Title: Sacrifice
Author: Chantel
Rating: PG-R, dark themes in later chapters.
Disclaimer: I don't own Legend of the Seeker or the Sword of Truth series. This is all non-profit, creative fun. I'm just expressing Nerd solidarity and borrowing the characters for a bit :)
Summary: While fighting against a powerful, mysterious woman.. Kahlan is launched into an unknown world of sorrow, pain, and death. This is her journey.. or is it?
Reviews/Feedback: Would love to hear your comments. Seriously, send em my way. Please? And thank you!
WARNING: This part deals with mature themes that may be disturbing to some readers. Please be advised that this chapter deals with violence in an explicit manner.
Kahlan is propelled into a large dank room. Jagged rocks push their way through the hard ground, stained dark with blood. It's cold. The first thing Kahlan notices is a woman chained roughly to the rock wall directly in front of her. Her left leg looked broken and bruises littered her arms. The Confessor moved towards her quickly, bringing her hands to the woman's face in an attempt to access the damage to her head. Her fingers ghost through the bloodied skin. The Confessor groans loudly and whips her head around. Time slows for Kahlan as her eyes fall upon the lump on the floor, a few paces away from the restrained woman.
Cara's dress is torn and dirtied. Her blonde hair is now dark, caked with mud and dried blood. The girl huddles into herself, shaking and running her hands repeatedly up and down her arms. She wears no shoes and Kahlan can see the infected flesh of her feet flinch as a group of rats try to bite at her. Water trickles from the roof of the cave and falls steadily onto Cara's body.
Sea green eyes look up at the rats and Cara scampers closer to her mothers side. Kahlan notices that Cara hardly even winces as her feet scrape across the rough terrain, leaving a trail of blood behind her.
"Momma?" Cara whispers, eyes darting out the survey the cave. Only the sound of water falling and rats rustling around answers the young girl. "Momma?" Cara pleads again, "Can you hear me?"
Kahlan feels a steady ache grow throughout her body as she watches Cara beg for her mother to answer. It's as if someone is turning her blood to ice and steam at the same time. The burn swirls violently under her skin and her heart beats hard against her chest. She feels it consume her.
"Momma, please?" Cara chokes out, tears beginning to fall from her eyes. As the little girl reaches out to hold her mother's hand, a loud clanging noise shoots through the air. Metal scraps across rock, and footsteps approach from behind.
The Confessor watches as Cara's eyes go wide with fear and she draws her knees close to her chest.
"It's okay," Kahlan tries to comfort her. Willing the child to know that she was not alone.
Her voice is swallowed by the air around her.
"Cara," a voice sounds, "You know the rules."
The blonde MordSith trainer snakes across the ground, grinning wickedly as she stalks towards Cara. Red leather constricts against her body, almost seductively, as the woman steadily makes her way further into the room.
"No touching her. Why were you about to break them?"
Cara's scared eyes look up towards the woman as she towers over her small body. She chokes on her words, unable to form a complete sentence.
Kahlan kneels down beside Cara's trembling body and focuses every ounce of strength and power she has. Her eyes close in an attempt to channel her magic. A strong hand reaches out to hold Cara's shaking one. The feeling of her fingers passing inconsequentially through the dirtied hands of the child before her tears at the very essence of Kahlan's being.
"I wanted her to feel better," Cara whispers quietly.
The MordSith lowers herself to one knee in front of Cara. Her worn leather gloves trail across the bruised face and under Cara's chin, before gripping her neck lightly.
"Why?" the trainer asks.
"She is hurt..?" Cara lets out confused.
Kahlan watches, transfixed on the MordSith beside her. She is so close. She can feel the heat from the blondes body radiate towards her and it makes her want to Confess every woman in the training facility. Cara's body trembles in the cold while these women bask in warmth and wellness.
The trainer smiles sweetly before she speaks, "You feel love for her, yes? And want to make her feel better by comforting her? Is that it, Cara?"
The little girl nods her head yes, "When I'm hurt, Momma always hugs me better."
Rich laughter bounces off of the rock walls as the MordSith chuckles at Cara's reply.
