Confessor: Chainfire Trilogy Part 3

While the subject matter varied greatly, from a late-day mountain scene beside a lake, to a barnyard scene, to a towering waterfall, the thing that all the paintings had in common was an achingly beautiful use of light. The mountain lake sat between soaring mountains with light from beyond hazy mountains breaking through billowing, golden clouds. A shaft of that glorious light spilled across the shoreline. The forest all around fell back into a cozy darkness, while in the center, the distant couple standing on a rocky prominence were bathed in the warmth of the shaft of light.

In the barnyard scene the chickens scratched on stone pavers littered with straw and lit by an unseen source of muted light that, without the harsh touch of direct sunlight, made the whole painting all the more vibrant. Nicci had never before thought of a barnyard as beautiful, but this artist had seen the beauty in it, and brought it forth.

In the foreground of the painting with the towering waterfall spilling over a distant, lofty ridgeline, the arch of a natural stone bridge emerged from dark woods to either side. A couple faced each other across that bridge, backlit by the setting sun, which had turned the majestic mountains a deep purple. Standing in that light the two people had a nobility about them that was transfixing.

Nicci found it interesting to note that so much about the People's Palace was devoted to beauty. From the design of the interior, to the variety of stones used for the floors, stairs, and pillars, to the statues and artwork, the place seemed to be filled with a celebration of the beauty of life. Everything from the structure of the palace itself to its contents seemed intent on displaying the highest accomplishments of man. It was almost a setting dedicated to virtuosity meant to inspire.

What was perhaps even more intriguing was that these masterful paintings would be seen by few people. This was a private corridor, down in the depths of the palace on the way to the tombs of past leaders. It would be used almost exclusively by the Lord Rahl.

Some might see it as a display of greed, a private show of possessions, but that would be a mistake born of cynicism.

Nicci knew that different sorts of men had been the Lord Rahl. Richard's own father had been a brutal tyrant. His ancestors, much farther back, had been anything but. Original intent was often twisted and corrupted by following generations just as the original intent of these works of art had probably been lost, warping into entitlement of the elite. Wise leaders were often followed by fools who threw away all that had been won by their ancestors. Nicci supposed that all that could be hoped for was for each generation to be raised to be sensible enough to learn from the past, not to lose sight of the things that mattered, and to understand why they mattered.

Still, every person had to make choices for themselves. Those who lost sight of the values fought for and won in the past usually came to lose those values, leaving subsequent generations to have to fight to win them back, only for them to be squandered by their heirs, who didn't have to face the struggle to gain them.

Nicci saw the paintings along this long walk to visit the dead as messages from past generations meant to remind the latest to become Lord Rahl of the value of life. As he went to visit tombs of those passed away, :his hall was intended to remind him where his attention belonged. In a way, this was the Lord Rahl's reminder of his proper duty: to life.

Many who had taken this long walk had lost sight of that, and in so doing, generations of people also lost what their ancestors had enjoyed, and they had taken for granted.

That was why the entire palace was created in the form of a spell to give the House of Rahl more power, and why the place was so filled with beauty-to remind him of what was important, and give him the power to keep hold of it for his people.

None of it, though, as breathtaking as it all was, was as beautiful to Nicci as the statue Richard had carved down in Altur'Rang. That statue had been so powerfully filled with the vitality of life that it had touched Nicci's soul and changed her for all time.

Richard was a Lord Rahl who carried that sense of life within him. He understood what could be lost.

"You love him, don't you?"

Nicci blinked. She looked over at Ann as they marched down the passageway.

"What?"

"You love Richard."

Nicci turned her eyes back ahead. "We all love Richard."

"That's not what I mean and you know it."

Nicci maintained her composure. On the outside, anyway.

"Ann, Richard is married. Not just married, but married to a woman he loves. Not just loves, but loves more than life itself."

Ann didn't say anything.

"Besides," Nicci added into the awkward silence, "I could have ruined his life-all of our lives-when I took him away down to the Old World. I nearly did. By all rights he should have killed me back then."

"Perhaps," Ann said, "but that was then, this is now."