The pillars of creation

The wizard drew back his cape and propped a hand on his hip. "So, that was her name. Jennsen." His mouth turned up with a private smile. "I've never heard that term, hole in the world, but I can see how apt it would seem to a sorceress's restricted gift." He shook his head. "Despite her talent, Althea couldn't begin to comprehend what is involved with those like Jennsen. The inability of the gifted to recognize aspects of their existence, and so referring to them as a hole in the world, is but the tail of the bull. The tail is the least important part. 'Hole' is not even really accurate. I should think 'void' would be better."

"I'm not so sure you're right about her not comprehending. Althea was involved with those like Jennsen for a long time. She may have been more aware than you realize. She explained to Jennsen and me that she didn't know any more, but that the most important part was that the gifted were blind to them."

Nathan grunted a short chuckle of respect for the woman buried before them. "Oh, Althea knew more, much more. This hole-in-the-world business was but window dressing for what Althea knew."

Friedrich dared not contradict the wizard, for he knew how sorceresses kept secrets, never revealing the true extent of what they knew. Althea did this, too. Even to Friedrich. He knew that it wasn't a lack of respect, or love, but just the way sorceresses were. He couldn't be offended by what was simply her nature.

"So, there is more about those like Jennsen, then?"

"Oh, yes. This bull has horns, not just a tail." Nathan sighed. "But despite the fact that I understand much of what Althea did not, even I don't begin to know enough to claim to grasp all of what is truly involved in the events beginning to unfold. This part of prophecy is obscured. I know enough, though, to know that this can alter the very nature of existence."

"You're a Rahl. How could you not know of such things?"

"At a very young age I was taken away to the Old World by the Sisters of the Light and imprisoned there in the Palace of the Prophets. I am a Rahl, but in many ways I know little of my ancestral homeland of D'Hara. Much of what I know, I learned through books of prophecy.

"Prophecy is silent about those like Jennsen. I only recently have begun to discover why, and the dire consequences." He clasped his hands behind his back. "So, this girl, Jennsen, came to see Althea? How did she know of Althea?"

"Yes. Jennsen was the cause of. ." Friedrich's gaze fell away from the man watching him, not knowing how he would feel about his kinsman, but then he decided to say it, even if it brought the man's wrath. "When Jennsen was young, Althea tried to help protect her from Darken Rahl. Darken Rahl crippled Althea for it, and imprisoned her in the swamp. He stripped her of her power, except for that of prophecy."

"I know," Nathan whispered, clearly in sorrow. "Although I never knew the causes behind it, I saw some of it foretold."

Friedrich took a step forward. "Then why would you not help her?"

This time, it was Nathan's gaze that broke away. "Oh, but I did. I was imprisoned there at the Palace of the Prophets when she came to see me-»

"Imprisoned for what?"

"Imprisoned for the unjust fears of others. I am a rarity, a prophet. I am feared as an oddity, as a madman, as a savior, as a destroyer. All because I see things others don't. There are times when I cannot help but to try to change what I see."

"If it's prophecy, how can it be changed? If you changed it, it would be untrue. Then it wouldn't be prophecy."

Nathan stared off at the cold sky, the wind lifting his long hair back away from his face. "I could never explain it adequately to one such as you, one ungifted, but I can explain a small part of it in this way. There are books of prophecy going back thousands of years. Those books contain events that have not yet happened. In order for free will to exist, there must be questions left open. This is done partly through forked prophecies."

"Forked prophecies? You mean that events could go one of two ways?"

Nathan nodded. "At the least-often many ways. Key events, anyway. The books will often contain a line of prophecy for several outcomes that could result from free will. When a particular fork proves to be the one that actually takes place, one line of prophecy will be true while others, at that moment, become invalid. Up until then, they were all viable. Had another choice been made, that fork would have turned out to be the valid prophecy. Instead, that branch of prophecy withers and dies, even though the book with that line of prophecy remains. Prophecy is thus tangled with the deadwood of ages past, with all the choices not made, the things that never came to be."

Friedrich's anger rose again. "And so you knew what would happen to Althea? You mean you could have warned her?"