Duncan-10208's rejection of the abomination Aha and his later manipulation of Jessica marked the solving of his greatest problem and were strong evidence of his personal growth. For Duncan Prime, House Atreides had always been a single organism, and he was singularly bound to it by pleasure and pain For the awakened Hayt, Duncan-10208, House Atreides was fragmented by Alia's possession. The visible and obvious stimuli that had long keyed his fanatical loyalty were gone. While The Preacher did eventually use one of these keys-the secret sign with which Paul Atreides had summoned his swordmaster-he did so too late It came after one Atreides, Alia, had commanded Duncan to assassinate another, Lady Jessica, and after The Preacher had pledged Duncan as a "jewel without pnce" to House Corrino as part of his arrangement to interpret die dreams of Farad'n Corrino By then Duncan saw House Atreides for the ruin it was, and had already decided to disobey Alia Here the old Atreides and Duncan Prime values came to the fore and candor and honesty were his only touchstones. Duncan remained a constant for Paul and Jessica, just as the other gholas would be for the God Emperor, but-and the difference is critical-he was a constant by decision rath er than by faith He had ceased to follow and adore, he had begun to act and think More than this, his mentat skills allowed him to avert matricide, he invented a spurious dan ger from House Corrmo to Aha, isolated on Salusa Secundus, Jessica was both safe from Aha's threats and prevented from revealing Alia's Abomination Duncan's love for Alia prevented him from slaying her even though he already suspected her part in the Comno attempt on the hveb of Leio and Ghamma, hindsight shows he was wrong to spare her Duncan remained obedient to both Jes&ica and Paul, but made his own judgment about overthrowing Aha He knew that he could no longer support the excesses and brutalities of Alia's regency and so, at The Preacher's bidding, allied himself with the Zarr Sadus, the rebel Fremen who refused to submit to Aim's Quizara Tafwid Prior to this, Duncan had cleverly misled Aha's and Farad'n'i spies by appearing to formal demand his release from Atreides service This falsehood was so well acted that not even Lady Jessica's Bene Gesserit perception detected it He reinforced his apparent disaffection by telling Jessica that he wouid ask Farad'n to send her back to Wallach IX His stated reason w as that the Bene Gesscnt moved too deeply and darkly to be bdfe toys-indicating his awareness of Jessica's plans to put the Comno heir on the throne Later, Jessica did suspect Duncan's true intent but remained unsure Her unease was shared by Ghanima, who doubted ' 'this ghola flesh," and by Aha, who was stunned by Duncan's refusal to kill Jessica By this time Alia was finding any lo> alty to the Atreides offensive, especially Duncan's, she had already ceased to think of herself as Atreides Duncan was immediately aware of Alia's rejection This keenness enabled him to avoid death at the hands of one of Aim's amazons, Zia, and the escape to Sietch Tabr to help Ghanima and Stilgar Shortly after his, amval there m 10231, his abilities allowed him to recognize the danger to everyone, especially Ghanima, of Stilgar's neutrality After failing to convince Stilgar to take his company into hiding, he deliberately orchestrated a crisis by killing Javid and violating the sanctity that Stilgar had so 324 IDAHO, 11099 carefully established.