Fic: Of Onyx Eyes and Metal Collars (LotS) part 2
Title: Of Onyx Eyes and Metal Collars
Fandom: Legend of the Seeker (LotS)
Pairing: Kahlan/Cara, minor Cara/Dahlia/Kahlan, minor Kahlan/Dahlia, minor Cara/Dahlia
Words: 8802
Rating: NC17
Spoilers: Up to Eternity
Warnings: Torture, violence, Angst, rough sex, BDSM, Dubcon/Noncon, implied threesomes, implied gangbang, strap on usage, character death (no not of our lovely ladies lol)... This is AU: Tears/Unbroken did not actually happen.
Summary: Dahlia pays the price for her insolence. Kahlan faces her reality. Cara remains an enigma. Sequel to Feeding the Emptiness.
A/N: I would like to thank phandomsock and neutralhealer for being my betas for this final chapter of my trilogy. Thank you so much guys for helping me out, I hope I put your suggestions to good use! I didn't want to post this tonight but neutralhealer threatened me with a whip and my newly acquired pet (areader221 ) has also been most insistent that I update ASAP lmao I love the fun in this fandom. Thank you all so much for welcoming me as the newb.
Red leather.
She stared at the knees, spread out almost obscenely before her. Her gut twisted in recognition.
Kahlan swallowed hard, fearing the worst. Mistress grabbed her jaw and forced her to look up.
\
There was no leather corset. There was no neck brace.
Mistress smiled at her, the tips of her blonde tresses smoothly rested past her shoulders, glinting orange as the sun set. She looked softer, almost playful.
They’d saved a village. In thanks, the townspeople had offered them free food. And so it was that she sat at a table, close to Richard but watching Cara. Off on her own, sitting in a darkened corner where the candlelight made her glow amber. She looked alone. It made Kahlan want to reach out, drag her back to the table. But it would be pointless; Cara did not do chit chat.
The weight of her gaze must have made its presence known. Cara turned to her, expression closed and disapproving. With recognition came the smallest of smiles, a quirk of one corner of her lip, slightly playful and mostly questioning.
It was a beautiful smile.
Her face was wet. She had promised herself she would not cry.
“Oh Kahlan... Surely you would appreciate this lie?”
She shut her eyes, her left not particularly useful in the first place.
“Leave me alone.” She hadn’t meant to speak, but the raw pain at seeing... Mistress. Like that. It tested the limits of her sanity. Her raspy voice sounded so pathetic, swallowed up easily by the dense stone walls of the temple.
“Alone?” She felt the mattress shift and listened to the creak of leather. Mistress’s warm breath on her face made her sick. As if each draw took pieces of her soul with it and breathed back death. “You would not like to see your Mistress? Dahlia would be most hurt...”
“Dahlia?” Her eyes shot open, her left stinging as she forced its swollen lids wide. The pitchy squeak would have embarrassed her and she would have admonished herself for believing anything Mistress told her... but she missed Dahlia. And Mistress was before her - looking like that.
She needed a moment, just a moment with the one person who had loved her.
“Yes, Dahlia...” the smile widened, green eyes dancing. It echoed old promises. “Would you like to see her?”
“Yes.” She couldn't even bring herself to hesitate, to pretend to think about it. To pretend she was not eager to the point of senility.
“Very well...” Mistress cocked her head, leaning back as her fingers played with Kahlan’s hair. “But you must do one thing for me.”
“What?” She asked sharply, her heart racing in her throat.
“Tell me. What is my name?”
Kahlan stared at her blankly, a small part of her brain screaming in abject terror.
“Mistress.” She whispered, her blue eyes, broken and fearful, begged.
“No.” Mistress leaned forward again, her fingers gripping Kahlan’s head back by the hair. Cheek to cheek, one empty jade orb burned through Kahlan’s only good eye. Her words were careful, powerful and dangerous.
“Think carefully, Kahlan. I will ask again. If you fail to answer me correctly... I will bring Dahlia here. And here on this bed, with you, I will kill her.” The sound of Kahlan’s soft crying and even softer pleading only spurred Mistress further. “I will kill her. I will kill her slowly. Do you understand?”
“Creator... please... yes, I understand....” She snorted, hyperventilating as her mind imagined this happening.
“I will take off my gloves... and with my bare hands - I will use my fingers to tear open her throat....”
“Oh Spirits... please no.... no please....”
“There will be no Breath of Life. Nothing will bring her back. And so help me - Kahlan - I will leave her corpse in your room. To rot. With you. You will bed with her.”
At that point Kahlan had no words, only mumbled apologies and gasps.
Mistress leaned back again, allowing Kahlan to slump forward as she cried.
