to Paul. She noticed the spice glittering as she did so, but wondered why Paul seemed to be so sensitive to the spice compared to herself? Even Jessica seemed unfazed.

"Woman," Stilgar's voice rang from the other side of the room. The trio glanced over in slight alarm, immediately knowing that he was referring to Jessica. He beckoned her, "Come with me." Jessica — surprisingly to Lovisa, at least — set her bowl down on the ground and stood with no objection. She spared Paul and Lovisa one last glance before walking towards Stilgar and following him out of the room to somewhere else within the sietch.

Paul's eyes didn't leave his mother's back until her retreating figure was too far out of view. Lovisa, well aware that Jessica can take care of herself, returned her attention towards the last few bites of her meal. After losing sight of his own mother, Paul's eyebrows slightly furrowed upon seeing Lovisa's come into view. Lovisa, distracted by attempting to fill her cavernous stomach, didn't notice the presence coming closer.

"Tytär," Taika said as she approached Lovisa from behind. Lovisa stilled, looking towards Paul in confirmation that the voice belonged to her mother. He confirmed her suspicions with his eyes alone. Lovisa heavily sighed, but continued to ignore Taika.

"Tytär," she repeated, "it's time that we talk," she insisted.

"Don't call me that,'" Lovisa spat back. "I am not your daughter." Although Lovisa couldn't see since Taika stood behind her, Paul noticed the brief wave of hurt evident in Taika's eyes. When Lovisa didn't hear footsteps retreating, she added, "I have nothing to say to you."

"That may be, but I have plenty to say to you. Twelve years' worth." At the mention of the amount of years that they had been separated, Lovisa stiffened. Paul watched as Lovisa visibly wanted nothing to do with her mother. He didn't quite understand it given his positive relationship with his parents, although this dynamic was evidently much different.

"Go," he spoke in a hushed tone, gently encouraging Lovisa.

She narrowed her eyes at him, "I would rather trek the desert alone in the daylight." Paul glanced towards Taika's unimpressed, but simultaneously unsurprised, facial expression.

Taika, fed up with her daughter's antics, spoke in Lankiveilian, "Lovisa, stop acting like a child — " Within a split second, Lovisa quickly stood up and faced her mother.

Lovisa responded in their mother tongue, anger rolling off her tongue, "I never had the chance to act like a child!" The surrounding Fremen watched the altercation. "Because of your doing." Lovisa noticed their audience and asked her mother, "How do they know you here? Do they see you as a mother? Or do they know the truth about the coward who gave up her daughter in order to fulfill her own selfish desires — ?"

Taika smacked Lovisa across the face, the sound echoing within the hollow room. Silence came over the others, unsure of how the newcomer would react next. The force of her mother's palm had forced Lovisa's face sideways, pain radiating from her cheek.

Paul immediately stood, moving to separate Lovisa and Taika, but the former held her arm out across his chest, preventing him from coming closer. He was beginning to realize that he had misjudged this woman.

"No," Lovisa spoke softly, returning to the universal language. Paul grabbed onto Lovisa's outstretched hand before him, moving it down between them so that he could inch closer towards her.

He urged in a hushed whisper, "Lovisa — "

"It's fine," she insisted, now turned towards her mother. Lovisa, just now realizing that their hands were intertwined, glanced down towards their entangled fingers. With his free hand, Paul lightly grazed the makeshift bandage over Lovisa's arm wound. The same wound that she had received from the woman standing before them — the woman who was supposed to be Lovisa's mother.

Lovisa noticed his concern, her eyes slowly scanning up from their hands to Paul's face that, too, was centimeters away from her own. "I'll be fine," she repeated. He continued staring into her eyes, searching for any sign of doubt in her words.

"I'll find you," Lovisa promised, speaking low enough for only Paul to hear. Reluctantly, he nodded, allowing Lovisa to slip her hand out from his grip. He watched as she followed Taika out of the room, just like his mother had done minutes prior.

