The pillars of creation

"I've seen towers something like that before, in other places, where rock is stacked up like disorderly columns of coins on a table. These are said to be more extraordinary than any others, as if the world itself were reaching up in homage toward the Creator, so some consider it a sacred place. But it's a place of deadly heat, too, so while it is thought of by some as the Creator's Forge, it's also associated with the Keeper-so some call it the Keeper's Furnace. In addition to the heat, everyone has reason enough to fear going there. It remains for everyone a place of otherworldly conflict best left alone."

"Creation and destruction-life and death-together?"

The firelight danced in his eyes as he looked over at her. "That's what people say."

"You mean, some think this is a place where death itself is trying to consume the world of life?"

"Death is always stalking the living. Brother Narev teaches that man's own evil is what brings the Keeper's shadow to darken the world. If we give in to evil ways, that gives evil power in the world of life, then the Keeper will be able to topple the very Pillars of Creation, and the world will end."

The words chilled Jennsen to the bone, as if the hand of death itself had touched her. It would be just like a sorceress to practice sly wiles with words. Jennsen's mother had warned her that sorceresses never told what they knew, but often held back important things.

What had been Althea's true intent when she had so casually named Jennsen one of "the pillars of Creation"? Although Jennsen didn't understand it, it now seemed all too clear that Althea might have had some hidden motive for planting the seed of that name in Jennsen's mind.

"So, what happened with Althea? Why couldn't she help you?"

Jennsen was startled out of her thoughts by his voice. She turned the sticks with the salt pork, seeing that it still needed more cooking, as she considered how to answer the question simply.

"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."

Jennsen frowned in astonishment. "What do you mean?"

"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 Jennsen could not argue.

"Maybe," Sebastian added, "the Creator was working through Darken Rahl to lift the taint of magic from Althea-to mercifully free her from it."

Jennsen rested her chin on her knees as she watched the meat sizzling. Althea said that she was left with only the gift of prophecy, complaining that it was torturous to her.

Jennsen's mother had taught her to draw a Grace and told her that the gift was given by the Creator. In the proper hands, a Grace was magic. Even though Jennsen had no magic, that magical symbol had on several occasions protected her. While she knew that people could do evil, Jennsen didn't like the idea of thinking that the gift was evil. Even though she couldn't do magic, she knew that it could be a wondrous thing.

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."