Uncertainty

by misanagy

After "Desecrated", the merry band continues the search for the Stone of Tears, but along the way other things will be discovered and new people will appear in their lives.

25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25

The silence that surrounded them was almost absolute and the tall shelves that were around them prevented them to see much past the nook they stood at, which did nothing to clue them in if they were alone or not.

"This is the library of the Wizards Keep, no doubt about that," Zedd informed in a low voice, not wanting to risk making their presence known before being sure they were safe.

"Did we cross to the right time, wizard?" Cara asked warily, her hand clutching the agiel at her waist as she tilted her head slightly, alert to any menacing sounds.

"Girls?" Kahlan looked inquiringly at her daughters, if anyone would recognize the time they were in it would be the ones that belonged there.

"It does seem like it," Sarah answered, looking around the familiar room.

"Who's there?" a sharp demanding voice echoed from somewhere in the library, startling the group.

"We should hide," Richard hurriedly whispered. "We have no idea who that is," he looked around for a suitable place to conceal themselves.

"There's one way to be sure," Sarah said mischievously and picked up a very heavy and old looking book. "Shall we?" she raised one eyebrow at Alys, watching the girl's knowing look and confirming nod.

Sarah held the book in both hands and threw the heavy tome at the middle of the corridor, the loud impact in the silent library sounding like a wall had just fallen to the ground.

"Are you mad?" Cara hissed from behind her daughter. "That will lead them right to us!" Cara said but stopped when the voice was heard again, this time even more annoyed and closer.

"Be careful with the books!" the woman's voice admonished. "These are not to be played with," she continued, quickly approaching them, now that she could pinpoint their location by the sound.

Kahlan lifted a placating hand at Cara and Richard, who looked like they were going to drag both girls to safety by force. The Confessor looked at her daughters and could see by their smiling and excited faces that they recognized the owner of the irritated voice. Noticing a shadow on the floor, Kahlan knew they would find out in a second, when the woman turned the corner to meet them.

"I have to admit this time I dropped it on purpose," Sarah said with a wide grin as the annoyed Mord'Sith that appeared in front of them stopped in her tracks and just stared flabbergasted between her and an equally grinning Alys.

"Did you miss us, Berdine?" Alys giggled at the Mord'Sith's stunned face.

"Girls!" Berdine gasped and opened her arms to hug them. "How did you get here?" she asked, a sigh of relief leaving her when both girls hugged her back.

Before they could explain anything, Berdine noticed the other occupants in the room and quickly pushed the girls behind her protectively. She recognized every single person there, but something was definitely wrong.

"Berdine?" Cara asked with a furrowed brow, looking the woman up and down slowly.

"You know her?" Kahlan asked her lover, not daring to move and provoke the clearly ready to fight Mord'Sith.

"Yes, we served together," Cara explained, her mind still trying to understand how her fellow Mord'Sith was in the Wizards Keep of Aydindril, of all places. Even if the girls had mentioned her name before, it was still an odd thing to see.

"Glad to know you know who I am," Berdine replied, noticeably still not trusting them. "Now please, explain exactly who you are," she demanded, her hand going to the agiel at her side.

"That's mom," Alys said quietly from behind the suspicious Berdine, the girl's hand resting on the Mord'Sith's over the agiel in a silent request for the woman to stand down.

"That's impossible," Berdine argued with an incredulous shake of her head, her keen eyes never leaving Cara.

"I know," Sarah said with a sad sigh. "But it is her, just from another time," she explained. "They traveled here with us from the past."

"My dear, if I may," Zedd started in an appeasing way, noticing with curiosity that the Mord'Sith seemed to relax when she looked closely at him. "What the girls are saying is true. They were thrown into a time portal that brought them to our time and by a miracle of the Creator they found us. So, we have been helping them get back here since then," he finished with a kind smile, hopping to defuse the situation.

"Creator be praised," Berdine whispered in awe. "We were all so worried about you," she turned to the girls and cupped their cheeks, appearing convinced that the other adults presented no danger.

"So we did manage to cross to the right time?" Zedd questioned the Mord'Sith.

"You mean you were not sure you had managed to do it?" Cara stared dangerously at Zedd, who just shrugged sheepishly.

"Magic can be unpredictable at times," he smiled ruefully as Cara pursed her lips and took a deep breath to prevent herself from strangling the old man.

"Yes, this is where, or when, the girls belong," Berdine confirmed with a curt nod. "We have been trying to find them and bring them back for a long time, but we were never successful," she revealed with a frustrated sigh.

"We managed to do it," Alys grinned. "With some help," she chuckled and looked at the four adults.

"I need to get word out," Berdine reminded herself. "Guards!" she shouted and they didn't have to wait long until a couple of Aydindril guards reached them and also stood in shock when they were faced with the girls. "Go to the Mother Confessor and let her know her daughters are safe and with me. I trust you understand the urgency?" she smiled when they both nodded franticly and took off without needing to be told twice.

"Where's our mother?" Sarah asked, wanting nothing more than to hug her mother as soon as possible.

"She's out in the field, there's been a battle," Berdine replied. "We were hitting dead end after dead end searching for you, attacking the Blood of the Fold was the last resort, so your mother did it this morning. Let me show you," Berdine explained as she turned to walk through the corridors, the others following her.

