Forgiveness - drabble prompt.
For angel_in_tears
There are still eight open slots at laurelindorenae.livejournal.com/11150.html
Pairing/Prompt: RahlxCara
Inspiration:
Please Don't Let It Go - HIM
Salt In Our Wounds - HIM
I'm Not That Girl - WICKED original broadway Cast
Forgiveness
He couldn’t believe he was doing this. Actually no. Neither of them could believe in what was happening. But after all, he had learned that it was best to be on the side of righteousness than on the losing side. Maybe this was just self preservation, as he seemed to be rather good at in the last year or so since returning to the Land of the Living. Or maybe there was an actual change taking place in his heart.
Two years ago Richard and Kahlan would have asked what heart there could possibly exist for there to occur a change within. But since the day they gave to Darken Rahl Walter’s body, they had started to learn and to see that he wasn’t inherently evil. Arrogant beyond measure and self obsessed, yes, but that was a far cry from the evil they had thought to have known.
But this was a different year, a different world and a better future. Richard was the King of D’Hara, Kahlan his Queen. D’Hara was a peaceful nation; and the Midlands looked to them for guidance. It was the kind of Empire that Rahl had sought to create, but had done it in all the wrong ways. He was learning now that force would not breed love. He had been doomed from the start. But despite how good of a King Richard was, and how wise his Queen and his adviser, the First Wizard was, there were things that just could not be handled the way that the Seeker would have preferred. And so he turned to Darken Rahl, the former King. His blood.
Together they had swore a pact; forged and uneasy alliance. But, it was an alliance none the less. When Richard needed the brute force that he himself could not conjure, Rahl would be there to aid him. And though he had lost his magic, Rahl promised his aid in whatever way that he could - as long as it was a two way street. Richard had to vow that he would help his relation in whatever way the he commanded when the other Rahl asked for help. It had been a bitter agreement, but it had taken place. Sealed with a locked warriors‘ grip, and signed parchments.
Darken walked through the palace halls. The halls that used to be his home. And while the D’Haran banners remained the same, he knew the palace had changed. It was for the better, he supposed, but it was a change none the less. Walking down the carved marble hallway, he passed fewer and fewer people. The people seemed to disperse like cockroaches upon seeing their once overlord and master. But Rahl ignored it as he kept moving on. Eventually he found himself in older, less visited hallways. And yet he heard the sobs. The tears of a woman. She seemed to be down just another hall. But the voice sounded familiar, and he raised a plucked brow. It couldn’t be. But curiosity quickly won out. He had never been one to have patience, even when it came to the most trivial of issues. What should he, Darken Rahl, care if there was some stupid woman crying in the stone confines of the Peoples Palace?
Because his heart was changing, that’s why. And though it angered him that he at all cared to see what was wrong (he attributed this nasty little change of character to spending too much time with the Seeker and his Confessor), he turned down the hallway. What he saw stopped him in his tracks.
Up the hall, sitting on the red velvet cushion of a window seat, was Mistress Cara. Her dark blonde hair had grown a little in the last year, and now reached down to middle chest. The back however still brushed around the top of her shoulder blades. Her red leather gloves were removed and she stared out the window as sobs racked her body once in a blue moon. Rahl flinched slightly, but it was enough of a movement. Cara’s attention snapped from the view of the world, vast and beautiful through the window, to her former Master.
Finally Darken Rahl found his voice, knitting his brows a little. A look of near disgust on his face, “Why are you weeping?”
Cara tried to steel her features quickly. Once it would have taken seconds and none would have been the wiser to her tears, but she was having a fair bit of difficulty at the moment. It seemed like it was taking forever. When she did steel herself she turned angry jade eyes upon him. “What would it matter to you?”
But Darken matched her glare with his own. The raptor gaze of the House of Rahl. He may no longer have been of the bloodline, but he shared the same face, the same body. He was still himself in all but blood. He needed only one word. One harshly spoken word to grab her attention. “Cara.”
The blond Mord’Sith turned her eyes away again. She was already in a such a state that she didn’t feel she had the ability to fight off Darken’s harsh nature at the moment. It would be easier to ignore him. Than she could steel herself and be the woman he knew years before. But she was never going to be that woman again. Not since she served the Seeker.
He sighed and rolled his eyes, knowing he was not going to get an answer from her without changing his tactics. He moved closer to her, and took a seat beside her on the window seat. Cara sat at an angle, his new position caused her knees to brush against his thigh slightly. He waited for her to speak. He would leave it up to the Mord’Sith in her to finally force her to talk to her master. Even if he was no longer that master. He knew she associated him with the ruling power over her still. Richard was a good King, but he was not what Darken Rahl had been to Cara. Nothing close to the bond Cara and Darken had shared.
