Fic: Privacy (a series of scenes)
Title: Privacy, A Series of Scenes
Author: AngelicSinner / VixenRaign
Pairing: Kahlan/Cara (pre-slash for now), Richard/Kahlan
Rating: G - R (G for now, maybe R later)
Warnings: Contains Femslash, and my rampant reinterpretation of how things may have gone after the end of Season 2.
Disclaimer: I do not own “Legend of the Seeker”, not do I even own copies of the “Sword of Truth” book series. They belong to Terry Goodkind, ABC and Disney TV. I make no profit, nor would I like to. This is all in good fun.
Author’s Note: I’ve always been fascinated by people, the way they are when they are alone with just one other person; who they allow themselves to be in the company of a trusted friend. The secret parts of themselves they reveal to just one, the way that brings them closer and allows them to understand each other in ways others could not…
Summery: Post “Tears”/Season 2. Life is complicated. So are people. And to quote a great comic book, “The thing about changing the world? Once you do it, the world’s all different.”
Step One
Scene Summery: The Stone of Tears has sealed the rift. Now the hard part; the lives they put on hold until this moment came.
Kahlan had, since her childhood, managed to be both pragmatic and optimistic. She was not a naïve girl; her clever mind could calculate the possibilities of situations or the world around her in myriad ways that spun the spectrum from wonderful outcome to horrendous disaster, and mentally prepare for any of it. That was not to say she could not be surprised; one cannot know everything, after all. She knew that while a Confessor’s power came from Love, Kahlan grew up knowing that any love she may feel would have to go unconsummated. She could love her sister, her mother, her fellow Confessors, and even friends. But, she knew, were she ever to fall in love with a man, he could never truly be her husband. He could not even be her mate. For a Confessor to love someone, and to make love to them, would destroy him, her, and the love she’d felt between them.
When Zedd had told her at the Pillars of creation that the love she had for Richard, if powerful enough to create and new Stone of Tears, was strong enough to survive confession, Kahlan was more shocked than surprised. Confession was absolute. Confession was the death of a soul until the death of a body.
Never before had there been one immune to Confession. No person was immune to love; love came naturally to humans. Even with the Mord’Sith, love had to be driven out and wholly replaced with hate, anger, violence and obedience. When a Mord’Sith was confessed, that feeling of love was forced into a body that had no room for it; the hate already inside them warred against it, and the devotion of love to the confessor warred with the Mord’Sith devotion to the Lord Rahl and consumed the woman until their death. That was where the torturous dying came from, the body’s unnaturally imbued magics colliding. The woman’s body was no more than a battlefield left ruined in the wake of the carnage.
When Kahlan then asked Zedd if there was any record of this, any past precedent that would lead him to know this, he said that there could be none. The last love so powerful, so magical, to create the original Stone of tears had been between the Keeper himself and the Creator. They lived, so neither had died, and none had power equal to them, so how could there be such precedence. Kahlan had believed him, though it was hard.
It was hard to make oneself un-believe all that they’d heard and known and seen for the entirety of their lives. But, there it had been; she had seen it for herself. Kahlan had tried to confess Richard, and had failed. Her sorrow over his death had been so great as to create a new Stone of Tears. Somehow, he was immune. Somehow, they and their love had been given amnesty. They felt rewarded, they felt blessed, and for the first time in far too long they felt safe. Kahlan and Richard were happy, finally.
In the hours between sealing the Rift and the sun beginning to go down, the debate between staying at the Pillars of Creation or finding somewhere else to make camp for the night lead to some unexpected results. What had begun as talk of what things may fill the next few hours, became a serious discussion of what would come next in all of their lives. Cara suggested that they leave the Pillars; the exposure at the cliff side would batter them with wind and cold in the night, and no doubt there would be sand blowing at them, and though the outcropping was raised it still left them rather unprotected. While Richard agreed she had a point, the next natural question to fallow was where they ought to go if not to stay there.
