Dune Messiah

Paul and Bijaz leave Otheym’s, Paul protected by his force-field. Trembling with fear, Bijaz urges Paul to hurry. Suddenly, Stilgar appears from behind a door. Paul, simply enacting his vision of these moments, tells Stilgar about the dwarf, and Stilgar rushes away with Bijaz. Paul gives security guards orders to go to the house next to Otheym’s. Helicopters drone overhead.

Suddenly, someone screams “stone burner!” Fulfilling his vision, Paul shields his face with his arm. Otheym’s house bursts into flames. People flee, throwing themselves on the ground. Paul knows that none of them can escape the radiation issuing from the fire. People complain that they will go blind, and someone assures them that the Tleilaxu will sell them eyes. Paul—who knows that stone burners can sometimes burn to the cores of planets—tells everyone to stay down and that Stilgar will be back with help. Someone screams that they can’t see.

Paul watches buildings crumble into the fire. He feels the reverberations from the stone burner die beneath him and rises to his feet. As he looks around, his eye sight fades to black. He recalls his prescient vision of these moments to see what’s around him. He tells everyone that help is coming and says that he is the Muad’Dib. Amid everyone’s blind confusion, Paul watches Stilgar approach with his prescience.

Stilgar runs up to Paul and looks into his ruined eyes with despair. Paul gives orders for the guards to help the people who were closest to the fire. He then touches Stilgar’s tears, and assures him that though his body his blind, he still has his prescience; he lives in the “world beyond” and it is now the same as this one. Stilgar says they must hide Paul’s blindness, but Paul says not to hide it from anyone. In keeping with Fremen custom, Paul orders none of the people blinded by the fire to be abandoned in the desert; he orders them to be fitted with new eyes.

Paul leaves Stilgar in charge and goes to one of the helicopters, able to see every moment. People exclaim that Paul recognizes them even though his eyes are ruined. In the helicopter, Paul discusses the stone burner with a weapons specialist. The stone burner—which used atomic fuel–would arouse ancient fears. Paul instructs the weapon specialist to discover where the stone burner was made. He then orders another guard to call Chani and tell her he will be with her soon. He can feel fear in the air around him.