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.They trouble us."The Lord Leto then did a strange thing.He closed his eyes as we went, and hesaid:"Because I know you have been trained to record accurately whatever words youhear, I will speak to you now, Sister Chenoeh, as though you were a page in oneof my journals.Preserve these words well, for I do not want them lost."I assure my Sisterhood now that what follows, exactly as he spoke them, are thewords uttered then by the Lord Leto: "To my certain knowledge, when I am no longer consciously present here amongyou, when I am here only as a fearsome creature of the desert, many people willlook back upon me as a tyrant."Fair enough.I have been tyrannical."A tyrant-not fully human, not insane, merely a tyrant.But even ordinarytyrants have motives and feelings beyond those usually assigned them by facilehistorians, and they willthink of me as a great tyrant.Thus.my feelings and motives are a legacy Iwould preserve lest history distort them too much.History has a way ofmagnifying some characteristics while it discards others."People will try to understand me and to frame me in their words.They will seektruth.But the truth always carries the ambiguity of the words used to expressit."You will not understand me.The harder you try the more remote I will becomeuntil finally I vanish into eternal myth-a Living God at last!"That's it, you see.I am not a leader nor even a guide.A god.Remember that.Iam quite different from leaders and guides.Gods need take no responsibility foranything except genesis.Gods accept everything and thus accept nothing.Godsmust be identifiable yet remain anonymous.Gods do not need a spirit world.Myspirits dwell within me.answerable to my slightest summons.I share with you,because it pleases me to do so, what I have learned about them and through them.They are my truth."Beware of the truth, gentle Sister.Although much sought after, truth can bedangerous to the seeker.Myths and reassuring lies are much easier to find andbelieve.If you find a truth, even a temporary one, it can demand that you makepainful changes.Conceal your truths within words.Natural ambiguity willprotect you then.Words are much easier to absorb than are the sharp Delphicstabs of wordless portent.With words, you can cry out in the chorus:"Why didn't someone warn me?""But I did warn you.I warned you by example, not with words.""There are inevitably more than enough words.You record them in your marvelousmemory even now.And someday, my journals will be discovered-more words.I warnyou that you read my words at your peril.The wordless movement of terribleevents lies just below their surface.Be deaf! You do not need to hear or,hearing, you do not need to remember.How soothing it is to forget.And howdangerous!"Words such as mine have long been recognized for their mysterious power.Thereis a secret knowledge here which can be used to rule the forgetful.My truthsare the substance of myths and lies which tyrants have always counted on tomaneuver the masses for selfish design."You see? I share it all with you, even the greatest mysteryof all time, the mystery by which I compose my life.I reveal it to you inwords:"The only past which endures lies wordlessly within you."The God Emperor fell silent then.I dared to ask: "Are those all of the wordsthat my Lord wishes me to preserve`.'""Those are the words," the God Emperor said, and I thought he sounded tired,discouraged.He had the sound of someone uttering a last testament.I recalled that he had said he would never see me again, and I was fearful but I praise myteachers because the fear did not emerge in my voice."Lord Leto," I said, "these journals of which you speak, for whom are theywritten?""For posterity after the span of millennia.I personalize those distant readers,Sister Chenoeh.I think of them as distant cousins filled with familycuriosities.They are intent on unraveling the dramas which only I can recount.They want to make the personal connections to their own lives.They want themeanings, the truth!""But you warn us against truth, Lord," I said."Indeed! All of history is a malleable instrument in my hands.Ohhh, I haveaccumulated all of these pasts and I possess every fact-yet the facts are mineto use as I will and, even using them truthfully, I change them.What am Ispeaking to you now? What is a diary, a journal`? Words."Again, the Lord Leto fell silent.I weighed the portent of what he had said,weighed it against the admonition of Reverend Mother Syaksa, and against thethings that the God Emperor had uttered to me earlier.He said I was hismessenger and thus I felt that I was under his protection and might dare morethan any other.Thus it was that I said:"Lord Leto, you have said that you will not see me again.Does that mean you areabout to die?"I swear it here in my record of this event, the Lord Leto laughed! Then he said:"No, gentle Sister, it is you who will die.You will not live to be a ReverendMother.Do not be saddened by this for by your presence here today, by carryingmy message back to the Sisterhood, by preserving my secret words as well, youwill achieve a far greater status.You become here an integral part of my myth.Our distant cousins will pray to you for intercession with me!"Again, the Lord Leto laughed, but it was gentle laughter and he smiled upon mewarmly.I find it difficult to record herewith that accuracy which I am enjoined to employ in every accounting such asthis one, yet in the moment that the Lord Leto spoke these terrible words to me,I felt a profound bond of friendship with him, as though some physical thing hadleaped between us, tying us together in a way that words cannot fully describe.It was not until the instant of this experience that I understood what he hadmeant by the wordless truth.It happened, yet I cannot describe it.===Archivists' note:Because of intervening events, the discovery of this private record is nowlittle more than a footnote to history, interesting because it contains one ofthe earliest references to the God Emperor's secret journals.For those wishingto explore further into this account, reference may be made to Archive Records,subheadings: Chenoeh, Holy Sister Quintinius Violet: Chenoeh Report, The, andMelange Rejection, Medical Aspects of. (Footnote: Sister Quintinius Violet Chenoeh died in the fists third year of herSisterhood, the cause being ascribed to melange incompatibility during herattempt to achieve the.status of Reverend Mother.)Our ancestor, Assur-nasir-apli, who was known as the cruelest of the cruel,seized the throne by slaying his own father and starting the reign of the sword.His conquests included the Ururnia Lake region.which led him to Commagene andKhabur.His son received tribute from the Shuites, from Tyre, Sidon, Gebel andeven from Jehu, son of Omri whose very name struck terror into thousands.Theconquests which began with Assur-nasirapli carried arms into Media and laterinto Israel, Damascus, Edom.Arpad, Babylon and Umlias.Does anyone rememberthese names and places now? I have given you enough clues: Try to name theplanet.-The Stolen JournalsTHF AIR was stagnant deep within the carved cut of the Royal Road leading downto the flat approach to the bridge across the Idaho River.The road turned tothe right out of the manmade immensity of rock and earth.Moneo, walking besidethe Royal Cart, saw the paved ribbon leading across a narrow ridgetop to thelacery of plasteel which was the bridge almost a kilometer distant
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