Deceive Me - Drabble Prompt.
There are still six open spots at laurelindorenae.livejournal.com/11150.html
For 16beckyb
Pairing: RahlxKahlan
Inspiration:
Scared to Death - HIM
Tonight And The Rest Of My Life - Nina Gordon
Torn - Natalie Imbruglia
Deceive Me
She couldn’t believe the words that came from her lips. She had just promised herself over to the man she hated most in the world. All for the chance that the Seeker might one day return to them. She hated that she had allowed herself to be kept as a trophy of the D’Haran King’s exploits in the world. He had the Last Confessor. The Mother Confessor. But, there were things that she did not know.
What she did not know, was that Darken Rahl did not take Kahlan as his wife as a trophy. He did it so that the people would have to love him as their monarch; it was a misguided effort to make the people see him for what he was. At least what he was in his own mind. A man devoted to his people and their well being. Dedicated to world peace, which he thought only he could bring. He just wanted the best world for his children. Even if it meant killing people in order to bring that world into being. Even if it meant selling his soul. Darken thought that with Mother Confessor as his Queen, that the people would follow him, out of love. With this in his mind, he had done everything she had asked of him. He had done everything she had asked for the people. Places of healing, and justice throughout the lands.
Through these deeds, Rahl concreted for himself the rule that he wanted. The people were beyond loyal to him; they adored their Queen. But they knew she was Queen only through force. That the Mother Confessor would never choose this fate for herself. She was the Seeker’s Guide in the Midlands. Never would she give herself to the side of evil.
But the day that the Confessor learned that she was carrying Rahl’s child, she was excited. She had set the way the world would go. She was going to be successful; a Confessor would be born of her union with the King of D’Hara, and then that child would help Richard come back to them. And this future would never come to be. But that wasn’t the only reason her heart leapt when she knew she was pregnant. She couldn’t put her slender finger upon it, but it made her happy for another reason. It didn’t have to do with simply bearing a child. She knew she would have been happy about that no matter whose child it was. She knew that even if it had to be Darken Rahl’s child that she would love her daughter more than anything.
But as the month’s passed and her belly grew all the more heavy with their child, Kahlan could feel her emotions changing. And it had nothing to do with the raging hormones pounding through her blood. And what she knew it was, scared her and angered her. Somewhere deep in the recesses of her heart, her feelings were changing. She was getting used to the company of Darken Rahl. More than getting used to it. She was starting to enjoy it. And she hated herself for it. Darken Rahl was the very man she had been fighting against for so long. The man that she had sacrificed everything for, for the ability to destroy. To set the world right.
But the world was so wrong. The Seeker was dead - or rather, lost in time. And she was married to the man that she had hated. Yet she was somehow falling ever so slightly in love with him.
It might have been the attention that he was giving her. Rahl was given to holding her as she slept; wrapping his arms warmly under her bulging pregnancy. She hated to admit that it eased the pressure on her back. He was cradling their child even before she was born. She hated that the warmth of his torso pressed to her back eased the aching she was feeling through the day. Hated to admit his soft breath on the back of her neck was soothing. Richard was never able to give her this. It’s not that he didn’t want to of course, but it just wasn’t possible. There was no future for her and Richard. Especially now.
It was strange.
But when Nicolas was born everything had changed.
Darken felt his heart swell, bursting with a feeling he didn’t think he could have. A deep and unbreakable bond with his blonde little son. And profound sense of love for the woman that had birthed him his child. There was a change in him. Kahlan could see it. And while she was ashamed of herself for bearing a boy, and well aware of the consequences, Kahlan could only hold her baby close. She worried for the future, but she prayed with herself as his mother that perhaps the curse of male Confessors would not affect the darling little Nicolas. She prayed to the spirits that Nicolas would be stronger than that. That his father’s Wizard blood pumping through his body would change his fate. That the blood magic would balance the power of the Confessor’s han.