“It’s nothing. It’s stupid. I shouldn’t even be concerned by it.”, Cara tried to make her heartache all the less in her mind. If she said it wasn’t a problem, than it wasn’t a problem. And most of all, Darken would leave her side, and she wouldn’t have to feel so utterly useless anymore.
His voice came stern and commanding once more. He knew it wasn’t as simple as she put it. “Cara…”
She cringed a little, if only because she hated that tone. It made her feel like a child. But, after taking a breath she decided it was better to tell him than to have him continue to pester her. She still didn’t understand why Richard, or Zedd, or Kahlan for that matter (especially Kahlan) would allow him within the Palace walls, yet alone make friends with him. “Leo. The Seeker in place of Richard. I loved him. He died. There, that’s it.” She brushed her hand over her eyes. The black of her kohl running off onto the back of her white hand. She grumbled a little to herself. She would have to reapply the makeup.
His arrogant voice broke her thoughts, “And you’re still mourning him...”
Cara’s green eyes suddenly turned up to his steely blue irises. Her jaw squared and her lips pursed. Her brows knit in anger. “I could have had a normal life with him. I could have had a child who would have lived.”, she threw a dark and knowing glare to her former master, and lover. She knew now what he had done to their child. “But now that’s gone. I’m never going to be that. Not with a man who loves me. Who could love a Mord’Sith? Especially one that was trained by the hand of Darken Rahl himself.”, she half laughed, trying to coat her pain in humour. She just silently hoped that he did not laugh as well. Because that would break her further. And if it weren’t for the fact that she knew he could snap her neck in an instant, she would draw her agiel on him should he find humour in the pain.
But he didn’t laugh. Instead his brows knit together a little. He gazed into her jade eyes for a long moment. For anyone but a Mord’Sith it would have been unnerving. He never blinked. He never broke the contact. His mind was racing. What to say? What to do? What would the Seeker say in his place? Probably some sweet drivel. But he wasn’t Richard. And he silently thanked the spirits that was so. After a long moment of thought, as he gazed into her eyes, he spoke. His voice lowered, and slow. Emphasising each word. Making sure she understood him. “Am I no one than, Cara?”
The woman’s green eyes widened, taken off guard. A strange thing for a Mord’Sith, and yet it had been done. With her cheeks drawn in slightly, and her lips pressed together, she stared wide eyed now into the stormy blue of his eyes. The portals to heart and soul. She could feel the right corner of her mouth starting to twitch a little.
“Cara, I am sorry for your loss… both of them.”
She was still on edge, she hated that he did this to her. She never knew any more if she should feel that love swell back beneath her breast for him, or if she should hate him. Hating him was easier. Hate and pain had always been easier. The repercussions they brought were easily dealt with. But love and pleasure brought another sense of pain. A pain that no healer could extinguish. A pain that lived only in her emotions and her heart. But, she listening and was waiting for him to continue.
“Cara.”, Darken sighed softly. He didn’t know how him coming to see who was crying had turned into this conversation. This speech. He didn’t even know when things had changed. he just knew that they were rearing their ugly heads now. “Every day I have regretted the choice I made to have our son murdered. Our Nicolas.”, Rahl paused, looking at her with a tender and guilty expression. He sank off of the cushion and onto the floor in front of her. On his knees. How had this happened?
Cara had steeled herself. Looking at him with disgust. Knowing this had to be a trick. He probably just wanted her in his bed once again. And if he had made that point known outright, at a different time, she would have complied. But not while she was weeping over her dead lover. Now she had to face his apology for murdering the child of his that she carried devotedly for nine months. Her baby boy.
“Please Cara, forgive me…”
She continued to glare at him, when her brows knit a little, looking into his face and listening to the tone of his voice. Realization hit her like a brick wall. She didn’t have to be a Confessor to see the truth. She balked. It hurt her, but she knew that she had to look the road ahead, and not the path behind. She bit her lip for a long moment, debating with herself over what she should do. Finally, after many long moments, her voice came, “I…I… I forgive you. Now get up you look ridiculous.”, Cara had to fight off a smile that was trying to pull it’s way at her lips. But when Darken gave her his very rare, goofy, grin from one half of his mouth, her grin had broken finally.
When Rahl stood to his feet once more, he moved back to the cushion. Taking his place beside her. His grin had faded into a gentle but sad smile. As had Cara’s. But, none of that mattered. Darken put his arms around her narrow waist, pulling her into an embrace. Cara wrapped her leather covered arms around neck and shoulders, holding him just as close. She kept her eyes open for a moment as she rested the lower half of her face against his warm shoulder. She touched his hair and drank in the scent of perfume oil that had been used to wash his hair. She sighed deeply and closed her eyes. Embracing him all the tighter.