“Kahlan. What is my name?”
For a split second - for only a tiny moment - Kahlan Amnell rose up. Her heart and her mind recoiled at what was happening. She was Mother Confessor. She protected those she loved. She killed for them. She did not bend to another’s will. And she would die fighting to protect her land, her people, and her family.
It was only for a moment.
Because her family was dead. And she, alone, did not have the power to save the world. No prophecy rested on her shoulders. They had rested entirely on one man. A dead man made into a monument for a decadent, hedonistic lunatic with much power and no limitation.
And she was no longer Mother Confessor. She was a pet. Dahlia’s pet.
So she died a little more that day and braced herself for the horror of her life.
“Cara.” The name left her lips like a prayer. No prayer that would reach the Creator, only one that teased the Keeper’s ears.
It was true. Mistress was Cara. The tears fell harder and the world became uglier.
Cara got up silently, her weight shifting the bed. Kahlan felt as if her whole body turned to lead and she couldn't bring herself to look up when the door opened. She had forgotten the whole point of Cara’s visit and it wasn’t until both women were standing by the bed that she realised she was supposed to look at them.
“Dahlia! You - ” The ecstasy in her voice died quickly.
Dahlia stood there naked, eyes glassy and staring out the window blankly. Her lips were parted slightly, a string of drool slowly making its way down her jaw.
“Mistress?” Kahlan gawked in shock.
Dahlia’s body appeared unmarked, thin to the point where Kahlan could count every bone, but otherwise unmarked. Something was wrong. Terribly wrong.
“Dahlia, say hello to your pet.” The words were barely a command, almost a suggestion, but Dahlia reacted instantly.
She turned to Kahlan, staring through her, her body rigid. Dahlia made a grunting noise.
“What... what did you do to her?” Her skin broke out in goosebumps. Dahlia looked like a perfect corpse.
With a light touch, Cara made Dahlia fall across the bed in front of Kahlan. The shattered woman lay limp at Kahlan’s knees with no indication of being aware of her environment.
Cara grinned eerily at Kahlan before she climbed onto the bed, straddling Dahlia’s bony waist. Dahlia turned to face the ceiling, to face Cara.
“What did you do?” Kahlan hissed, as angry as her energy allowed her to be. Not for the first time, she wished the Rada’Han were not around her neck. She would have loved to use the Con Dar.
“What did I do?” Cara looked at her, her hands playing with Dahlia’s braid. She looked at Dahlia before turning back to Kahlan and replying. “I did whatever I wanted to.”
“Damn you!” She wailed, unable to believe that Cara could be so cruel.
The slap was so hard it stunned her stupid. It had struck her wounded eye which only amplified the pain. But that was not what surprised her.
Dahlia hadn’t even turned to her, but her hand had moved so rapidly Kahlan hadn’t even seen it coming.
“Dahlia disapproves...” Cara mused, removing her gloves to stroke Dahlia’s cheek.
“Dahlia... Dahlia... please, Dahlia.... look at me...” Kahlan felt her world crumble, built on a weak foundation with the softest of plaster, everything was slowly coming undone.
Dahlia didn't react, still relaxed under Cara’s touch.
“She won’t look at you.” That recognizable, matter-of-fact voice tugged at Kahlan’s memories. “She’s mine. Much like you were hers. You’re going to be mine, too.”
Kahlan stared, watching as Cara moved her hands to Dahlia’s breasts, caressing them sensually before raking her nails over tender flesh. Dahlia moaned pleasurably.
“Dahlia... I’m yours... I’ll always be yours...” she desperately tried to make herself heard, to break through whatever Cara had done.
Dahlia arched her back as Cara moved to place herself between sickly thighs.
“I made her cut off her tongue.” Kahlan stopped breathing. “She did it herself. At my order.” Cara ground her hips into Dahlia’s sex, making the other woman moan as Cara’s Agiel pressed into her leg.
“No...” She choked, watching in revulsion at Dahlia bucking against Cara, feeling pleasure from a monster’s touch.
“Yes.” The word was blunt and dead. Cara reached down, stroking Dahlia’s sex, making her mewl appreciatively. Calm green eyes locked onto disbelieving blue while Dahlia panted and moaned.
“And if it would please me, she would do it again. Isn’t that so, Dahlia?” Kahlan tasted bile in her throat as Dahlia bucked, whimpering in acceptance.
“This is your life now, Kahlan.” She stopped her ministrations, making Dahlia whimper for lack of release. Cara wiped her coated fingers across Kahlan’s face, making her flinch in disgust.
