You can fall for chains of silver, you can fall for chains of gold, you can fall for pretty strangers, and the promises they hold...

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Chapter 1

She sat up, awaking from her slumber with a start, her bright red hair falling around her fair face. Her green eyes showed no signs of sleep and her breathing was measured. She listened for sounds outside of her tent, all was silent. But she was sure she had heard something.

But when she tried to remember the sound, it wasn't so much a sound, but a feeling. It was exactly as her aunt Kahlan had described how magic felt. This confused her, Aunt Kahlan, the queen of Galea and Kelton, had magic, and Uncle Richard was the most powerful war wizard to be born in a thousand years... But they were different, they were the magic against magic, she, Adoracia, was the steel against steel. And what's more, she was one of the best fighters in all of the D’Haran Empire.

Adoracia, her name, meant 'magical warrior' in High D’Haran, the ancient language of her people, but she had just always thought it was because her father had a romantic streak.

"Magic," she said to herself, "Wouldn't that be great?" Kahlan and Richard could do everything from sharpening a knife blade to hurling bolts of liquid fire, to destroying a person's mind, their conciousness...

"Well, sitting here won't do anything," She pulled on her green jerkin and breeches over her white shirt and slipped on her soft black boots.

Chapter 2

Adoracia looked out on the D'Haran plain. She was on her way home to Aydindril, the capital, where she stayed in the Confessor's Palace with her Aunt, Uncle, and Father. She wanted to see her family and couldn't wait to challenge Ulic and Egan to a fight, at the same time. There was nothing unusual out on the plain, so she saddled her bay stallion, packed up, and set out north-west to Aydindril.

She arrived at about noon, getting numerous greetings as she rode through the narrow streets. Finally she came upon the person she was looking for, leaving her stallion a few yards away, she silently crept up on the unsuspecting Egan. She dropped into a crouch, and with every muscle in her body tensed, leaped at the horsed man.

A second later, Egan was flat on his back on the cobblestones, with his own knife at his throat and Adoracia kneeling on top of him.

"Damn you, Addy," he said good naturedly, "Why do you have to remind me why you don't need to carry weapons? You just use other people's against 'em. Why can't you just say 'Hello' like other people when you come back into town?"

"Hello!" she said brightly.

"Bit late," he answered.

"Better late than never," she smiled playfully, the knife still at his throat.

"Hey, you wanna let me breathe? You don't really want to kill me, you just want to beat me in a fight AGAIN. Am I right or am I right?"

"You know me too well," she admitted, letting him up.

"Come on, let's go find Ulic, don't you want to greet him as you did me?" he asked wryly.

"I thought maybe I'd just say 'Hello'" she teased, jumping back onto her horse and following him down a sidestreet.

Chapter 3

The three fighters walked abreast down the streets of Aydindril, making an impressive sight, two large D’Haran soldiers walked on either side of a young woman with red-gold hair past her waist and bright green eyes. The guards bristled with weapons and walked with incredible muscular grace, but there was something about her... It wasn’t just her hair, -- in D’Hara, the length of a woman’s hair indicated her social status, most women’s didn’t even reach their shoulders, only Aunt Kahlan had hair longer than Adoracia’s -- Perhaps it was how she held herself, or something in the air around her, but she seemed by far the most dangerous of the three.

As they rounded the corner, and came upon the foreboding magnificence of the Wizard’s Keep, mixed expressions were to be seen. Egan and Ulic looked slightly uncomfortable, while Adoracia was smiling like a little girl. She had practically grown up in the Keep, when her father was away on battles she would take refuge in it’s vast halls where the wizards studied. They would teach her lewd songs, tell her jokes, and play tag and tickle her while running through the passages. Later, when she was older, and there were more wizards and apprentices her age, they would come to help her with her studies and flirt.

Her father was very strict about book learning, it didn’t matter if she could outshoot anyone in Aydindril or disarm a full grown man in all of five seconds, she needed to study the history of D’Hara, she needed to know all the languages, and on and on and on...