She had her lover back. The only one that ever truly mattered.
There are still eight open slots at laurelindorenae.livejournal.com/11150.html
Pairing/Prompt: RahlxCara
Inspiration:
Please Don't Let It Go - HIM
Salt In Our Wounds - HIM
I'm Not That Girl - WICKED original broadway Cast
Forgiveness
He couldn’t believe he was doing this. Actually no. Neither of them could believe in what was happening. But after all, he had learned that it was best to be on the side of righteousness than on the losing side. Maybe this was just self preservation, as he seemed to be rather good at in the last year or so since returning to the Land of the Living. Or maybe there was an actual change taking place in his heart.
Two years ago Richard and Kahlan would have asked what heart there could possibly exist for there to occur a change within. But since the day they gave to Darken Rahl Walter’s body, they had started to learn and to see that he wasn’t inherently evil. Arrogant beyond measure and self obsessed, yes, but that was a far cry from the evil they had thought to have known.
But this was a different year, a different world and a better future. Richard was the King of D’Hara, Kahlan his Queen. D’Hara was a peaceful nation; and the Midlands looked to them for guidance. It was the kind of Empire that Rahl had sought to create, but had done it in all the wrong ways. He was learning now that force would not breed love. He had been doomed from the start. But despite how good of a King Richard was, and how wise his Queen and his adviser, the First Wizard was, there were things that just could not be handled the way that the Seeker would have preferred. And so he turned to Darken Rahl, the former King. His blood.
Together they had swore a pact; forged and uneasy alliance. But, it was an alliance none the less. When Richard needed the brute force that he himself could not conjure, Rahl would be there to aid him. And though he had lost his magic, Rahl promised his aid in whatever way that he could - as long as it was a two way street. Richard had to vow that he would help his relation in whatever way the he commanded when the other Rahl asked for help. It had been a bitter agreement, but it had taken place. Sealed with a locked warriors‘ grip, and signed parchments.
Darken walked through the palace halls. The halls that used to be his home. And while the D’Haran banners remained the same, he knew the palace had changed. It was for the better, he supposed, but it was a change none the less. Walking down the carved marble hallway, he passed fewer and fewer people. The people seemed to disperse like cockroaches upon seeing their once overlord and master. But Rahl ignored it as he kept moving on. Eventually he found himself in older, less visited hallways. And yet he heard the sobs. The tears of a woman. She seemed to be down just another hall. But the voice sounded familiar, and he raised a plucked brow. It couldn’t be. But curiosity quickly won out. He had never been one to have patience, even when it came to the most trivial of issues. What should he, Darken Rahl, care if there was some stupid woman crying in the stone confines of the Peoples Palace?
Because his heart was changing, that’s why. And though it angered him that he at all cared to see what was wrong (he attributed this nasty little change of character to spending too much time with the Seeker and his Confessor), he turned down the hallway. What he saw stopped him in his tracks.
Up the hall, sitting on the red velvet cushion of a window seat, was Mistress Cara. Her dark blonde hair had grown a little in the last year, and now reached down to middle chest. The back however still brushed around the top of her shoulder blades. Her red leather gloves were removed and she stared out the window as sobs racked her body once in a blue moon. Rahl flinched slightly, but it was enough of a movement. Cara’s attention snapped from the view of the world, vast and beautiful through the window, to her former Master.
Finally Darken Rahl found his voice, knitting his brows a little. A look of near disgust on his face, “Why are you weeping?”
Cara tried to steel her features quickly. Once it would have taken seconds and none would have been the wiser to her tears, but she was having a fair bit of difficulty at the moment. It seemed like it was taking forever. When she did steel herself she turned angry jade eyes upon him. “What would it matter to you?”
But Darken matched her glare with his own. The raptor gaze of the House of Rahl. He may no longer have been of the bloodline, but he shared the same face, the same body. He was still himself in all but blood. He needed only one word. One harshly spoken word to grab her attention. “Cara.”
The blond Mord’Sith turned her eyes away again. She was already in a such a state that she didn’t feel she had the ability to fight off Darken’s harsh nature at the moment. It would be easier to ignore him. Than she could steel herself and be the woman he knew years before. But she was never going to be that woman again. Not since she served the Seeker.
He sighed and rolled his eyes, knowing he was not going to get an answer from her without changing his tactics. He moved closer to her, and took a seat beside her on the window seat. Cara sat at an angle, his new position caused her knees to brush against his thigh slightly. He waited for her to speak. He would leave it up to the Mord’Sith in her to finally force her to talk to her master. Even if he was no longer that master. He knew she associated him with the ruling power over her still. Richard was a good King, but he was not what Darken Rahl had been to Cara. Nothing close to the bond Cara and Darken had shared.
