Characters: Kahlan/Cara. (Potentially more later)
Rating: T (for later chapters)
Summary: Set in book!verse where Kahlan and Cara have captured a dangerous wizard named Marlin who is possessed by the Emperor Jagang of the Old World. Jagang/Marlin escapes the pit Cara and Kahlan were holding him in, with them both still in it. In his efforts to escape, Jagang inflicts Cara with a dark and powerful magic, causing a violent reaction. Kahlan has no choice but to go after him. (Will certainly contain plenty of tv!verse as it progresses, especially with Cara.)
Disclaimer:None of them are mine. All credit goes to the big man himself, TG.

Somatosensory

Prologue

She realises she's holding her breath and immediately releases a ragged puff of air. Her eyes are stinging with the acrid smoke still rising from the edges of the pit, among the remnants of stone blocks surrounding them. Kahlan's eyes slowly begin to react again as she vacantly surveys the room. Nadine is shuffling to regain her feet behind her, and Kahlan's attention snaps back to the ladder on the far side of the pit, straight in front of her. With a momentary shudder and a half-hearted attempt at clearing some of the dust from her throat, Kahlan smacks a hand on the nearest rung of the ladder, and pulls.

Kahlan's eyes snap shut at the fresh wave of pure, clear, horrifying sound emanating from the dark pit below her. She didn't know it was possible to hear such a sound come from a human being. She feels revulsion at the knowledge that she left her there…to make those sounds, alone, in the dark, in all probability, to die.

She forces her limbs around and up the ladder as fast as she can move, seeing Marlin's heel whip round the corner of the stone hallway ahead of her. She flattens her hands on the cold stone floor and flinches, as she feels the liquid remainder of those guarding the entrance to the hole. Her breathing is quick and shallow, and she attempts to focus her mind, as terror begins to take hold of her. Pulling herself up with a grimace, she looks ahead, regretting the brief glance at her hands. The blood inevitably belongs to the guards Marlin found blocking his path…and somehow managed to obliterate…still…Kahlan snaps her head quickly from side to side, in an attempt to distract herself…there's no time to think about that.

Unsteady, Kahlan makes it to her feet. Shaking and bloody, she tries to keep herself from seeing the scattered images of Cara's face from just moments before, but Spirits…she's still screaming. And the sound is almost enough to petrify her; glue her in place. She can hardly move as it is. She takes a stumbling step forward, but stray thoughts continue to cloud her mind in panic…Dear spirits, how can she breathe…she's going to stop breathing. Cara's going to die. There's no break in her screaming, how can she breathe?

Kahlan knows she's in shock. Her breathing is still rapid and shallow; her vision blurry, her hearing barely existent…but she has no choice. She has to follow Marlin.

By now, panic is set so deeply in Kahlan's chest that she can barely contemplate anything other than that sound…it seems endless. It could be…to a point. Death. Cara's death. She shuts her eyes again to shake the thought…she needs to focus, but the urgency only seems to increase, along with her laboured breathing.

Kahlan can feel her mouth moving, but can't hear anything but Cara…She tells Nadine to stay here. Nadine refuses, and grabs a torch to light their way. Blankly, as if the grasp on the tangle of nerves that has become her senses briefly relents, Kahlan's mind allows her to also recognise the pain still coming from the deep slice in her left arm, gained after Marlin blew apart the wall. She grasps the wound tightly with her right hand, and feels herself beginning to absorb the adrenalin in her body and closes her eyes, steeling herself as Cara's howls persist in penetrating the barriers her mind is continually attempting to raise. Seeming to have them broken down with every inflection of her piercing shrieks; the effect of the sound efficiently and repeatedly managing to crush all conscious thought at moving further away from the woman at it's source.

Her senses are overwhelmed. She might black out. She takes a shaky breath as she leans forward slightly and rests her hands on her knees. She needs to collect herself. She needs to calm down and think. She needs to follow him. But more than anything, all she wants to do is fling herself backwards and jump into the pit.

There are parts of her mind that want her to run, to chase Marlin, to slice him apart, inch by inch, for what he's doing to Cara; There are parts that want to hide, to find the nearest and smallest room and just hug the walls, as tightly as possible, and block every single thing out…even the screams if she could; Then there are the other parts…The parts that want her to run, but not after Marlin. They want her to run and jump headlong back into the blackness below her; into the stinking, morbid, infested hole that at this moment holds only one person. They want her to grasp Cara by the face, by the arms, by the head, and shake her out of it…cradle her, smack her, kiss her…anything to stop her howling…anything to stop her having to feel an ounce more pain.

Kahlan looks up, lips parted, shoulders moving slightly in time with her forced breaths as she peers into the halls ahead of her; and slowly opens her eyes.

She can't. This isn't a decision. This isn't a choice. It's not one or the other. The pain the echo of what remains of Cara's voice is causing in her is soul-destroying…but nothing…not even this…spirits…she closes her eyes again…not even this, is more important than stopping Jagang. There is no way to know what would happen if Marlin escapes, Jagang is an unknowable force. Taking a deep, steadying breath, she stands. Aching but resolute, Kahlan begins to run.

The seconds these thoughts have taken may have cost her…she doesn't know. She runs anyway. She feels a needling urge to look back. But there's no need. She knows where Cara is…she knows what's happening. She can hear her. Looking back won't help. No…she doesn't have a choice, she reminds herself.

She notes a slight break of tone mid-way through Cara's shriek and flinches…this is killing her. Fraction by fraction, whatever force has been unleashed inside of her head is shredding her psyche more and more by the second. No-one can scream like this... Kahlan forces her brain not to pay attention to the scattered panic that's flooding every one of her nerves. She cannot be thinking about Cara. She'll break…she can't catch Marlin if she breaks. She has to be the strongest she's ever been.

Kahlan forces herself…convinces herself that Cara will still be alive when she returns. If… she realizes. She has no concept of what will happen when, or if, she can even catch Marlin, let alone whether she has a chance to survive the chase.

As she begins to pick up speed and wheel her way around the dark halls, Kahlan's mind continues to trick her and muddle her thoughts. She tries to even out her breaths as she turns and runs; fingers grasping at the wall as her feet slip underneath her. She knows her way around this maze better than anyone. As she turns corner after corner, passes lamp after lamp, the repetition of the action begins to settle into something resembling a rhythm…her mind seems to take a breath…she has to plan. What is she doing? Where is she going? How is she going to fight Jagang…be him in the body of a dead man or not, his power is immense and virtually insurmountable.

She can still hear Cara…no change in her voice…how is that possible? No-one can scream for this long.

Kahlan takes a particularly deep breath as she takes another branch to the right, the passageways becoming ever darker and more and more moisture filling the air…

She'll be ok. Spirits, how can she be ok. How can she possibly be ok?

TBC