By the time the first stars were coming out, they were still at the Pillars. Zedd had started a fire with wood that Richard had gathered off of the beach, a dinner of muscles and crab was cooking in some herbs Kahlan had found, and Cara was dealing with the bodies of the dead Sisters of the Dark further down the shore. As they went about all of these tasks within the camp, the three talked of what would come.
They agreed that now the Rift was sealed, Kahlan had a duty to return to her people and take the seat of the Mother Confessor at Aydindril. There she, Richard, and Zedd would make a plea to the people and Counsel of the Midlands to aid in their support to help install Richard as the true Lord Rahl in D’Hara. With the knowledge of Darken Rahl being in an unnatural body and thus no longer having his magic, it was possible that if they acted quickly they could defeat him, and save both the Midlands and D’Hara from the bloody dynasty that the Rahls had been for generations. Richard had the bloodline, and the Han, and the Bond to the people of D’Hara. Without these things, they knew they had a fighting chance. They would have had more than that, but they would not underestimate Darken’s ferocity or knowledge of both his cruelty and previous experience being a ruthless commander of his once devoted people.
As they sat beside the fire, smiling to one another as Zedd prodded and stirred their dinner, Richard and Kahlan talked of their own future. They had set their bedrolls flush to one another, but in quiet voices had agreed to wait to be intimate until they were not in the open and surrounded by their traveling companions. In a playful tone, to hide his needless nervousness, Richard pointed out that if he and Kahlan were to be married, the people of the Midlands might be more inclined to help him in his quest to bring order to D’Hara, and have cause to believe him when he would pledge to unite the two warring countries peace. Kahlan smiled, asking if that was really how he was going to propose to her. The Seeker blushed, and moved to drop to one knee next to the over-turned pillar upon which they’d been sitting- but Kahlan stopped him. Technically, she reminded him, no one may instigate physical contact with the Mother Confessor unless invited. She pledged to take Richard as her mate, and when he ruled D’Hara, if he so wished, he may then ask her to marry him. They both laughed. Then kissed, pressing their heads together, and stayed peacefully like that until Zedd declared dinner was ready.
The Keeper was once again locked away under the earth in the Underworld, no more banelings could rise, the Sisters of the dark were without their leader Nicci, who was now dead, and the Mord’Sith had gone back to Darken Rahl, though they now knew he did not have the Bond to control them anymore. They could be swayed, and perhaps in time they could accept their Bond to Richard as Cara had. And Cara, though always somewhat aloof, seemed even more withdrawn.
Richard worried that perhaps after once again riding and fighting alongside her fellow Sisters of the Agiel, Cara would be reminded of her loneliness in this past year without them. Kahlan smiled, and reassured him; she did not have such worries. Richard wanted to remind Cara that though she might have been the only Mord’Sith within their group, she was far from alone. Kahlan watched as he walked to the edge of the cliff side to speak to her. Though she could not hear what was said, she did notice that Cara appeared a little startled when Richard appeared next to her. Kahlan could not remember a time when the blonde had ever been startled before. Zedd must have noticed her eyes following them.
“I imagine Cara has spent most of her life not having to think as much as she has this evening.” Zedd said sagely, grabbing the Mother Confessor’s attention. “Her entire life has been following orders and being taught to restrict her thoughts only to how she may best serve those giving her orders.” Kahlan smiled sadly at him. His eyes fixed on hers, obviously trying to find the words to say something he did not quite know how to phrase. “She could not kill you, you know.”
“What?”
“In the village, as you rode away, she had her bow trained on you and could not release the arrow.”
“What?” Kahlan asked, incredulously. Zedd merely nodded, looking past her shoulder to where the other two spoke in the distance.
“She said that, in the brief moment, she feared she would fail to be able to bring you back with the breath of life.” Zedd found Kahlan’s eyes wide and unfocused when he looked back towards them. “And in her hesitation, you managed to get away and kill her Lord Rahl. And caused you both great sadness and great pain.” Kahlan looked up at him from where her gaze had fallen into the fire, her eyes shimmering with sadness. “I imagine she feels she failed you both very greatly.”
“She did not fail us,” Kahlan insisted, her voice slightly rougher with emotion.
