“People who carry this inherent trait have been around long before you ever came along, Richard, and they will be around long after you are gone. It’s a constant struggle for balance in mankind itself—those who create and those who want only to destroy.”
“But we can’t let them win,” Richard insisted.
Zedd smiled sadly. “Even if you win this battle, the next day someone else will rise up. This is the basic struggle for mankind’s destiny—the struggle between civilized reason and savage emotion. It is endless and will go on until it eventually destroys the human race.
“In a perverse way, such evil is encouraged by the mere act of trying to do right by others. That good inflames their hate, drives them on, so in a way trying to do good only feeds evil.
“Maybe the meaning of ending prophecy to stop Sulachan is that you must end life itself. Perhaps it is nature’s intent for mankind to die out because the defect disqualifies us as a viable species. Perhaps our species does not deserve to survive.
“In the end, it’s a self-canceling flaw in mankind. After all, if those who hate win, then mankind itself is destroyed. Who are you to decide what the outcome of nature should be? That our species deserves to survive?
“In a way, your thinking that you can decide the course of nature is just as deluded as Sulachan’s. Who are you, in the scheme of things?
“If it is nature’s way to correct its mistakes, then mankind will die out. If that is the case, it matters little what you do. If the die is cast, then if not this time, if not now, then perhaps right after you have left this life, having squandered your entire existence on an ultimately hopeless struggle, the world of man will end anyway.
“Perhaps on the day you die and are no longer in the world of life, after fighting to save the good and decent people of the world, the final man will be born who will tip the scales and have what in his hatred of life he wants most, and finally succeed in throwing mankind into the oblivion of extinction.
“That is why I think you should choose to live your own life, Richard. Take what life you have left and live it for yourself. Leave this fight for mankind to mankind. Ease the world down off your shoulders. Take the weight off Kahlan’s shoulders. She carries that weight in part because you choose to do so. Let her live, Richard. Let yourself live.”
“But I am the Lord Rahl—”
“Are you doing any of this in order to rule? No. You are not fighting so that others will lift you up as an emperor. You instead want to lift others by letting them live up to their own potential. You are not struggling to rule, but to give others a chance at ruling their own lives. So stop ruling and let them live those lives.
“It should not be up to you alone to fight on behalf of life, it should be up to everyone. That is how nature balances itself.
“If enough people are strong enough in their love of life, then mankind will survive. If there are too many who do not value their lives, but instead hate life and those who love it, then mankind will not survive. You alone can’t tip the balance.
“Perhaps mankind does not deserve to survive. If that is the case, then nothing you do can really change the course.
“You have saved the day for everyone enough times, Richard, given them all another day to live. When is it time for your life, for you and Kahlan to live?
“I think the time has come for you to go off and save yourself. Leave the world of life to work it out on its own, the way all of nature in the end must do.”
CHAPTER
48
Richard couldn’t believe what he was hearing, especially from Zedd. It made him feel very lonely, and very lost.
It made the world seem too big, too overwhelming.
“After all you’ve taught me, Zedd, how can you give me such advice?”
“I am First Wizard Zeddicus Zu’l Zorander, that’s how. I, too, have lived—and live now again—for duty, as you do now. Perhaps I can see better from the perspective of my age what matters in life, what slips away from us when we aren’t paying attention, when we’re fighting all the time for others.”
“Zedd, I’m sorry, but I just don’t know how you can suggest such a thing. Would you advise me to let everyone die? I can understand you telling me that I need to remember to live life along the way, but how can you suggest that I let Hannis Arc and Emperor Sulachan go on unchecked? They will kill countless people and very possibly destroy all of mankind in their crazy scheme to rule everything.”
Zedd smiled sadly. “There is always someone who wants to rule the world, my boy, someone who wants power, someone who is willing to kill everyone they need to kill in order to get what they want. Wizard’s rule, remember? There have always been those who hate, and there always will be.