“Kahlan.” She gripped the Confessor’s face with the hand covered in Dahlia’s scent. Kahlan flinched but forced herself to make eye contact.
“This is your life.” She brushed her thumb over Kahlan’s lip. “And this is my life.”
Kahlan stiffened, staring at Cara intently, as if seeing her for the first time her life.
“This has always been my life. This is how your life will be from now on. You need to accept it.”
“Nooooo....” The protest turned into a pained whine and she forced her eyes shut.
“Dahlia lied to you. You are not loved here. You will never be loved. Not by any of us.” The words were almost melodic, so soothing and apologetic.
She felt the bed shift as both Mord-Sith got up and moved behind her. Kahlan refused to open her eyes. The image of Dahlia’s emaciated body was burned into her mind. Another person she had loved... destroyed. And Cara kept talking, through the sound of leather shifting. Kahlan felt her skin go clammy. Her friend was stripping. If not having Dahlia strip her.
“Dahlia is a liar. As Lord Rahl’s favourite, we talk frequently. She had personally requested that you be brought to her. Instead of me. Isn’t that right, Dahlia?”
Kahlan’s face went slack, unable to hear Dahlia’s pathetic whimper.
“I’m surprised you didn't see this coming, Kahlan... Richard’s death seems to have robbed you of your ability to think.”
It couldn't be true; Kahlan didn't want to believe it. In her hour of desperation, she had opened up to Dahlia - her mistress. She had been so weakened, so tired and broken and she had given up. Dahlia had healed her, given her something to hope for: Dahlia’s presence. Everything of value was Dahlia. All she had left.
Rahl had ordered the cruelty, Dahlia had been helpless against his orders.
That had been her truth.
“You’re lying.” It sounded hollow, even to her ears. In her heart, she had always suspected. She had always known.
Her bindings shifted and she suddenly found herself flat on her back across the bed, staring up at the ceiling again.
She had thought it made of smooth stone, but on closer inspection she realised it was splintered, tiny hairline cracks along the stone slabs.
Her arms were lifted above her head, the chains now strapped to the bed frame. Kahlan didn't flinch, numbly acknowledging the feel of Dahlia’s fingertips as she secured Kahlan’s wrists down tightly.
The ceiling became her fixation. It was such a stupid thing to focus her attention on. But without Dahlia she was lost again and she really didn't know what she was supposed to do. Her identity had crumbled again.
“Oh Kahlan... don’t tell me you’re going off into your own little world again?”
She ignored the soft laugh, fixated on the cracks on the ceiling. They were intricate and complex and, for some reason, started to remind her of branches. Thin intertwined braches with lush green leaves covering the sky.
She was surrounded by thick tightly packed trees so tall she couldn't see the end of them. The sun was barely visible through the branches. It felt sacred and claustrophobic at the same time. There was no way out. Plants crawled up the length of the bark of every tree, fighting to reach the top to feed off a little sunlight.
And Kahlan lay there, almost hypnotised by the tangled limbs up above.
“Kahlan...”
She started when Cara suddenly hovered over her. It was then she realised Cara was naked. That toned, tan body comfortably placed between her legs. Cara rested a hand on either side of Kahlan’s head and peered at her.
There was something strange about her face, almost violent. The oddity disappeared as quickly as it came and Kahlan relaxed as Cara smirked at her. She smiled back, amazed at the warm flush the smile had on her.
“Cara.”
“Hmmm yes. Cara.” She raised an eyebrow. “Where are you, Kahlan?”
“Where?” The question made her smile drop, a flicker of fear in her eyes immediately made Cara give her a weak little smack on the jaw.
“Don't be so emotional.” She soothed. “Everything is fine.”
Cara ran a hand down Kahlan’s arm toward her breast. Kahlan gasped, shocked.
“Cara! What are you doing?!” She sounded scandalized, but for some reason she couldn't move her hands down from above her head.
“I’m... serving the Mother Confessor.” Her sly voice made Kahlan blush.
There was a reason they never had touched each other like this. Even though she had always been curious there had always been something that held her back. A commitment that was there in the back of Kahlan’s mind, but something warned her not to reach for the information.
“We - we can’t....”
“Oh? And why not?” There was something malevolent in Cara’s voice. A bitterness and anger she did not understand.
“It’s... it’s just - Oh!” She hissed in surprise with something large and strange started pushing into her sex. “Ah! Cara that hurts! What is that?!”
Cara was squeezing her eyes shut tight, biting on her lip, flushing slightly. The image of it momentarily distracted Kahlan from the pain of herself stretching.
“Cara - stop. Damn, it hurts.” She groaned, but for some reason she did not fight. She couldn't move her arms.