Adoracia looked forward to seeing her father again, but there was one wizard that she couldn’t wait to find... She knew exactly where he’d be, in one of the smaller, hidden libraries with a couple of his friends researching some archaic old prophecy or spell. He was like that, but he was also one of the best archers in Aydindril, and could throw knives with more deadly accuracy than her.

Ulic noticed the dreamy smile on her face, and slyly grinned at Egan, they both knew what, or more accurately who she was thinking of.

“Hey Addy,” Ulic remarked, trying to suppress un-soldierlike giggles, “Should Egan and I, like vacate after we get into the Keep? We wouldn’t want to, uh.. mess up anything ‘n all.”

“What? Huh?” she said, coming out of her daydreams, “ Why would I want you to do that?”

“Well, you know Rhaymos is still studying in the Keep, and knowing how the two of you are...” Egan responded, trying to keep a straight face.

Adoracia turned bright pink, “You two! I think I should start teasing you about Villinia and Cathryn! So I’m friends with Rhaymos, no big deal!”

“Then why are you turning fuschia?” one of them said, both of them finally succumbing to whoops of laughter.

“Humph,” she muttered to herself as she continued walking up the great stone pathway to the keep.

Chapter 4

Rhaymos sat at a round table in a tiny, secluded library with his two friends, and they all hoped that their teachers wouldn’t be able to find them there. The table was heaped with books, he was searching for an arcane old spell which was not likely to be very useful in real life, but would definitely help him on his thesis paper, Wizard Gleodoc, one of his teachers, was big on this kind of thing. The only problem was that all the books were in High D’Haran, an ancient dead language that few understood. All three of them knew a little, but only a little mad for slow going and vague understanding.

“Damn it! This’ll take forever!” Ceor exclaimed loudly, “How’s it goin’ with you, Rhay?”

“Not any better,” he answered grimly, “I sure wish Addy was here, she’s fluent in High D’Haran.”

“Stop kidding yourself, Rhay,” Tymyr teased, “If she was here, translating these stupid old things would be the last thing on your mind!”

Ceor laughed and added, “But keep your hopes up, last time we got word for General Riebichk, he said she put down the rebellion in the Wilds single handedly and was on her way home.”

“I know, but I really hope she’s all right,” Rhay said seriously, “you know how her tongue can get her into trouble!”

“Yeah,” said Tym, grinning broadly, “Remember the time we were at the soldier’s camp in Jara, and she made a dumb Jarian joke to the commander?”

“How could I forget? Luckily, the good spirits were on our side that day,” Rhay replied, “I don’t think we would have made it out of there in one piece if they weren’t.”

“Forget the good spirits!” Ceor laughed, “You and Addy were the ones who got out of there, did you see how many soldiers she took out?”

“I really didn’t do much, for a minute I was too freaked out to do anything, then she put me in a headlock while fighting three of them at once and yelled at me to use an Anderian light web,” Rhay explained, “I don’t know how she knew what I should do, but I did it, she killed a few more soldiers, and we escaped.”

“About thirty of them were separated from their heads, the rest were to scared to get up” Tym pointed out, “Women who fight like that scare Jarians, their not used to it.”

“Anybody who fights like that scares me,” said Ceor.

“And as if anybody could really get used to Addy,” Rhay laughed.

While they were laughing, the door creaked open and they all heard a familiar drawl, “Hey, you guys talking about me again? Can you stop laughing long enough to welcome a girl home after she’s been off single-handedly defeating armies, just to save your sorry hides?”

“Addy!” All three exclaimed in unison.

Then Tym and Ceor were talking at once, “What was the rebellion about?”, “What are the Nangtong’s spells like?”, “How many did you kill?”, “Which battle tactics did you use?”, “Did you bring me anything?”

She laughed and promised to answer all their questions later. Rhay didn’t say anything but crossed the room swiftly and swept her up into a long, dramatic kiss. When it was over, he said, “Do I really need to tell you how much I’ve missed you?”

