Richard swallowed a mouthful of porridge. "I take it that was, for the Hakens, somehow a mistake?"

With her half-eaten tava-bread plate of porridge, Kahlan gestured for emphasis. "Besides reading and math, the children were taught history and culture, ostensibly so they would grow up to understand their place in their land's culture and society.

"The Hakens wanted all children to learn a better way than war and conquest. They believed the Ander teachings of brutal Haken conquest at the expense of noble Ander people would help their children to grow up to be civilized, with respect for others. Instead, the guilt it put on young minds contributed to the erosion of the cohesive nature of Haken society, and of respect for the authority of Haken rule.

"And then came a cataclysmic event-a ruinous decade-long drought. It was during this drought that the Anders finally made their move to oust Haken rule.

"The entire economy was based on the production of crops-wheat, mostly. Farms failed, and farmers were unable to deliver export crops for which the merchants had already paid them. Debts were called due as everyone tried to survive the hard times. Many without great financial resources lost their farms.

"There might have been government controls placed on the economic system, to slow the panic, but the ruling Hakens feared to displease the moneylenders who backed them.

"And then worse problems erupted.

"People began dying. There were food riots. Fairfield was burned to the ground. Haken and Ander alike rose up in violent lawless rioting. The land was in chaos. Many people left for other lands, hoping to find a new life before they starved.

"The Anders, though, used their money to buy food from abroad. Only the financial resources of the wealthy Anders could purchase food from afar, and it was that food supply that was the only hope of survival for most people. The Anders, with this supply of food from abroad, were seen as the hand of salvation.

"The Anders bought out failed businesses and farms from people desperate for money. The Anders' money, meager as it was, and their food supply, was the only thing keeping most families from starving.

"It was then the Anders began to extract the true price, and their vengeance.

"The government, run by the Hakens, was blamed by the mobs in the streets for the starvation. Anders, with their merchant connections, fomented and spread the insurrection from place to place. Anarchy befell the land as the Haken rulers were put to death in the streets, their bodies dragged before cheering crowds.

"Haken intellectuals drew the blood lust of frightened people for somehow being responsible for the starvation. Well-educated Hakens were viewed as enemies of the people, even by the majority of Hakens who were farmers and laborers. The purge of the learned Hakens was bloody. In the rioting and lawlessness, the entire Haken ruling class was systematically murdered. Every Haken of accomplishment was suspect, and so put to death.

"The Anders swiftly ruined, by either financial means or violent mobs, any Haken business or concern left.

"In the vacuum, the Anders seized power and brought order with food for starving people, Ander and Haken alike. When the dust settled, the Anders were in control of the land, and with strong forces of mercenaries they could afford to hire, soon held the land in an iron grip."

Richard had stopped eating. He could hardly believe what he was hearing. He stared transfixed as Kahlan swept her hand expansively in telling of the downfall of reason.

"Anders changed the order of everything, making black white and white black. They declared no Haken could fairly judge an Ander, because of the ancient Haken tradition of injustice to Anders. Conversely, Anders asserted, because they had for so long been subjugated by their wicked Haken overlords, that they understood the nature of inequity, and so would be the only ones qualified to rule in matters of justice.

"Woeful tales of Haken cruelty were the currency of social acceptance. Frightened Hakens, in an attempt to prove the horrific charges untrue, and avoid being singled out by the well-armed troops, willingly submitted to Ander authority and those merciless mercenaries.

"The Anders, so long out of power, were ruthless in pressing their advantage.

"Haken people were forbidden to hold positions of power. Eventually, supposedly because the Haken overlords required Anders to address those overlords by surname, even the right to have a surname was denied the Hakens, unless they somehow proved themselves worthy and received special permission."

"But haven't they intermixed?" Richard asked. "After all that time, didn't the Haken and Ander people intermarry? Didn't they all blend together into one people?"

Kahlan shook her head. "From the beginning, the Anders, a tall dark-haired people, thought wedding the redheaded Hakens was a crime against the Creator. They believe the Creator, in His wisdom, made people distinct and different. They didn't believe people should interbreed like livestock being bred for a new quality-which was what the Hakens had done. I'm not saying it didn't occasionally happen, but to this day such a thing is rare."

Richard rolled up his last bite of tava with porridge. "So, what's it like there, now?" He popped the bite in his mouth.

"Since only the downtrodden-the Anders-can be virtuous, because they were oppressed, only they are allowed to rule. They teach that Haken oppression continues to this day. Even a look from a Haken can be interpreted as a projection of hate. Conversely, Hakens cannot be downtrodden, and thus virtuous, since by nature they are corrupt.

"It's now against the law for Hakens to learn to read, out of fear they would again seize rule and go on to brutalize and butcher the Ander people, as surely as night always extinguishes day, to put their words to it. Hakens are required to attend classes called penance assembly to keep them in line. It's all systematized and codified the way Anders now rule Hakens.

"Keep in mind, Richard, the history I told you is what was taught me by the wizards. What the Anders teach is quite different. They teach that they were an oppressed people who by their own higher nature have, after centuries of domination, once again exerted their cultural superiority. For all I know, their version could even be true."

Richard was standing, hands on hips, staring incredulously. "And the council in Aydindril allowed this? They allowed the Anders to enslave the Haken people in such a fashion?"

"The Hakens meekly submit. They believe as they were taught by Ander teachers-that this is a better way."

"But how could the Central Council allow such a perversion of justice?"

"You forget, Richard, the Midlands was an alliance of sovereign lands. The Confessors helped see to it that rule in the Midlands was, to a certain extent, fair. We did not tolerate murder of political opponents, things like that, but if a people like the Hakens willingly went along with the way their land worked, the council had little say. Brutal rule was opposed. Bizarre rule was not."

Richard threw up his hands. "But the Hakens only go along because they are taught this nonsense. They don't know how ridiculous it is. It is the equivalent of the abuse of an ignorant people."

"Abuse maybe to you, Richard. They see it differently. They see it as a way to peace in their land. That is their right."

"The fact they were deliberately taught in a way to make them ignorant is proof of the abuse."

She tilted her head toward him. "Aren't you the one who just told me the Hakens had no right to destroy the Ander culture? Now you argue the council should have done no less?”

Richard's face reflected frustration. "You were talking about the council of the Midlands?"