"I thought you liked my stew." "I don't like beets." "That's why I put all yours in your father's bowl." "Now go wash your hands." "Jennsen, you have to run." "The D'Harans are here." "They're raiding peoples' homes looking for you and the Boxes of Orden." "How did--?" " Hurry, they're on their way." "Take this." "It's an Alkalis Stone." "Crack it between your teeth to release the poison." "It'll be over in ten heartbeats." "You want me to kill myself?" "It's a better fate than what the D'Harans will do to you if they catch you." "Now run." "Quick." "Out the back." "Now, go." "Open the door!" "Is she going to be all right?" "Where is she?" "Please leave my family alone." "We haven't done anything." "Find her." "Mm." "Commander!" "Tracks, sir." "She couldn't have gotten far." "This way!" "Where are the boxes?" "I don't have any boxes." ""Like wind over a field of grass," ""all blades bend to Orden." ""For the one who wields the magic bends the will of all to the will of one."" "Didn't mean to frighten you, my boy." "You've been at it all night." "Perhaps you should get some sleep." "According to this, the only way to defeat Rahl is to put all three Boxes of Orden together at the next full moon." "But the last time I put the boxes together, the power turned me into a monster." "If Jennsen hadn't separated the boxes," "I'd probably have razed every village in D'Hara by now." "The power of Orden possessed you." "Now you must learn to possess the power of Orden." "How?" "Keep reading." ""Orden is a voracious wolf," ""its strength rivaled only by its insatiable appetite." "Only one power can touch the beast's heart and tame it."" "What kind of magic could tame the power of Orden?" "Somehow make it safe to use?" "I've never heard of a magic stronger than the power of Orden." "You once said, of all the magic in the world, there is none more powerful than love." "That's an old expression." "As old as The Book of Counted Shadows?" "What are you thinking?" "That the one force that can touch the beast's heart and tame it, is love." "The touch of love." "Confession." "I have to be Confessed." "Of course." "A Confessor's touch could temper the power of Orden so you wouldn't turn into a tyrant." "And likewise, Orden would temper the power of love, so you wouldn't become a mindless slave." "You would be left with the ability to command Darken Rahl." "We'd better tell Kahlan." "No, Zedd, wait, wait." "For as long as I've known her, the one thing she's been most afraid of is hurting me." "We only have one of the boxes." "Until we get the other two from Jennsen, there's no point in telling Kahlan." "Let her sleep." "Here we are." "For my sister." "Hello?" "Hm." "Hello?" "Jennsen?" "Sean!" "It's me, Richard." "What?" "What are you doing?" "No, Kahlan, don't!" "He's a friend." "At least he used to be." "I'm sorry." "I never thought I could hurt the Seeker." "Sean, tell us what's going on." "Darken Rahl found out we were hiding Jennsen." "To punish us, he unleashed a magical plague on our village." "Marilee died yesterday." "And now my little girl is sick." "Rahl will only give us the cure in exchange for the Seeker's head." "Where's Jennsen?" " The D'Harans came." "She escaped into the woods with the boxes just before they kicked in my door." "We have to find her." "There's something else you should know." "I gave her an Alkalis Stone." "In case she was captured." "I don't know if she's dead or alive, but we're in terrible trouble." "People are suffering like I have never seen." "The healthy banished all of the sick here." "They're afraid." "Every day, more are herded into the encampment." "What is this scourge?" "We don't know." "People have started calling it the Fire Fever, because it spreads like wildfire." "Careful not to touch anyone." "If you do, the fire will leap from their blood into yours." "The hot blood creates these welts." "Once the welts appear, the person doesn't have much time." "You have no idea what it is like to see your child suffer and not be able to comfort her even with a simple touch." "Is there anything you can do for her?" "Yes, there is." "And a few others, but it will require me to draw the illness out of their bodies and take it into my own." "I'll need time to rest and purge the illness from my own blood every time I heal someone." "If I take on too much, or don't have enough time to heal myself," "I'll fall to the plague the same as everyone else." "But I'll do what I can." "We have to find Jennsen and get the boxes." "If I can put them all together," "I can force Rahl to give us the cure." "Richard, we don't even know if Jennsen's still alive." "It's a wonder she's not dead." "The worst is over." "Alert me the moment she wakes." "This girl stole the boxes from my palace and is the only one who knows where they are." "So unless she tells me where she's hidden them, the worst is not yet over for her." "My Lord, she's awake." "But there's a problem." "She doesn't seem to remember anything." "How convenient." "My Lord, if I may." "I believe she's telling the truth." "Your men were overzealous with her." "They beat her viciously." "I've seen people who have suffered blows like this to the head, and often their senses are dulled." "It's not surprising she's