Chainfire: Chainfire Trilogy Part 1

Tovi managed a shrug. "Maybe. But we don't intend to ask him. Don't you see the brilliance of Sister Ulicia's plan? We know that his highest value is life. No matter what else we may do against his wishes, those things do not rise to the level of his most important value. Thus, we are honoring our bond to the Lord Rahl in the most grand way possible, while maintaining the bond-keeping the dream walker out of our minds-and at the same time working to bring the Keeper into the world. See how it goes round and round. Each element locks the others in tighter."

"But it is the Keeper who promises you immortality. You cannot grant it."

"No, not if we seek it through the Keeper."

"Then how can you possibly grant immortality? You don't have any such power."

"Oh, but we will, we will."

"How?"

Tovi fell to coughing and Nicci had to do some swift work on the wound just to keep the woman alive. It was nearly two hours before she again had her conscious and calm.

"Sister Tovi," she said once the woman had opened her eyes and looked like she was seeing again. "I've had to repair some of your injury. Now, before I can repair the rest of your wound and fully heal you —so that you can have your reward of life-I need to know the rest of it. How can you think that you can grant immortality? You don't have that power."

"We stole the boxes of Orden. We intend to use them to destroy all life — except that which we wish to have around, of course. With the power of Orden, we will hold sway over life and death. We will have the power to grant Richard Rahl immortality. See? Bond fulfilled."

Nicci's head was spinning. "Tovi, your story is too impossible. It's more complicated than you make it."

"Well, there are other parts to the plan. We found catacombs under the Palace of the Prophets."

Nicci had had no idea that such catacombs existed, but she wanted the woman to go on with her story, so she just let her talk.

"That's when it all started. When we got the idea. You see, we had been wandering the lands, looking for ways to satisfy the Keeper.» She clutched Nicci's arm so hard it hurt. "He comes in our dreams. You know that. He comes to you as well. He comes and torments us, forcing us to do his bidding, to work to free him."

Nicci pulled the clawlike hand off her arm. "Catacombs?"

"Yes. The catacombs. We discovered ancient catacombs and in them books. We found a book called Chainfire"

Goose bumps ran up Nicci's arms. "Chainfire, what does that mean? Is it a spell?"

"Oh, it is much more than anything so simple as a spell. It was from ancient times. The wizards of the time had come up with a new theory of how to alter memory-in other words, real events altered with Subtractive power, with all the disconnected parts spontaneously reconstructed independently of one another. Namely, how to make an individual disappear to everyone else by making people forget this person, even as soon as they've just seen them.

"But the wizards who came up with this theory were timid men, fearful of unleashing such things not only because they realized that such a linked event would cause irreparable damage to the subject, but because there was no way for them to control it once it was initiated, it would be self-actuating and self-sustaining."

"What do you mean? What does it do?"

"It unravels people's memory of the subject, but that ignition starts a cascade event that can't be predicted or controlled. It then burns through links they have with others, and then others those people know, and so on. It eventually unravels connections so that it corrupts everything. For our purposes, though, it doesn't really matter, since our aim is to undo life anyway. For fear that it would be discovered what we were doing, we destroyed the book, and the catacombs."

"But why did you need to destroy the memory of someone?"

"Not just someone, but the memory of the woman who bought us the bond in the first place, Kahlan Amnell, Richard Rahl's love. By creating a Chainfire event, we ended up with a woman no one remembers."

"But what can that possibly gain you?"

"The boxes of Orden. We used her to get the boxes, so that we can free I the Keeper. With the boxes, we can grant Richard immortal life at the same time we also free the Keeper.

"The Keeper whispered to us in our dreams that Richard has the secret to opening the boxes, he has a necessary knowledge memorized. It exists nowhere else. Darken Rahl revealed it to the Keeper. Richard knows the way to unlock the secrets of Orden, only this time, we know the trick that defeated Darken Rahl.

"The book he knows says that we need a Confessor to open the boxes. And now we have a Confessor who no one remembers-so no one can bother us about her."

"What about prophecy disappearing? Was that caused by Chainfire?"