Addy grinned and teased, “Maybe I’ll let you try later.”

Chapter 5

She was never as happy as she was when with Rhay and their friends. Addy, Rhay, Ceor, Tym, Ulic, and Egan were sitting on the floor of a small room, panting. Wizard Gleodoc had somehow found them in the library, they had run as fast as they could from the old man, trying to get away before he could assign them to go over some grueling paperwork. Addy was the only one who had the vaguest idea where they were, because the Keep was vast and dug deep into the mountain behind it, she was one of the only ones who could really navigate the whole thing.

Addy, Rhay, Ceor and Tym were all about fifteen, and the three guys were journeymen in their studies of wizardry at the Keep. Rhay was from Pensadin Reach, a beautiful valley deep in the Rang’Shada mountains. He was a bit taller than Addy, had short, curly dark brown hair, amber eyes, tan skin, and a wonderful smile. Tym was a bit of an enigma to everybody, he was from Nicobarese, a place where most people with magic were killed. His blond hair reached to his shoulders, and he kept it tied back and out of his way, his eyes were a kind of teal green, and he was always pale, no matter how much he was in the sun. Everybody had to like Ceor, he always had a joke and a kind word for everybody, and his good looks made him extremely popular. He was from Tanimura, in the old world, where as a wizard he would have become a slave to the tyrannical emperor if he hadn’t fled to Aydindril when he was small. He had cropped black hair and black eyes, and always a smile. Ulic and Egan were extremely D’Haran, straight blond hair, bright blue eyes, strong jaws, and as stubborn as the day is long. They were about nineteen, a bit older than the others, and had gone through military training together. They all met when Ulic and Egan were assigned to be guards to Addy, an action that she always said was ridiculous because she was more dangerous than both of them put together.

She looked about, at the guys sprawled around her and smiled, Tym and Rhay’s arms were still filled with books. Of course they would want her help, she knew High D’Haran, and theirs wasn’t good at all.

“Oy, Tym. Want me to help you with those books?” she asked with a grin, and laughed when Rhay objected.

“Not everything,” Tym answered, “Just a few words...” He trailed off as he started pawing through books, finally he held up a book of prophecy called The Book of Night with Moon. “Umm, yeah... Here one part of it is, fuer grissa ost drauka... that translates as ‘the bringer of...’ , what?” He asked scratching his head and peering down confusedly at the book.

“Now let me see... yes, drauka, it’s one of those words with a bunch of meanings. This one has three, that phrase can mean: the bringer of death, in its conventional form, as we know it; the bringer of spirits, and not necessarily the good one’s mind you; and the bringer of the underworld, the Keeper. But you shouldn’t worry about that prophecy because it already happened.” She said matter of factly

“It already happened?” Rhay asked, confused, “The rest of the prophecy is pretty ominous. Who was this ‘bringer of death’ and which of the meanings were correct?”

“All three,” Addy explained, “And you really ought to know who the bringer of death is, you’ve met him enough times!”

“Don’t tell me,” Ulic joked sarcastically, “It’s you.”

“Ha ha,” she replied dryly, “No, but pretty darn close. My uncle, Richard.”

“Richard Rahl? The bringer of death?” Ceor asked in puzzlement, “Your funny uncle who lives up in the Confessor’s Palace and feeds chipmunks?”

Egan, who had been quiet until then, exclaimed, “DUH!!! You guys really are a bunch of eejits (*writer’s note: sorry, that’s a mock insult me and my friends use*), there was a huge war with Jagang and the Imperial Order of the Old world, before we were born. They say it was the biggest war in three thousand years, and Richard, the Seeker of Truth, the first war wizard in over two thousand years, led D’Hara, Westland and the Midlands against the Dreamwalker.” He jestured to Addy with a hand, “Her whole family was in it, weren’t they Addy?”

