it tricks Irulan now looked young enough to be Mother s daughter rather than her older sister Occasionally tt would have been more pleasant if Mother had had a sense of humor' From the ego-likeness included with al-Ada's memoirs, Wensicia was a rather small-boned woman, blonde like Irulan but shorter Her heart-shaped face contains sharp gray eyes and a small set mouth, a combination visual ly harmonious but not immediately appealing As she grew older, al-Ada commented that her wardrobe changed from the diaphanous white gowns of her youth to sweeping loose dresses of white sateen and gold trim, all m an effort to hide her thickening body Wensicia s life changed drastically when her son allied himself with Lett) and Ghamma Atreides She was then banished to Gtedi Prime, where sh& took refuge with the family of DaJak Fearing The refuge was given reluctantly, entirely as a favor to her daugh ter Jeunne From her third year on, Jeunne had lived with her father and his family An incident involving her mother's trained cobras in Jeunne's nursery made Dalak decide that his daughter's only chance of survival was away from her mother When she was six, the Bene Gesserrt order offered to edu cate her at the Chapter House school on Giedi Prime, and she eventually became a weH-known poet From his memoirs, al Ada seems to have had a warm relationship with his sister, but he also says mat Wensicia's arrival on Giedi Pnme did little to bring her close to her daughter The final fifteen years of Wensicia's life were spent in plotting ways to regain the empire for her son (an activity al-Ada found increasingly uncomfortable in his position m the Atreides household) The only time that he or Irulan seems to have really been upset with her plots, though, was when she engineered an aborme Sardaukar uprising in 10225 At that time, the Fenaing family was asked by al-Ada to keep his mother in isolation, with the company of only one female servant at a time These companions were assigned three-month shifts-most women, though, quitting or dying before their service was completed When al Ada saw hii mother for the last time, three months before her death of seif inflicted wounds, he was distressed to find her grossly overweight and severely depressed I would never have recognized Mother Her hair has turned gray and she has gained over forty kg The eyes which peered at me from that doughy tace had little resemblance to the steelv grav piercing stare I had to face as a child Her conversation made little sense going on and on about how Irulan had betrayed her She seemed to think that Irulan had been part of the Atreides assassination attempt-something I doubt could be true She kept telling me not to trust my aunt that Irulan had her own motives unknown to the rest of us-that Irulan was more of a Bene Gessent than we supposed And all she could do was to make long lists of the details which seemed to flood her mind The room was littered with scraps of mmimic film which were the bits and pieces of her declining sanity She reclined on her couch playing with the him which covered her tentlike white satin gown and Muck to the gold braid trim I had to look away because I could see the ghost of the slender driving force my mother had been Now all she has left are her illusions of strength and her memories of pride Me she seems to regard as a kept man I was her hope for the future and now all she says is that I remind her of my father a literary stud I wish I could feel love or compassion for this woman but I grew up feeling fear and at the end could only feel pity Wensicia died alone, unloved and forgotten, the last active member of House Comno RINO FARRAD N CORRINO SHADDAM IV CQRRINO ANUR1L CROMPTOn RUINS.