Theodosia: the shapeshifting Sister

Theodosia, known to her fellow acolytes as Theo, was a Sister in training with the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood on Wallach IX during the reign of Emperor Javicco Corrino. Bred as an experiment by Tlulaxan geneticists, she was born with the ability to transform herself into any other person, a gift she regarded with dread rather than pride. That ability drew the attention of Mother Superior Valya Harkonnen, who took Theodosia with her to Salusa Secundus in the days after the death of the Imperial Truthsayer Kasha. There Theodosia became Valya's closest aide through the collapse of the Sisterhood's position at court, and she ended her service by taking the place of Princess Ynez in the Imperial cells and driving a knife into Desmond Hart.

Origins and an unwanted gift#

Theodosia did not come into the world by ordinary birth. She was bred as an experiment by Tlulaxan geneticists, and from birth she carried the ability to remake her own flesh, transforming herself into any other person. The change was not effortless; each transformation was a painful ordeal, and Theodosia never spoke of the ability as a blessing. When Valya Harkonnen later called it a talent, Theodosia answered plainly that she did not see it as one. She was never openly named for what she was, but her nature marked her as a Face Dancer in everything but title, a living forerunner of the shape changers the Bene Tleilax would one day send out among the Imperium.

Whatever her makers had intended for her, Theodosia found her refuge in the Sisterhood. She committed herself to the order on Wallach IX and trained there as an acolyte, working toward the discipline of a Truthsayer under Valya and Tula Harkonnen.

An acolyte on Wallach IX#

Theodosia's schooling on Wallach IX was the common education of the Sisterhood's acolytes, the slow sharpening of perception into a weapon. In one exercise the acolytes were shown a preserved brain and asked to judge what manner of man it had belonged to. Theodosia and her fellow acolyte Emeline concluded he must have been a criminal or a sociopath, while Jen alone answered correctly that the man had been a survivor. Tula Harkonnen turned the mistake into a lesson on the small bodily signs a Truthsayer must learn to read.

Life on Wallach IX was not sealed off from Imperial politics. Theodosia was with Emeline and Farouz when Imperial Guards entered the school unannounced, sent ahead to arrange accommodations for Princess Ynez, who was to train with the Sisterhood. Soon afterward, word spread through the school that Kasha, the Emperor's Truthsayer and one of the order's senior Sisters, had died. While the other acolytes traded speculation, Theodosia gave the death its true name. She believed Kasha had been assassinated, and she told the others to watch their backs. Among students raised on the memory of Raquella and the founding Sisters, it was a cold reading of events, and it proved a shrewd one.

In the service of Valya Harkonnen#

Valya Harkonnen came to Theodosia soon after Kasha's death and told her she would be travelling with her to Salusa Secundus. On the journey Valya explained her intent: Theodosia would take Kasha's place at court and make herself the new confidant of Princess Ynez. The introduction failed at the first meeting. Ynez had no wish to know her dead teacher's replacement and said she wanted only one thing, to learn how Kasha had died.

Events at the palace turned against the Sisterhood, and Valya and Theodosia were escorted out. Valya was unshaken, telling Theodosia that people had tried to remove her before and had never succeeded. She then brought Theodosia to the Harkonnen family home, a place Valya had not entered since committing herself to the Sisterhood. Over dinner with House Harkonnen, Valya laid out a plan that would serve her family and the Sisterhood alike, and she used Theodosia to close the bargain. Drawing on her training, Theodosia read Harrow Harkonnen and told him what he most feared, that people would laugh at him or pity him. The deduction pushed Harrow to agree.

Theodosia voiced her worry that the plan would not unfold as Valya intended, but the Mother Superior insisted she would not fail. That night Theodosia tried to ask Valya about her brother, and Valya cut the question off, admitting instead the truth of the arrangement: she had brought Theodosia because of her ability. Theodosia reminded her that she had been honest from the start, that she never wanted to transform again. Valya promised the gift would be a last resort. When Valya and Harrow returned the following day, Valya conceded that she had failed, but she had drawn some of Desmond Hart's blood, enough to send to Tula so it could be set against the breeding index and Desmond's true parentage finally uncovered.

The last resort came sooner than promised. After Theodosia witnessed Valya quarrel with the aged Evgeny Harkonnen and then kill him by withholding his treatment, she took the shape of Griffin, Valya's dead brother, enduring the pain of the change to tell Valya she had done the right thing. It was the reassurance Valya wanted, delivered in the one voice she could not refuse. Later, after Harrow departed for Evgeny's funeral, Theodosia questioned Valya's decision to lead Desmond Hart to the rebels and asked how Francesca figured in the design. Valya answered only that one day Theodosia would learn the art of imprinting, and then she would understand.

The freeing of Ynez#

Back amid the intrigues of the capital, Theodosia served as Valya's link to the city's underworld. When the smuggler Mikaela learned that the rebel Horace had bought a drone and was programming it with palace schematics to enter the throne room and explode, she passed the warning to Theodosia, who carried it to Valya. After Mikaela's destruction of the underground market failed to kill Desmond Hart, Valya offered her passage to a safe house on Arrakis. Mikaela refused to betray her people, and when Theodosia answered that the Sisterhood was her people, Mikaela called her naive and walked away.

The Sisterhood's endgame drew Theodosia into its centre. Princess Ynez had been arrested for attempting to free Keiran Atreides, and Valya resolved to break her out and hide her beyond the city until her coronation was assured. The plan was layered: Francesca would poison Emperor Javicco, while Valya had herself arrested so that she could use the Voice to command her own release from the suspensor cells. Theodosia's part demanded her gift twice over. First she took the shape of Ynez and remained in the princess's place while the true Ynez was carried to safety. Then, once the escape was under way, she transformed again into one of the guards and lay as if dying. When Desmond Hart came upon the scene, the stricken guard grasped his leg and whispered, drawing him down to listen, and Theodosia drove a knife into him.

The strike did not kill him. Desmond punched her, pulled the blade free, and ordered a trooper to place her into suspension. It was the last recorded act of her service, the shapeshifter who had never wanted her gift spending it freely so that the Sisterhood's chosen heir could reach safety.