ved, the Tleiiaxu had the ability to re create the dead The conspirators would then offer Paul the restored Cham in return for their dominance over him None of this occurred Scytale (m his disguise as Lichna) was detained by Paul s guards, Cham was left behind, and Paul lost his sight in the stoneburner explosion The source and purpose of the stoneburner has been the subject of endless historical argu ments Using the device served the ends of neither the Bene Gessent who needed to preserve the Atreides genes for their breed ing program nor the TIeilaxu, who could not regenerate Cham from radioactive ash The favored school of thought is that the bomb was emplaced by agents of the Spacing Guild, who were betraying their partners- especially Scytale who would have been caught m the blast- to achieve the death of the emperor and the advancement of still another forte in the drama, the Qizarate With the plan fallen awr>, Scytale had to improvise His imprisonment through the next seven months gave him plenty of time, but it must be remembered that he maintained his disguise as Lichna through that whole period This was an astonishing physical feat-the equivalent, say of running a distance race every day, week after week, month after month Scytale knew that the dwarf had been programmed to tngger the ghola's post hypnotic suggestion to kill Paul Should Duncan Idaho follow these orders, Scytale resolved, the face dancer would amend his plan to offer the restoration of Paul in the axolotl tanks If, as he believed the tension in Idaho would bring him to memory of his pre-ghola existence, then he could offer a more precious Chani to Paul, one fully aware SEMI-SHIELD 451 of her earlier existence and possessed of the fullness of her personality Scytale must often have been close to despair in his cell, knowing that Chani had not gone to the rendezvous When Scytale was brought before Paul shortly after Chain died in childbirth, Scytale acted with lightning resolve In the space of a few moments he learned both that Chain was dead and that the trigger had restored Idaho's memory In an act of daring or desperation, he repeated the offer while the twins' lives hung in the balance After the failure of his mission, Scytale's body rapidly disintegrated Failure of a face dancer's central nervous system released powerful enzymes that broke down the cell walls in order to prevent his body structure from being revealed by dissection When the Tleilaxu embassy claimed the remains, they were given a container of water-from Scytale's tissues, after foe Fremen custom- but water with chemicals added that caused it to continually change color The effect of this grim jest was not lost on the Tleilaxu Scytale's mother, Shrufka ir Kaarla, committed suicide, one of the few such, instances known among that callous people, and his father, Dr Gank L Nouh, retired from public life For many years afterward, part of the initiation ritual of the face dancer involved an oath sworn on the container holding Scytale's water, and in the eleventh quadrant the term scytale (Galacfa skatteel) was long used as the generic for face dancer WEM SEMI-SHELD.