The unfolding of the conspiracy in the last third of this book represents some complicated writing and story plot. The role that each character plays in Paul’s vision is so complex yet Paul can see every step as if it were a story he had written himself. The roles of Alia, Hayt/Duncan, and Stilgar are laid out for the story to be laid on in this book as well as the following books.
Prior to the “trial” of Korba for his part in the conspiracy, Alia reread a letter from lady Jessica to herself warning her of the imperial government that Paul and Alia had created.
“You produce a deadly paradox,” Jessica had written. “Government cannot be religious and self-assertive at the same time. Religious experience needs a spontaneity which laws inevitably suppress. And you cannot govern without laws. Your laws eventually must replace morality, replace conscience, replace even the religion by which you think to govern. Sacred ritual must spring from praise and holy yearnings which hammer out a significant morality. Government, on the other hand, is a cultural organism particularly attractive to doubts, questions and contentions. I see the day coming when ceremony must take the place of faith and symbolism replaces morality.”
(Dune Messiah, p. 215)
Heavy stuff. This is immediately followed by the “trial” of Korba that is exquisitely played by Paul, Stilgar, and Alia … a formidable team. The trial is so tense and suspenseful, you’d think you were reading a script for a suspenseful trial scene in a blockbuster movie. Here are a couple of snippets from the scene played out starting on page 217 and ending on page 224.
The voice of this intrusion was known to all of them – Muad’dib. Paul came through the doorway from the hall, pressed through the guard ranks and crossed to Alia’s side. Chani, accompanying him, remained on the sidelines.
“M’Lord,” Stilgar said, refulsing to look at Paul’s face.
Paul aimed his empty sockets at the gallery, then down to Korba. “What, Korba – no words of praise?”
Muttering could be heard in the gallery. It grew louder, isolated words and phrases audible: ‘ … law for the blind … Fremen way .. in the desert … who breaks …”
“Who says I’m blind?” Paul demanded. He faced the gallery.
…
“I don’t need eyes to see you,” Paul said. And he began describing Korba, every movement, every twitch, every alarmed and pleading look at the gallery.
Desperation grew in Korba.
Watching him, Alia saw he might break any second. Someone in the gallery must realize how near he was to breaking, she thought. Who? She studied the faces of the Naibs, noting small betrayals in the masked faces … anger, fears, uncertainties … guilts.
(Dune Messiah, p. 218-220)