I labeled this is slight AU because I tampered with the timelines from the third book. Things don't strictly adhere to the book's format because I had to focus more on the group's interactions with eachother rather than the war. The pairings will be a surprise. (:

No copyright infringement intended.


"You may go," Lord Rahl commanded his entourage. Obediently, they exited the large stone room leaving General Reibisch, Gratch, the strange woman in rags, her brother, and the other gruff-looking man behind.

"Shouldn't we stay with him?" Cara asked uneasily as the large wooden doors swung shut behind her. Berdine shrugged.

"We'll stay out here, right next to the door, and if he needs us, we'll go right inside." she declared. The two other Mord-Sith nodded. At the same time, all three leather-clad women and both D'Haran guards started for the door. For the briefest of moments, the two groups glared at eachother. Each wanted to be closest to their master in case they'd be needed.

It was Egan who broke the uncomfortable silence.

"Ladies first," he stated, his fierce features smoothing into a charming smile. With a courtly bow that seemed odd on someone his size, he backed up. Stone-faced Ulic retreaded as well.

The three Mord-Sith did not bother to hide their smug, self-satisfied expressions as they took their places next to the doors.

----------------

"What was that?" Ulic asked, as soon as they were across the hall and out of earshot of the three women.

Egan smiled. "I simply did not wish to tangle with the Sisters of the Agiel." he replied. Ulic rolled his eyes.

"They are of no threat to us." He folded his thick, muscular arms. Egan watched Ulic eye the women's magic weapons, and wondered if his friend truly felt no threat from them.

"They used to make a living out of torturing men," Egan said, indicated Cara's ever-ready Agiel with a thrust of his chin. "I respect them nonetheless, but I do not wish to test them."

"Don't you think we could protect Rahl far better and more quickly than three women?"

Egan shook his head. "I have faith in us, Ulic, but I'd put my money on those three any day. They may be women, but they are also Mord-Sith." he concluded.

Ulic snorted. "You seem to hold them in high regards, Egan. I know your weakness for good-looking women. Do you fancy any of them?"

Egan laughed. "Never."

The two friends watched the three women chatter in front of the tall mahogany doors.

"They talk among themselves as if they were normal women. Gives me the chills." Ulic commented after a few minutes. He seemed to have abandoned his former pretense of underestimating them.

Egan raised an eyebrow at his friend. "As if they were women? I seem to remember you saying they were of not threat to us. If not women, just what do you propose they are, Ulic?"

"Not humans, if that's what you're getting at. I realize now that they are torturous, brutal machines who would not hesitate to spill our blood."

There was a brief silence as Egan considered this. Out of the corner of his watchful gaze, Ulic observed his friend. Finally, slowly, Egan shook his head.

"No. Not anymore. Not...ever. Torturous, brutal...they may be these things, but not machines. They were girls once, before Darken Rahl took that away from them. And there is still some of that girl left inside of them, I think. That's what allows them to chatter and laugh and whisper like we see them do now."

Ulic thought about this for a long while as the silence wore on. He looked at their faces and tried to think of them in the way Egan seemed to do: with the proper amount of fear, but also with respect and a bit of pity. But every time Ulic truly focused his mind like that, his gaze would inadverdently slip down to that Agiel, that mythical instrument of pure pain that had no doubt brought dozens, hundreds of men to their knees and, eventually, to their demise.

Egan could think what he wanted, but as for Ulic, there was no getting past that Agiel.

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Raina silently watched Cara and Berdine reminisce. She had always envied Berdine a bit. Raina had never spoken with her much, but Berdine always seemed to say the right things to make their fellow Mord-Sith laugh. Now that she saw how easily Cara brought a smile to Berdine's face and how well they complemented eachother, Raina ached for one of her friends from back at the palace. She felt out of the loop as they discussed the late Hally, whom Raina had never been particularly close to either. It seemed she and Berdine were lifelong friends, abducted from the same village on the same year they were to begin training to be a Mord-Sith, and had remained close at the palace. Many times she had seen Berdine and Cara howl with laughter at one of Berdine's many stories of the trouble she and Hally had gotten into, and twice had Raina seen Berdine's eyes fill with tears for the loss of her friend. It made Raina want to step in and say something that would make her feel better, but she hadn't the slightest idea what that would be. She wished one of them would talk to her.

