Chapter One:
D'Hara
Lauren stared at the Ash's empty seat, nervously. Without him, whoever walked in could, potentially, harm her if their powers were as chaotic as the whispered rumours said they were. There'd been talks that the person was part of the Mother Confessor's court, but that was impossible. The Mother Confessor hadn't been heard from in over a millennia, which meant that a new Mother Confessor would be in place a few times over now.
That, in its self, was a terrifying thought. They knew nothing of this new court from the Midlands, and even less about this fae.
Lauren's eyed the surrounding fae around her warily. Who's to say any of them would defend her? Without the Ash, it'd be too easy to lie and say that the new fae was too quick, too dangerous for them.
She took in a breath and clasped her hands by her back, straightening her spine. She was being ridiculous, if she was careful, diplomatic, and considerate as she was with every fae that walked into the lab, she'd be fine. The fae would have no reason to attack and she'd be seen as nothing else but the human doctor.
The doors opened and Lauren inhaled a sharp breath, but as it was before, another one of the Light Fae walked in, making Lauren feel increasingly underdressed. She was simply dressed, a simple white buttoned-down shirt, dark brown pants and a lab coat.
Many of the others were, in anticipation of one of the Mother Confessor's court, dressed in their finest. Ranging from different styles, to even periods. Though many were also dressed in battle gear. The lack of contact happened due to a major war when the Light and Dark united under the circumstances to force the Neutral, now Midlands court, out of their realm.
The Neutral had upset the balance by becoming to strong. The option then, had appeared to be the right choice, but now the balance was different.
The door opened, wider than the previous. Lauren tensed, eyes flicking to the empty next to her before looking at the expressionless faces around her. They were like her; worried, fearful and excited.
A shadow flickered forward, and Lauren knew when she saw her. The hair was tied back intricately, and she was dressed in a gown that showed more pushed-up cleavage than it hid, and an expression of resentfulness on her features. In Lauren's opinion, the expression was in being placed in the dress.
Her eyes locked onto Lauren's and a small smile tugged at a single corner of her lips. Lauren froze and watched the woman walk up to her and bow.
The first words, and certainly most embarrassing, that fell from Lauren's lips when the woman rose, was "My God, you're beautiful." The woman's eyebrow quirked and flicked to see the Ash walk in and sit down at his chair.
Flicking the sea-green eyes back at Lauren, she gave a knowing smile and sauntered over to the Ash. Then, Lauren realised, that this woman had thought that she was the Ash and not...
Oh dear God, Lauren realised, and I told her that I thought she was beautiful. Silently, she cursed herself and dropped her eyes to the floor.
"Cara," the Ash breathed.
Cara curtseyed and smiled up at the Ash, wickedly. "I've been sent by the Mother Confessor," she told him once she rose to her feet. Lauren took in a breath and looked at the others. No one seemed to be surprised, but nor did they seem to be anything but tense and emotionless.
"The Mother Confessor, I assume the powers have changed since Magda left us."
Cara snorted before a mask snapped on her face, "The Mother Confessor is Kahlan Amnell. She believes that sufficient time has passed and that the doors between the Midlands and this realm should be opened again."
"Why should we keep the doors opened?" The Ash asked, his voice rumbling deeply. Lauren tensed, hearing the slight disapproval in his voice. Cara though, smirked, her eyes flashing as she stared at him.
"You haven't had control of the doors for a long time," she whispered so only Lauren and the Ash could hear, "why else, when we sent a message, would you so hastily allow myself and the Mother Confessor passage between the doorways?" Lauren nervously dropped her hands from behind her back, and drove her nails into the palm of her hands, to stop herself from speaking out.
Cara's eyes flicked to hers briefly before looking up at the Ash with a mocking smile.
The Ash breathed out a heavy breath and twisted his head to the side, as he lent forward, "Are you threatening me?"