Her mouth had gone dry at the memories of the stories that her father had told her about it, it was a bloodbath for both sides. Many friends and family members had died awful deaths at the hands of evil Emperor Jagang.

“Yeah,” she said emotionlessly, putting on the Confessor’s face that Kahlan always wore, an expression that betrayed nothing of her feelings. “ My great-grandfather, Zedd, died during it, both sides called him the Wind of Death. Kahlan was the Mother Confessor and led the troops when Richard was captured. My father was the commander of all the troops in D’Hara, and Richard... Well, Richard called forth amazing magic, magic of a quantity and ferocity that hadn’t been seen in thousands upon thousands of years, if ever. He defeated the Keeper of the Underworld, he destroyed the Towers of Perdition, the Palace of the Prophets... I can’t even begin to describe the magnitude of some of the other things that he did... He was and is a true War Wizard.”

Nobody said anything for a few moments, until Ceor broke the ice by saying, “And we all wondered where she got it from!”

Everybody laughed and went on to talk about lighter, fun topics for a while. Then all of a sudden, Rhay jumped up and beckoned to them, “Come on, I found something the other day, I want you guys to see it!”

Chapter 6

The group had trekked through the immense keep for the better part of two hours, and was getting cranky. Egan and Ulic were in favor of bashing Rhay’s head in, and Tym and Ceor wanted to try out the new fire spell they had learned, but Addy was in favor of a more eloquent method.

“RHAY! YOU IDIOT! WHERE ON EARTH ARE YOU LEADING US?!?!?” Addy yelled at him, when they came to yet another staircase to be scaled.

“We’ll be there soon, I promise.” He answered, suprisingly calm.

“We better, or the guys back there will make you into a burnt pancake!” she said confidentially.

“No, I really promise, it’s worth it.” Rhay said with a kiss on her cheek.

They climbed the staircase, and walked down several long halls, before Rhay opened a door on a small room, completely bare, except for a desk, a chair, and what appeared to be a large stone well.

“This room was built during the War of The Wizards, back then, all the wizards had both sides of the magic, additive and subtractive, just like Richard.” Rhay declared, as if it explained everything, including the well in the middle of the room.

“Well this is incredibly cool,” said Tym sarcastically, “This proves the old wizards were completely deranged, I think having both sides of the gift might do that to you.”

“Ha ha, very funny,” Rhay answered dryly, said “Come on, check this out!” and walked over to the well. It was filled with a pulsating quicksilver looking liquid, when Addy saw it she immediately knew what it was.

“Oh,” she breathed in astonishment, “It’s the silph!”

“The what?” everybody else asked in unison.

“The silph. Here, let me show you.” She put her hands on the side of the well, closed her eyes, and called. She called with her voice and her mind, just the way Richard had shown her.

“Silph! The descendant of the Master calls you, awake!” Addy called in a strange, trance-like voice. Suddenly, a face and head emerged out of the well, until the form of a woman could be seen standing up, above them, made entirely out of silver liquid.

“Mistress, do you and your companions wish to travel?” the silph asked in an eerie voice.

“Travel?” Tym whispered to Ceor questioningly. Before the other boy could answer, the silph swooped down to him and peered curiously at his face. “No, you men cannot travel. You cannot pay the price, if you breathe me, you will die.” Everybody except Addy looked questioningly at each other, finally Rhay spoke, “Forgive my ignorance, Silph, but what is the price and how do we travel?”

Addy answered when the silph turned to look at her, “You must have magic to travel within her.”

“But we have magic!” Tym protested, “and she just said ‘we men’ couldn’t.”

“You need both sides of the magic to travel,” Addy explained, “So none of us can, if you go in her, you will die.”

“No, Mistress.” the Silph corrected, “You may travel, but your companions may not.”

The girl looked extremely confused, “But I do not possess magic at all! May I travel just because I am a descendant of the Master?”

“No, you may command me because you are a descendant of the master, and wear his token,” the silph pointed to the silver wristband Addy was wearing. “You may travel because you have the magic.”

