Chainfire: Chainfire Trilogy Part 1

Richard had been expecting just such an argument. "It's possible that since I alone have a different form of the gift, the spell didn't work on me."

Nicci again drew a deep, patient breath. "You say that this woman, Kahlan, came looking for the missing wizard, the 'old one, right?"

"Right."

"Don't you see the problem, Richard? She knew that she was looking for this old one, the missing wizard."

Richard was nodding. "That's right."

Nicci leaned toward him. "That kind of spell is quite troublesome to create, and it has a number of complications that must be taken into account, but other than that it's not altogether remarkable. Difficult, yes, remarkable, no."

"Then that must be what was done with Kahlan. Someone-maybe one of the Order's wizards traveling with the supply convoy-took her and cast a spell to try to make us all forget her so that we wouldn't come after them."

"Why would someone go to the trouble to do such a thing?" Cara asked. "Why not simply kill her? What's the purpose in capturing her and then making everyone forget her?"

"I'm not sure. Maybe they simply wanted to have a way to escape without being followed. Maybe they intend to spirit her away and then, at a time of their choosing, parade their prisoner before their subjects to show their power, to show that they can capture anyone who opposes them. The fact remains that she's gone and no one but me remembers her. It makes sense to me that a spell must have been used, like the spell Zedd used to make people forget him."

Nicci pinched the bridge of her nose in a way that somehow made Richard feel just a little stupid, as if his idea was so foolish it was giving her a headache. "Everyone was looking for this old one, this great wizard. They remembered that he was the great wizard, that he was an important, accomplished man, even that he was from the Midlands. They merely couldn't remember his name and probably what he looked like. So, without his name or a description of him they were having a great deal of difficulty finding him."

Richard nodded. "That's right."

"Don't you see, Richard? They knew that he existed, knew that he was the old wizard, and probably had a great many memories of things he had done, but they simply couldn't recall his name-because of the spell. That's all his name. They couldn't remember his name even though they remembered that the man existed.

"But this wife of yours is remembered by no one except you. We don't know her name or anything else about her. We have no memory of her or of anything she supposedly did with us. We have no knowledge of anything at all about her. Not one thing. She exists in no one's mind but yours."

Richard saw the distinction but wasn't ready to concede the point. "But maybe this was just a stronger spell, or something. It must have been much the same, but just more powerful so that everyone not only forgets her name, but forgets her altogether."

Nicci gently gripped his shoulders in an almost painfully sympathetic manner.

"Richard, I admit that to someone like you, who grew up without understanding magic, that might seem like it makes sense-and it's very inventive, it really is-but it simply doesn't work that way in the real world.

To someone without an understanding of how such power works it must seem entirely logical, at least on the surface. But when you look deeper the difference between a spell to make everyone forget a person's name and a spell making everyone forget that the person ever existed, it's the difference between lighting a fire at camp and igniting a second sun in the sky."

Richard threw up his hands in frustration. "But why?"

"Because the first alters only one thing, the memory of a person's name-and I must add that such a thing, as simple as it might seem on the face of it, is profoundly difficult and beyond the ability of all but a handful of the most gifted individuals and even then they must have extensive knowledge. Still, everyone knows that they have forgotten the great wizard's name so even as it does the work of making people forget that name, the spell only has to accomplish this one clearly defined and limited task. The difficulty with spells of this nature is in how broadly the task is applied, but for the purpose of this example that is beside the point.

"Where the first example alters one thing, the name of the vanished wizard, the second alters nearly everything. That is what makes it beyond difficult; it makes it impossible."

"I still don't understand." Richard paced from the statue partway out across the platform and back, gesturing as he spoke. "It seems to me like it does roughly the same thing."

"Think of all the ways a person, especially an important person such as the Mother Confessor, touches the lives of nearly everyone. Dear spirits, Richard, she oversaw the Central Council of the Midlands. She made decisions that affected every land."