"No, that would displease Kahlan, but you and everyone here know that the only reason why I asked for an audience, is because this is the largest doorway to this realm, but in no way is it the only one." Lauren nodded. There were twelve other. Six in Europe, four in east Asia, one in the United Kingdom and one in New Zealand.
But they all looked over harsh landscape features, ranging from mountains, to deserts, to being underwater.
"D'Haran Whore!" Someone shouted. Lauren gasped, falling back as a burst of flames was thrown out. Turning, Cara raised a hand and easily deflected the burst with what appeared to be a shield of some sort.
Haltered only momentarily, the fire was thrown back into the fae. Causing him to become alight briefly by the hot, blazing flames, before he reigned in his control of the power. Dizzly, he took a moment to breathe before he looked up and stared at the three of them. Cara glared, her hand other hand, touching the dress where something was concealed beneath the layers of pink, dress material.
Lauren stared agape, never hearing of a fae that could do that.
The Ash rose, "Remove him," he said. Quickly, two fae grabbed the fire-thrower and carried him from the room. Only when the doors closed, did the Ash sit back down in his previous seating.
Cara eyes the rest of the fae warily before flicking her head back to the Ash, "You should have left him," she said, "I've been itching for a fight since I've arrived. I wanted to know if these 'fae' ara as powerful as everyone said."
The Ash frowned, and he was not alone, "Are you not fae?" he asked, his eyes glazing over Cara's aura as he asked. Lauren adjusted herself from the moment before and eyed the Ash's expression. Briefly she saw the flicker of fear, easily hidden by anyone who hadn't seen it a few times before.
"Fae? No. I am Mord-Sith."
Lauren gasped, but no one else seemed to react. Looking around, she easily conceived that they didn't know, didn't understand what had been done to create her. Cara's eyes flicked to hers again, a smile on her lips as looked Lauren over.
"She knows," Cara said, turning back.
"Mord-Sith creation was outlawed at the birth of the fae when we were first shown how to. Using humans and-"
"Perhaps here," she interrupted, "but the matter of fact remains that I am Mord-Sith and there are many more, just like me, behind The Door." The Ash's expression pinched at that, Lauren tensed as she knew what was to come. The Ash lifted a single hand and he waved at everyone in the room to leave, including herself
"This is a private matter," he growled, eyes locked on the Mord-Sith. Lauren went to move but was haltered when an arm grabbed her shoulder. Turning, she looked to see the Ash's obsidian eyes on hers, "Go to lab and dig up the information on Mord-Sith and the separating doors." Lauren didn't need to be told about discretion, the look in his eyes was enough.
Nodding, she waited for him to let go before she left for the doors. The two fae on either side closed them shut behind her.
Her shoes clicked down the hall, towards the lab. The incident rolled in her head, sitting uncomfortably within her. It didn't feel right. Something about what...Oh, she realised.
Her shoes hit harder on the floor, rushing as the hypothesis in her head bit at her to come to the conclusion. Her finger tips twitching by her sides, itching for the papers of the book. Lauren, pushed through to her lab and near ran to her books, hungrily grabbing at them before she flicked through the chapters.
She'd seen it, the words before. In one of these books was-
"D'hara," she breathed out. Her eyes skim read over the pages before she placed the book down and frowned. "Ridiculous," she murmured before grabbing another book and continuing with what the Ash had asked her to.
The Mord-Sith was more interesting to her, then the Door. The Door, simply, was a gateway. In this case, there was a glimmer, a small rip between the separating realms. Powerful magic had been used on the behalf of many of the fae, mainly one specific fae that could lock and unlock any door. He had created and carved runes into the doorway, concealing it from the human world, as well as locking it from this side only.
Lauren had no doubt that the other side had taken control, which is explained the millennia silence between the two worlds, but she didn't understand how and that was certainly not in any of the books here.
But the Mord-Sith were.
Canidates chosen, were selected from the gentlest and kindest girls from the human world. Wealth, status and everything else made no difference. Once a girl was chosen, there was no persuading the Mord-Sith to take back their choice. The girl would be kidnapped along with her parents and trained from a very young age (as young as six and as old as twelve) on three levels. Each time, she must be "broken."
