"That doesn't make any sense."

"Does it make any more sense that both you and Zedd would try to kill me? That would require two to be wrong, this would require only one. It's just the stupid riddle of a witch woman! You're letting yourself die for a stupid riddle! We can't know how the future will come about. We can't know the meaning of what she said, how it will be true! Or if. Not until it happens! Only then can we know what it means, and deal with it."

"I only know I cannot allow myself to live to carry out the prophecy. You are the thread that weaves this struggle together."

"And thread can't get there without the needle! You're my needle. Without you I wouldn't have gotten this far. At every turn, 1 needed you. Today, at the inverted fork, I would have chosen wrong without you. You know the Queen, I don't. Even if I manage to get the box without you, what then? Where will I go? I don't know the Midlands. Where will I go, Kahlan, tell me? How will I know where it's safe? I could walk right into Rahl's hands, carry the box right to him."

"Shota said you are the only one with a chance. Without you all is lost. Not me. You. She said that if I live… Richard, I can't allow that. I won't."

"You are a traitor to us," he whispered viciously.

She shook her head slowly. "Despite what you think, Richard, I do this for you."

Richard screamed and threw her backward as hard as he could. She fell to the ground on her back. He came and stood above her, glaring down, dust rising around his boots.

"Don't you dare say that!" he yelled, both hands in fists. "You do this for yourself, because you haven't got the stomach for what victory entails! Don't you dare to say you do this for me!"

She came to her feet, keeping her eyes on him. "I would give almost anything, Richard, for you not to remember me in this way. But what I do, I do because I must. For you. For you to have a chance. I have sworn to protect the Seeker with my life. The payment has come due." Tears ran down her face, through the dust on her cheeks.

As he watched her turn and vanish into the darkness, Richard felt as if a plug inside him had been pulled and his whole self was draining away.

He went to the fire, slid his back down the log until he sat on the ground. He pulled his knees up with his arms around them, put his face against them, and cried as he had never cried