Two years passed, and as Kahlan raised her son with the man she once hated more than anything, things had clearly changed. Rahl was her husband, she tried to embrace it. She would always love the Seeker, but she was unsure if there was anything she could truly do to assure his return. Even if she could, she wondered now if she could work towards a future where her beautiful little son didn’t exist. She knew she could not force her child to work towards his own end. After all the plan would reset time. Back to that fateful moment when the Mord’Sith had arrived just before their master and sent Richard sprawling forward through time. If she carried out the strategy, than she would have Darken Rahl destroyed. And Nicolas would never be born. She would be asking the boy to destroy himself, and the father he loved with all of his heart. She didn’t know if she could do that to her son. Or his father. She hated herself, but wondered if, in the end, this was the proper end for herself. She was married to a man that could give her children without fear of taking his soul. She was with a man who fit the criteria for the mate of a Confessor. He was full of guilt (even if he did not acknowledge a shred of it), he was strong, he was wealthy. He was handsome, and most of all he was of strong Wizard’s blood. Blood that would mix with her Confessor’s han and create powerful offspring. If Kahlan ever bore him a second child (which as she thought it over, she realized she wouldn’t mind), than that daughter would be Mother Confessor in her own time. There was still a chance for the world to be alright.
Kahlan was torn, as she always seemed to be these days. One side of her heart wanted to help Richard return to destroy the tyrant upon the throne of D’Hara. But, the other side of her heart wanted nothing more than to give herself over to the life she had chosen for herself. The only life in which she might ever bear a child. Even if it had been Darken Rahl’s child. But as much as she once hated the bastard, for all the horrors that she had seen caused by his hand, she was unable to look at him the same. She didn’t see that side of him; it was reserved for the affairs of state and dealing with those that still fought against him. But in her life, here within the palace, all she saw was the man. The man who doted upon her as his Queen, and upon the young Prince.
The Prince who she could hear playing. Walking into one of many royal lounges, she had heard the giggling of her child. But, Kahlan expected to see Nicolas playing with one of the nannies. As always. What she saw, stopped her in her tracks.
Darken sat upon the floor, his bare feet sticking out from under the hem of his skirts as he curled his legs to the side. His back was against the seat of a plush couch. He was laughing a little from his throat as he held Nicolas over his head, lifting him up and down. The boy was giggling brightly. Without the mask he was just a man. Just the father to a toddler child. A bright grin was spread on his features, his eyes absolutely sparkling. His entire being aglow with love for the boy.
Nicolas was giggling as his father moved him about. “Daddy!”
Rahl somehow managed to grin all the wider as he lowered Nicolas down to his chest and cuddled him close. Hugging him as close as he could and rubbing his back. The boy cuddled into his hair and into the crook of his neck. His little hands gripping his dark locks. Kahlan was still standing froze, watching the scene taking place. But there was a smiling creeping over her lips. Darken sensed her in the doorway, and as Nicolas snuggled into him he turned his face to her. His bright grin softened into an warmth and caring smiling. Kahlan’s eyes widened a little as she felt her heart flutter and bubble up with a feeling that she thought had been reserved for Richard. Apparently she was wrong. Even if Rahl wasn’t her true love, she could not deny that he had never done a thing during their marriage to make her fear him or hate him. Not to her at least.
The years passed, and while Kahlan had not born them a second a child, they had tried for it. Rahl decided he wasn’t going to hold it against her; they already had a darling little boy. The boy who was now twelve years old.
But Kahlan’s blood ran cold when she saw what Nicolas had done to his playmate Ethan. The curse of male Confessors was coming to light. She knew what she had to do. But she had to try and warn her husband first, so that the child would not turn against him.
Her long red velvet skirts swished back and forth out behind her as she took long strides. She had to find him. She had to warn him. Her mind was racing. The halls flew by in a blur of white marble. She burst into his study, “Darken!”
Rahl looked up slowly from the book he was reading. Looking up to her, and knitting his brows before one raised up. “What is it now Kahlan?”
She froze, she needed to tell him but she was afraid. “Darken, what I feared when Nicolas was born, has come to pass. He’s confessed Ethan!”
He just stared at her, “Should I be concerned?”
She stared at him for a long moment, her brows knit. “I… Darken… even you cannot control him. Please Darken I will give you another child but I cannot--”, she froze when she saw the glare on his face.