“It’s some very good magic.” Cara chuckled throatily, one of her hands reaching down to shift the harness. “A phallus, attached to me by a harness. I can feel everything.” She groaned softly, pushing the shaft up Kahlan slowly before pulling back slightly. It hurt like hell.
“Cara....” Kahlan started struggling but her arms would not move. She wanted to buck Cara off but what little twitching her hips did only pushed it in further, filling her up and burning.
“It’s a bit big for you...” Cara gasped before gripping onto Kahlan’s shoulders with her hands, bracing herself before she slammed their hips together in one smooth move. Kahlan screamed in shock, writhing under the blonde in an attempt to put distance between them.
“Calm yourself, Kahlan.” Cara shifted her hands to pin Kahlan’s hips down. “Keep this up and I won’t last very long at all.” Her hair fell over her face, a shimmering curtain that glinted in what little sun escaped through the curtain of leaves.
“Why... why are you doing this...” tears fell down Kahlan’s cheeks and down to her ears. She turned her head when she felt Cara start moving inside her.
“Because I can.” She thrust slowly, her body strained as she fought off a quick climax. “Because you’re mine. Because Richard is dead. Because I’m all you have so you’re going to take it.”
Without meaning to, Cara’s hips sped up, the sensation of Kahlan’s moist, hot, and very tight core, wrapped around the phallus that had become an extension of her own, was too much.
“You’re mine. I used to be yours. You failed me!” She thrust harder, angry at Kahlan for daring to cry like a little bitch. And each word tore at Kahlan’s heart, forcing the past to the surface.
The cries of pain spurred Cara forward too fast and she found herself jerking erratically above Kahlan within minutes. Kahlan went slack at the same time Cara did, grateful for the reprieve though Cara’s weight on top of her made it difficult to breathe. Her sex throbbed painfully and she started crying in earnest.
“Oh, Spirits....” Cara gasped. “It’s no wonder men can hardly last at all.”
The comment threw Kahlan off, sounding exactly like the Cara she knew.
“Cara... please.... please stop. It hurts. Please... this isn’t you... please...”
Cara shifted, making Kahlan wince since she hadn’t pulled out. With her lips to Kahlan’s ear she moved one hand down between them, placing her fingers to Kahlan’s raw sex. She moved her hands lightly over tender skin.
“Where are we, Kahlan?” Cara whispered, those soft lips brushing against her earlobe. “Tell me where we are.”
“We... Cara, please... don’t do this...” She didn't want to talk about where they were.
“This is a foolish game you play, Kahlan. Wherever we are isn’t real. We are in a Mord-Sith temple -“
“No...” she groaned in agony and pleasure mixed. Cara’s voice was sex. But the words were torture.
“You are tied to a bed... Dahlia’s standing by your head, staring at the wall. She’s not allowed to watch. Part of her punishment...”
“Cara...” Her breath hitched, surprised to feel a flutter of pleasure in her lower abdomen as Cara’s touch grew remarkably gentle.
“I told you not to trust her, but you never listen to me, Mother Confessor...” teeth grazed Kahlan’s ear, making her shiver. “Richard was an idiot, always off saving his fellow idiots, so I was not surprised when he sent me on a suicide mission to save my long dead son...”
She remembered brushing her hand down the length of Cara’s arm, feeling the tense muscles there, watching Cara’s face school into one of disinterest.
“You wanted to go...” she tried to argue, unaware that she was unwittingly acknowledging the past in an effort to defend herself against Cara’s verbal assault. “You pretended -“
“Yes, I wanted to go... but I would have dropped Dahlia for you. You know this.” She sucked on Kahlan’s ear briefly, making her eyes roll into the back of her head. Cara was tense above her, voice rasping as she obviously struggled not to respond to the wetness that was accumulating at Kahlan’s sex as the teasing intensified.
“I - I’m sorry.” Tears poured down her face anew.
“I know you are. Your apology is meaningless... Changes nothing.” Cara moved down to her neck as her hand started rubbing slowly, turning Kahlan’s pain into a delicious ache. Kahlan started shifting her hips, her arousal growing at Cara’s shallow breathing.
“What... what can I do?”
“Where are we, Kahlan?” A guttural sound left her throat as Cara started to move in time with her own pelvis.
“Cara...”
“Tell... me....” Cara hissed, moving more firmly against Kahlan’s body.
“We... we’re at a Mord-Sith temple....” She panted, the slick sound of Cara’s phallus passing in and out of her, coupled with the smack of their hips, echoed loudly within the stone room. The metal bed creaked and groaned while the tarp crackled.
They both grunted and gasped as their pace started moving faster. Kahlan whined Cara’s name over and over, incapable of thinking of anything else.
