Nicci's Reflection...
Fandom: Sword of Truth series
Characters: Nicci, mention of Richard, Kahlan and Cara
Prompt: Nicci's backstory (we were given some in the books, either do a snippet using that canon or make it up completely to stick in the show!verse)
Rating: General
Word count: 470
Warning: Not beta'd. Any mistakes are my own.
A/N: This is Nicci's reflection on the past. It's book-verse, but everything's more or less explained in the story. Basically, in Soul of the Fire, Kahlan was mortally injured and was spelled so that any magic used to heal her would kill her. So in Faith of the Fallen, Richard and Cara brought Kahlan to Westland to recover and he builds a small house for the three of them to live in seclusion and paradise. It's also when Cara learns to bake bread!
I sorta wrote this to go, what if at the end of Faith of the Fallen, Richard, Kahlan, and Cara get to go back to their paradise and be happy? And, of course, to see how Nicci's changed since the events in the book.
The first time Nicci saw the People‘s Palace, her initial reaction was one of disgust.
’How could they waste all these resource on this one place when people in the Old World went hungry every day?‘ she had thought to herself.
But as she travelled from D‘Hara to the Midlands and then to Westland, she realized that what she had grown up believing, what her mother had taught her, was so twisted that it was barely recognizable from the truth.
It was true that there were starving people, and people who didn‘t have enough money, but Nicci quickly realized that it was not because other people were selfish. No, it was because these people were selfish. It was not hard to be friendly and to politely ask around for work, as the good-hearted were always willing to help, even if they didn‘t have a lot themselves.
When she was young, she didn‘t understand why her father wouldn‘t hire any many jobless people as he could. She couldn‘t understand why he was being so selfish and only hired the ones who were the most skilled in their craft. She couldn‘t understand why he kept letting his pride and greed get in the way of helping those who needed it.
But she understood now.
Only the most skilled workers were the most passionate at their craft, and therefore worked the hardest. They didn‘t care about the money, only that their work would benefit others. Their pride helped improve the quality of their work, not impede it.
Looking back, she wished that she had been stronger as a child. She wished that she had understood the voice in the back of her mind that told her that she should be proud to be a blacksmith‘s daughter. She wished that she hadn‘t falling into her mother‘s insidious teachings.
Her father had helped a lot of people. Her mother had only helped the greed of people. Her mother had sold her into a life of eternal servitude of the greedy.
As Nicci watched Cara, Kahlan, and Richard in their little house, their little paradise, she realized that she had made the right choice. Jagang‘s goal may sound the same as hers, but she was not willing to forfeit the live of others for those who will not work to repay her kindness.
Casting the maternal spell on Kahlan and taking Richard away from everything he loved had been a necessary price for what she reaped in the end. One that she would gladly pay again if she had to do it all over again. The one true Seeker had opened her eyes to the world that she had been blind to for so long.
It was strange that he would be the one to do it, but maybe it was the Creator‘s design all along.
FIN.