The pillars of creation

She considered carefully before answering. "The genuinely ungifted ones, yes. Those who are born with at least some tiny aspect of the gift are not. That aspect can be so infinitesimal and unusable that it would not even be recognized to exist by anyone in any other way aside from this one. For all practical purposes, those offspring would be thought of as ungifted, except that they would have this quality that would keep them from being like you-holes in the world. It also makes them vulnerable. This kind of offspring can be found with magic and thus eliminated."

"Could it be that most of the offspring of Lord Rahl are like that, and those like me, holes in the world, are actually the ones who are more rare?"

"Yes," Althea admitted quietly.

Jennsen sensed an undercurrent of tension in the single word answer. "Are you suggesting that there is something more to all of this than just that we are holes in the world to the gifted?"

"Yes. That was one of the reasons I went to study with the Sisters of the Light. I wanted to better understand the interrelationship of the gift with life as we know it-with Creation."

"Did you discover anything? Were the Sisters of the Light able to help you?"

"Unfortunately, no." Althea gazed off in reflection. "Few if any would agree with me, but I have come to suspect that all people, with the single exception of those like you-offspring of a Lord Rahl born wholly without the gift-have this imperceptible spark of magic that, while intangible in every other way, connects them to the gifted, and thus to the greater world of Creation."

"I don't understand what this would mean for me, or for anyone else."

Althea slowly shook her head. "There is more to this, Jennsen, than I know. I suspect there is something far more important involved."

Jennsen couldn't imagine what that could be. "How many offspring are born entirely without the gift?"

"As far as I've learned, it's exceedingly rare for more than one offspring of each Lord Rahl to be born with the gift, as we think of it-his seed conceives but one true heir." Althea held up a finger as she leaned forward. "But it is possible that, while the others are ungifted in the conventional sense, many have this otherwise invisible and sterile spark of the gift so that they are detected and destroyed before others, like me, know of them.

"It is entirely possible that those like you are the ones who are truly rare, as is the single formally gifted heir, and that's why you survived for those like me to notice, thus slanting our idea of which kind is rare, and which common. As I said, I think there is far more to this than I know or can understand. But of those truly like you, devoid of even this otherwise imperceptible glimmer of the gift, all are-"

"Pillars of Creation," Jennsen said, sarcastically.

Althea chuckled. "Perhaps that sounds better."

"But to the gifted, we are holes in the world."

Althea's smile withered. "It is so. Were Adie here, blind as she is with her eyes and seeing only with her gift, were you to stand before her she would see everything but you. She would be blind to you. To Adie, able to see with the gift only, you would truly be a hole in the world."

"That doesn't make me feel very good about myself."

Althea's smile returned. "Don't you see, child? It proves only the limitation. To one who is blind, everyone is a hole in the world."

Jennsen thought it over. "Then, it's only a matter of perception. Some people are simply lacking the ability to perceive me in one narrow way."

Althea gave her a single nod. "That's right. But because those with the gift often use their ability without conscious thought, like you use your vision, it's very disturbing to those with the gift to encounter one such as you.»

"Disturbing? Why is it disturbing?"

"It's troubling when your senses do not agree."

"But they can still see me, so why do I trouble them?"

"Well, imagine if you heard a voice but you could see no source for it."

Jennsen didn't have to imagine that. She understood quite well how troubling that was.

"Or imagine," the sorceress said, "if you could see me, but when you reached out to touch me, your hand passed through me as if I wasn't here. Wouldn't that trouble you?"

"I suppose," Jennsen conceded. "Is there anything else about us that's different? Other than that we are holes in the world to those with the gift?"

"I don't know. It's exceedingly rare to come across one such as you who is still alive. While it's possible that others exist, and I once heard a rumor that one lived with the healers called the Raug'Moss, I only know of you for certain."

When Jennsen had been very young, she had visited the healers, the Raug'Moss, with her mother. "Do you know the name?"