In the morning Cara was thoughtful about her dreams. Portia, really? If she could meet her after so long time? And what about Rose Red? How would she be now, the little Rosa? The memories entertained Cara while they took the breakfast and enjoyed the summer air. Cara resumed her thoughts of how to find the Deviants. She played with an idea.
"No way… you are not serious Cara. To get a Mord-Sith costume? For me?"
"Kahlan, I have a hunch that we might need it. Remember, we are going to search for former Mord-Siths."
"Well I have this one experience, when Zedd conjured one up for me and we saved Dennee but..."
"But what?"
"Isn't it a little, hm, too fancy for me this kind of costume, no?"
"Aah... don't be shy Kahlan, you will look gorgeous. You'll look like me, feel a little like a Mord-Sith too. Or think about it as camouflage."
"I see, camouflage. Okay maybe we can try it."
"We'll go to see a friend and he will hopefully be able to make these dresses at short notice. But I have to warn you that he is a little grumpy."
They walked to the east side of the town and entered the dressmaker's place next to a small marketplace.
"Good morning. What do you want?"
"Good morning. We..."
"Oh Cara, long time no see." The dressmaker recognized Cara but with difficulty. "How has it been?" A smile appeared and disappeared from the man's face. "What are you looking for? Let me guess... a Mord-Sith costume?"
"Yes, yes. And another dress, a practical but beautiful one please. Both will be for this woman here in white. I trust your taste and we are in a bit of a hurry."
The man's reaction was minimalistic, he looked briefly at Kahlan's direction and then turned to his reservoirs. "Ok, ok. What are your sizes, lady in white?"
"My name is Kahlan, pleased to meet you. Ummh…wait a little..."
"Okay I need to measure you. Take off your dress", the dressmaker ordered without looking at Kahlan.
Kahlan smiled. She had been warned.
"Hey, I don't have all day! On the table, lady!"
Kahlan blushed slightly, took off her white dress and climbed on a low table in the middle of the room. The dressmaker started to move fast with his exact but a little uncommon measurement routines. He almost didn't watch Kahlan but was busy around her body and concentrated on getting the details. Cara chuckled nearby and enjoyed the show.
"Oh hello there…" Cara smiled with her hand on her cheek. "I haven't seen you yet from this angle, not a bad view ha ha! Oh and take your time dressmaker, it's good to have accurate measurements."
"You...you…!" Kahlan boiled on the table, arms up and with a slightly red face.
The dressmaker finished with his measurements and the embarrassed heroine stepped down.
"The dresses will be ready in a couple of days. Good luck in your journey. To the North Temple right?" The dressmaker said, turned around and disappeared quickly in the backroom.
Cara and Kahlan had barely time to say thanks, surprised by his direct guess regarding their destination. The North Temple was not familiar to them. They returned outside.
"North Temple, okay, weird, yet another new name", Kahlan wondered. "I have to say that he was, well, effective, but really a bit too direct with his orders. I felt embarrassed there under his eyes."
"No you don't need to feel embarrassed. Or did he do something inappropriate?"
"Well no."
"I forgot to tell you", Cara laughed, "that he is almost blind this man, ha ha. He is so used to his routines that he senses the body shapes and sizes and can do the measurements without even seeing too well. He has others who do the actual sewing and stitching."
"Great, just great", Kahlan smiled. "I see, so, it was only one pair of eyes watching me?"
After the dressmaker's visit Cara and Kahlan continued on the side roads of the town contouring its perimeter and entered an extended quarter of white and grayish buildings. The houses were modest and some of them in bad condition.
"Excuse me… "A small voice called them. "Ex- excuse me." It was a boy of a young age. He approached them and smiled shyly.
"Yes my little. What is it?" Kahlan asked.
The boy looked at Cara.
"A- are you...are you one of tho- those?" He looked at Cara incredulously. "Is she o- one of those?" He turned to Kahlan and pointed his finger at Cara.
Kahlan went to the boy and put her arms around him.
"What is your name my little one?" Kahlan asked.
"I- I am Ni- Ni-cho-la- chola-s. Nick. I'm s- sorry but I don't speak well."
"Hi Nick", Cara greeted the little boy in a friendly tone. "And don't worry Nick we understand you well." She wondered if the boy was scared of her Mord-Sith look. He was shy but not really so scared. Cara saw more curiosity than fear on his face.
"Are you a De- Deviant?" The boy asked directly.
Cara had to take a deep breath. The carpenter first, the dressmaker second and now the boy, all hinting something about the Deviants. Would that be possible? Her friends who disappeared? She started to believe.
"Oh my little one, I… I don't think I am." Cara answered to him. "Not that I know."
"Hey I'm not so li- little, I'm Nick!" They boy said louder. "And I think you re- really look like a Deviant. And you- you are bo- both very be- be- beautiful. Are you h- heroes?"
Cara and Kahlan couldn't hide their smiles.
"So Nick, let's speak more." Kahlan watched him gently. "Will you come with us? Let's walk a little."
"O- okay but w- who are you?" Nick asked.
"I'm Cara and my friend's name is Kahlan."
"Aha, friend? Your gi- girlfriend? And you k- kiss? Yes? I'm su- sure she- she is your girlfriend!" Nick looked at Cara with wide brown eyes eager for confirmation. "I don't have such a f- friend yet. But I-I would li- like to have."
