“Those tendrils are more pure, more amazing, than any of us realize of ourselves. Things I could never do here, things I couldn’t even imagine doing, I can do there by touching the right strands in that line from Creation. It is beyond wondrous.”
He gestured toward Kahlan’s belly. “Those two lives growing in Kahlan are in the process of connecting all the countless filaments and fibers that will make up the lines of the Grace within each of them. We draw a representation of the Grace, but it is so much more than those simple diagrams. Each line is complex beyond our ability to comprehend.
“When I was beyond that outer circle of the Grace that represents the beginning of the underworld, I was able to see and touch those fibers, those strands and filaments, that connect us all to Creation. It’s more than merely life, Shale. It is all of Creation, the totality of it all. It is life and the absence of life, all connected within the Grace which we each have within ourselves.”
Shale bowed her head as she closed her eyes, fingers against her forehead. It looked like it was beyond overwhelming for her to fit it all into her understanding of the nature of the world of life. Kahlan reached over and put a hand over the sorceress’s other hand in her lap, giving her confusion and disbelief a bit of silent empathy.
“Believe me, I, too, have trouble comprehending it all.”
Even though Kahlan had been in that place, and understood some of what Richard said, he had been born a wizard, and he had a much deeper understanding of all those things. It was hard for her to remember the time when she had first met him, and he knew nothing about magic, and she had to teach him some of what she knew about it. He had come a long way. His understanding of it all had at some point surpassed hers. In some ways, it was hard to even grasp the reach of his awareness.
Vika was already up, hurriedly pulling on her red leather outfit. “Somehow, Lord Rahl, ‘thank you’ hardly touches it. You told me to be strong and hold on for you and you would take care of me. You were as good as your word. You always are.
“I find what you did impossible to understand and hard to believe. It also makes me appreciate not only life, but the bond, more than ever before and in ways I never did before.”
She gestured to her sisters of the Agiel after pulling a red leather sleeve up her arm. “We have all been to the cusp before, but this was different. This was seeing the threads of life, as you put it. I’ve seen the Grace drawn before, but when we were there, you showed it to me within myself.” She searched for words. “You touched my soul. I now understand your bond to each of us as never before. You are the magic against magic. I am honored to be back in the world of life so that I can be the steel against steel for you and the Mother Confessor.”
Berdine stood and helped tighten and buckle some of the straps on Vika’s outfit. “For today,” she said to Vika, “it’s all right with me for you to be Lord Rahl’s favorite.”
Richard shook his head with a smile. “I don’t have favorites. I love you all the same.”
“I understand that, now,” Vika said with a nod.
“Don’t pay any attention to him,” Berdine told Vika, ignoring Richard. “He says that all the time. It’s not true. For today, you deserve to be his favorite for hanging on to life so you could be here to help us all.”
“Richard,” Kahlan said, eager to get back to the important matter at hand, “Michec is still down here somewhere. We need to find him.”
Richard agreed with a nod as he stood and slid his sword back into its scabbard. “Let’s go.”
14
They all moved cautiously through the eerie green light and the still, hazy trailers of smoke left from the fire that consumed Michec’s underworld minions. Those long, hanging tendrils of smoke swirled around them as they made their way among the forest of corpses and the stench of the dead, eager to be away from the place.
“While you were still in the underworld,” Kahlan told Richard from close behind him, “Michec conjured demons that nearly killed us all.”
Richard paused at the opening out into the hallway and looked back at her. “I know. I saw the prophecy that he was going to do that. He has the power to somehow open the veil just enough to pull some of those things into the world of life to do his bidding.”
“Wait.” Shale stepped closer, her hackles up again. “What do you mean, you ‘saw the prophecy that he was going to do that’? You said there is no more prophecy. I have been able to see into the flow of time my whole life. Now I can’t. While I’m not at all happy about it, you said it is because you had to end prophecy to save the world of life.”
Richard leaned out and peered both ways down the hall as far as the visibility from light spheres in brackets on the walls would allow.
“Well, while for all practical purposes that’s true,” Richard said when he pulled his head back from the edge of the opening, “it’s not technically accurate that I ended prophecy. Prophecy is an underworld property and as such it was harmful being here in the world of life, so I sent it back to the underworld where it belongs. In so doing, it ended prophecy in this world, the world of life. But prophecy still exists in the underworld. It can’t be destroyed. It’s a functional part of the underworld. Think of it as an elemental part of eternity playing out every possible outcome as events branch into the future.”
The more he talked, the more Shale’s agitation seemed to bubble up. “Yes, I know, the flow of time and all of its many tributaries that I used to be able to tap into. But if you banished it, how were you able to see it and how could you possibly use it?”
“I’m the one who sent it back to the underworld. I was just in the underworld. See what I mean?”
Shale was still frowning. “No.”
Richard took a patient breath. “Because I was there, in the underworld, where it exists, I had access to prophecy. So, among other things, I took advantage of it while I was there. Since I’m the one who sent it home, it has a certain … familiarity with me.”
“Oh, so now it’s alive?”
“It’s complicated.”
Shale cocked her head. “But you used it?” The way she said it made it sound as if she thought that quite unfair, considering that she no longer could. “You used prophecy?”
“Yes, that’s right. Prophecy is frequently misunderstood.” He turned back to lean toward her a little with an intimidating look. “Even among witch women. I’m a war wizard. Part of my gift is prophecy. That means I can understand prophecy in ways that no other, including witch women, could ever begin to comprehend.
“So, while there, I took the opportunity to access it. When I did, I found a prophecy flowing out of present events that revealed that Michec was going to open the veil enough to pull some of those underworld beings into the world of life.
“I could see that it was a forked prophecy—a this-or-that type. I knew I had to act to block the wrong fork or you would all die. So, when he pulled them through, I was ready.”
Kahlan grabbed a handful of his shirtsleeve. “You were ready? What does that mean?”
“It means that when he fulfilled the first part of the prophecy and pulled those creatures through into this world, at the appropriate moment, I was able to shift it to the alternate fork by blasting them back to where they came from.”
“That was the fire?” Berdine asked as she leaned forward in rapt attention. “You blasted those things apart from the underworld? You burned them to ashes?”
Richard nodded. “Sorry I couldn’t have been quicker. It was rather … difficult to do from where I was at the time.”
“But how?” Berdine asked, caught up in the story. “I mean, if you were there, how could you do that here?”