Soul of the Fire

'Though I'm not saying it was by any means entirely fair or equitable, the Hakens did have a system of justice; it was more than the simple mob rule of the Anders, or the right of the strongest. Once they had conquered the Anders and shown them their ways, they taught the Anders to read."

"The Anders, who had been a backward people, may have been ignorant, but they are a very clever people. They may not devise things on their own, but they are quick to grasp a better way and make it their own on a whole new scale. In that way, they are brilliant.”

Richard waved his rolled up tava bread. "So, why isn't it called Hakenland, or something? I mean, you said the vast majority of people in Anderith are Haken."

"That's later. I'm coming to it." Kahlan pulled off another chunk of tava. 'The way the wizards explained it to me was that the Hakens had a system of justice, which, once they settled in Anderith, and with the spreading prosperity, only became better."

"Justice, from the invaders?"

"Civilization does not unfold fully developed, Richard. It's a building process. Part of that process is the mixing of peoples, and that mixing is often via conquest, but it can often bring new and better ways. You can't impulsively judge situations by such simple criteria as invasion and conquest."

"But if one people comes in and forces another people-"

"Look at D'Hara. Because of conquest-by you-it is coming to be a place of justice, where torture and murder are no longer the way of rule."

Richard wasn't about to argue that point. "I suppose. But it just seems such a shame for a culture to be destroyed by another that invades them. It isn't fair."

She gave him one of her looks akin to looks Zedd sometimes gave him: a look that said she hoped he would see truth rather than repeat by rote a popular but misguided notion. For that reason, he listened carefully as she spoke.

"Culture carries no privilege to exist. Cultures do not have value simply because they are. Some cultures, the world is better off without." She lifted an eyebrow. "I submit, for your consideration, the Imperial Order."

Richard let out a long breath. "I see what you mean."

He took a swig of water as she ate some more tava. It still seemed somehow wrong to him for a culture, with its own history and traditions, to be wiped out, but he understood, to an extent, what she was saying.

"So the Ander way of life ceased to be. You were saying, about the Haken system of justice?"

"Despite what we may now think of how they came to be there, the Hakens were a people who valued fairness. In fact, they considered it essential to an orderly and prosperous society.

"Thus, over time, subsequent generations of Hakens gave increasing freedoms to the Anders they had conquered, — eventually coming to view them as equals. Those subsequent generations came to share sensibilities similar to ours, and also came to feel shame at what their ancestors had done to the Ander people."

Kahlan gazed out over the plains. "Of course, it's easier to feel shame if those guilty are centuries dead, especially when such discrediting, by default, confers upon yourself a higher moral standard without having to stand the test in the true environment of the time.

"Anyway, their adherence to their notion of justice turned out to be the beginning of the downfall of the Haken people. The Anders, because of their conquest, always hated the Hakens and never ceased to harbor a hunger for revenge,"

One of the hunters, who had been cooking up porridge, brought over a warm piece of tava bread cupped in each hand and heaped with thick steaming porridge. Kahlan and Richard each gratefully took the hot food and she thanked him in his language.

"So how could a Haken system of justice," Richard said, after they each had eaten some of the porridge laced with sweet dried berries, "result in the Hakens now being virtual slaves because of the Anders' sense of justice? That just doesn't seem possible."

He saw that Du Chaillu, wrapped in blankets beside the fire, wasn't interested in porridge. Cara had steeped the tea with the bag of herbs, and was hunkered beside Du Chaillu, seeing to it that she at least sipped some from a small wooden cup.

"A system of justice was not the cause of the Haken downfall, Richard, merely a step along the way-one of the bare bones of history. I'm only telling you the salient points. The results. Such shifts in culture and society take place over time.

“Because of fair laws, the Anders were able to make advances that in the end resulted in them being able to seize power. Anders are no different than anyone else in their hunger for power."

"The Hakens were a ruling people. How did it get from there to the other way round?" Richard shook his head. He had a hard time believing it was as the wizards portrayed it.

"There is more in the middle." Kahlan licked porridge off a finger. "Once the Anders had access to fair laws, it became for them the sharp end of a wedge.