The Scribbly Man

9

Shale sagged a little as she wiped a weary hand back across her face. “I’d prefer not to have to get into it just now, not after what’s happened today, and not after I spent so much time and energy in a difficult healing, but I can see that you aren’t going to be satisfied until you know the truth. I will give you the gist of it, but ask that we discuss it in detail later, after I have had some rest.”

Richard shrugged. “Fair enough.”

“I admit there is more to why I’m here. You say you ask those things which need to be asked. There are things which I need to ask as well. I came for answers to those things.”

“Such as?”

Her bewitching eyes looked up at him from under her brow. “Such as why are the stars not where they belong in the sky? Why are the stars all jumbled up so that I no longer recognize them?”

Richard let out a long sigh. “Oh, that.”

Her look darkened. “Yes, that. I have a feeling that only you could be responsible.”

Richard lifted a hand in a gesture reflecting his discomfort about the subject. “I had to initiate a star shift. It was an act of desperation.”

“I see that you are going to make me chase you round and round and then strangle you until you answer.” She gave him the kind of dangerously sober look that seemed unique to witch women. “What is a star shift, Lord Rahl,” she said slowly and carefully, “and what was the desperation?”

“It had to do with an evil that had festered for thousands of years, and a war that had never really ended. An emperor from that time rose up from the grave, tearing the veil between life and death in the process. He intended to join the underworld and the world of life, foolishly believing he could rule over it all.”

Her mouth opened in surprise. “Combining them would have only destroyed both!”

Richard’s brow lifted. “Glad you grasp the problem. To stop him from finishing what he had already begun to do, I had to use the boxes of Orden for their true purpose—initiating a star shift.”

“Boxes of Orden?”

“Ancient magic, constructed spell and all that,” he said with a dismissive gesture that said that wasn’t the important point.

“And that put this evil spirit back in his grave where he belonged?”

“It did,” Richard said. “It healed the veil and ended the ancient war that had smoldered all that time only to finally reignite. I can’t begin to know how many people died because of that evil man. People we all know and loved died. Too many good souls never had a chance to live their lives because of him. Many more would have died if I hadn’t done something. Everyone would have died. I had to put a stop to it.

“I did it in the only way that could work. It changed our world, I admit that. But I don’t regret what I did. It saved life itself.”

“But how is it possible for the stars to be different?”

“The ancient magic I used was the only thing that had the power to close the breach and stop the worlds of life and death from imploding. It’s a bit like a constructed spell. Once initiated, it runs routines according to its internal protocol. That power, once ignited, ultimately shifted the stars.”

She looked even more upset. “But how could you have unleashed such a—”

“Had I not done as I did we would all be dead right now. Do you understand? Dead. Worse than that, the worlds of life and death would have come together and both would have ceased to exist. Everyone forever would have ceased to exist. We were all out of time. It was either the star shift or no world of life, simple as that. I chose life.

“Some of the changes caused by the star shift are known—such as the stars suddenly being unfamiliar to us. But it altered other things as well. We don’t yet know the extent of the changes.”

She peered up at him in dismay. “Are you sure? There was no other way?”

“None,” he said with finality. “It wasn’t a situation of my choosing. Like I say, it was an act of desperation.”

Shale fell quiet for a time as she looked off, trying to comprehend such a monumental event.

“Besides being a sorceress,” she finally said, her voice weaker, “I am also a witch woman. Some of my ability as a sorceress, such as healing, still works as always.” She looked up expectantly at him. “But other things, such as my ability to see into the flow of time, seem to be lost to me. That ability is part of who I am, what I am, and now I can’t call it forth.

“This is in part the reason I came to see you—to ask how soon can I expect my ability to see into the flow of time to be restored to normal?”

Richard let out a sigh as he considered how to tell her. “Part of the key to saving the world of life was that it was necessary to end prophecy. The star shift was a way to do that. I’m afraid that a witch woman’s ability to see into the flow of time is a form of prophecy. I had to end all forms of prophecy.”

“End prophecy?” She looked both dumbfounded and horrified. “How could you do such a thing? How could you possibly take it upon yourself to destroy such a fundamental part of the lives of so many people?”

“That’s where you are wrong,” he said, leaning closer, “and that was the key to our survival. Prophecy is alien to the world of life. It was long ago sent here from the timeless world of the dead. Having that corrosive force here in this world was part of how that ancient, dead emperor was destroying the veil separating life and death. I had to end prophecy by sending it back to the world of the dead where it belongs. The star shift was the only way of doing it. I’m afraid that your ability to see into the flow of time will never return.”

Tears welled up in her eyes. “But that’s who I am. It’s part of me.”

“An alien part,” he said. “Would you keep an arm eaten away by gangrene because that dying arm was ‘a part of you’? No. To preserve life you would cut it off before it could kill you. That’s what I did. Cutting off that arm would certainly hurt, but it would also keep you alive.

“Prophecy was never meant to be part of who witch women really are. It was a crutch that in part gave witch women such a fearsome reputation. Believe me, witch women can be plenty fearsome without needing to see into the flow of time. That alien ability was also sometimes the cause of great harm.

“In the past, the false prophecies of a witch woman nearly killed me, nearly killed Kahlan. Witch women have had otherworldly power for so long they came to believe it was part of them, but it’s not. It was in reality death lurking within you. I’ve ended it.”

He knew by her expression that he had not heard the last of it, so he thought he needed to end the argument before it could fester in her.

“It’s done, Shale. There is no putting it back to the way it was, any more than it is possible for me to put the stars back where they were. The spell has run its course. It is over and done.

“Our lives have all changed—mine included. Life is about change. Change has both good and bad elements to it. You can either deal with the way things have changed and move forward, or you can let bitterness about what’s lost in the past rob you of your future.

“I’m afraid that what happened here today with this business about a goddess is one of those bad changes brought about by the star shift. I don’t like it and I don’t yet know what it means, but we have to figure it out and deal with it.”

She nodded distantly. “I guess so.”

“When I was starting to heal Kahlan,” Richard said, changing the subject to get her mind off it, “you told me that there was something else going on, and that if I kept going I would kill her. What was it you felt?”

“It was that poison I told you about. Those claws planted the infection or poison in her during the attack. One of my healing talents—I’m not sure I can adequately explain it—is that I can, in a way, see what is happening inside the person I’m healing. I could tell that your gift had a dangerous effect on that poison. I don’t know if it was an intended effect or simply that the two could not coexist. They were oil and water, you might say. Had I not stopped you, the Mother Confessor would have gone on to suffer a lingering death, but only after it had killed you first.”

Richard was taken aback. “Do you think it was deliberate? That it was meant for me?”

“When I first probed for her injuries, I could feel your gift seeping into her. I could also feel that malevolence being drawn to your gift. Your gift attracted it. Had you kept the contact with her, it would have used that link to seep into you and kill you as surely as a bite from a viper.”

“Why didn’t it react to your gift the same way?”

She shook her head. “I’m not entirely sure of the reason, but I could see that it was drawn to your gift. I was able to get around it, allowing me to come in behind it and choke it off. Our gift is different. You are a war wizard, I am, among other things, a healer. Maybe your aggressive ability with your gift drew it.”

Richard paced off a short distance. “I guess I owe you a debt of gratitude. Not only have you saved Kahlan’s life, it seems you may have saved mine as well.”

“True enough. I guess it’s fortunate I showed up when I did.”