"Yes, yes, Nick, ok, I can't fool you, you clever boy." Cara answered to the questions laughing and started to relax with such an outspoken boy. "And you will find your friend sooner or later, I give you my word."
"Cool! Super c- cool!" Nick jumped forward and hugged Cara. "But I do- don't want to walk, I want to ask you to visit my ho- home." Nick lowered his voice. "I have some- something that I want to give to a De- Deviant. I want to give it to you and to your ha- hands only."
"But my dear little friend Nick, I am not..."
"You are c- close enough", Nick stated boldly. "You two heroes, come with me! He ordered Cara and Kahlan inside. They followed smiling after this special boy."
Nick's home was modest, a bit dark, two rooms and a place to cook and wash. He took a box from under his bed. He opened it carefully, took out his papers, which seemed to be full of drawings and dense writing. What can he be writing and drawing, Kahlan wondered, so young and already so many things in his mind? Finally Nick took out a small flat object which was covered by a cloth.
"This be- belongs to the Deviants. I believe so!" Nick said proudly. "But I-I don't know where to find them, and now you came here, so I gi- give it to you. I found it from the forest."
Cara took the object. It was of a half-palm size, an irregularly cut thin object with slightly sharp edges. When she took away the cloth, to her surprise she felt like a strange force radiating from the object. The object turned out to be a red-colored mirror but far from an ordinary type. The surface was strangely dim, very smooth under the fingers, and there seemed to be small crystals homogeneously placed just under the mirror's surface, which made the reflection to be of a peculiar type.
"It's a piece of the Ru- Ruby Mirror", Nick said solemnly. "And I ha- have heard that the Deviants have also pieces of it."
"Ruby Mirror? I haven't heard about a Ruby Mirror before. Hm, it feels like a really special and powerful object", Cara said and turned the piece in her hands. "Whoa! Like it contains some force just under the surface, a strong magnetic effect or an internal fast spinning gyroscope."
Kahlan took the mirror and tried to understand it. She could somehow see her reflection, but the crystals in the mirror scattered light in such a way that the picture was dim and unclear although she could still recognize partly her features.
"Cara my new f- friend. Please take it. I trust you. You will kno- know what to do with it."
"Nick, this is your special mirror, you don't need to give it to me", Cara tried to protest.
"But I have wai- waited for half a year for a Deviant to whom I could give this! I haven't told about it to anybody… except to my grandmother to whom I tell e- everything. She is now at the ma- marketplace but I will tell her that two he- heroes visited."
"You are so sweet", Kahlan exclaimed and ruffled Nick's hair.
Cara had to make a break and think. She really had no idea what to do with the object but she couldn't break the heart of this boy by refusing a gift.
"Thank you then so much Nick, you are a lovely boy. I like your gift." Cara tried to hide her confusion.
"I have only o- one wish to you Cara and Kahlan... please re- remember me in your journeys. I do- don't know if we see each other e- ever again."
Nick winked clumsily an eye to them and came to give a farewell hug. After they left, he stood long time in front of his house and both the women felt warm from such a surprise encounter.
Really a lovely boy, Kahlan thought, drawings and all, and then this mirror. She realized they had forgotten to ask about his parents and if he had sisters or brothers. The road along which they walked was narrow but straight and Kahlan turned one more time to look behind. She thought she could recognize still the house, but was not sure. It could equally well be a different one, the distance was already quite long. Kahlan narrowed her eyes and tried to see still in more detail. Was it Nick who still stood in front of his house? Or somebody else? She could recognize something, very vaguely but still, could recognize a person standing, but it could have been also a young girl, maybe Nick's sister or neighbor.
"Cara…is that..." Kahlan stopped and touched Cara's arm.
"Yes?"
"Oh, never mind, it's a long distance. I thought I still saw Nick or her friends. We should recognize the house when we come back. I hope."
A few days passed and they waited for Kahlan's dresses. They attempted to educate themselves more about the new things they had heard: Golden Branch, Stone Witch, Deviants, North Temple and Ruby Mirror, but about the latter three there was almost no information to be found. They thought that while they had time, they would visit again Nick and meet his family. But for some reason they couldn't any more locate Nick's house. It was probably since the houses looked so similar, there were many of them along the winding roads in that quarter and their style was not so familiar to them.
"That child could have been from any of these houses", Cara said. "I don't know if we can find his house any more."
"Then we have to take it that way", Kahlan replied. "I'm just thinking aloud… maybe each of these houses has a child waiting for us, having something for us that we don't know what to do with. Yeah so sweet boy that Nick."
"Yes, a lovely boy. And he thinks we are his heroes."
"He trusts us. Yes, I felt it."
They stood on a small hill with a view over the town and its forests. Cara watched the houses and saw dim light playing behind many small windows. A strong feeling went through her and she touched the piece of the mirror in her bag. She took it out and felt again the force under the surface. They stood close to each other and looked at the piece. The red light of the mirror gave a warm glow on their faces in the cool evening.
"What is it Cara?"
"I...I don't really know."
They could see again their features, but also something new, some new shapes started to form in Nick's mirror. The new shapes and images formed on top of and behind their images, there were tall shapes and lights, all filtered through the crystals that gave the image its special tone. The piece was still too small that they could recognize anything very clearly.
"Magic or not magic, the Deviants may have more pieces of it." Cara was excited. "Now we have one more reason to find them."