Confessor: Chainfire Trilogy Part 3

"Art reveals the artist's inner self. Art reveals a man's ideals, what he values. Anyone with that much reverence, that much passion for the nobility of the human spirit, could only be a man who shares my passion for life."

Richard smiled as he felt a tear roll down his cheek. "I went to the underworld to get the memories taken by the Subtractive Magic of Chainfire. There, I learned that the core of those memories could only be restored if you accepted them of your own free will. I put them into that carving.

"When you accepted it, you accepted everyone's memories. You broke the Chainfire spell that had taken so much from so many. By being so willing to embrace all that is good, to value the beauty of life and hold it to your heart, you gave everyone back their memories."

She gazed into his eyes for the longest moment.

And then he kissed his wife, the woman he loved, the woman who meant everything to him. The woman who loved him.

The woman he had gone to the underworld and back for.

As he lost himself in that kiss, as her arms tightened around him, he pulled the Sword of Truth from the box of Orden, closing the gateway for all time.

When Richard finally opened his eyes, the world had returned. Zedd was standing nearby, watching them, grinning.

"Zedd," Richard said, blinking at all the others also there.

"No need to apologize, my boy."

"I wasn't apologizing."

Zedd gestured for them to continue. "Well, you have a right to kiss your wife after all this time. I always knew that you two belonged together for all time.

"I just wish it hadn't taken you so long to figure all this out."

Richard scowled at his grandfather. "Sorry to have inconvenienced you. Maybe you should have taught me a little better in the beginning and it wouldn't have taken me so long."

Zedd shrugged. "I must have been a good teacher-you got it all right."

"Richard," Nathan said as he stepped forward. "Do you realize what you have just done?"

Richard glanced around. "Well, I believe so."

"You just fulfilled prophecy!"

Richard skeptically cocked his head at the prophet. "What prophecy?"

"The prophecy about the great void!"

Richard made a face. "But I just saved us from the great void you warned us was the threat in prophecy."

Nathan threw his arms up in excitement. "No, no, don't you see? You just created a world where magic doesn't exist. That's why prophecy sees that other world as a void-because prophecy can't see into a world without magic! Prophecy was actually predicting what you would do. When you split the worlds, that was the fork in prophecy. The great void is prophecy's prediction of that other world."

Richard sighed. "If you say so, Nathan."

"I don't understand something," Zedd said. "How did you know that the Sword of Truth was the key to opening the boxes of Orden? I mean, you knew that The Book of Counted Shadows couldn't be the real key because Orden predated the existence of the Confessors. But Orden also predated the Sword of Truth. How could it be the key?"

"The sword protected my mind from the Chainfire spell because the boxes of Orden are the counter to the Chainfire spell, and the Sword of Truth-or, more correctly, the magic invested in it-is the key to the boxes, so it's part of Orden. That was the spark of insight that made me realize that the sword is the key-because I was holding it when the Sisters ignited the spell, it protected my memories of Kahlan, and the sword interrupted the ongoing effects of the spell for those who touched it."

Zedd planted his hands on his hips. "But the sword was created after Orden."

"That was a trick."

"A trick!"

"What better way to protect something of such profound power than with a trick, rather than a complex, extravagant construction of magic, like everyone thought of The Book of Counted Shadows.

"After all, a trick, if properly done, is magic." Richard smiled. "You taught me that, remember? That's what the wizards back then did. The whole thing with The Book of Counted Shadows was a trick to disguise the real key: the Sword of Truth. The sword was invested with the magic to unlock Orden; the book was a ruse, a trick, to send everyone off track.

"The true key-the sword-has elements of magic that complete the constructed magic of Orden. The sword contains those necessary elements-magic invested in it by hundreds of wizards. The sword may have been created later, but the magic invested in it was the magic created by the same wizards who created Orden. It was right under everyone's nose all the time.

"That was the reason that the Sword of Truth has always been the responsibility of the First Wizard. It was beyond priceless.

"You, Zedd, were a proper caretaker for the sword. You found the right person for it, the right person to be the true Seeker of Truth.