The first breaking is a time during which she is tortured to the point of obedience so strong that she would do absolutely anything her mistress tells her, without question or hesitation. This part of the training breaks her of her sense of self and personal desires. Leaving her stripped of everything but what her mistress allows her to have.
During the second breaking, she is forced to watch as her mistress slowly and brutally tortures her mother to the point of being broken, and eventually, death. This is to rid her of compassion.
The third, and arguably the most difficult, breaking is when she is given the instrument of torture (usually at this point, an agiel) and must inflict pain and suffering upon her own father until he breaks as well, and then she must kill him. When she has completed this task, she is a full Mord-Sith.
The agiel is a magical rod that causes constant pain to anyone who touches it.
The notes continued on, and soon enough, she was finished with the first few books and had enough to give him while she took the rest back to her apartment and studied them.
Sending the quick email, she placed the books in her arm and shutdown the laptop, before placing it back into its case. Walking out the building, her mind wondered about Cara. The woman was interesting, and the curious doctor inside of her, wondered if the magic implanted in her through training, that helped her to deflect all other magic (a trick she would love to have under most circumstances) changed her physiology in any way.
"Dahlia has that expression," a voice said to her. Lauren jumped and dropped her books. They clattered to the floor with a loud noise that echoed through the old hallway. "But she wasn't as jumpy," Cara finished.
Bending down, placing her laptop case beside her, she grabbed all her books, "Sorry," Lauren murmured, "I..." she trailed off and shook her head, "around here you tend to get jumpy when you're-"
"Human?" Cara finished, quirking an eyebrow. "Many others easily defend themselves."
"It's not my place," Lauren said as she slowly rose to her feet. She looked over Cara and frowned, "You're not wearing the dress anymore." Cara, now, was wearing full body leathers, her agiels on show in their holsters on her hip and thigh, as well as having her hair out from the intricate design.
"The dress was not part of my agreement, but the Mother Confessor has her ways," she replied, rolling her eyes. "As I'm sure the Ash has with you," slowly Cara trailed her eyes down Lauren's body as she spoke. Cocking her hip, she smirked at her.
"Are those agiels?" Lauren asked, eyeing the weapons. Cara's eyes flicked up from Lauren's necklines as she grabbed the weapon on her hip and lifted it out.
"Would you like to hold it?" she asked her.
Lauren took in a breath, her mind relaying information about what she did know, as a part of her took the information in and almost reached out to touch the instrument. Lifting her eyes to Cara's, she saw the mischief glinting in them. She was as bad as the fae, waiting for someone to slip up and prove that they were weaker then her.
Pulling her hand back to her, she juggled the books in her other and shook her head, "No," she told her softly, "I have to go home."
"Clever choice," Cara chuckled, "see you around then doctor, remind me that I'll have to get a checkup soon."
Lauren frowned at her puzzled before she mentally slapped herself. Cara was from a different realm. Every virus here was foreign to the woman, even the climate and...it was something almost entirely new to Lauren. Excitement of possibilities fluttered briefly inside of, contained by a masked expression of professionalism. "I'll contact you...through the Ash or-"
"I'll find you," Cara said as she walked past her, careful to almost brush against her, "you can't be that hard to find."
As Cara walked away, Lauren suddenly bursted, "who was the man who shot fire at you?" Cara paused, "He called you a 'D'Haran Whore', not many would know of D'hara, and you're certainly not a whore," she added the last quietly, but Cara's smile told Lauren, that the woman heard.
"Clever," she said. "He's one of Kahlan's. It was his idea to attack me, prove to the other fae that I'm more capable than they suspect. I refused at first, but the idea of hitting down the wizard was too much of an opportunity to pass." Lauren nodded, satisfied with the answer.
When Cara continued to walk away this time, she didn't stop her. Instead she turned back, and continued with her own path, back to her apartment.