“But...” the girl started, and trailed off into her own thoughts. Rhay thought for a while and then suddenly, something occured to him. “Addy, remember last time you were here, before you went to the wilds? You took me up to that tower, the one in the east wing. At the stairwell right before it, you just walked right up, but for some reason I couldn’t. Then you took my hand and just ran up with me behind you, you thought it was because I was tired or something, but it wasn’t. It was a sheild that I couldn’t get through, but you could! And anyway, nobody has been into the East Wing in thousands of years, except Richard because he’s the only one who had the magic to go through the shields.”

“But we did too,” finished Addy softly, “Dear spirits, I have to find Richard!”

With this she ran from the room and down the hall, right through the shields the others had to skirt.

Chapter 7

Richard was in a courtyard, going through steps with his sword, the Sword of Truth. Watching him now, it was just as he always said, a dance with death, the essence of what a war wizard was. When he had finished, he turned to her and asked, “Because you arrived here in such a hurry, I assume you came for another reason than to inquire about my health or the weather. As a matter of fact, I have a very good idea why you came so fast. Would this happen to have anything to do with magic and the Silph?”

Disbelief and confusion clouded Addy’s face, “You mean, you knew? You’ve known all this time that I had magic, and you didn’t tell me? I could have accidentaly killed somebody or died myself! A fifteen year old with untrained magic is dangerous!” She began in astonishment that was gradually swapped for indignation as she said this statement.

He chuckled, “I’m glad to see you feel so strongly about this, Addy. As for not telling you, it was necessary.”

“Necessary?” She asked, “for what?”

“Fuer grissa ost drauka the bringer of death. I am spoken of in prophecy, many times. As are you,” Richard began, “You have a singular destiny, told of in many prophecies. I studied them for months after you were born, I knew then, that I was not to tell you of your gift. You’re so stubborn that if I told you before, you wouldn’t have believed me.” Her mind was reeling, but he went on,

“You are one of the best warriors in the D’Haran empire, yet you are a fifteen year old noble girl, not that I’m saying women can’t do everything -Kahlan showed me that, quick enough - but there’s a reason that you are better than older, stronger, more experienced and knowledgeable men. Your gift guides you.” Addy began to shake her head, she didn’t cheat with her magic, but how else...

Richard began again, “I know you don’t cheat, but magic has permeated your conciousness. Just as it does with my mind. Take me for example, I have killed thirty blade masters as they all rushed me, and I did this with only a sword. Why could I do it? Because of the gift. We all have different abilities, we have to develop and train with our gift the same way you train with a bow or knife. It’s just another skill...”

She was beginning to calm down when he added, “For most people.”

“What in the world is that supposed to mean?” She asked in exasperation.

“As I said, you are spoken of in many prophecies. You are the Magical Warrior, just as I am the Bringer of Death, you are different.” He paused for a moment, leaving her to be puzzle over everything he had just said.

“But,” She began, before Richard continued, “Generally, sorceresses have a very different type of power than wizards. You however, posess power that is unfathomable to me, or any other wizard alive today. The power of a wizard, the power of a sorceress, and the gift of subtractive magic are all yours, you have a stronger magic than me, you’re easily the most powerful person in three thousand years.”

“Richard, wait. So what’s the big deal about me having all these different types of magic? I mean, sorceresses and wizards have basically the same power, don’t they?” Addy asked, feeling slightly weak in the knees, but trying to keep her voice casual.

He grinned broadly and started explaining, “I see you need a demonstration. No, of course I don’t mind, as a matter of fact, I enjoy showing off my singular talents this way,” He said with mock pride. “First, additive magic, this is what most people have, is where you can add to what is already in existence, but take nothing away. Observe,” and as he passed a hand over his clean shaven face, there appeared a long beard. “People with only subtractive can’t do that. Subtractive is where you can only take away, not add anything.” With that he passed his hand over the newly grown beard, and it promptly winked out of existence. “Doing what I just did takes both additive and subtractive. Now we’re going to get into the matter of spells and webs: Theoretically, if a wizard or sorceress with only additive casts a spell, I can combat it, break it, change it, whatever. Same goes for if they only had subtractive. If I happened to come across another wizard with both sides, I could fight his spells too. But if by some strange chance, I found a sorceress with both sides of the magic, and was as strong as me, I would be next to helpless. She could throw up shields and weave webs that I would have no way of fighting or breaking. You however, would never have a problem with that. You can fight any power that comes along, that’s an amazing talent.”

