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Kahlan cocked her head. “The Twilight Count? That measures how much the veil is weakening?”
“Yes, that’s right. The Twilight Count was begun, like turning over an hourglass, by the initiation of the star shift of the spectral fold. You could say that the Twilight Count is the sand in that grand celestial hourglass counting down our existence.
“The death of this world through the spectral fold degrading the veil will devour the world of existence and thus our souls. Prophecy is the leper’s bell betraying that open gap between the worlds. The very existence of prophecy is a dire warning that the sands of the Twilight Count are running out. Prophecy is contaminating the nature of time in our world, and that contamination is measured by the Twilight Count.”
Kahlan blinked in alarm. “How much time do we have?”
“To answer that question we would need some kind of zenith formulas called breach calculations from the star shift.”
“You mean to say there was previously one of these star shifts?” she asked. “It’s happened before?”
“Apparently. The scrolls are vague about the previous events, but they mention needing, among other things, templates for occulted celestial charts called seventh-level rift formulas if you are to work out these worldly timelines for this star shift. I haven’t the faintest idea what any of that means, where to find these things, or how to work them if I did.”
Kahlan looked over at the sleeping sorceress draped in the overstuffed chair. “What about Nicci? Would she know, do you think?”
Richard sighed as he shook his head. “She was just as mystified about that part as I was. Except she did say that by the nature of such things she could tell that it would require the use of my gift to work any such calculations. So even if I had the components, I couldn’t make them work. But it really doesn’t make a lot of difference anymore because we know from everything else, such as Sulachan being back in this world and the barrier to the third kingdom being down, that we are rapidly running out of time. What is happening now is an end phase.
“While it seems that prophecy has been here forever, in the stretch of cosmic existence, prophecy has been coming into this world for only a brief twinkling of time. Now that it has, the timeless nature of the underworld is stealing time away from us. Stealing existence from us. Prophecy is the open link that is draining away our free will, our lives, our existence.”
Kahlan snapped her fingers. “That’s what it means when it says you can only save us all by ending prophecy.”
Richard smiled that she saw it. “Exactly. It really means that I need to end prophecy in this world by closing the bridge between worlds that has been opened up.”
“Opened by you.”
“Yes,” Richard conceded. “When I used the power of Orden, that was the initiating phase of everything that was long ago set into motion when Sulachan sent the prophecy out from the world of the dead. The entire thing is tightly woven together with thousands of different threads.” Richard drew a deep breath. “And all of those threads are linked to me.”
Kahlan swept some of her hair back off of her face. “So if you end prophecy, you are really sealing the spectral fold and completing the star shift.”
He nodded again. “Thus letting life begin a new era. That page needs to be turned–life reset. The open conduit of prophecy must be closed. Only in that way can the star shift be complete. When that happens, life will be reset in a new phase. Life will then be able to go on.”
“And without that happening?”
Richard raked his fingers back through his hair. “If I can’t end prophecy then the veil will continue to erode away, which is what Sulachan has been working toward, and everything will be consumed by the chaos of the underworld. Because he has understood all of this and has been able to direct so much of it, Sulachan believes himself to be the master of the underworld, I guess you could say. He thinks this will unite it all into one world–life and death existing together–and he will rule over this new world of souls.
“But what he doesn’t understand, or doesn’t care about, is that when the veil finally fails completely and the worlds come together, everything–even the eternity of the underworld itself–will end. It will be a form of death for everything, except the underworld can’t die, as such, since it’s already dead. So what happens is that everything–the world of life and the world of souls–will simply wink out of existence.”
“How can eternity end?” Kahlan asked. “It’s eternal.”
“Think of it this way: A shadow exists because of something casting it. If the thing that casts the shadow ceases to exist, then the shadow ceases to exist.”
Richard shook his head. “Only so long as everything is in balance, as long as life and death–these two opposing forces–are separated by the veil. On its own, without the world of life, the eternity of the world of the dead is a contradiction–like a shadow with nothing casting it–and contradictions can’t exist.
“In other words, how can something be dead if there is no such thing as life? The world of the dead is defined by the world of life, so, once the world of life ends, the underworld ceases to exist. No world of life, therefore no world of the dead.”
“How can it end,” she asked, “if there is no such thing as the concept of an end in the underworld?”
“It wouldn’t exactly end–because, technically, there is no existence in the underworld to end–it will all simply cease to exist. It will be as if it never existed, like a shadow vanishes without an object to cast it. No trace would be left behind. The eternal now will wink out as if nothing ever existed.”
He leaned back in his chair, drumming his fingers on the desk. “Unless, of course, I can stop it from happening.”
Kahlan nested her hands in her lap, feeling overwhelmed. “You’re dying, Richard. You have the poison of death in you. How are you going to do anything to help us if you die?”
Richard considered his answer for a time. When he spoke, he spoke in a quiet, but forceful, tone.
“I’m inextricably woven into the fabric of this, in a number of ways, from using prophecy, to using free will, to using the power of Orden to stop what would have ha
ppened had I not. I couldn’t not have used the power of Orden.
“Prophecy grows old and corrupt over time, becoming infected with branches that never took place or false prophecy or evil prophecy. Such defective prophecy infects life with that underworld power that is pulling the world of existence apart. Wizards–gifted individuals–have become rare where once they were common. The gift itself is fading away from mankind. Subtractive Magic has virtually vanished from those few who do have the gift. The world has been dying for thousands of years, and we never realized it–or at least never realized why. Prophecy is the talisman that marks everything being taken into oblivion.
“I’m the only one who can stop it. I must stop it.”
Kahlan wiped a hand back over her face. She was beginning to see more of the links the more she thought about it, the way everything was inextricably connected, but he still hadn’t answered her question of how he would be able to stop any of it if he was dead.
“How are you connected with Sulachan?” she asked.
He looked up from under his raptor brow. “I’m the living bridge that enabled Sulachan to cross over, in much the same way that Cara was the living bridge that allowed me to cross back through the veil. My blood, the blood of the bringer of death, brought the dead man back.”
“And Hannis Arc? How is he linked into this?”
“He is basically taking advantage of it all for himself, but in so doing he enables it to happen. For all I know, the end of the Twilight Count may take a lifetime, or ten lifetimes, before it runs out. He wants to rule the world of life in the interim.”
“And why would Sulachan help him?”
Richard leveled a look at her. “I’m the living bridge, but Sulachan needed someone on this side to initiate the elements necessary to bring him back. He needed someone on this side of the veil to move the pieces on the chessboard, so to speak. Hannis Arc has the occult powers and the detailed knowledge that were required to accomplish such an extraordinary task.”