As if reading her mind, Cara suddenly turned her deep, intelligent eyes on Raina's. "You're awfully quiet tonight."

Raina shrugged. "It's been an eventful past few days." Berdine and Cara nodded in agreement. They each sat in silence for a few moments, remembering it all over again.

Suddenly Berdine turned back to Cara. "There is one thing I regret about Hally and me."

Cara turned her gaze back to Berdine. She seemed to be searching her eyes. "No. Don't tell me you regret telling her your secret." Berdine bit her lip and nodded. "Come on, Berdine, you did the right thing."

"But there seemed to be such a...rift between us after I told her. I could feel us coming back together when we started on this journey, but it never did feel like old times. I wish I could have taken it back. Because now..." she trailed off, and her eyes filled with tears for the third time that night.

"Berdine, stop it. Hally was your best friend in the world, and you hers. You did the right thing, she just needed time to get used to it. She would have been fine after a while, exactly like I am."

Raina felt clueless. She looked between the two girls, trying to figure out what they were talking about. She had no idea.

Berdine seemed to be thinking on Cara's words. Suddenly, without warning, she threw her arms around the other girl. "Thank you, Cara. You have no idea how much your advice means to me. I had been so scared I had driven Hally away from me, that I...had lost her as a friend, and that because of what happened, it was too late." She unwound her arms from Cara, who smiled sadly. "Now I know it'll be OK."

The group returned to silence. Trying to lighten the mood, Raina spoke up. "Don't look now, but they're eyeing us," she whispered.

Cara cast Raina the timeless look of a Mord-Sith sensing a threat. "Who?"

Berdine slowly looked up and then giggled. "Don't be so alarmed, Cara. She's talking about the men."

Cara wrinkled her nose. "Ulic and Egan? Let them. They're probably just scared."

Berdine smiled. "They have good cause to be, Cara. That look you gave Raina probably has Egan wetting his pants." The three girls erupted in laughter.

----------------

"What's so funny over there?" Ulic asked Egan suspicously. Egan smiled.

"Probably something to do with us."

"What do you mean?" Ulic's frown deepend.

"Well, we were looking in their direction, and one of them probably told Cara about it, because she looked like she was ready to kill someone. Then Berdine looked up and made eye contact with me, before I could look away, and now they think we were looking at them. That's what set them off."

Ulic snorted. "Well, you were looking at them, Egan. I saw you oggling their leather suits."

Egan smiled. "Like anyone looks at a Mord-Sith and sees the suits."

"You seem so full of confidence, my friend. If you're such a Mord-Sith expert, why don't you go over there and have a conversation with them?" Ulic was only joking, and he didn't expect Egan to actually walk over there. But, without warning, he did just that.

"E...Egan? What are you doing?" Ulic's friend didn't look back as he approached the three smiling women. He decided to follow after.

"Good evening, ladies." Egan admonished. Raina looked up in surprise, Berdine in amusement, and Cara cast him a cold look that he took care to avoid.

"Good evening, gentlemen," Berdine replied smoothly, quirking an eyebrow up at Egan and, behind him, Ulic.

"Gentlemen? You are quite generous, Berdine." Cara smirked, unabashed in the face of Ulic's glare.

"Ready to switch?"

"Are you suggesting that we leave our post? It has been less than twenty minutes since Lord Rahl began questioning the subjects. You are mistaken if you expect us to be weary already." There was an unmistakable challange in Cara's voice.