Lovisa wordlessly followed her mother down hallways within the sietch, glancing around in an attempt to study her surroundings as they did so. Eventually, Taika led Lovisa to the yali that she resided in. It looked similar to those in Sietch Tuek, although it was larger and nicer than Duncan's, likely due to her seniority.

"Sit," Taika told Lovisa after drawing the curtain closed behind them. Lovisa, uninterested in arguing with her mother which was akin to arguing with a wall, listened and sat in a chair in the corner of the room. Taika kicked a makeshift stool over, so that she could sit across from Lovisa.

Taika exhaled as she lowered herself onto the seat, preparing for the difficult conversation. Before she began, she was distracted by the makeshift bandage wrapped around Lovisa's arm.

"I'm sorry about your arm," Taika apologized, although her monotone didn't match the sentiment behind her words. "Fremen's blood coagulates so quickly, there's hardly ever a need for bandages."

"Yes, well, I was not raised a Fremen — " Lovisa began. "— instead, I was raised on Ginaz, by a boy old enough to be my brother."

Taika furrowed her eyebrows, her mouth involuntarily remaining agape in confusion, "A boy? On...Ginaz?" Lovisa averted her gaze from the floor.

She shot an incredulous look towards her mother, "Do you honestly not remember who you sold your daughter to? In exchange for spice of all things?"

"Lovisa...what were you told?" Taika asked, genuinely. "...what do you remember?"

Lovisa scoffed, "From my childhood with you? " She shook her head, "I am Lovisa Koskinen, a child of Ginaz. I was raised by — " her breath reflexively hitched due to recent memories " — I was raised by a boy who took me in as a sister, who protected me from the others by helping me pretend to be a brother. Until, of course..." Lovisa sighed, looking away from her mother, "...he left me, like my own parents."

Taika stayed quiet, digesting the information spewed from her daughter's lips. Lovisa noticed that Taika's previously solid facade appeared to have dropped. Now, she sat deep in thought with her hands clasped in her lap. Lovisa, surely hallucinating, thought she may have even seen the smallest glint of a tear in Taika's eye.

"Like I said earlier, tytär, you were loved..." Taika said after a few minutes of silence. At the sight of her raw emotion, Lovisa didn't correct Taika from using the Lankiveilian term of endearment. She took a deep inhale, making another attempt at their prior conversation, "...you were taken from us." Lovisa's face relaxed from its pinched expression upon hearing her mother's same words for earlier. Naturally, she immediately looked for signs of dishonesty on her mother's face...

...but she came up empty.

Lovisa shook her head in denial, deciding to humor this conversation further, "Taken by who?"

Taika released a heavy exhale, "Do you remember much of your father?"

"Of course I remember him," Lovisa replied as if the answer was obvious, almost offended. Her eyebrows unfurrowed, "Is he here, too?" The question had been on Lovisa's mind ever since she was reunited with her mother, but since she didn't want to speak to her, the opportunity to ask never arose.

"Your father...is dead." Lovisa sunk into her chair. "He was killed by his son." Her eyebrows flinched inwards in intrigue. Did her parents have more children than her and the girl whom Lovisa was fairly certain was her sister? Taika readjusted her position on the stool, still uncomfortable discussing old wounds.

"Your father was a Harkonnen," Taika explained. "Abulurd's brother — demibrother — is the Baron." A chill shot up Lovisa's spine. "Abulurd was...good...unlike the rest of his family. He even changed his surname to distance himself from them. They exiled him to Lankiveil so he wouldn't disrupt their spice production."

"Lankiveil," Lovisa confirmed, "where we lived."

Taika nodded, "Yes, my family is from there." She shrugged, "Truthfully, I hated Abulurd when he first arrived." Lovisa's ears perked up in interest in the details of how her parents met. "I figured he was just like the rest of his ancestors...then, he married one of my neighbors, Emmi Rabban — "

"Isä was married before?" Lovisa asked, instinctively calling him by the name she used to as a child.