“You have TRIED to give me another child and you have been unable to. You are not going to kill Nicolas and that is final! He’s my son-- he’s YOUR son! Don’t you have a heart!?”
But Kahlan had known better than her husband. She knew what had to be done. She had tried to draw the blade across her son’s throat. Though it broke her heart. She wasn’t as cold to the feeling as her husband seemed to think of her. Nicolas was her flesh and blood as well after all. But the confessed child, Ethan, had alerted the guards. And she had been dragged before her husband. He had beat her.
Rahl stood panting, “Since you are the mother of my child,” he paused briefly, as if what he was saying was bothering him, “I will grant you a merciful death.”
“No father!” Nicolas looked up from where he sat in his father’s throne. Rahl turned to look at him questioningly, as Kahlan looked to him hopefully. If he could forgive her this, than perhaps the curse of male Confessors had not taken him over. But her face paled when she heard his next words. “Let me.”
Darken stared at him for a long moment, before he nodded his head and stepped out of the way for the boy. Though, he moved slowly. Deep in his mind he was fighting the urge to stop Nicolas. He wondered if Kahlan had been right. Could he control the boy?
Of course he could. He was Darken Rahl after all.
Nicolas stepped forward and kept his hands clasped behind his back; a trait of his father’s which had picked up over the years. He looked up at his mother. Staring into her eyes for a long dark moment. Kahlan saw in there no love. No recognition of the fact that she had always loved him. She didn’t see the little boy that she had given birth to. The one that loved both his parents more than anything else in the world. That boy was seemingly dead. “Mother, your plans will go unfulfilled.”
Kahlan narrowed her eyes, watching and waiting. She expected her husband’s dagger to be stabbed into her breast by her son. Or worse. One of her own twin blades.
“And when the Seeker makes himself known once more, I will capture him. I will throw him to the Mord’Sith, and I will flay him alive. And while he is writhing in pain I will throw him into a salt bath before the hounds are set upon him. When he is a bleeding mess, near death, I will torture him once more. He will beg for forgiveness.”
Even Darken Rahl was caught off guard. Looking at his son from behind with widened blue eyes. Maybe this wasn’t the best idea. But it was too late now.
Kahlan bared her teeth, breathing heavily through her nose. She was enraged, and she could feel the Con Dar dancing back and forth in her blood. Wanting to come forward. But the decorative Rada’han around her throat kept it at bay.
Nicolas smirked, this was what he wanted to see. “And when he is weak and can no longer fight even in his mind, I will kill him. I will kill him with his own blade. The Sword of Truth.”
Kahlan continued to fight. Forcing herself to remain as calm as she could.
Nicolas kept the arrogant smile upon his lips as his father watched with slightly knit brows. The blonde child moved closer to his mother, who was held once again by two guards. Keeping her in place when she tried to move back. He leaned up a little, and whispered into her ear. “And father is not safe either. I will kill him when you are dead. He will roast forever in the fires of the Underworld. And there is nothing you can do to stop it.”
Kahlan snapped. The Con Dar wanted to be released. She was overcome by an invisible wind as she screamed in pain and anger. Her hair was ripped out of the style she wore; the long layers whipping about in the wind that affected only the Mother Confessor. Her eyes flashed back and forth between blood red and clear blue as the Rada’han tried to suppress the powerful magic. But the Blood Rage wanted revenged. She fought against it bravely, but without the release of the pent up magic, the Con Dar was a suicide mission.
And Kahlan fell to the floor as she grew weaker. She reached out, lost in her storming magic, trying to confess whoever was nearest to her. But the collar would not allow her that pleasure.
Nicolas simply watched her writhe in pain and roll trying to conquer her magic and break the choker as she screamed out. He stood with his hands folded behind his back. Watching with boredom as if he were watching a toad hop across the marble floor.
Darken was watching in horror; his mouth agape and his eyes full of terror.
But the Con Dar was too much for the shackled Confessor, and she finally fell still. The Rada’han had blocked her magic and sentenced her to death.
Kahlan lay dead on the marble floor. Her dark hair laying as a halo around her head.
