Confessor: Chainfire Trilogy Part 3

"I have sent the Chainfire spell to that distant, new world," he told her. "It will work its way through all the people there, erasing the memory of this world, of what you have left behind. I must leave it infected with the chimes to insure that any magic carried into that distant world will be destroyed.

"Along with magic, memories of this place will be destroyed.

"I have no idea how the voids in the memories of people will be filled in-what they will eventually substitute for their real history, their real memories. Those created memories will by definition be more tenacious than the reality of what once was, of what was here. Those created memories will link together in the mind of man through the Chainfire spell, becoming a common conviction, a shared certainty. Those beliefs will hold sway over future generations despite all else. Any memory of us will eventually be lost in that distant world.

"But I can't count on the Chainfire spell and the contamination destroying all magic the way I believe it will. I simply can't count on those who will still have magic there for a time not finding a way around it."

Richard laid a hand on Jennsen's shoulder. "You, and those like you, will be the insurance for the future of your world, insurance that magic will forever be erased from existence in that world, from future generations. Once your descendants eventually touch everyone born, there will be no more magic in that distant world, even if some try to preserve it, secret it away for their own despotic ambitions. Time, and all those pillars of Creation who are born, will spread your trait of having no spark of the gift so that in the future, no one in that world can ever again be born with any spark of the gift, none will ever be able to bring back magic. But it will live on here.

"I know that you will remember me, Jennsen, but I also know that after time, that memory, along with all of this world, all that was in it, will slip away and come to be nothing more than legend."

Richard turned to Tom, the big, blond-headed D'Haran. "You are not pristinely ungifted."

Tom nodded. "I know, but I love Jennsen and wish to be with her more than anything in life. Wherever we are together is wonderful, and we will have a wonderful life together. I'm rather excited about the prospect of helping to build a world for us, a world where Jennsen and all the other ungifted will not be different, but simply people.

"I ask, Lord Rahl, that you release me from service to you so that I may devote my life to loving and protecting your sister, as well as our people there in our new world."

Richard smiled as he clasped hands with the man. "There is no need for me to release you, Tom. You have always served me by your own grace. I will be eternally thankful that you have made Jennsen happy."

Tom saluted with a fist to his heart, then, grinning, embraced Richard briefly. Owen, Anson, and Marilee, also grinning with the excitement of their lives ahead, clasped hands with Richard, thanking him for teaching them to embrace life.

"I love you," Jennsen whispered as she gave him a tight hug. "Thank you, Richard, for helping me love life. Even if I forget you, you will always be in my heart."

As she stepped away, she and the others began to slip away into the white void of the gateway.

All alone in the white void, Richard gripped the Sword of Truth to withdraw it from the box of Orden, to pull the key from the gateway. He could only think that even if everything had worked as he had planned, the one thing he had hoped for the most for himself had failed.

The sterile field he had needed to allow the power of Orden to succeed had been tainted. Kahlan had known that he loved her.

"You are a rare person, Richard Rahl," came the most beautiful voice in the world.

Richard turned to see her standing there before him. Her green eyes sparkled. She wore her special smile that she wore for no other.

Richard stood frozen, one hand still gripping the sword so hard that he could feel the word truth pressing into his hand.

Kahlan stepped close, slipping an arm around his neck. "Richard, I love you."

Richard circled an arm around her waist, his feelings overwhelming him.

"I don't understand. It wouldn't work if the sterile field was breached with foreknowledge."

"I was protected," she said with a crooked smile.

Richard frowned. "Protected? How?"

"I had already fallen in love with you all over again. I didn't need a sterile field. I think that from the first moment I saw you in that cage as it rolled into the Order's camp I started falling in love with you. In everything you did, you revealed just what kind of man you are-the man I fell in love with so long ago, the man I married in the Mud People's village.

"When you gave me that carving of Spirit, it confirmed everything I had come to know all over again.