"Yes," Taika answered, seemingly unfazed by her husband's ex-wife. "They had two sons, who, as I understand, were taken by the Baron to be his own heirs."

Lovisa was confused by her mother's wording, "...taken in by the Baron, you mean?"

Taika shook her head, "No, I spoke correctly. Well," she shrugged, "I suppose that you could argue Glossu went willingly, but Feyd-Rautha was taken to Giedi Prime when he was only a boy...much like what happened to you."

"Why did the Baron need two heirs?" Lovisa asked.

"He wasn't satisfied with Glossu's performance — he is very impulsive. Violent. So, when Feyd-Rautha was born, the Baron viewed it as another opportunity for a successful heir. Soon after Feyd-Rautha..." She sighed, "...soon after he killed his mother — "

Lovisa froze. She knew the brutality of House Harkonnen, of course, but Feyd-Rautha must've only been a boy when he killed his own mother. This same boy was her demibrother, whom she shared blood with — shared Harkonnen blood with. Was Lovisa capable of those same horrors?

" — he was taken to Giedi Prime during the night, never to be seen on Lankiveil again," Taika finished. "And, you — " she pressed her lips together, hard, appearing to try and conceal her emotions. " — you were taken the same night Glossu..." she took a breath, "...the same night Glossu killed your father." Lovisa's heart constricted at the mention of her father's murder. While she had despised them for what she believed they had done, Abulurd was still her father. Hearing about his death — murder — didn't ache any less.

"That act is what earned him his nickname — "

Beast, Lovisa remembered. She's already had an encounter with him before. Does he know that they are related?

" — it is also what instilled a great deal of mistrust in him from his uncle, hence his infatuation with Feyd-Rautha, whom he gave the Harkonnen name," she continued. Taika avoided eye-contact with Lovisa as she recounted the difficult memories, "Abulurd found Baron's spice stash, that was known to no one, and spread it amongst the people of Lankiveil. Baron was furious..." Taika became lost in the memory. "...he sent his men to ambush our castle during the night. They defeated our security, forced us out of our rooms — set the entire castle ablaze."

She finally looked directly at Lovisa, "You never woke up." Lovisa furrowed her eyebrows in confusion at how her child-self could sleep through such destruction. "I watched as they carried you out of the palace, asleep in their arms. I believe they injected you with something to keep you asleep, so — " Taika swallowed roughly. " — so that they could fabricate the story that you've believed for all these years." She shook her head, reaching forward to grasp onto Lovisa's hands, "You must understand that I did not let them go lightly. I screamed, and I fought, but I was no match for those men — those barbarians."

Taika released her grip on her daughter's hands, leaning back onto the stool. She motioned towards the scars littering her own face, "They did not let me go lightly, either." She subtly pursed her lips, disappointed in her past self, "I was weak...perhaps, if I were a trained fighter like you...perhaps I could have done more."

Lovisa didn't answer. Internally, she knew that it wasn't her mother's fault for her abduction, but she still didn't have it in her to reveal that belief aloud.

"Glossu yelled out orders about where to take you, I presume, but I couldn't understand him. The soldiers had blown out my eardrums, so I couldn't hear clearly for a few weeks after that night." Taika's voice lowered, "But I could watch every second of Glossu strangling Abulurd until he died."

Silence rang throughout the room. Lovisa was too stunned to speak, imagining this dreadful night her mother had just described. Taika felt as if she was being transported back onto Lankiveil, where she laid lying on the ground, ears ringing while bleeding from what felt like every crevice of her body, as her husband was beaten bloody before suffocated by his own son.

Finally, Lovisa asked, "How did you get to Arrakis?"