lost her memories." "Who are you?" "You don't remember me?" "No." "I don't even know where I am or how I got here." "It's all right." "You're safe now." "I'm a friend." "And this is my home." "Should I know you?" "I'm sorry." "No, please don't apologize." "It's not your fault." "And I promise I will tell you everything." "But perhaps it's a blessing that you don't remember the terrible things your brother did to you." "My brother?" "People call him the Seeker." "If you had managed to chop my head off, where would you have taken it?" "There's a D'Haran garrison only a day's journey away." "If I Confess whoever's in charge of this garrison, we might find out what happened to Jennsen and the boxes." "We might even be able to get the cure." "What do you mean?" "If Rahl created this plague, then maybe he has a way to protect his own men from it." "I'll stay here and do what I can to help while you two go to the garrison." "How are we gonna get close enough to Confess him?" "They want the Seeker's head?" "Let's give it to them." "I have the head of the Seeker!" "I will give it only to the commander." "Tell him to bring the cure for the fever to Sorcerer's Bluff, alone, and I will exchange the head for the cure." "My son is next." "And then their loved ones." "I'm sorry, but I need to rest now." "I can only cure a few at a time or the sickness will overtake me, and" "And I won't be able to cure anyone." "Once you've rested, you'll heal my son." "The village baker is next." "You'll heal the baker over my dying child?" "The baker will bake the bread necessary to feed everyone and give them strength." "I'm sorry, but these are the difficult decisions I must make." "And who are you to decide who lives and who dies?" "The Almighty Creator?" "I am Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander." "Wizard of the First Order." "And you will wait your turn." "And then your brother put all three boxes together." "And he used the power to make the Mother Confessor beat a poor, defenseless, unarmed woman." "Kill her." "Slowly." "Do you remember any of this?" "A little." "Do we have to keep talking about this?" "It's all so ugly." "I understand." "You need to rest." "I promise we won't go on much longer." "But you need to know the truth." "There were few survivors." "My men who did come back told me the Seeker forced them to collect their weapons and fight each other to the death." "It must have been so horrible." "All that death." "And all of them." "Fathers, sons, brothers." "But you..." "You are pristinely ungifted." "Magic doesn't affect you." "You were the one person the Seeker could not control." "And you saw your brother for the monster that he is, and you bravely pulled the boxes apart." "Don't touch the boxes." "Magic doesn't work on me." "Not even the magic of Orden." "No!" "And once you pulled them apart, you ran away with two." "But you must have hidden them somewhere." "But then the Seeker came after you." "And, unfortunately, he found you before I did." "Where are the boxes?" "I don't have any boxes." "It wasn't the Seeker who hit me." "He has many followers." "He must've sent men after you." "I can't believe my own brother would do that." "Do you remember where you hid the boxes?" "Please, stop." "I don't wanna think about it anymore." "There, there." "Shh." "It's all right." "You're safe now." "Shh." "I promise the Seeker will never hurt you again." "Shh." "Kahlan, no!" "What's wrong?" " His neck." "He has the Fire Fever." "If you touch him, you'll die." "One of my men found him abandoned." "I thought he could use a friend." "Oh, he's adorable." "Thank you." "Oh." "Baby, it's okay." "I wondered if any of your memories have returned." "They're all so horrible." "Maybe it's better not to remember." "Hey." "I understand." "What are they doing with that D'Haran scum?" "What's going on here?" "Stay back." "I suggest you show the Mother Confessor some courtesy." "Are you all right, Zedd?" "A bit of rest would do me well." "What have we here?" "It seems Rahl neglected to protect his own men when he sent them to spread the sickness." "The commander here has the Fire Fever." "If we deliver the Seeker's head to Lord Rahl, we can all be cured." "Can you heal him so Kahlan can Confess him?" "He's the one who infected us!" "How dare you heal that butcher before my son." "This man might have important information." "We need him to tell us what happened to Jennsen, the Seeker's sister." "What makes her more important than us?" "If we find her, we might be able to get the cure from Rahl." "But we've been waiting." "You said my boy was next." "I'm sorry, but circumstances have changed." "You'll have to wait a while longer." "Are you all right?" "Richard Cypher and his Confessor ambushed one of my garrisons." "I've just had to tell another mother that her son has died at the hands of the Seeker." "I'm sorry." "I can't believe my own brother could be so cruel." "I know exactly how you feel." "He's my brother too." "I didn't know how to tell you this, Jennsen, but you, Richard and I share the same father." "His name was Panis Rahl." "There was a time when peace and freedom prospered in D'Hara." "But our father conquered one kingdom after the other, swallowing them all up for