Chainfire is the ninth book in Terry Goodkind's epic fantasy series The Sword of Truth, and the first in a trilogy.

Richard Rahl is the ruler of the D'Haran Empire, a collection of nations previously made up of D'Hara and the Midlands.

Chainfire continues the story of Richard in his attempt to teach the people that their lives are theirs alone, and that they can be free of the Imperial Order.

He is brought to Nicci, a sorceress and former Sister of the Dark, who heals him using Subtractive Magic; this causes unforeseen events to spiral out of control.

To prove Kahlan's existence, Richard exhumes her grave and is shocked to find a corpse in the buried casket with a nametag attached to her dress.

Desperate to get their "Richard" back so that he will "fulfill prophecy" and lead the D'Haran army against the forces of Emperor Jagang.

Upon arriving, they find themselves in the midst of a group of Imperial Order advanced scouts who have captured a girl named Jillian, part of a people called the "Dream Casters".

At the same time, the reader learns that Kahlan indeed exists, and has been kidnapped by the four remaining Sisters of the Dark who escaped the Dream Walker in Blood of the Fold.

Richard, Nicci, and Cara then travel to the People's Palace and learn that the boxes are missing and that they have been put into play.

While there, they learn that an older woman has been found fatally stabbed near the D'haran army; Nicci and Richard determine that it is Sister Tovi.

Richard, Nicci and Cara return to the Wizard's Keep and, with the information gathered from Tovi and the book "Chainfire", they finally manage to convince Zedd, Nathan, and Ann of the truth.

Also, simply attempting to erase the memory because it uses Subtractive Magic, has a strong probability of destroying portions of the mind, thus killing the subject.

Not in part, nor in whole.It is explained in the novel as follows: "To believe in a contradiction is to abdicate your belief in the existence of the world around you and the nature of the things in it, to instead embrace any random impulse that strikes your fancy – to imagine something is real simply because you wish it were.