Before the woman finishes her laugher, her hands tighten around Cara's neck and she hoists the girl into the air, holding her to the maximum height of her ability.
"Your hugs will never heal her wounds," the woman seethes out through clenched teeth.
Cara's feet dangle at her waistline, and her hands move frantically against the woman's grip.
"Love will do nothing but make you weak."
Kahlan watches as the trainer shoves Cara against the wall and uses her other hand to turn the blondes head towards her mother.
"Look at her," the MordSith demands. Cara complies.
"The feeling in your stomach? That pain deep inside? It comes from your heart. From your attachment to this woman. It is there because you care for her and that makes you weak. It is because of this weakness, that you disobeyed me."
The trainer throws Cara to the ground.
"It is because of this weakness that you find yourself in this quandary."
Shrill magic hisses as the Agiel is drawn. The weapon strikes Cara repeatedly and the young girl cries out in pain, curling into herself to shield her soft spots.
"You draw away from this punishment, Cara and yet you hand yourself over to it by choice."
Burn marks appear on the girls arms and legs as the trainer continues her lashing.
"Do not shield yourself from this lesson!" the woman hisses, kicking her boot into Cara's stomach. Kahlan loses the breath from her lungs as she watches Cara struggle to stay flat on her back, obeying the woman abusing her.
"Love will do nothing but weaken you. Void yourself of it and you become strong."
The MordSith trainer emphasizes her point by focusing her Agiel on the young girls neck. Tears stream down Cara's face as she weeps at the attack, twitching under the burn of the weapon. "Do not cry. You cry because you are scared. Aren't you?"
The woman relents long enough for Cara to sob out a strangled, "Yes"
"Do not fear the pain of the Agiel, Cara, embrace it. It will harden you, protect you. It will strengthen you."
The trainer bends and wipes the blood from Cara's face and draws up chin upward so that green eyes focus intensely up at her. Her voice is laced with conviction as she speaks,
"Love. Compassion. Mercy. These emotions leave you without defense. You are weak with them. Anger. Hatred. Pain. These things bring you strength and direction. They give you fire. Hand yourself over to them and you will burn hot enough to destroy your enemies without effort or pause. You will become untouchable."
A piece of Kahlan shifts inside of her at the statement. She thinks back to every time she had ever spoken to Cara of emotion. The Confessor had belittled the MordSith, teased her playfully about her inability to understand the way other people connected. There is nothing playful about this. Her blue eyes lock on the scene in front of her. Richard's words echo in her mind.
MordSith are not born. They're broken.
She had been so terribly unaware of how exact that statement had truly been.
"Stand up." The trainer commands. Somehow the bruised and bloodied child manages to pull herself to her feet. Kahlan's heart shudders with pride, as Cara stands tall.
"Now strike me," the MordSith orders fiercely.
Cara's eyes moisten as she looks, terrified around the cave. Her eyes land on a free rock, two feet from her. Green eyes waver and Cara takes two steps away from the woman in front of her, retreating into herself.
"Hesitation," The trainer sighs, rolling her eyes before returning her Agiel to her belt. She moves towards the door and unlocks it, swings it open and walks through before stepping aside. "If you can walk from this room without breaking your stride, you are free to go."
The girl's feet dash forward. She makes it five whole paces before her body tightens and Kahlan sees her slow.
"Go!" The Confessor yells out pleadingly to deaf ears.
Cara stops and turns towards her mother, eyes wide with love and regret.
The slamming of the metal gate sounds and Kahlan knows that Cara has missed her opportunity. Her stomach turns once more. A violent tide crashes into the Confessor as she finds herself wishing that the woman, who she so often curses for her lack of compassion, could have just walked away from her mother without caring.
"You are unable to leave because of your love. You hesitate because your emotions have made you weak and because of that hesitation you have lost the prospect of freedom."
Kahlan's heart thuds and she grows cold under the realization that she doesn't disagree with everything the woman had said. Bile accumulates in her stomach.
"It is your love for that woman that traps you in this cell. Compassion will be the end of you, Cara. Make no mistake of that." The words hang in the atmosphere as the trainer walks away from Cara and out towards an unknown exit.
Her fists tighten and her arms begin to shake. Kahlan can't even comprehend the surge of emotions flooding through her body as she watches Cara look helplessly around her prison. Blonde hair mats roughly to Cara's head as the fresh blood begins to coagulate. Dull green eyes begin to glaze over as Kahlan watches a spark of understanding register across the girl's face.
Cara wipes the tears from her eyes and spits out a mouthful of blood. She limps her way over the rocks, holding her stomach as she does and lowers herself to the ground, her back to the Confessor.
Kahlan looks between the girl and her mother and her face whitens, as she understands what is happening. A pain stabs at her stomach and before she can stop herself, she is bent forward, heaving violently as her emotions implode within her.
She is sick for several moments before she regains her composure. Her eyes search the cave, desperate to find that the blonde has moved from her resting place. As she looks towards the battered child cowering against the wall of stone in front of her, Kahlan knows that this is the moment. This is what altered Cara irrevocably.
The Confessor looks at the room and it suddenly becomes so much more than walls, stones and metal. It transforms into something more than just a cage or prison. It becomes a defining moment. The pinnacle of hopelessness: A mother chained to the back wall, her child huddled distantly against the front.
She watches Cara grip at the wall before her, pressing herself against the sharp rocks as she attempts to put as much distance between them as possible. Cara is as far away from her mother's body as she can manage.
Kahlan wants to reach for Cara. She wants to pull the young girl into her arms and hold her until the coldness in her heart subsides and she is warm again. She moves towards Cara and sits beside her, resigned to the fact that she is just a spectator here and can do nothing more. Despite her attempts not to, she finds herself singing her lullaby. She prays that somehow the Spirits allow the blonde to hear it, to know that she is not alone.
Her voice echoes through the room and fades into the quiet as Kahlan is gripped by magic. She closes her eyes and fades into the cold gray prison walls beside her.
Time stops for certain moments in life. Kahlan has never experienced her world come to a complete and utter stop before. She has seen things appear to take place in slow motion, has felt her heart slow and speed and her head spin. Her eyes have narrowed in tunnel vision and she has been gripped by a many consuming visions and emotions. Throughout her experiences though, she has never been so consumed by a single moment in time that she has failed to act. Kahlan Amnell is a strong woman. She is fierce, courageous and unwilling to resign herself to fear. Amidst the bristling wind and harsh sound, Kahlan prepares herself for what she is about to see. But when the spinning comes to a stop and she opens her eyes, the Mother Confessor finds herself completely unable to move.
Her heart actually stops beating. The air is pulled from her lungs. Her body feels like it's being hollowed and her eyes are glued in place. She is frozen, suspended in the horror of the moment and helpless against the power of it's effect. Time comes to a crashing halt and Kahlan loses a part of herself as it does.
Cara hangs, suspended from barbed chains at the wrist. Her nine-year-old body sways sickly back and forth as she writhes under the Agiel pressed into her back. Blood seeps down her arms, cascading past her naked chest and over her stomach, down her exposed center until it drips from her legs and puddles on the floor below her. Her wrists are mangled, torn flesh hangs loosely under her restraints.
When time resumes, Kahlan forces herself to look away. She turns her body and throws her arms up to cover her eyes. She feels her hands being ripped from her face and when she musters the courage to open her eyes again, Kahlan notices the Sorceress in front of her.
Sick, yellow teeth move as the woman hisses at her, "You must watch!" The woman commands, shoving Kahlan back roughly.
She feels her back connect forcefully with a wall and when she looks towards Cara, the girl no longer hangs in the air. The scene has changed. She is in another holding cell. The blonde is huddled in the corner again; rats swarming her as the scent of her open wounds draw them in.
The MordSith trainer walks towards Cara, Agiel poised to strike her face when the small girls eyes flash defiantly at her. Hard green eyes glare, almost challengingly at the MordSith. Laughter flows from the blonde woman's mouth as she lowers her weapon, "Are you angry, Cara?"
Her voice is amused, pleased as she dangles her Agiel dangerously close to the wounded child.
"Perhaps, you might like those vile rodents to leave you be? Are you annoyed at their constant attention towards your flesh? Does it bother you that such small creatures feed from you? When you are clearly the larger, superior being?"
