At the time he didn't know that he would be leaving to finish the quest. When he asked that a new seeker be named he thought he would be staying to learn to use his magic for atleast a few months and had not yet formulated a plan to return sooner. As far as his willingness to hand over his magic to someone evil Richard had a plan which he thought at teh time would result in his being able to leave and the sisters being able to capture teh evil sister.Had he not acted on his plan she would have eventualy tried to take his poowers by killing him and he knew that even if she didn't succed and was dealt with that there were other sisters of the dark amng them who would also try and take his powers if he didn't escape and or find a way to seal away his powers. While they did come up with a way to make a bit of sence of it most of the events in the plot line here were thought up for the show and did not come from the books. I found the way the books told teh story of Richard developing magic to be much better and have none of the plot holes we saw in the show. The series made one episode out of what was otherwise most of a book, red it and I bet you will be much happier with what you see.   See 4 other replies