Darken’s voice was trembling slightly when he finally spoke, “Gather her up. Take her body and ready her for burial. But treat her kindly. She was the Queen after all.”, he cast his eyes down at Nicolas from over his shoulder as he rubbed his bottom lip with the pad of his right middle finger. But he gazed for only a moment before he took off. Striding out of the throne room and into further recesses of the Peoples Palace.
Two weeks or so passed, before the stone artisans of the Kingdom were finished crafting the funerary effigy of the Confessor Queen. They had crafted Darken Rahl‘s at the same time. When it came time for his own burial, he had decided he didn‘t want to have to wait for so long. Father Rahl should be buried quickly beside his Queen when he passed. He just didn‘t know how swiftly it would be. The day after they had completed her lifelike image, the funeral was held. When the priest and the mourners had left, only Darken and Nicolas remained. Gazing down at her eternal tomb.
Darken took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. But even the breath came with slight shuttering. He kept gazing into the stone face of his wife. After a moment he spoke, “It’s just you and me now, Nicolas.”, he wrapped his arm around the boy and pulled him against his side. Hugging him and sheltering him.
“No father.” When Rahl looked in confusion down at the blonde boy, Nicolas spoke again. “It’s just me.”
Rahl’s brows knit, but he gasped. The feeling of the cold steel thrust through his breast. The steel was like ice, but his flesh felt afire. He gasped deeply as the blade was pulled from his body by the man behind him. He slumped down on the floor. Gasping and wheezing as he slowly died. The blade had missed his heart, and severed his pulmonary artery. He was bleeding to death inside of his chest cavity. The excess seeped out from the wound in his back, covering the white marble floor with the sticky nearly black mess.
“Have I pleased you, Master?”, above the dying King stood the man who was once his most trusted advisor. General Egremont. He looked to the boy expectantly.
Darken’s eyes flashed from the general and back to his child as he clutched as his breast; the other hand gripping the side of his wife’s sarcophagus.
Nicolas looked down at him, watching him die as if it didn’t matter. “You’ve pleased me very much.”
Darken frowned, he could barely complete each thought. The world was growing foggy, but he couldn’t believe that his son had ordered this. He had loved that boy more than anything. But there was no time to dwell on it. The world finally turned black.
D’Hara had a new King. Nicolas.
For 16beckyb
Pairing: RahlxKahlan
Inspiration:
Scared to Death - HIM
Tonight And The Rest Of My Life - Nina Gordon
Torn - Natalie Imbruglia
Deceive Me
She couldn’t believe the words that came from her lips. She had just promised herself over to the man she hated most in the world. All for the chance that the Seeker might one day return to them. She hated that she had allowed herself to be kept as a trophy of the D’Haran King’s exploits in the world. He had the Last Confessor. The Mother Confessor. But, there were things that she did not know.
What she did not know, was that Darken Rahl did not take Kahlan as his wife as a trophy. He did it so that the people would have to love him as their monarch; it was a misguided effort to make the people see him for what he was. At least what he was in his own mind. A man devoted to his people and their well being. Dedicated to world peace, which he thought only he could bring. He just wanted the best world for his children. Even if it meant killing people in order to bring that world into being. Even if it meant selling his soul. Darken thought that with Mother Confessor as his Queen, that the people would follow him, out of love. With this in his mind, he had done everything she had asked of him. He had done everything she had asked for the people. Places of healing, and justice throughout the lands.
Through these deeds, Rahl concreted for himself the rule that he wanted. The people were beyond loyal to him; they adored their Queen. But they knew she was Queen only through force. That the Mother Confessor would never choose this fate for herself. She was the Seeker’s Guide in the Midlands. Never would she give herself to the side of evil.
But the day that the Confessor learned that she was carrying Rahl’s child, she was excited. She had set the way the world would go. She was going to be successful; a Confessor would be born of her union with the King of D’Hara, and then that child would help Richard come back to them. And this future would never come to be. But that wasn’t the only reason her heart leapt when she knew she was pregnant. She couldn’t put her slender finger upon it, but it made her happy for another reason. It didn’t have to do with simply bearing a child. She knew she would have been happy about that no matter whose child it was. She knew that even if it had to be Darken Rahl’s child that she would love her daughter more than anything.