Chapter 8

Three months later, Addy sat in a small library with Tym and Ceor. She had chosen to specialize in combat magic, because she already knew so much about battle. Rhay wasn’t big on that stuff, so he focused on ancient spells, but so much of the most powerful war spells were in High D’Haran and thousands of years old, that they still studied many things together.

“What’s a ‘shada’?” Ceor asked, “Isn’t that like the Rang’Shada mountains?” Naming the mountain range that bordered Aydindril.

“Gauntlet.” Tym answered.

“Rang’Shada means strong gauntlet.” Addy put in, “They wanted the mountains to defend Aydindril as a gauntlet would protect your hand, I guess.”

“Hey, do you guys know anything about windspurs? I don’t get it.” she said, annoyedly.

“Yeah!” replied Ceor, with a big grin on his face. Air was his department. “They’re absolutely great for defensive battle! Kinda hard to explain though, they’re like hard, spiky balls of air that float around you and give shocks to anybody who touches them. You can’t see them either.”

“I’ve had enough studying for one day,” Tym announced, “Why don’t we go up to the meadow above the Keep. You two can practice whatever it is you’re doing, and I’ll work on the fire spell that’s been confusing me.”

“Sound’s great!” Addy exclaimed, beaming. “I’ll go get Rhay!” she said and dashed off.

“What? How?” Ceor asked, “She knows where Rhay is? But he didn’t tell us where his lessons were this morning.”

“Oh... the bond,” Tym answered absentmindedly, he was packing up all of his things and scheming as to how they could snag some food from the kitchens.

“What bond?” Ceor questioned again, his confusion only increased.

“Oh, sorry. I forgot, Addy can always tell where Rhay, Egan and Ulic are because they’re D’Haran. There was an old magical bond forged by some ancient Rahl, now, every Rahl can feel where the D’Harans are, also if they concentrate on one person they can do a kind of one sided telepathy.” Tym explained, looking up.

“Hmph, now I know why she always used to beat us at hide and go seek!” Ceor said with a joking grin.

“Come on,” Tym said with a laugh, “Let’s go, she’ll meet us at the drawbridge.”

“Hm?”

“I’m half D’Haran also. She just told me, and quite forcefully too!” Tym said. “Come on! If I make it to the drawbridge before you, I’ll try out the fire spell on you! Let’s go!”

And both the guys took off at a run through the warren of corridors through the Wizard’s Keep.

Chapter 9

Addy and Rhay got to the drawbridge just seconds before Tym and Ceor came running up. They had stopped by the kitchens and the servants were more than happy to pack them a lunch in a big wicker basket. Ceor took one look inside of it and declared it wasn’t nearly enough. But then again, as Addy put it, Ceor could eat all the D’Haran Empire, and it still wouldn’t be enough.

The air was crisp, and had the wonderful smell of evergreen trees and warm grass that comes with spring. Addy led the group, walking alongside Ceor as he explained the theory behind windspurs. None of it made any sense, of course, but he knew a lot about it and enjoyed talking about it, so she didn’t say anything.

They walked up several paths, until they came to a wide meadow filled with grass and cowslips, it had been their favorite camping spot last summer, so the fire pit and warding spells were still there. Addy set down the basket while Rhay got out his book and Tym went to go check on the old spells, her magic had to be added to them now, because they had to keep hers in also. Luckily, Tym was good enough at this sort of thing, that he could use the bond to do it, without bothering her.