“But she will not know that.”
“Zedd, if she had not,” Kahlan cleared her throat quickly, “if she had not hesitated, he would not have died, and there would not have been a new Stone created. And, honestly? I feel more comforted than betrayed knowing she could not so easily kill me.” Zedd smiled at her small attempt at dryness.
“Kahlan, I believe very much that Cara feels she is losing her usefulness to you, and to Richard, if she cannot do what needs to be done. This past year, she has been steadfast in her role as the one to keep you both focused on the greater quest, to make the hard decisions, and to carry out those things you and Richard could not bring yourselves to do. And, here, she feels she failed you; she could not save you from your Con Dar or protect her Lord Rahl because she doubted herself. Cara, as a Mord’Sith, would never doubt her abilities. But as your friend, now she does.”
“She thinks we’ve made her weak.” Kahlan surmised. Zedd nodded, sighing. “Is that why she is withdrawn?” Zedd just shrugged.
“Perhaps.” He began ladling the food onto plates, passing one to Kahlan as they heard the footfalls of their two approaching companions. Richard walked to Zedd, who was now filling his grandson’s plate, and Kahlan tugged Cara’s sleeve as she moved to walk past the Confessor, pulling Mord’Sith down to sit beside her on the fallen Pillar. The blonde gazed at her, an eyebrow already lifted displaying her confusion. Kahlan just smiled, and passed her plate to the other woman, taking the remaining one as the Wizard held it out to her. Cara eyed the dish and the brunette warily, as though not understanding. Kahlan bumped her shoulder gently, smiling.
“Thank you.” Kahlan said to her quietly. Cara moved to ask what she meant, but never got to, “for everything.”
Cara’s head dropped only slightly, her eyes suddenly fixed hard on her plate or right through it to something else. Kahlan watched as the other woman nodded, her throat moving as she swallowed down her emotions almost literally. Richard sat himself down on Kahlan’s other side, and though they two spoke through dinner while Cara sat eating slowly in silence, the Mother Confessor found her mind thinking as much on the unspeaking Mord’Sith as on her banter with the Seeker. When the meal was finished and the blonde moved to go back to her watch, Kahlan stopped her with a question.
“Cara, will you come with us to Aydindril?”
The blonde paused at hearing this, her eyes confused. “It is an honor to serve the house of Rahl,” she said as though having to explain the obvious, “Where Richard goes I must follow.”
“Cara, you don’t need to come with us. We just want you to come with us,” Richard clarified, smiling softly at her, “You are free to go as you please, I hope you know that?”
“Perhaps it is what I need,” Cara said solidly, here face once again the hard mask of the Mord’Sith. “The Lord Rahl is a title not loved nor respected by the people of the Midlands. Your role as the Seeker may be a balm to the burn of your parentage and rite to the thrown of D’Hara, but no doubt there will be those who will bristle at your wanting to be joined to the Mother Confessor. While my being Mord’Sith will no doubt disgust the people of Aydindril, it will cause those who may wish you harm to reconsider any attempt if they will be met with my Agiel.” Here the blonde smirked menacingly, “And I welcome them trying; perhaps if they see the ferociousness with which I will protect you both, perhaps our accompanying the Mother Confessor back to her throne will not besmirch her people’s opinions of her.” Her green eyes became stern. “They must not fear she has been corrupted. If her people cannot trust her, there will be no hope for peace in D’Hara, the Midlands, or anywhere. We must prove our loyalty to Kahlan, and to her people, before we ask them to help us gain the trust of ours, my Lord.”
Richard’s face became serious as he nodded. Cara stood fully, inclined her head once towards the Seeker, and with a hand on the hilt of her Agiel walked out of the firelight and back towards the now dark cliff’s edge. Kahlan looked to Zedd, who smiled back at her slightly, before going back to picking every morsel from their shells of his dinner. Apparently, Cara had never question where she was going or what came next for her. She knew what she must do, what must be done, and most of all what she wanted. Kahlan admired her for that.
~AngelicSinner