“I wish there was something I could do, Magda,” he said in quiet sorrow. “If there was one person in the world I could choose to invest with the power of a Confessor, it would be you, I swear.”

Magda nodded, turning away to hide her tears.

“Thank you, Merritt. I know you mean that.”

“I do.”

Not only was her world ending, the world of life was going to end. She had lost her chance. She had no way to fight Lothain and those helping him. He was too powerful.

She had given her strength over to the making of the Sword of Truth.

And now they were all going to die.

Chapter 88

Magda turned back suddenly. “Merritt, when I used the sword, I felt the power of it surging through me. It was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.”

He nodded. “I know. I’m the one who created the thing, remember? It holds immense power, in part because of what you gave it during its creation. As long as you live, you will always share a connection with the sword. I guess you could say that as long as it exists it carries some of you.”

Magda stepped close to him. “So investing my life force into it made its creation possible.”

Merritt shrugged at the obvious connection. “That’s right.”

She watched his face lit by the moonlight. “What if we used the sword, had it loan some of that power back to me, in turn giving me the strength I need to get through the ordeal of becoming a Confessor? It’s my life force, after all. You said that it couldn’t be from someone else. Coming from the sword it wouldn’t be.”

Merritt’s gaze searched her eyes but he didn’t answer.

“I’d just be borrowing some of my own life force,” she added.

He had that odd frown again. “I already thought of that.”

“And?”

“And it’s too dangerous. Creating a Confessor is dangerous enough in and of itself. It’s a process that has never been attempted before and very well could be lethal, and that’s if there weren’t any other complications involved. Trying to do it the way you’re suggesting is theoretically possible, but it would be an order of magnitude more perilous.”

“Are you saying you don’t have the skill, or that it’s dangerous for me.”

“My skill has nothing to do with it. It’s too dangerous for you for a variety—”

“We don’t have a choice. We have to try.”

He shook his head. “Magda, please don’t ask me to do that. You have no idea at all what you’re asking.”

She leaned toward him in the moonlight. “Merritt, I know exactly what I’m asking. I’m asking for a chance at life. Without trying, I’m going to die, you’re going to die, our people are going to die.