But as the month’s passed and her belly grew all the more heavy with their child, Kahlan could feel her emotions changing. And it had nothing to do with the raging hormones pounding through her blood. And what she knew it was, scared her and angered her. Somewhere deep in the recesses of her heart, her feelings were changing. She was getting used to the company of Darken Rahl. More than getting used to it. She was starting to enjoy it. And she hated herself for it. Darken Rahl was the very man she had been fighting against for so long. The man that she had sacrificed everything for, for the ability to destroy. To set the world right.
But the world was so wrong. The Seeker was dead - or rather, lost in time. And she was married to the man that she had hated. Yet she was somehow falling ever so slightly in love with him.
It might have been the attention that he was giving her. Rahl was given to holding her as she slept; wrapping his arms warmly under her bulging pregnancy. She hated to admit that it eased the pressure on her back. He was cradling their child even before she was born. She hated that the warmth of his torso pressed to her back eased the aching she was feeling through the day. Hated to admit his soft breath on the back of her neck was soothing. Richard was never able to give her this. It’s not that he didn’t want to of course, but it just wasn’t possible. There was no future for her and Richard. Especially now.
It was strange.
But when Nicolas was born everything had changed.
Darken felt his heart swell, bursting with a feeling he didn’t think he could have. A deep and unbreakable bond with his blonde little son. And profound sense of love for the woman that had birthed him his child. There was a change in him. Kahlan could see it. And while she was ashamed of herself for bearing a boy, and well aware of the consequences, Kahlan could only hold her baby close. She worried for the future, but she prayed with herself as his mother that perhaps the curse of male Confessors would not affect the darling little Nicolas. She prayed to the spirits that Nicolas would be stronger than that. That his father’s Wizard blood pumping through his body would change his fate. That the blood magic would balance the power of the Confessor’s han.
Two years passed, and as Kahlan raised her son with the man she once hated more than anything, things had clearly changed. Rahl was her husband, she tried to embrace it. She would always love the Seeker, but she was unsure if there was anything she could truly do to assure his return. Even if she could, she wondered now if she could work towards a future where her beautiful little son didn’t exist. She knew she could not force her child to work towards his own end. After all the plan would reset time. Back to that fateful moment when the Mord’Sith had arrived just before their master and sent Richard sprawling forward through time. If she carried out the strategy, than she would have Darken Rahl destroyed. And Nicolas would never be born. She would be asking the boy to destroy himself, and the father he loved with all of his heart. She didn’t know if she could do that to her son. Or his father. She hated herself, but wondered if, in the end, this was the proper end for herself. She was married to a man that could give her children without fear of taking his soul. She was with a man who fit the criteria for the mate of a Confessor. He was full of guilt (even if he did not acknowledge a shred of it), he was strong, he was wealthy. He was handsome, and most of all he was of strong Wizard’s blood. Blood that would mix with her Confessor’s han and create powerful offspring. If Kahlan ever bore him a second child (which as she thought it over, she realized she wouldn’t mind), than that daughter would be Mother Confessor in her own time. There was still a chance for the world to be alright.
Kahlan was torn, as she always seemed to be these days. One side of her heart wanted to help Richard return to destroy the tyrant upon the throne of D’Hara. But, the other side of her heart wanted nothing more than to give herself over to the life she had chosen for herself. The only life in which she might ever bear a child. Even if it had been Darken Rahl’s child. But as much as she once hated the bastard, for all the horrors that she had seen caused by his hand, she was unable to look at him the same. She didn’t see that side of him; it was reserved for the affairs of state and dealing with those that still fought against him. But in her life, here within the palace, all she saw was the man. The man who doted upon her as his Queen, and upon the young Prince.
The Prince who she could hear playing. Walking into one of many royal lounges, she had heard the giggling of her child. But, Kahlan expected to see Nicolas playing with one of the nannies. As always. What she saw, stopped her in her tracks.
Darken sat upon the floor, his bare feet sticking out from under the hem of his skirts as he curled his legs to the side. His back was against the seat of a plush couch. He was laughing a little from his throat as he held Nicolas over his head, lifting him up and down. The boy was giggling brightly. Without the mask he was just a man. Just the father to a toddler child. A bright grin was spread on his features, his eyes absolutely sparkling. His entire being aglow with love for the boy.
