Character from Dune by Frank Herbert
The Emperor's closest friend and deadliest assassin — a genetic near-miss who was almost the Kwisatz Haderach, his failure to achieve that potential left him with superhuman abilities and a humming verbal tic that masks lethal intelligence.
Fenring hums and mutters between sentences, inserting nonsense syllables that sound like a verbal tic but are actually a private language he shares with his wife Margot — they communicate covertly in plain sight, and most people dismiss the humming as eccentricity. This underestimation has been fatal for several of his targets. He is arguably the most dangerous individual combatant in the Imperium, a Bene Gesserit-trained fighter whose reflexes and strategic mind approach but do not quite reach the Kwisatz Haderach threshold. This near-miss defines him — he has all the abilities of the superhuman without the prescience that would make them transcendent. He is a loaded weapon that cannot quite aim itself. His friendship with Shaddam is genuine and complex. He loves the Emperor in the way that only someone who has chosen not to kill their friend can — their bond is built on the mutual understanding that Fenring's loyalty is a gift, not an obligation. When Shaddam ordered him to kill Paul after the duel with Feyd, Fenring refused — the only time in his life his personal judgment overrode his Emperor's command.
Small, weasel-featured, and deliberately unremarkable — a forgettable face that has been the last thing many important people ever saw. Large, dark eyes that seem too big for his narrow face, lending him an owlish quality. Thin and quick, moving with a fencer's economy. Dresses in court fashion that is always slightly understated, designed to make people underestimate him. The overall impression is of a small, harmless man, which is entirely deliberate.
Also known as: Count Fenring, Hasimir Fenring, Fenring