Jennsen answered in a small voice. "No."

"So you see, Jennsen Rahl, I cannot help you, not because I am selfish, as you put it, but because even if I were willing, I have no power left to cast you a spell. You must find within yourself the ability to help yourself, the free will to accomplish what you must. Only in that way can you truly succeed in life.

"I cannot give you a spell to solve your problems. I have spent a good deal of my life suffering for the last spell I cast for you. Were it only me, I would endure it willingly, for I was doing what I believe in; this is the fault of an evil man, not the fault of an innocent child. Yet I suffer each day because it was not just my life forfeit, but Friedrich' s, too. He might have-"

"I might have nothing." He had come up behind Jennsen. "I have considered each day of my life a privilege because you are in it. Your smile is the sun, gilded by the Creator Himself, and brightens my small existence. If this is the price for all of that I have gained, then I paid it willingly. Don't devaluate the quality of my joy, Althea, by minimizing it or trivializing it."

Althea looked back down at Jennsen. "You see? This is my daily torture: knowing what I have not been able to be, to do, for this man."

Jennsen withered, sobbing, at the woman's feet.

"Magic," Althea whispered from above, "is trouble you don't need."