The pillars of creation

"I might have… destroyed life," Jermsen said, shaken at truly understanding how close she'd come to unleashing cataclysmic destruction.

"I'd not have let you," Tom said, good-naturedly.

Jennsen put her hand on his arm, realizing that she had never had feelings before like she had for him. The man positively made her heart sing. His smile made her life worth living. Betty stuck her nose in, wanting attention, and to see her sleeping babies.

"There is no greater treason to life than delivering the innocent to the Keeper of the Dead," Cara said.

"But she didn't," Richard said. "She used reason to discover the truth, and truth to embrace life."

"You sure know a lot about magic," Jermsen said to Richard.

Kahlan and Cara laughed so hard that Jermsen thought they might fall off their horses.

"I don't see what's so funny," Richard grumbled.

The two of them laughed all the harder.