Kahlan was dying for release, her whole body was tense, but whenever she got close Cara would stop abruptly and force her hips immobile until Kahlan’s begging grew calmer. Then Cara would start up again to bring her even closer.
All the while, Cara would make her talk; make her say things that broke her heart.
“I’m yours... all yours... it’s my fault.... Richard’s dead. I failed... You... please... Creator, please....”
They were covered in sweat, skin bruised and scratched as they moved needily against each other.
It was an exquisite torture and part of Kahlan wondered how Cara could bear to touch her body after the entire temple had taken turns with it first.
For what felt like the hundredth time, Cara brought her close to her peak before she stopped. Kahlan grew incoherent, trying to fight the stronger woman, to demand completion. But before she could do anything, she heard a curious snap of metal.
Cara leaned away from her, shakily bracing herself on the bed with one arm, the other hand dangling the Rada’Han.
Kahlan’s face went white, all pleasure forgotten.
“You have a choice now, Kahlan.” Cara’s hair was matted, her face reddened from exertion, and it reminded Kahlan of every time they’d fought D’Haran soldiers, making her feel breathless. “You can kill me now. Kill us both.”
Kahlan blinked, suddenly aware of Dahlia standing above her ramrod straight.
“And then leave. There’s a tree right outside that window. Climb down it. And leave.” She whispered tersely, as if goading Kahlan.
Panic flooded Kahlan’s senses. With her heart in her throat, she suddenly realized the world was impossibly large and without Cara she had no one. Richard was long gone. So was Zedd. There was no hope and she would be alone in the world. The last Confessor. There was no point.
She would be directionless, lonely and broken. And the idea of Cara... dead... it made her sick. And it had been all her fault. What would be the point of her life?
Cara’s expression closed when Kahlan frantically grabbed the Rada’Han and attached it back around her neck. She thought she caught sight of disappointment in Cara’s features.
And then Cara moved her hips, with the same methodical and precise motions Kahlan had always known her to be capable of. And in a matter of seconds Kahlan was keening and bucking as Cara grunted her own release.
They twitched and shuddered for a good few minutes before they went limp.
And Cara did not stop; as soon as her energy came back she was back to fucking Kahlan senseless, over and over, while Dahlia stood on shaky and weak legs, staring at the wall.
The Agiel came into play and Kahlan’s screams would shift between pain and pleasure. In the end Kahlan was on her stomach, completely boneless as she came weakly for what she hoped was the last time. Her body was covered in Cara’s marks, bloodied and bruised; the tarp had been put to good use. Her body couldn't take any more sensation. She no longer even had the energy to beg Cara to stop or slow down.
“You are to call me Mistress Cara.” Kahlan groggily made a noise of acquiescence, unable to open her eyes. “You made your choice. You are mine. Don't be stupid and start daydreaming. If you displease me I will toss you back to the bottom where you’ll be everyone’s bitch.”
“Yes, Mistress Cara...” she mumbled tiredly. Her body was a complete wreck.
A heavy silence followed, as if Cara had more to say. But all Kahlan heard was the sound of the two Mord-Sith leaving as two others entered to drag her barely conscious form to the baths to be rinsed off.
She longed for Mistress Cara already.
****
“And that is how you break a pet.” She spoke almost wistfully.
Dahlia didn't move, standing stiffly by Cara’s bed while the now cleaned blonde stretched her body out on the blanket.
“You don’t feed their... futile hopes. You take it away. You make them know your reality.” Cara trailed off, talking more to herself than to the mute woman by the bed. Cara turned to Dahlia, as if remembering her presence.
Dahlia stayed there stoically, aware that she was not to move unless Cara told her otherwise.
“Hmm... I bet you want some sleep don’t you, Dahlia?” She smiled a little, mocking. “Would you like to sleep here? By me?”
The tear that fell from Dahlia’s cheek only made her smile wider.
“If you want to, all you have to do is ask...”
There was no response.
“My, I guess you’d rather not prefer the comfort of my bed. But I shall forgive your poor temper... after all; you’re probably not feeling well. I think... if you work hard enough... I will allow a wizard in to see you. See if he can fix your problem.”
The soft whimper of gratitude disgusted her.
“Go, lie on the floor at the foot of my bed.” She half snapped as she leaned over and snuffed the candle out with her fingertips.
She listened to Dahlia shuffle on the floor for a few minutes. When everything went quiet, her mind drifted away, dreaming of onyx eyes and a metal collar in her fist.
Fin.
A/N: thought I’d share neutralhealer’s lovely work, inspired by this chapter *blush* I'm honoured to inspire art:
