Authors note: Ok, you finally get to find out who Adeliade is, hope you enjoy. Firelight3000
"Start at the beginning, tell us your whole story." Kahlan was desperate to know everything and did not want any details left out.
Adelaide sighed, "Ok, just don't interrupt me, questions after." She settled by the fire and began to tell her story:
"I was born in the valley of Rettesmont, my mother was a confessor called Charlotte, and my father was her mate. He died just a few months before I was born. I am not sure about the exact details of my birth, just that it was long and painful. It killed my mother, but not before she could pass me on to somebody else, and with her last breathed she named me Adelaide Amnell. The person she handed me over to was a girl, no older than ten. That girl grew up to be known as the Mother Confessor, didn't you Kahlan?
Although, you weren't the only one in that room, were you? Your sister and father were there also. Your father refused to let you keep me and declared that I must be drowned, as is tradition for unwanted confessors. That's what he said, isn't it?
So poor little Denee got left the job of cleaning the room, while you were sent to the river to drown the baby. But, of course, you couldn't do it. So you did the only thing you could do, you put the baby in the basket and sent it out into the world.
The only thing you gave the baby was a locket. A silver locket, with the symbol of a rose etched in its surface, and in this locket was a piece of my mother's hair. For half a day the basket travelled, with me safely inside. When a young girl spotted it and pulled it out of the water. The girl's name was Cara.
She took me back to the temple where the sisters of the agilee argued over me for some time. It was not until they found out that lord Rahl himself was coming to visit that they decided what to do with me. They decided to offer me to lord Rahl as a gift. In the meantime, I was given to Cara to look after.
When lord Rahl came, he was angry. Apparently, the dragon core had failed in a mission. A very important mission, the siege of Aydindril. To tame the lord's anger I was presented to him. Taking me in his arms, he picked up one of the sister's agilees and pocked me with it. I lashed out, scratching him across the face. Pleased with my response, he named me, Bree Rahl.
There was silence in the temple. He spoke to the sisters' "I will raise her as my own, to one day rule D'Hara. You are here by sworn to secrecy, no one will know she is not mine by blood. Now who is the sister who has been taking such good care of her?"
With this Cara stepped forward, smiling up at Rahl as she went. He passed me back to her and said that if she were to personally train me to be an assassin, not a Mord'Sith. Then he would make her a great warrior one day. Of course, she agreed. Didn't you Cara?
As soon as I learnt how to walk, I was taught how to fight. At first I was only taught how to fight with an agilee, but as I grew older, I began to fight with a dagger as well. Fighting was not he the only thing I learnt, I learnt to hunt and track also. Although, to me the best bit was the history, by the time I was five, I could recite all the battles since the beginning of time. There was one other thing I learnt, something that only I and one other person in the world know. I learnt the language of the book of counted shadows. It took me years to understand it fully, but in the end I got there, all I needed was the book.
When I was about seven, Rahl sent me on a mission that changed my life forever. He sent me to kidnap the wizard, Alex Yar, and to keep him as my personal wizard. Of course, I was excited about the whole wizard idea, but there was one problem. The wizard belonged to a confessor, a very powerful confessor, and that confessor is sitting opposite me now."
Richard let out a breath; Adelaide had tried to steal a wizard from Kahlan's protection. No wonder Kahlan looked so shocked.
Sitting tall, Kahlan asked, "The wizard you kidnapped, Alex, is he dead?"
Adelaide was confused by her question, hadn't she just said the whole point of the plan was so that she could have her own wizard. "No he is very much alive, last I saw he was heading to Aydindril to see what he could do for the Midlands."
"Wait, I thought he was on Rahl's side." Kahlan's voice was sharp with worry.
"No, he is neither dead nor a D'Haran. Now I'm sure you're wondering how he got to be where he was. Let me continue." Richard and Cara laughed silently at the little girl that was telling the Mother Confessor what to do. Kahlan shot Cara a dark look and pushed Richard so he fell back to the floor, but even she had a crinkle at the corner of her mouth.
"Anyway, I knew the security was too good to sneak in, so I did the obvious. I went in through the front gate. From there I went straight to the courts, I mingled around for a bit, unsure what to do next. Then I spotted him, entering a court behind a dark haired girl that must have been you.
I knew it would be too risky to fight the guards in broad daylight, so I waited. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed some children, crawling out a pipe in the court wall, I had my way in. My plan set, I knew I should get moving. Although, there was a part of my mind that wanted to stay put and watch the children. I'd never truly been out the castle that much, at least not without somebody. And, well... this was my first ever experience or what real life was like and I wanted it badly. One of the mothers must have noticed me staring, because she came over and asked if I wanted to play with them. Unsure what to do, I shrank away from the woman, making an alibi about my mother wanting me to stay in that exact spot or something.
The woman was not convinced, but she soon gave up and headed back to the children. Again, it shocked me; I'd never seen someone as kind hearted as her before, even if it was only for a few fleeting seconds.
I shook my head, trying to clear my head of such thoughts, all this loitering was going to get me killed. I slipped into the pipe and grimaced, how could the other children of stood the smell. Although, I kept going, as I knew I must. I rounded a corner and reached a grate. I picked at the lock, and soon had it on the floor. I followed the sound of muffled voices as I carried on crawling. As, I turned round yet another bend I saw a dim light.
Now, on my stomach, I made my way towards it. I grinned. I looked into some sort of antechamber, and in that chamber there was the wizard but he was not alone, you were with him.
I waited, sure the perfect moment would arise, and it did. You came and sat right in front of me, didn't you?
I knew there was no point in killing you as Alex would probably just shout for security. So I did the first thing that came into my head, I jumped out of the pipe and knocked you out. I still remember Alex's face, he was absolutely terrified.
I'm not quite sure what we said to each other, but I do remember that I held an agilee to your neck. Anyway, I convinced him to come and work for me and we left, leaving you on the floor.
It had all been easier than I thought; we just walked out the main gate as if nothing had ever happened. At first I was not sure what to think of Alex, he seemed ok, but then he starting singing!"
Kahlan stifled a laugh, she remembered Alex's voice, he was quite good, but he was a bit loud.
"Foods ready", Kahlan jumped, she had nearly forgotten Zedd and Renn were there. As they passed the plates of pheasant around, she noticed that Adelaide did not take hers.
Cara, following Kahlan's eyes, looked over to Adelaide and said "You still don't eat much then?" It always shocked her how little that girl ate.
"Oh come on Adelaide, eat something, by the way, this pheasant is amazing" Renn knew she was really quite hungry; she just wanted to get the whole explaining thing out the way,
"Fine and Zedd this pheasant is actually really good, what did you do with it?" Adelaide couldn't quite describe it, but she had a feeling honey was hidden in the succulent meat.
"Well before I cook it I..." Zedd's words were interrupted by Cara's cough.
"If we want to get some sleep tonight, I suggest Adelaide carry on."
"Right erm yes. Anyway as I grew older, I began to be known as the black assassin. I was one of the only people who weren't scared of confessors. I hunted them to near extinction, taking any wizard down along the way.
Although, as I got closer to my purpose, I began to see the darkness inside myself. But it was too late to go back; it was then that I lead the siege of Aydindril.
Alex, Cara and I lead thirty Mord'Sith to the Midlands. We were the first attack. We alone managed to take hold of Aydindril. Although, it wasn't over yet, the keep was still standing.
We broke through the magic easily enough, and there it was, the last stand, ready to fight to the end. We took out the wizards first, there were no prisoners. That's when I noticed a flash of white, slipping into another chamber. I followed it. Inside were two confessors and a wizard. They were arguing about some prophecy or something but that's not what I cared about, I cared about the little leather book in the blond confessors hand. The book of counted shadows.
Those confessors, that was you and your sister, wasn't it Kahlan?"
"Yes, but I don't understand, I thought the dragon core came after us. Not Mord'Sith."
"They had surrounded the perimeter, so when you escaped they followed. I'm not sure how long it was before your sister was captured. When she was, I took her to the prison myself. You don't know how hard it was for me, to let her live after her sister had got the book across the boundary, but I had my orders, I could not kill her.
Authors note: Just a little heads up, I had to split this chapter in two as it was over 4000 words long. Thats why it ends a bit suddenly, please reveiw.