Cara's eyes darken at the MordSiths words. Her clear green iris's cloud and a shadow passes through them before her jaw tightens and fists clench together. She is silent as she glares up at the woman in dark leathers, her attention focused on the Agiel near her face.
"You want it to stop?" The woman taunts.
"Do something about it."
The Agiel is thrown to the ground forcefully, dust scattering through the air as it lands with a thud. Cara reaches immediately for the weapon, gripping it in her hands as it squeals and burns her skin.
Kahlan notices the little girls body becomes rigid. Her eyes flash dangerously at the rats around her, nibbling and swarming her body. Something snaps and her head rises slowly to meet the stare of the blonde woman above her. The long braid reflects the light of the torch behind her as the MordSith nods, "Hesitate and die a coward."
Cara's hand clenches the weapon and she thrashes it wildly around the room, striking rat after rat beside her feet. The girl's face is hard as she crushes the rodents violently. The Agiel hisses as she strikes out relentlessly. In seconds, a pile of dead rats lay at her feet, but Cara does not stop there. She moves across the room ferociously, using both the Agiel and her feet to kill as many of the animals as she can find.
Blue eyes go wide as Cara slaughters over a hundred rats mercilessly. Kahlan watches, horrified, as the blonde child exacts her vengeance. Visions of Cara dancing happily in a pile of fallen leaves flashes behind her eyes. The contrast of the light red leaves flowing around her feet collides against the sight of the bloodied bodies of rats being kicked aside.
When Cara kills the last rat, she jams the Agiel violently down on it's body until the corpse sizzles and shrinks under the burn of it's force. Her breathing is hard and she stands taller, with a firmness that Kahlan recognizes from the Cara she knows. An odd fear wraps itself around the Confessor and she struggles with the pang in her heart. She has seen Cara slaughter armies, fight Banelings. She knows that Cara has killed hundreds of people and yet, watching the blonde massacre a room full of rodents has shaken her to the core. Kahlan has never been more fearful of the blonde than she is right now.
Cara turns and throws the Agiel boldly towards the boots of the MordSith. The woman quirks a sultry smile, "Well done," she articulates seductively. Kahlan's insides twist.
Out of nowhere, a large wooden staff slams into Kahlan's face. She is knocked back and falls hard. She feels grass under her fingers and she is not surprised to look up and see the blue sky looming freely above her. The sun bathes her in warmth and the brunette can't help but feel mocked at the abrupt change of atmosphere. She feels the blood drip from her nose and the tangy metallic flavour engulfs her sense of taste. Her face throbs.
Before she can adjust herself, the staff slams into her again, striking her torso. Kahlan shouts out in pain when she is hit again across her knees. Silver hair shines in the sunlight as the old woman wields her staff downward and across Kahlan's face. Pain courses through her body as the brunette struggles under the attack. Her head becomes foggy and her vision blurs. She dizzily reaches out to block the hard wood. Her hands meet air.
Urging her body into action, The Confessor gathers her strength and forces herself to stand. Her muscles pull tightly against her skin, wounds constricting and sending waves of hurt throughout her consciousness. After moments of struggle, Kahlan pulls herself off the ground. The old woman leans against the bloodied staff, scowling and watching as she stands on shaky legs.
"You will not turn away again. Do you understand me?"
Kahlan can't speak. Her mouth dries and though she tries, she is unable to form words.
The woman is in front of her within the blink of an eye, her hands around Kahlans throat, lifting her off the ground and raising her towards the sky.
"Do not delude yourself with the idea that these memories are too much to bare. You need only watch, not participate. It is as if your ignorance knows no bounds, Confessor!"
Grey eyes burn with anger as the womans voice rasps out. Kahlan feels hands tighten around her neck and she struggles to breathe. She starts to see stars under her eyelids at the pressure and moments before surrendering to the darkness creeping through her mind, she is released and crumples to the ground.
The woman throws her staff down beside her and straddles Kahlan, pinning her arms above her head with one hand and roughly straightening her face with the other. Her eyes lock on the Confessors and change from grey to dark red as her pupils double in size. Kahlan is pulled into the stare unwillingly and feels the woman pry her jaw open. Rotten breath fills her senses as the Sorceress exhales a putrid yellow fog. She tries to hold her breath but the fog works its way into her lungs.
