Previously

Kahlan still thought about Richard. Not the Richard that Cara had killed when he woke up in Shota's palace, but the Richard that had left. It hadn't been that long since then, but Kahlan couldn't get him out of her head, and now, she had three territories to run, and there was no Lord Rahl to help.

Cara had returned yesterday from her trip to look for the third box of Orden, but she hadn't found it. It was troubling that she had been duped all this time into to believing that Richard Rahl had the power of Orden, but so had most of the world.

She was sitting in Aydindril; she had only been back to the People's Palace once to make sure that they would recognize her as their leader. It had been a week of non-stop violence, but she had convinced them that she was the rightful heir, by the fact that the Mord-Sith Agiels would have stopped working, a fact she'd had to demonstrate. She knew the peace between the three territories wouldn't last long, and whoever's blood was making the Agiels work would turn up at some point, but she hoped it wasn't today.

She was hearing complaints from peasants in the Grand Hall, and even though she would never let anyone else sit in it, her chair was uncomfortable by the fourth peasant. Cara stood next to her, a way to make sure that the peace between the territories was understood, when a man stepped forward.

Something about him told her that this man wasn't a peasant with a complaint. He was wearing a cloak, with a hood that covered his face, and behind him a person followed with the same garb. Cara's hand went to her Agiel as they stepped forward.

"Mother Confessor." He said, his head turning sideways for a second. "It is an honor to meet one so revered as you."

Kahlan was on the edge of her seat, waiting for an attack. "Thank you." She spoke coldly. "Who are you?"

The man threw his hood back, and Kahlan shot up out of her chair in surprise. Cara backed away, her hand falling from her Agiel. Behind him the other figure removed her hood, and Cara seemed even more surprised. The man pulled something out of his cloak.

"I come bearing gifts." Nicholas Rahl held up a jewel-encrusted box.