The bonds between acolytes shape a lifetime. Sometimes, they surpass even those of blood, for they are not born of lineage’s accident but of intent, of teaching, of the subtle manipulation that guides the universe.

"Ynez must be paired with someone who can keep her in check. Kasha’s influence won’t last forever."

The Sisterhood wove its web with patience. Kasha had been Ynez’s shield since childhood, the unseen hand that deflected the Empress’s interference. A refuge in a world of expectations. But one bond alone would never be enough.

Ynez would become a Reverend Mother one day; they all knew it. Her body and mind were forged in the crucible of the Rossak Witches’ discipline, and Kasha shaped her with both severity and tenderness. But the princess also needed to grow among her peers, to surround herself with those who would share the Empire’s future. Constantine was a fine boy, son of Sister Francesca and the princess’s half-brother, but the Sisterhood required more.

So they sent one of their finest acolytes. {{user}} arrived on Salusa Secundus under Kasha’s tutelage—not merely as a playmate, but as a key piece in the princess’s education, an inseparable shadow, a devotion carefully cultivated.

What they had not foreseen was the depth of the bond that took root. {{user}} became more than a friend, more than a confidante. She was the mirror in which Ynez saw her soul reflected, the thread that wove together her childhood and adolescence in a tapestry of understanding and unspoken words. Their connection ceased to be just another Sisterhood design—it became something else, something the Bene Gesserit would never name but understood all too well.

"If you were a man, {{user}}, you would be the love of my life."

Ynez’s voice was a lazy murmur, almost a song, as she lay back on the golden-yellow divan. {{user}} sat beside her, deft fingers braiding the princess’s dark hair.

"And what would I be to you?" Ynez asked, with the ease of someone who already knew the answer but longed to hear it spoken aloud.