Kahlan feels the poison seep toxically through her system. She is sent spiraling into a frenzy of harsh still frames. The pictures flick through her mind rapidly, imprinting themselves behind her eyes.
Cara being struck with an Agiel.
Dark, matted hair being washed clean. Blood disappearing from the childs face as a group of adolescent MordSith tend to Cara's wounds.
Fire blazing around the blonde in a circle.
Cara kneeling before the MordSith trainer obediently.
Cara striking other young captives with multiple different weapons.
Cara beside the woman who betrayed her as she tortured her mother.
Fierce green eyes, devoid of emotion, staring intensely across an empty room.
The fog settles in Kahlans lungs heavily. Her head is spinning with images and she feels herself become drunk from the poison in her system. The images speed up and become flashes of memories as the toxic fog hits her body harder.
Cara being fitted with leathers, blank faced and apathetic.
Her mother being burned and beaten with the Agiel. Blood spattering across her face as the MordSith whom Cara claimed obedience to tortures her. Cara's mother lasts less than a day before she is broken. Cara's eyes flash with disgust at the ease in which she submits.
Cara's mother being slaughtered in front of her.
A man being abducted and imprisoned. The man, Cara's father, squirms under the restraint of three MordSith as his tongue is cut from his mouth.
Everything is speeding up for Kahlan. Her body feels like it is being thrown through space. She is weightless, tossed from scene to scene. She vaguely registers the taste of blood in her mouth.
Cara approaches her father grimly. He is bruised, hands bound behind his back. Her face holds a small smile until she reaches him and he remains silent. She quirks an eyebrow and tilts her head to the side. He sobs before her. Cara turns towards her mentor, and is rewarded with an Agiel placed firmly in her hand.
Fire spreads through Kahlan. Her blood pulses through her body, pounding against her eardrums as she plummets towards the ground quickly. She can feel the earth pulling her back towards it.
Cara's fingers wrap around the hilt of the Agiel almost timidly. Her eyes dart back to her father and her grip tightens. Without taking her eyes off of the man, she whips her body towards him angrily. The Agiel slams across his face, easily shattering the bones in his face.
Kahlan can feels the wind whip past her body violently.
Cara screams and rushes the man as he falls to the ground. Her Agiel shudders and hisses as it's magic surges and she strikes her father repeatedly. He groans and grunts unintelligibly, twitches and convulses as she strikes him in the back of his head.
"Kill him, Cara!" a voice sounds.
The blonde shakes her head and kicks him in the gut, "Not yet," she rasps out.
Colours, sounds, words, feelings and tastes collide chaotically inside of Kahlan as she tumbles through the sky. A deafening cry calls her attention and her eyes find a focus she had forgot she held. The fog is ripped from her lungs, pulling the poison from her body as she exhales. The world becomes clear again and for a single perfect moment, Kahlan is suspended, high above the ground.
Empty green eyes stare at the battered man before her, casting a shadow across his body as she towers over him.
Wind catches in Kahlans dark locks, when she blinks, her hair lashes across her face furiously and she is plunging towards the earth again. A field comes into focus as the Confessor falls, head first towards it.
Sweat beads over Cara's brow as she stares at the man. Her face is devoid of any emotion as she kneels on his back and grabs a fistful of his hair.
She can feel the force of the ground closing in on her.
Cara raises the Agiel to her fathers exposed neck. She stares deeply into his eyes.
Kahlan closes her eyes. In a few seconds it will all be over.
Her eyes stay trained on her fathers as Cara slashes the Agiel across his throat.
Her entire body burns as white hot fire scorches through her it.
Cara's eyes stay locked on her father as she watches the life drain from him. He dies in her grasp. She doesn't even blink.
Kahlan slams into the ground. Her body breaks on impact. She doesn't have time to notice the darkness as it swallows her whole.
So this chapter was longer than the last. Hope that's okay. I could really use some feedback on this one guys. Send me a review and let me know how you feel about this chapter.
Thanks for reading. :)