Nicolas was giggling as his father moved him about. “Daddy!”
Rahl somehow managed to grin all the wider as he lowered Nicolas down to his chest and cuddled him close. Hugging him as close as he could and rubbing his back. The boy cuddled into his hair and into the crook of his neck. His little hands gripping his dark locks. Kahlan was still standing froze, watching the scene taking place. But there was a smiling creeping over her lips. Darken sensed her in the doorway, and as Nicolas snuggled into him he turned his face to her. His bright grin softened into an warmth and caring smiling. Kahlan’s eyes widened a little as she felt her heart flutter and bubble up with a feeling that she thought had been reserved for Richard. Apparently she was wrong. Even if Rahl wasn’t her true love, she could not deny that he had never done a thing during their marriage to make her fear him or hate him. Not to her at least.
The years passed, and while Kahlan had not born them a second a child, they had tried for it. Rahl decided he wasn’t going to hold it against her; they already had a darling little boy. The boy who was now twelve years old.
But Kahlan’s blood ran cold when she saw what Nicolas had done to his playmate Ethan. The curse of male Confessors was coming to light. She knew what she had to do. But she had to try and warn her husband first, so that the child would not turn against him.
Her long red velvet skirts swished back and forth out behind her as she took long strides. She had to find him. She had to warn him. Her mind was racing. The halls flew by in a blur of white marble. She burst into his study, “Darken!”
Rahl looked up slowly from the book he was reading. Looking up to her, and knitting his brows before one raised up. “What is it now Kahlan?”
She froze, she needed to tell him but she was afraid. “Darken, what I feared when Nicolas was born, has come to pass. He’s confessed Ethan!”
He just stared at her, “Should I be concerned?”
She stared at him for a long moment, her brows knit. “I… Darken… even you cannot control him. Please Darken I will give you another child but I cannot--”, she froze when she saw the glare on his face.
“You have TRIED to give me another child and you have been unable to. You are not going to kill Nicolas and that is final! He’s my son-- he’s YOUR son! Don’t you have a heart!?”
But Kahlan had known better than her husband. She knew what had to be done. She had tried to draw the blade across her son’s throat. Though it broke her heart. She wasn’t as cold to the feeling as her husband seemed to think of her. Nicolas was her flesh and blood as well after all. But the confessed child, Ethan, had alerted the guards. And she had been dragged before her husband. He had beat her.
Rahl stood panting, “Since you are the mother of my child,” he paused briefly, as if what he was saying was bothering him, “I will grant you a merciful death.”
“No father!” Nicolas looked up from where he sat in his father’s throne. Rahl turned to look at him questioningly, as Kahlan looked to him hopefully. If he could forgive her this, than perhaps the curse of male Confessors had not taken him over. But her face paled when she heard his next words. “Let me.”
Darken stared at him for a long moment, before he nodded his head and stepped out of the way for the boy. Though, he moved slowly. Deep in his mind he was fighting the urge to stop Nicolas. He wondered if Kahlan had been right. Could he control the boy?
Of course he could. He was Darken Rahl after all.
Nicolas stepped forward and kept his hands clasped behind his back; a trait of his father’s which had picked up over the years. He looked up at his mother. Staring into her eyes for a long dark moment. Kahlan saw in there no love. No recognition of the fact that she had always loved him. She didn’t see the little boy that she had given birth to. The one that loved both his parents more than anything else in the world. That boy was seemingly dead. “Mother, your plans will go unfulfilled.”
Kahlan narrowed her eyes, watching and waiting. She expected her husband’s dagger to be stabbed into her breast by her son. Or worse. One of her own twin blades.
“And when the Seeker makes himself known once more, I will capture him. I will throw him to the Mord’Sith, and I will flay him alive. And while he is writhing in pain I will throw him into a salt bath before the hounds are set upon him. When he is a bleeding mess, near death, I will torture him once more. He will beg for forgiveness.”
Even Darken Rahl was caught off guard. Looking at his son from behind with widened blue eyes. Maybe this wasn’t the best idea. But it was too late now.
