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"She told me that she tried to help me, once, when I was little. Darken Rahl found out and crippled her for it. He twisted her gift, too, so she can't use her own magic. Now, she couldn't cast me a spell even if she had wanted to."
"Maybe, without even knowing it, Darken Rahl was doing the Creator's work."
Je
"The Imperial Order wants to eliminate magic from the world. Brother Narev says it's the Creator's work we do, because magic is evil."
"And what do you think? Do you really think the gift of the Creator could be evil?"
"How is magic used?" His hooded gaze fixed on her, anger clearly evident in his eyes. "Is it used to help people? Help the Creator's children in this life? No. It's used for selfish reasons. You have only to look at the House of Rahl. They've used the gift, for thousands of years, to rule D'Hara. And what has that rule been? Has it been to the help or benefit the people? Or has it been one of torture and death."
The last of it was not a question, but a statement, and one Je
"Maybe," Sebastian added, "the Creator was working through Darken Rahl to lift the taint of magic from Althea-to mercifully free her from it."
Je
Je
She gently sought to try a different approach. "You said that Emperor Jagang has sorceresses with him, the Sisters of the Light, who might be able to help me. They use magic. If magic is evil-"
"They use magic in our cause, so that magic might one day be eliminated from the world."
"How can that make sense? If you truly believe magic to be evil, then how could you think to ally yourselves with what you profess to be evil?"
Sebastian checked the salt pork when she held one of the sticks out to him, then pulled a piece off on the point of his knife. He held up the knife and waggled it for her to see.
"People kill other people with knives and swords. If we wanted to eliminate knives and swords so that the killing would stop, we could hardly do so with words alone. We would have to take away people's knives and swords by force in order to stop the madness of violence for the good of everyone. People cling to evil. We would have to use knives and swords in that fight to rid the world of those evil things. Then the world would be at peace. Without the means of murder, people's passions would cool and the Keeper would flee their hearts."
Je
"That's right." Sebastian chewed, giving a moan of approval to the taste before he swallowed and went on. "We want to eliminate the evil of magic, but to do so we have to use magic in the fight, or else evil would win.»
Je
"And do Brother Narev and the Emperor Jagang think that knives and swords are evil, too?"
"Of course, because their sole purpose is to maim and kill-naturally we don't mean tools like bread knives, but weapons, certainly, are evil things. People will eventually be free of their scourge, though, and then the plague of murder and death will be a thing of the past."
"You mean to say that even soldiers won't have weapons?"
"No, soldiers will always have to be armed in order to defend a free and peaceful people."
"But, then how can people protect themselves?"
"From what? Only the soldiers will carry deadly weapons."
Je
"Evil soldiers. Our soldiers fight only for good, for the defense and security of the people, not to enslave them. When we defeat the D'Haran forces, then there will be peace."
"But even then-"
He leaned toward her. "Don't you see? Eventually, with magic eliminated, weapons will no longer be needed. It's the corrupt passions of people which are made lethal because they have access to weapons that result in crimes and murders."
"Soldiers have passions."
He dismissed the thought with a wave of a hand. "Not if they're trained properly and are under supervision of good officers."
Je
"What would a world without magic be like?"
Sebastian smiled wistfully. "Everyone would be equal. No one would have an unfair advantage." He stabbed another piece of meat and pulled it off the stick on the point of his knife. "Everyone would work together, then, because we would all be the same. No one would have the unfair use of magic and be able to take advantage of others. You, for example, would be free to live your life without Lord Rahl hunting you with his magic.»
Althea said that Richard Rahl had been born with powers of the gift not seen in thousands of years. He had, after all, gotten closer to her than Darken Rahl ever had. He had sent those men who had murdered her mother. But Althea had also said that Je
"You will never be free," Sebastian finally added in a quiet voice, until you eliminate Richard Rahl."
Her eyes turned toward him. "Why me? With all those fighting against him, why do you say until I eliminate him?"
But even as she was asking the question, she began to see the terrible answer.
"Well," he said, leaning back. "I guess what I really meant to say was that you won't be free until Lord Rahl is eliminated."
He turned away and pulled a waterskin closer. She watched him take a long drink, then changed the subject.
"Captain Lerner said that Lord Rahl was married."
"To a Confessor," Sebastian confirmed. "If Richard Rahl was looking to find a wife who was his match in evil, he found her."
"You know about her, then?"
"Only the little I've heard from the emperor. I can tell you what I know, if you want."
Je
"The barrier between the Old World to the south and the New World to the north stood for thousands of years-until Lord Rahl destroyed it so that he might conquer our people. Probably not long before your mother would have been born, I think, the New World was itself divided up into three lands. To the far west was Westland. D'Hara is to the east. After killing his father and seizing rule, Richard Rahl destroyed these boundaries separating the three lands of the New World.
"Between Westland and D'Hara is the Midlands, an evil place where magic is said to hold sway and where the Confessors live. The Midlands is ruled by the Mother Confessor herself. Emperor Jagang told me that, while she is young, maybe my age, she is as smart as she is deadly."
Je
Holding the waterskin, Sebastian draped a forearm over his bent knee. "I don't know, except that she's gifted with frightening power. Her mere touch burns away a man's mind, making him into her mindless slave."
Je
Sebastian handed her the waterskin. "Touched them with her evil magic. Emperor Jagang told me that her magic is so powerful that if she tells a man so enslaved that she wants him to die on the spot, he will do so."
"You mean… he would kill himself right before her eyes?"
"No. I mean he would simply drop dead because she commanded it. His heart would stop, or something. He would just drop dead."
Shaken by the very idea, Je
After they'd eaten and seen to the horses, Je
Because they had a fire, Sebastian didn't sleep with his back to hers. She missed the comfort of that. With anguishing thoughts cascading through her mind, she stared into the flames, eyes wide open, as Sebastian fell asleep.
Je
Je