ital city of Arrakeen as befitted the bnde s rank, but the ceremony was unfamil lar to most of the watchers Aha had chosen to observe die Fremen ntes omitting only those sections of the ritual which involved removing her crysfcnife from its sheath at her waist She was still too much under the Fremen influence to unsheath a cryskmfe before a crowd of out-freyn and already adept enough a politician to realize how such an action would have alienated the people who made up her power base During the earnest years of her Regency Lady Alia seemed little changed from the young woman who had led crowds of pil gnms in prayer and prophesied for them during the Muad'Dib days As rebellions were put down and problems solved, however, she found herself more often subject to die demands of her ancestral memories for a second chance a new life gained at her expense The Bene Gessent htanies and ntu als helped to silence the inner voices for a time, as did the Zensunnl ntuals Aha knew from her background of F&men memories But the interior personalities grew stronger with time and were strengthened still further by the Regent s frequent recourse to heavy doses of melange Her decisions as Regent, as well as those affected by them, suffered Aides whispered to one another of their misffess s divine rages , those closest to her, including her husband urged her to spare herself more to rest Driven from within she ignored their advice One of the schemes most important to her involved the twins placed m her care With the Lady Jessica safely out of the way in Castle Caladan, and their Piemen guardian Snlgar contest to defer to her in all things Alia was m complete control of Leto and Ghamma She knew that they were pre bora as she had been, and that they had avoided taking large doses of melange because they feared its effects on them If they could be persuaded to attempt the spice trance a greater degree of prescience might be available to them than was to her And to whom could they relate their visions if not to their wait ing and sympathetic aunt9 She encouraged them to experiment with the spice from their earliest years in her care never realizing that they were capable of seeing what such a course had done to her and determined to avoid it at all costs The twin s lack of cooperation left their aunt puzzled annoyed and fmall) infuriated It was another barrier to her exercising full control over the Impen um she had been given to command another unneeded drain on her diminishing personal resources By 10217 the strain of dealing with her inner voices fmal!v became too great for Alia to handle alone To avoid total personal] ty fragmentation she made an alliance with the memory of old Baron Harkonnen the family enemy she herself had killed many years earlier With this strong personality acting in concert with hers she was able to shut out the maddening internal voices and act decisively once again It is not known whether the Regent realized or cared that her relationship with her grandfather s memory self had to change the direction her actions would take From this year onward Aha s decisions grew increasingly more self protective less representative of the old Atreides codes Her use of Bene Gessent techniques to maintain her young body dated from this time Her change soon prompted the Sisterhood to send a delegation to the Lady Jessica on Caladan asking her help in investigating tier daughter Jessica accepted at once if Alia indeed were slipping into a state of Abomination she wanted to be the one to confirm it and perhaps help her daughter save herself Jessica knew her B G sisters well they would think only to destroy an Abomination Her mother learned firsthand just how true were the rumors concerning Alia Within weeks of her arrival m Arrakeen Jessica was a captive of House Comno young Leto was presumed dead and an engagement be tween Ghamma and Farad n Comno was in the works Aha was free to act with even greater \igor in expanding her control of the Impenum and of the voung woman her niece who was ostensibly to inherit it The Regent tightened her grip wherever possible ATREIDES, LADY ALJA 44 ATREIDES, LADY ALIA not realizing that other plans were in progress to bring about her ruin.