Kahlan bared her teeth, breathing heavily through her nose. She was enraged, and she could feel the Con Dar dancing back and forth in her blood. Wanting to come forward. But the decorative Rada’han around her throat kept it at bay.
Nicolas smirked, this was what he wanted to see. “And when he is weak and can no longer fight even in his mind, I will kill him. I will kill him with his own blade. The Sword of Truth.”
Kahlan continued to fight. Forcing herself to remain as calm as she could.
Nicolas kept the arrogant smile upon his lips as his father watched with slightly knit brows. The blonde child moved closer to his mother, who was held once again by two guards. Keeping her in place when she tried to move back. He leaned up a little, and whispered into her ear. “And father is not safe either. I will kill him when you are dead. He will roast forever in the fires of the Underworld. And there is nothing you can do to stop it.”
Kahlan snapped. The Con Dar wanted to be released. She was overcome by an invisible wind as she screamed in pain and anger. Her hair was ripped out of the style she wore; the long layers whipping about in the wind that affected only the Mother Confessor. Her eyes flashed back and forth between blood red and clear blue as the Rada’han tried to suppress the powerful magic. But the Blood Rage wanted revenged. She fought against it bravely, but without the release of the pent up magic, the Con Dar was a suicide mission.
And Kahlan fell to the floor as she grew weaker. She reached out, lost in her storming magic, trying to confess whoever was nearest to her. But the collar would not allow her that pleasure.
Nicolas simply watched her writhe in pain and roll trying to conquer her magic and break the choker as she screamed out. He stood with his hands folded behind his back. Watching with boredom as if he were watching a toad hop across the marble floor.
Darken was watching in horror; his mouth agape and his eyes full of terror.
But the Con Dar was too much for the shackled Confessor, and she finally fell still. The Rada’han had blocked her magic and sentenced her to death.
Kahlan lay dead on the marble floor. Her dark hair laying as a halo around her head.
Darken’s voice was trembling slightly when he finally spoke, “Gather her up. Take her body and ready her for burial. But treat her kindly. She was the Queen after all.”, he cast his eyes down at Nicolas from over his shoulder as he rubbed his bottom lip with the pad of his right middle finger. But he gazed for only a moment before he took off. Striding out of the throne room and into further recesses of the Peoples Palace.
Two weeks or so passed, before the stone artisans of the Kingdom were finished crafting the funerary effigy of the Confessor Queen. They had crafted Darken Rahl‘s at the same time. When it came time for his own burial, he had decided he didn‘t want to have to wait for so long. Father Rahl should be buried quickly beside his Queen when he passed. He just didn‘t know how swiftly it would be. The day after they had completed her lifelike image, the funeral was held. When the priest and the mourners had left, only Darken and Nicolas remained. Gazing down at her eternal tomb.
Darken took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. But even the breath came with slight shuttering. He kept gazing into the stone face of his wife. After a moment he spoke, “It’s just you and me now, Nicolas.”, he wrapped his arm around the boy and pulled him against his side. Hugging him and sheltering him.
“No father.” When Rahl looked in confusion down at the blonde boy, Nicolas spoke again. “It’s just me.”
Rahl’s brows knit, but he gasped. The feeling of the cold steel thrust through his breast. The steel was like ice, but his flesh felt afire. He gasped deeply as the blade was pulled from his body by the man behind him. He slumped down on the floor. Gasping and wheezing as he slowly died. The blade had missed his heart, and severed his pulmonary artery. He was bleeding to death inside of his chest cavity. The excess seeped out from the wound in his back, covering the white marble floor with the sticky nearly black mess.
“Have I pleased you, Master?”, above the dying King stood the man who was once his most trusted advisor. General Egremont. He looked to the boy expectantly.
Darken’s eyes flashed from the general and back to his child as he clutched as his breast; the other hand gripping the side of his wife’s sarcophagus.
Nicolas looked down at him, watching him die as if it didn’t matter. “You’ve pleased me very much.”
Darken frowned, he could barely complete each thought. The world was growing foggy, but he couldn’t believe that his son had ordered this. He had loved that boy more than anything. But there was no time to dwell on it. The world finally turned black.
D’Hara had a new King. Nicolas.