"Only trying to do you a courtesy, ma'am. See, my friend over here..." He indicated Ulic with a jerk of his thumb, "...has been talking about you three nonstop, all evening. Even before we got here, in fact." Ulic tensed, and his eyes sent daggers into Egan's back. Egan himself leaned in towards the three women still standing against the door. "Unfortunately, the poor shy thing has to have me do all the talking," Egan stage-whispered. Ulic reddened as Berdine and Raina cracked up. Cara's fierce expression eased somewhat, and Egan counted that as an accomplishment. He straightened back up and winked.

"So by 'ready to switch,' I really meant, 'Let's give poor, lonely Ulic the company of three beautiful ladies'". At this, all three of the ladies in question grinned.

"I think that would be OK," Berdine said with a wink of her own. She looked to Raina. "Raina?"

Raina smiled and nodded shyly. "Cara?" Cara stood there, her eyes darting back and forth between Egan and Ulic suspicously. "Beautiful ladies, huh? I guess...something could be arranged." She smiled at last.

Berdine and Raina sat on the floor for the first time since they came into the hall. Cara followed on Berdine's right, and the two D'Haran men sat in front of them. What a sight, Raina thought. Three Mord-Siths across from two D'Haran guards. Five of the most dangerous adults you could ever come across, and they were sitting on the floor, exchanging grins like little children. Well, I guess we have to make up for lost time. None of us really got to be children under Darken Rahl's rule. This seemed to be an unspoken understanding between all of them.

"I can see what you mean about Ulic being a 'shy, poor thing,'" Cara suddenly spoke up, looking Egan in the eye. "He hasn't said a word yet."

Ulic only narrowed his eyes, meaning to scare her off. He really just had no clue what to say. Cara met Ulic's intimidating gaze evenly and didn't look away. The two stared at eachother for awhile, like predators in the wild.

Egan waved his hand between the two. "Oh, none of that, now. This is a friendly gathering." Berdine and Raina laughed again.

"You girls are so giggly tonight. Mord-Sith, giggling. Disgusting." Cara said with a shake of her head.

"You don't like the sound of laugher, Cara?" Egan cried, in feigned shock.

"A member of the high D'Haran guard, flirting. Disgusting." Ulic mocked. Cara smiled indulgently.

"Oh, I don't think he's flirting with me." She blushed. It felt so good to be so relaxed with a man.

Berdine rolled her eyes. "Of course he is."

"Why don't you let him tell you?" Egan asked. He was just being sarcastic, but everyone in the circle looked at him expectantly. He scrambled for a response.

This is ridiculous. Grown men and women, acting like teenagers. Well, I suppose we have to live out those years at some point. Cara was still looking at him, smiling in a defiant, challenging way. He met her gaze.

"I was. Badly, I might add." Egan said. The two other Mord-Sith giggled yet again. Cara shot them a warning look that had no effect.

"You need some help with that, Egan." Cara returned her gaze to him.

"And are you saying you'd be the one to help?"

"Maybe." Cara tipped her head. "It would take a lot of effort, though."

Ulic laughed. "Yeah, Egan's hopeless."

Cara's smile grew wider. "This coming from the man who needed 'bad-flirter' Egan over here to do the talking for him?" That shut Ulic up. Cara smiled satisfactorally and turned her attention back to Egan.

Raina felt like she was watching a play, with Cara cast as the perfect Mord-Sith who played with her men even when they weren't chained and at the other end of an Agiel. Looking closer, she thought she saw some determination in her eyes. Where was she hoping this would lead?

Berdine broke the silence that came after Cara's insult. "This is strange for us," she said quietly. "Strange, but fun." Every head in the circle turned to look at her.

"Because you don't get to relax often?" Egan asked gently.

"Because we don't get to talk to men like this, in a friendly way. Because they always fear us." She looked up hopefully at the two D'Haran guards before her. "But you two are different." Everyone smiled.

Cara unexpectedly got up from the gathering. She only got about five feet down the hallway before she heard Egan behind her.

She smiled. Perfect.


Chapter Two: Raina finds out Berdine's secret, and Ulic laughs at Egan's.