himself." "He was a cruel and bloodthirsty tyrant." "He did unspeakable things to the people, and even his own family." "I've never told this to anyone before." "Our father once boasted to me, when I was barely as tall as his sword, that he'd been given a prophecy." "One day he would sire a bastard son who would rise to be the Seeker." "And that Seeker would kill me." "And even after he'd learned of this prophecy, he still continued to take countless women." "My mother?" "From what I know of your mother, she was good, and she was kind." "She kept you safe from our father." "I was not so lucky." "When I was older and stronger," "I stood up to our father, and I killed him." "I reached out to Richard, hoping that a brotherly love could avert the prophecy." "But only then did I realize that he had inherited our father's cruelty." "But like so many villains, he believes he's a hero." "But if he gets hold of those boxes, he will do terrible things to this world." "Far worse than our father was ever capable of." "We have to stop him." "How?" "If I could remember where I hid the boxes, you could get to them first." "Safe to Confess him now." "Command me, Confessor." "You were ordered to capture a young girl." "Jennsen." "Where is she?" " I don't know." "We captured her, but Rahl's general took her away." "Why?" " One of my men beat her because she wouldn't tell us where the boxes were." "I believe General Egremont thought Rahl could get the information out of her." "Stay here and help Zedd." "You're taking me to where my sister was captured." "Now, you must have hidden the boxes somewhere safe." "But you had to flee." "Someone must've told you the Seeker was coming after you." "Jennsen, you have to run." "The farmer who was hiding me told me to run." "Yes." "You had to run." "But you wouldn't have left the boxes behind." "No." "I took them with me." "You must have been so afraid, knowing what they would do to you if they caught you." "It's a better fate than if they catch you." "The farmer gave me an Alkalis Stone." "I tried to swallow the stone... but someone knocked me to the ground, and I lost it." "This is the exact spot where she was captured?" "It must have been one of the Seeker's men." "But try to remember what happened before you were knocked down." "What did you do with the boxes?" "She came through here." "But she didn't have the boxes when she was caught, so she must have hidden them somewhere between here and the cottage." "Where are they, Jennsen?" "What did you do with them?" "They were going to catch me." "Yes, they were going to catch you." "You didn't have much time." "You had to hurry, Jennsen." "But you had to get rid of the boxes." "Where did you hide them?" "I threw them in the lake." "Alert the nearest garrison." "Send a quad to the lake now." " My Lord." "You threw them in the lake, didn't you?" "Keep this safe." "Please, Wizard, don't leave us." "Stay back." "I need rest." "Please, stay back." "Back." "Back, please." "Get away from him." "No, no." "Save my baby!" "Help us." "Help me." "How could you let this happen?" "You're hurting him!" "You let my son die, Wizard!" "No!" "Stop!" "Get back." "Get away." "Mistress, I've made you ill." "Push the crowd back." "Get away from her." "Get back!" "We should all be ashamed." "Look at what we've done to the Confessor." "Lord Rahl, the quad has failed." "The Seeker has the boxes." "Lord Rahl, the Seeker has The Book of Counted Shadows and all three Boxes of Orden." "He'll be coming for you." "You must leave this place." "And where shall we go, Egremont?" "Where could we possibly run to that the Seeker could not find us?" "He now has the power to turn my own armies against me." "And he's coming for me." "Ah, there's only one thing left that I can do." "I'm sorry, Jennsen, something terrible has happened." "Richard succeeded in getting the boxes before I could." "We have to run." "A plague has broken out in the countryside." "I can't run." "I can't abandon my people." "They're dying." "Somehow I have to help them." "How?" "My sorcerers have a cure." "But now that Richard has all the boxes," "I can't go near him." "No one can." "Except you." "Dear sister, you are the one person who can bring the cure to these people." "You're the only one who won't be affected by magical plague or the power of Orden." "But you said the Seeker has been hunting me for months." "His men almost killed me." "How could I go back to him now?" "Maybe if you went to him and you told him what he wants to hear." "That he's a great hero and he was right about me." "You tell him that I captured you and I tortured you, but you would not tell me where the boxes were." "Tell him that you stole the cure from me, and you finally escaped and then you ran back to him." "But I took the boxes from him." "From everything you've told me, it doesn't sound like he'd forgive me for that." "Jennsen, I know our brother." "As long as you pretend to be on his side and not mine, he won't hurt you." "All you need to remember is that he simply wants to be loved." "Tell him whatever lies about me you have to." "You tell him that I know he has the boxes and I am coming for them." "And I'll place a magical tracer cloud on them to make it more convincing." "Then, when