"Glossu ordered for his soldiers to drop me in the desert. Given its conditions, they figured that I would die by the next nightfall, at the latest." Taika glanced towards Lovisa, resting a hand on her own stomach, "I was pregnant." Lovisa averted her eyes from the floor to her mother's. "From the stress of that night, I had gone into premature labor. By some miracle, the Reverend Mother had found me. She and her Sayyadina delivered your sister."

My sister, Lovisa thought to herself. I have a sister. Although Lovisa presumed that the girl who often shadowed her mother was related to her, now she was proven correct.

"And with the Reverend Mother's blessing," Taika continued, "Stilgar accepted us into Sietch Tabr, where we have been ever since. I learned the Fremen ways — your sister was raised as one of their own."

"What's her name?" Lovisa asked, wanting to put a name to the face she's memorized from their first encounter.

"Daphne," Taika answered. "For Abulurd's mother." She scoffed a laugh, "Although, your sister insists on being addressed by her Fedaykin name, Fa'izah. She, too, wants no ties to her namesake."

"She is a Fedaykin?" Lovisa asked, looking into her mother's eyes.

The corners of Taika's mouth raised, "Yes. She is an impressive fighter...just like her sister." Lovisa averted her gaze towards the ground at her mother's compliment, unsure of how to react. After receiving no answer, Taika said, "So, tytär, tell me of your life throughout all these years."

Lovisa simply shook her head, "I don't want to talk about myself."

"Lovisa, please," Taika pleaded. "I haven't heard of you in over a decade." Although she was aware of the large time difference, obviously, it still took Lovisa back to hear it from her mother's mouth. "I want to get to know my daughter."

She couldn't explain why, but those words rubbed Lovisa the wrong way. Suddenly, Lovisa became extremely aware of how this woman sitting in front of her turned into a stranger, and how she was able to replace Lovisa with her younger, shinier daughter.

Lovisa pointed her chin high, looking directly into her mother's eyes as she delivered a summary of the last twelve years of her life, "I was taken in by a boy who ended up betraying me, and murdered my best friend right before I killed him." Taika's gaze softened at being informed that there was blood on her daughter's ledger. While she wasn't terribly surprised given the violent start to her childhood, it was still disheartening to hear.

"I trained at the Ginaz School until I was arrested for treason, and sent to Salusa Secundus. I was sent to Arrakis by the Emperor and Baron to kill the Duke and Na-Duke, but I..." Lovisa swallowed the lump in her throat, not wanting to explain her...feelings?...towards Paul further. "...I failed."

Picking up on her daughter's hostility, Taika matched her stern posture, "You don't seem like the kind to 'fail,' Lovisa." Her eyes narrowed ever-so-slightly, relying on her mother's intuition to accuse, "You care for that boy." Lovisa's cold exterior was beginning to crack. Taika's mouth formed a hint of a smirk, "I wonder if you realize just how much so...even at the mention of him, there's a..." Taika motioned towards her own eyes, "...glint in your eyes."

Lovisa caught on to her mother's assumptions, "I do not love him."

Taika chuckled, "I said nothing about love, Lovisa." Lovisa ducked her head, feeling heat rush to her face in embarrassment. Lovisa didn't even understand the weight behind true love, hence she bringing it up so casually in conversation. In her adolescent mind, she considered "love" to encompass any feelings that bypassed friendliness.

Desperate to change the topic of conversation, Lovisa asked the burning question around the sietch, "Do you believe that Paul is the Lisan al-Gaib?"

"Personally, no," Taika admitted without giving much thought into her answer. "Although, even after all these years, I don't agree with every Fremen belief, so I am not the best person to counsel. You'll have to consult your sister, she's much more passionate about this topic." Lovisa wondered about her sister's stance on the subject. If she had to guess, she would assume Daphne didn't believe in Paul since she isn't from the devout South.

"I will say, though," Taika began, leaning forward into the space between her and Lovisa. "If him becoming this 'prophet' will bring about the destruction of House Harkonnen, then by all means..."

Taika beckoned outwards, as if referencing the future, "...let him lead us to Paradise."



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