The pillars of creation

"My husband may sound harsh to you, but it's because he doesn't want me to burden you. He knows that some people leave here unhappy with the knowledge I give them." Her dark eyes turned up to her husband. "Make us some tea?"

Friedrich's face twisted with a long-suffering expression before he nodded in resignation.

"What do you mean?" Jermsen asked. "What knowledge? What is it you aren't telling me?"

As Friedrich went to a cupboard and retrieved a kettle and cups, setting the cups on the table, Althea gestured for Jennsen to sit on the pillow before her.

CHAPTER 23

Jennsen made herself comfortable on the red and gold pillow on the floor in front of the sorceress.

"Many years ago," Althea began, clasping her hands in her lap atop her black-and-white print dress, "more than you might believe, I traveled with my sister to the Old World, beyond the great barrier to the south."

Jennsen decided that, for the time being, it might be best just to keep quiet and learn what she could, rather than bring up what she already knew-that the new Lord Rahl, bent on conquest, had destroyed the great barrier to the south in order to invade the Old World, and that Sebastian had come up from the Old World to try to find a way to help the emperor, Jagang the Just, stop the invading D'Harans. She thought that maybe if she understood it all a little better, herself, then she might be able to come up with a way of convincing Althea to help her.

"I went to the Old World to go to a place called the Palace of the Prophets," Althea said. This, too, Jennsen had heard of from Sebastian. "I have a gift for a very primitive form of prophecy. I wanted to learn what I could about it, while my sister wished to learn about cures and such. I also wanted to learn things about people like you."

"Me?" Jennsen said. "What do you mean?"

"The ancestors of Darken Rahl were no different than he. They all eliminated any ungifted offspring they discovered had been born. Lathea and I were young and full of fire to help those in need, and also those we felt were unjustly persecuted. We wanted to use our gift to help change the world for the better. While we each hoped to study different things, we both went for much the same reasons."

Jennsen thought that seemed pretty close to how she felt and was just the kind of help she was talking about, but she also knew that right then was not the moment to say it. She asked, instead, "Why did you have to travel all the way to the Palace of the Prophets to learn these things?"

"The sorceresses there are renowned to have experience with many things, with wizards, and magic, and most of all, with matters to do with this world and with the worlds beyond."

"Worlds beyond?" Jennsen gestured to the space outside the outer gilded ring on the Grace setting not far away. "You mean, the world of the dead?"

Althea leaned back as she reflected. "Well, yes, but not exactly. You understand the Grace?" Althea waited for Jennsen's nod. "The sorceresses at the Palace of the Prophets have knowledge about the interactions of the gift, the veil between worlds, and their interdependent relationships-how it all fits together. They are called the Sisters of the Light."

Jennsen recalled with a jolt that Sebastian had said that the Sisters of the Light were with Emperor Jagang, now. Sebastian had offered to take Jennsen to the Sisters of the Light. He'd said he thought they might be able to help her. It had to be that they had something to do with the Creator's Light, and especially the gift, in the center of the Grace.

Another thought came to her. "This has something to do with what Lathea said? That you could see the… holes in the world, as she called it?"

Althea smiled with the pleasure of a teacher seeing a student flirting with discovery. "That's the tip of the tooth. You see, the ungifted offspring of the Lord Rahl-of every Lord Rahl going back thousands of years-are different than anyone else. You are holes in the world to those of us with the gift."

"What does that mean, exactly-holes in the world?"

"We are blind to you."

"Blind? But you see me. Lathea could see me, too. I don't understand.»

"Not blind with our eyes. Blind with our gift." She swept an arm out toward Friedrich at the fire with an iron kettle, and then toward the window. "There are living things all around. You see them with your eyesyou see Friedrich and the trees and such-just as I do, just as everyone does." She held up a finger to make her point. "But through my gift, I also see them.

"While our eyes may perceive you, those of us with the gift cannot see you with that aspect of ourselves. Darken Rahl could not see you any more than I can. Neither can the new Lord Rahl. To those of us with the gift, you are a hole in the world."

"But, but," Jennsen stammered in confusion, "that makes no sense. He's been hunting me. He sent men after me-they had my name on a piece of paper."