“It’s nothing. It’s stupid. I shouldn’t even be concerned by it.”, Cara tried to make her heartache all the less in her mind. If she said it wasn’t a problem, than it wasn’t a problem. And most of all, Darken would leave her side, and she wouldn’t have to feel so utterly useless anymore.
His voice came stern and commanding once more. He knew it wasn’t as simple as she put it. “Cara…”
She cringed a little, if only because she hated that tone. It made her feel like a child. But, after taking a breath she decided it was better to tell him than to have him continue to pester her. She still didn’t understand why Richard, or Zedd, or Kahlan for that matter (especially Kahlan) would allow him within the Palace walls, yet alone make friends with him. “Leo. The Seeker in place of Richard. I loved him. He died. There, that’s it.” She brushed her hand over her eyes. The black of her kohl running off onto the back of her white hand. She grumbled a little to herself. She would have to reapply the makeup.
His arrogant voice broke her thoughts, “And you’re still mourning him...”
Cara’s green eyes suddenly turned up to his steely blue irises. Her jaw squared and her lips pursed. Her brows knit in anger. “I could have had a normal life with him. I could have had a child who would have lived.”, she threw a dark and knowing glare to her former master, and lover. She knew now what he had done to their child. “But now that’s gone. I’m never going to be that. Not with a man who loves me. Who could love a Mord’Sith? Especially one that was trained by the hand of Darken Rahl himself.”, she half laughed, trying to coat her pain in humour. She just silently hoped that he did not laugh as well. Because that would break her further. And if it weren’t for the fact that she knew he could snap her neck in an instant, she would draw her agiel on him should he find humour in the pain.
But he didn’t laugh. Instead his brows knit together a little. He gazed into her jade eyes for a long moment. For anyone but a Mord’Sith it would have been unnerving. He never blinked. He never broke the contact. His mind was racing. What to say? What to do? What would the Seeker say in his place? Probably some sweet drivel. But he wasn’t Richard. And he silently thanked the spirits that was so. After a long moment of thought, as he gazed into her eyes, he spoke. His voice lowered, and slow. Emphasising each word. Making sure she understood him. “Am I no one than, Cara?”
The woman’s green eyes widened, taken off guard. A strange thing for a Mord’Sith, and yet it had been done. With her cheeks drawn in slightly, and her lips pressed together, she stared wide eyed now into the stormy blue of his eyes. The portals to heart and soul. She could feel the right corner of her mouth starting to twitch a little.
“Cara, I am sorry for your loss… both of them.”
She was still on edge, she hated that he did this to her. She never knew any more if she should feel that love swell back beneath her breast for him, or if she should hate him. Hating him was easier. Hate and pain had always been easier. The repercussions they brought were easily dealt with. But love and pleasure brought another sense of pain. A pain that no healer could extinguish. A pain that lived only in her emotions and her heart. But, she listening and was waiting for him to continue.
“Cara.”, Darken sighed softly. He didn’t know how him coming to see who was crying had turned into this conversation. This speech. He didn’t even know when things had changed. he just knew that they were rearing their ugly heads now. “Every day I have regretted the choice I made to have our son murdered. Our Nicolas.”, Rahl paused, looking at her with a tender and guilty expression. He sank off of the cushion and onto the floor in front of her. On his knees. How had this happened?
Cara had steeled herself. Looking at him with disgust. Knowing this had to be a trick. He probably just wanted her in his bed once again. And if he had made that point known outright, at a different time, she would have complied. But not while she was weeping over her dead lover. Now she had to face his apology for murdering the child of his that she carried devotedly for nine months. Her baby boy.
“Please Cara, forgive me…”
She continued to glare at him, when her brows knit a little, looking into his face and listening to the tone of his voice. Realization hit her like a brick wall. She didn’t have to be a Confessor to see the truth. She balked. It hurt her, but she knew that she had to look the road ahead, and not the path behind. She bit her lip for a long moment, debating with herself over what she should do. Finally, after many long moments, her voice came, “I…I… I forgive you. Now get up you look ridiculous.”, Cara had to fight off a smile that was trying to pull it’s way at her lips. But when Darken gave her his very rare, goofy, grin from one half of his mouth, her grin had broken finally.
When Rahl stood to his feet once more, he moved back to the cushion. Taking his place beside her. His grin had faded into a gentle but sad smile. As had Cara’s. But, none of that mattered. Darken put his arms around her narrow waist, pulling her into an embrace. Cara wrapped her leather covered arms around neck and shoulders, holding him just as close. She kept her eyes open for a moment as she rested the lower half of her face against his warm shoulder. She touched his hair and drank in the scent of perfume oil that had been used to wash his hair. She sighed deeply and closed her eyes. Embracing him all the tighter.
She had her lover back. The only one that ever truly mattered.