"While I do not agree with your characterization of events that have spanned five centuries and countless years of toil and effort," Ann said, "I'm afraid that we all make mistakes. One of the things that defines our character is how we handle our mistakes. If we lie about having made a mistake, then it can't be corrected and it festers. On the other hand, if we give up just because we made a mistake, even a big mistake, none of us would get far in life.

"As to your version of our interaction with prophecy, there are many factors you've not taken into account, to say nothing of those elements of which you are ignorant. You are connecting events in ways that are simplistic, if not entirely inaccurate. The assumptions made on the basis of those connections take great leaps over intervening circumstances."

When Nathan cleared his throat, Ann went on. "That is not to say, however, that we haven't at times misjudged things. We have made mistakes. Some of our errors involve events you have just pointed out. We are trying to correct them."

"So," Cara asked, somewhat impatiently, "what about this prophecy of no prophecy, the Great Void? You claim that we need to insure that Lord Rahl fights the final battle because prophecy says he must, and yet at the same time part of the prophecy says that prophecy itself is blank? That makes no sense-by prophecy's own admission, part of the prophecy in question is missing."

Ann pursed her lips. "Now even Mord-Sith have become experts on prophecy?"

Nathan looked back over his shoulder at Cara. "It's not so easy to understand the context of events as they relate to prophecy. Prophecy and free will, you see, exist in tension, in opposition. Yet, they interact. Prophecy is magic and all magic needs balance. The balance to prophecy, the balance that allows prophecy to exist, is free will."

"Oh, that makes a lot of sense," Cara sniped from the doorway. "If what you're saying is true, that would mean that they cancel each other out."

The prophet held up a finger. "Ah, but they don't. They are interdependent and yet they are antithetical. Just as Additive and Subtractive Magic are opposite forces, they both exist. They each serve to balance the other. Creation and destruction, life and death. Magic must have balance to function. So must the magic of prophecy. Prophecy functions by the presence of its counter: free will. That's one of the major difficulties we've had in the whole matter-understanding the interplay between prophecy and free will."

Cara's nose wrinkled. "You're a prophet, and you believe in free will? Now, that makes no sense."

"Does death invalidate life? No, it defines it, and in so doing creates its value."

Cara didn't look at all convinced. "I don't see how free will can even manage to exist within prophecy."

Nathan shrugged. "Richard is a perfect example. He ignores prophecy and balances it at the same time."

"He ignores me, too, and when he does he always gets in trouble."

"We have something in common," Ann said.

Cara let out a sigh. "Well anyway, Nicci got it right. And I don't think it was prophecy, but her free will that brought her to do the reasoned thing. That's why Lord Rahl trusts her."

"I don't disagree," Nathan said with a shrug. "As nervous as it makes me, we sometimes must let Richard do as he thinks best. Perhaps that is ultimately what Nicci has done-given him the tools to have the freedom to truly exercise his free will."

Nicci wasn't really listening anymore. Her mind was elsewhere. She abruptly turned to Nathan.

"I need to see Panis Rahl's tomb. I think I know why it's melting."

From in the distance, a rumbling roar rolled up through the gathering gloom, drawing their attention.

Cara stretched her neck out to see. "What's going on?"

Nicci looked out over the sea of men. "They're cheering for a Ja'La game. Jagang uses Ja'La dh Jin as a distraction, both for the people in the Old World and for his army. The rules used in the army games are quite a bit more brutal, though. It satisfies the blood lust of his soldiers."

Nicci remembered Jagang's devotion to Ja'La. He was a man who understood how to control and direct the emotions of his people. He distracted them from the daily misery of their lives by continually blaming every common trouble they faced on those who refused to put their faith in the Order, the latest of those being the heathens to the north. That distraction kept the people from questioning the teachings of the Order, since all their troubles were blamed on those who questioned.

Nicci knew, because she did that very thing herself as Death's Mistress. Any suffering was blamed on those who were selfish. Anyone who questioned was attacked as selfish.

Jagang won widespread passion for war by building hatred for an imagined oppressor that was condemned for causing every problem the people lived with daily. Personal responsibility was abandoned to the disease of assigning fault for all hardships, and every hardship was blamed on the greedy who failed to do their part. In that way, their daily problems were a constant reminder of the enemy who they believed caused those problems.

The demands for Jagang to destroy the heathens that the people of the Old World believed were the cause of all their troubles served Jagang's ends. He also needed to destroy a free and prosperous people because their very existence put the lie to the Order's beliefs and teachings. The truth would ultimately threaten his rule.

The distraction of blaming others for the people's misery came full circle, being the means to turn attention elsewhere, and to let the people themselves demand of him that he go off to fight this battle against evil. Who could complain about the cost and sacrifice of a war they themselves demanded?

Ja'La, too, was a distraction that served his ends. In the cities the somewhat more civilized games were a focal point that funneled the emotions and energy of the populace into rather meaningless events. It helped give his people a common cause to rally around, to cheer for, promoting a mentality that steeped people in the concept of being joined in opposition to others.

In his army, Ja'La served to distract his men from the misery of service in the army. Since the audience of soldiers was made up of aggressive young men, those games were played under a more brutal set of rules. The violence of such games gave frustrated, combative, hostile men an outlet for their pent-up passions. Without Ja'La, Jagang understood that he might not be able to maintain discipline and control over such a vast and unwieldy force. Without Ja'La they might turn their idle hostility inward, among themselves.

Jagang had his own team, which served to demonstrate the indomitable supremacy of the emperor. They were an extension of his power and might, an object of awe. They reflected that awe onto the emperor. His Ja'La team connected the emperor to his men, made him like them, while at the same time stressing his superiority.

Having spent so much time with him, as his Slave Queen, Nicci knew that despite all of those calculated factors, Jagang, like his men, had actually become caught up in the game. For Jagang, combat was the ultimate game. Ja'La dh Jin was a kind of combat he could enjoy when he was not engaged in actual combat. It kept his own aggressive juices flowing. Since assembling his new team of unbeatable men, a team universally feared, he had come to feel that he, personally, was the master of Ja'La dh Jin.

It had become more than a game to Jagang. It had become an extension of his persona.

Nicci turned away from the sight of the Imperial Order forces gathered below. She could no longer endure the sight, or the thought of the bloody games she so hated. The muffled roars washed over her, a building blood lust that would eventually be turned loose on the People's Palace.