"So Zedd, tell me about this Box of Times. Can it really influence my feelings and even my perceptions? My dreams?"
In the other room Richard and Zedd had started to talk about the strange object in question. Zedd laid on the bed tired from the wine and Richard sat at a small table next to the window.
"It's a dangerous thing, you will see."
"Okay, and how will I see it?"
"Just wait. You can defer it perhaps for a while if you don't close your eyes...haha...but we need to sleep."
"Noo Zedd, I'm not sure if I really believe you. Why right now it would be especially dangerous?"
"Well as a wizard I feel certain things, like when there are powerful forces in the air. I feel that 'it' has been increasing."
"I don't follow you Zedd. Which 'it'?"
Richard started to grow more and more uneasy with Zedd's strange explanations, especially because his explanations didn't explain to him anything.
"Richard, let me clarify it to you. You need to think outside the ordinary, outside the box as they say, haha oops sorry, no pun intended!" Zedd had apparently become drunken now. "Because the appearances can fail you. You need to see the different possible combinations around us, like parallel worlds in which we could be living. Think about the kaleidoscope. More wine?"
Kaleidoscope, oh god, parallel universes, even better. What the heck was this wizard hallucinating? Richard accepted the bottle and took a much bigger sip than usually.
"Oh yeah kaleidoscope and parallel universes, right, yes, naturally, that's exactly what I'm thinking about right now." Richard muttered grumpily gurgling the wine.
"And there can be even sudden switches between these worlds. The switches happen usually when there are bright flashes in the horizon… this means the Arrows in the Box of Times could have been manipulated, their flow reoriented, the Arrow of Time, for example, mixed with the Arrow of Love, your enemies becoming your friends and vice versa and what not, or even lovers before they know it, timewise I mean, or allying with Darken Rahl, who could be…"
"Aaah! Shut up Zedd please I can't follow you!"
"And it can be also the other way around, where a previous manipulation relaxes back to the more normal flow of the Arrows. In that case, just as an example, the Mord-Siths, like Cara, could actually not be broken but their minds infiltrated by a set of certain surrogate memories… without you, Kahlan or herself knowing it, and Confessors, I don't even want think how complicated it could be for them. You see it's crazy out there, you don't want to …" Zedd's words started to blur out "...mess with... mmh...the...zzzz". Finally Zedd's talking machine silenced and he started to sleep.
Richard shook his head. Fine. Right. He felt like he was an actor in some kind of a weird theater piece, trying to desperately follow the script, but the script changed all the time and became more and more complicated with Zedd's goddamn explanations. He tried to think what Zedd had said, but it was too incoherent to make any clear sense. But Richard respected the wizard and didn't judge his words as simple drunkard's speech. Perhaps the whole damn thing, the effects from the Box, was too crazy even for Zedd to grasp. He suspected that even Zedd couldn't explain things better when he is sober. Right, then there would be nothing else to do than getting some sleep and bringing in the monsters. He would be ready for that funny box.
Just after he fell asleep there was the moment of crimson light flashing in the horizon.
A mix of faces. "Richard...Richard…" two different voices called his name. He couldn't recognize if they were women's or men's voices. Silence, blue light. Appearance of a kaleidoscope. Kahlan's face on one facet. On the others Zedd's face, Denna, Darken Rahl, his own face, Cara's face and still other faces, with no apparent order. The facets started to glide with respect to each other, and like in a prism, light scattered from one facet to another, from one face to another. Zedd with Darken Rahl, he with Kahlan, Kahlan with Cara, Darken Rahl, whose face looked like Zedd, with Kahlan. There was no logic, it was like everything was possible. An agiel on his skin, an electric field, a box whose cover was slowly opening, two crows, red and white clothes, two lips as one, bath, water condensing into fog in a forest, fluttering black hair, a letter he couldn't recognize, his sword cutting an object in two, a smiling face of a woman, a clear letter of 'M', an angry face of an unknown person, voices, screams, sounds of birds, Annabelle. The kaleidoscope's facets turned and slided faster and faster.
Then silence and darkness.
This was it? Okay, Richard thought, well, a kind of dream sequence. Cool, images generated through his brain from some past experiences. No monsters. His sword was close to him. Fingers touched his forehead. Zedd snored on the other side of the bed. A voice said everything is possible. The room was silent. He couldn't locate the source of the voice. Hair caressed softly his face and there was a kiss on his lips. He didn't feel it threatening, more that his sense of curiosity was heightened. Like familiar faces turning suddenly strange but equally interesting or even more. He almost perceived each one who had been around him as from a new perspective. He felt he was not anymore bound to a script, whatever it had been in the first place.
"Remember … remember the… remember the letters", Richard heard from next to him. It was Zedd speaking in his sleep. "Remember the letters", Zedd spoke very clearly but was deep in his sleep.
A hand caressed his head, ran fingers through his hair. Feminine touch? Kahlan? Somebody else? More than one person? It was impossible to see the faces which were over him, the shape of the body or bodies almost just a shadow in this deep darkness before the dawn. Richard didn't feel the need to lift up, grab the person, whoever it was, to find out. His main feeling was strange confidence.
The room became silent and Richard wanted to fall back into sleep. He wanted the kaleidoscope, he wanted the monsters. The second flash in the horizon reached him after a few hours.
"Richard, Richard! Wake up. What were the letters?"
"Uh, Zedd, take it easy, what is it?"
"What were the letters you saw in the kaleidoscope?" Zedd was very excited.
Ahh…how could Zedd know about the kaleidoscope? He would ask later. The second letter was so clear that he could remember.
"Well okay I remember the second letter was 'M', a burning 'M'."
"The first one? The first one?"
"I cannot recall Zedd. I don't often remember my dreams."
"Try Seeker, you must remember! It was not a dream. This is important." He grabbed Richard's arm.
Richard wiped his face and scratched his head. Now the image came back to him. It was a curved letter, like 'U', 'J' or 'C'. He remembered it.
"Yes Zedd. The first letter was a burning 'C', a red-hot 'C'."
"So 'C' and 'M' ? This is unbelievable!" Zedd almost jumped into the air.
"Would you care to explain Zedd, what about those letters?"
"The kaleidoscope is the effect of the Box of Times. The letters that enter into it refer to a person. This person is the most important one for setting the Arrows of Time straight if somebody has manipulated the box."
Richard turned his incredulous face at Zedd.
"C. M. … Cara Mason? Cara?"
"Yes, Richard. The absolute key person to setting the Arrows of Time straight is no one else than Cara."