The pillars of creation

"But I haven't been honest with you-I haven't lied to you, but I haven't told you what I should have long ago. You're too important a man to chance being with me when you don't even know why I'm hunted, or what that attack back at my house was about." She swallowed at the painful lump in her throat. "Why my mother lost her life."

He said nothing, but simply gave her the time to gather herself and tell him in her own way. From the first moment she had met him, and he hadn't come close when she had been afraid, he always gave her the room she needed in order to feel safe. He deserved more than she gave him in return.

Jennsen finally brought a halt to her pacing and looked down at him, at his blue eyes, blue eyes like hers, like her father's.

"Sebastian, Lord Rahl-the last Lord Rahl, Darken Rahl-was my father.»

He took the news without any outward reaction. She couldn't know what he was thinking. As he gazed up at her, as calmly as he did when she wasn't telling him terrible news, she felt safe in his company.

"My mother worked at the People's Palace. She was part of the palace staff. Darken Rahl… he noticed her. It is the Lord Rahl's prerogative to have any woman he wants."

"Jennsen, you don't-"

She lifted a hand, silencing him. She wanted the whole thing out before she lost her nerve. Having always been with her mother, she feared being alone now. She feared he would abandon her, but she had to tell him what she knew.

"She was fourteen," Jennsen said, beginning the story as calmly as she could. "Too young to really understand about the ways of the world, of men. You saw how beautiful she was. At that young age, she was already pretty as could be, growing into a woman sooner than many her age. She had a bright smile and an innocent exuberance for life.

"She was a nobody, though, and to an extent excited to be noticeddesired-by a man of such power, a man who could have any woman he wanted. That was foolish, of course, but at her age and station it was flattering, and, in her innocence, I suppose it might have even seemed glamorous.

"She was bathed and pampered by older women on the palace staff. Her hair done up like a real lady. She was dressed in a beautiful gown for her meeting with the great man himself. When she was brought to him, he bowed and gently kissed the back of her hand-her, a servant in his great palace, and he kissed her hand. From all accounts, he was so handsome that he shamed the finest marble statues.

"She had dinner with him, in a great hall, and ate rare and exotic foods,he had never tasted before. Just the two of them at a long dining table with people serving her for the first time in her life.

"He was charming. He complemented her on her beauty, her grace. He poured wine for her-the Lord Rahl himself.

— When she was at last alone with him, she was confronted with the reality of why she was there. She was too frightened to resist. Of course, had she not meekly submitted, he would have done what he wished anyway. Darken Rahl was a powerful wizard. He was easily as cruel as he was charming. He could have handled any woman without the slightest difficulty. He had but to command it, and those who resisted his will were tortured to death.

"But she never gave any thought to resisting. For a brief time, despite her apprehension, that world, at the center of such splendor, such power, had probably seemed exciting. When it turned to terror for her, she bore it silently.

"It wasn't rape in the meaning of being taken against her will, with a knife held to her throat, but it was a crime nonetheless. A savage crime."

Jennsen looked away from Sebastian's blue eyes. "He took my mother to his bed for a period of time before he tired of her and moved on to other women. There were as many women as he could want. Even at that age, my mother didn't hold any foolish illusion that she meant something to him. She knew he was simply taking what he wanted, for as long as he wanted, and that when he was finished with her she would soon be forgotten. She was doing as a servant did. A flattered servant, perhaps, but still a frightened, innocent young servant who knew better than to resist a man above any law but his own."

She couldn't bear to look at Sebastian. In a small voice, she added the last bit to the tale.

"I was the result of that brief ordeal in her life, and the beginning of a far greater one."

Jennsen had never before told anyone the awful story, the terrible truth. She felt cold and dirty. She felt sick. Most of all, she felt deep anguish for what her mother must have gone through, for her young life spoiled.