you have his trust and he turns his back on you, you bring the boxes back to me." "I know what you're thinking." "What if I'm not telling the truth?" "You've lost your memories." "How would you know if I was lying or not?" "How can you be sure of anything?" "What if this were just some sort of ploy?" "Jennsen, if I were the cruel tyrant that Richard paints me as, why would I want to save people?" "I don't know." "I would give anything not to have to ask this of you, but my people are dying." "So if you take my fastest horse and ride through the night, you can make it to where the people are suffering." "And when you give the cure to the ailing and you see that it works, you will know which brother truly cares for the people." "And you will know which brother to side with." "I have the boxes." "My mistress is dying." "She confessed a sick man to save me." "How long until you recover?" "I was already weakened before the mob overcame me." "The Fire Fever has me now, Richard." "I'm not going to recover." "Zedd, I'm not going to let either of you die." "I'm going to force Rahl to give me the cure." "How?" "I'm going to put the Boxes of Orden together." "Kahlan is too weak to Confess you." "You've seen what the boxes can do to you." "You have to find another Confessor, go on without us." "No." "You two will have to go on without me." "I'm going to find Rahl." "Then I'll swallow the Alkalis Stone just before I put the boxes together." "And with the power of Orden, I'll command Rahl to send the cure back to the valley, and then I'll kill him." "And before I can turn into a tyrant, the Alkalis Stone will kill me." "Richard, th" "There must be another way." "It's the only way." "He'll be dead and I'll be dead, and everyone else will live." "Dear boy..." "The prophecy says the Seeker will defeat Rahl." "It doesn't say he will live to be a wise old man like his grandfather." "Thank you so much." "You're welcome." "Jennsen." "I can't believe it's you." "Where have you been?" "Are you all right?" "I was captured by Rahl." "He tortured me, but I wouldn't tell him where I hid the boxes." "You were right about him." "Before I escaped," "I stole the cure for the plague." "We don't have much time, Richard." "Rahl knows you have all the boxes." "Look." "The tracer cloud is leading his men here right now." "If I hold the boxes, the cloud can't track them." "Zedd and Kahlan are sick." "I have to give them the cure." "Their welts are disappearing." "It's working." "Jennsen?" "Jennsen!" "Jennsen!" "Jennsen." "Jennsen." "No!" "Help!" "He has me!" "I'm over here!" "Hey, hey." "Shh." "Jennsen." "What are you doing?" "Stop." "Stop." "Stop." "I'm gonna take my hand away, but you can't scream, okay?" "Please, don't hurt me." "Hurt you?" "I'd never hurt you." "Why would you say that?" "Where were you going with the boxes?" "I'm taking them back to Lord Rahl, where they belong." "If you take them back to Rahl, we're all dead." "He told me you'd say that." "Whatever he told you, it's a lie." "Did you put the Boxes of Orden together and force people to kill each other?" "Let me go." "What's happened to you?" "Lord Rahl took care of me after your men almost killed me." "My men?" "They beat me so badly," "I couldn't even remember my own name." "Jennsen, don't you see?" "Rahl's filled your head with lies." "I'm not the villain." "He said you'd say that too." "Jennsen, look at my eyes." "Do you remember how we first met?" "I rescued you and our mother." "Do you remember that?" "No!" "Defend the box." "Our mother was captured by a Mord-Sith sent by Darken Rahl." "Stop!" "We tried to save her, together." "Yes, Jennsen," "I did use the power of Orden." "Richard, no!" "But everything I did" " Kill them all!" "I did to save our mother." "Stop!" "If that is your wish, My Lord." "Take us to our mother." "Yes, My Lord." "If Darken Rahl gets this box, we'd all be his slaves." "I don't even know you." "Why should I listen to you?" "Because he's the Seeker." "I am your grandfather." "That woman Denna is torturing is your mother too." "It wasn't you." "It was the power of Orden." "What'd I do?" "I know this isn't you." "The way of the Seeker is not vengeance." "We'll come see you again." "And be together, as a family." "When you smile, right around the eyes you look just like our mother." "I remember everything." "Richard." "My Lord, you've received another report." "The pristinely ungifted one has sided with the Seeker once more." "He has the boxes." "Pull back my armies before he has a chance to turn them against me." "And, Egremont, have Mistress Cara gather her sisters of the Agiel." "My Lord, perhaps you could negotiate a truce with the Seeker." "It's far too late for that." "Jennsen." "We missed you." "Where were you?" "What?" "I took a bolt in that shoulder." "Oh, I can heal a little pinprick like that in no time." "Pinprick?" "Did I mention I had to rip the bolt out of my own shoulder?" "What do you want me to do?" "Conjure you some sort of award?" "Kahlan still needs a little time to regain her strength, but she's asking for you." "I thought I was going to lose you." "Did you get the boxes?" "Yes." "Then it's almost over." "There is one more thing." "What is it, Richard?" "You have to Confess me."