"What exactly is the Blood of the Fold's involvement in all this that prompted her to attack them?" Kahlan questioned, frowning slightly at talking about herself as a separate person, this was going to need some getting used to.

"They wanted to kill them," Berdine motioned to the two girls walking beside her. "According to those fanatics, the girls should not be the future of Aydindril because of their… extra abilities," she said vaguely.

"You mean the Mord'Sith magic," Cara clarified and watched Berdine glance only briefly at her and nod her head.

"Freaks, they call us," Sarah added, knowing perfectly well what those religious lunatics thought of her and her sister.

"Yes, but you know very well that you should pay no heed to ignorant opinions," Berdine reminded Sarah. "Neither one of you should," she added, looking down at Alys.

"The girls weren't the only ones that went to the past," Richard said, keeping up with the fast pace Berdine was making them walk. "We met a wizard, Farkas, he wanted to kill Kahlan," he said and stopped suddenly when Berdine spun around to face him with fire in her eyes.

"That weasel," Berdine all but spat. "What do you know about him? Where is he now?" she asked, turning again to keep navigating the corridors towards the entrance of the Keep.

"We don't know," Richard shrugged. "He kidnapped Alys and after that we never heard from him again," he explained.

"He what?" Berdine asked, her eyes going wide as she turned to Alys. "Did he hurt you?" she cupped the girl's chin and seemed to be appraising her for signs of mistreatment.

"Funny you would ask," Alys started with a smug grin.

"Oh boy, here we go with the boasting," Sarah sighed and shook her head, knowing perfectly well what her sister was going to say.

"I killed two Mord'Sith and escaped all on my own," Alys revealed succinctly, intentionally leaving out how much she had cried and the pain they still had inflicted her in that hut.

"Creator help us all, your mother is going to freak out when she learns about this," Berdine closed her eyes briefly and sighed.

"And that's not even half of it," Sarah mumbled and met Berdine's worried eyes with a sheepish raise of her eyebrows.

"Okay, we'll have time to talk about this later, let's just go," Berdine shook her head curtly and lead them outside the Keep.

Once outside the enormous building, the sun hit their faces and made them squint in the bright light. Kahlan approached the stone balustrade in front of them that marked the end of the plateau the Keep was built on. Two big stone staircases descended from both sides, leading to the city down below, but from this vantage point she could see all of Aydindril, the Confessor's Palace and the city extending before it. She could also see the various tents surrounding the city on the field beyond the walls and the various soldiers, sporting different colors, that could still be seen on the battlefield. By the movements of the troops, Kahlan could see the battle was already over.

"Look Sarah," Alys squealed in excitement, jumping up and down and pointing at the Palace that could be seen from there. "We're home!" she screamed at the top of her lungs down at the city as she came to stand beside Kahlan.

"Yes, we are," Sarah said with a more contained excitement, putting her hands on her excited sister's shoulders.

"This is some view," Cara commented softly as she stood to Kahlan's other side, looking over the city and also noticing the battle scene on the field outside the city.

Kahlan just nodded and smiled at her lover, squeezing the blonde's hand in a gesture that was meant to both seek and give comfort. They were both going to face a hard reality here, she had not forgotten that. Kahlan had no idea how she was going to react when she was face to face with herself and even worse, when she was confronted with the lack of an older Cara next to her. Zedd's voice brought her out of her reverie and she turned to face the wizard.

"How exactly does Farkas fit in with the Blood of the Fold?" Zedd asked Berdine.

"Farkas served in Aydindril once, being part the various wizards that aid the Mother Confessor," Berdine started to explain. "But his views were always a little, how should I put it, conservative," she said with a roll of her eyes. "When the Mother Confessor returned to Aydindril, after helping the Seeker seal the rift to the Underworld, everybody was expecting one thing, but they got something totally different," she smirked and looked pointedly at Cara.

"You mean the Mother Confessor's partner of choice," Zedd guessed with little problem and Berdine nodded.

"To put it mildly," Berdine continued, having the rapt attention of everyone. "Aydindril had prepared to welcome the Seeker and the Mother Confessor with wedding plans, but instead they learnt that the Mother Confessor's partner was a Mord'Sith," she said, looking at Cara once again. "A sworn enemy and a woman, who could never help with the most sacred and desperately needed duty of the Mother Confessor, continuing the line of Confessors by bearing children."

"I bet that was a hard pill to swallow," Cara commented dryly.

"The problem was that it was never swallowed," Berdine shook her head and started to descend the stairs towards the city, the others following her once again.

"Farkas amongst the more vehement voices of discord, I assume," Richard guessed.

"You assume right," Berdine confirmed. "At first no one dared to voice their displeasure with the Mother Confessor's choices. She definitely didn't tolerate that from anyone," she said with smirk. "But things turned gradually south when Sarah was born," she said and pulled the teen to her by the shoulders, both of them sharing a soft smile that should be weird on a Mord'Sith's face but in this case it wasn't.

"Was it the majority of the people that didn't approve of me and Cara?" Kahlan questioned, furrowing at the thought of having her people against her in this matter.

"No, definitely nothing even close to that," Berdine assured. "Once you both established yourselves here and they got to know Cara and see her work with the army, all of the initial reservations were forgotten," she said. "But there were always some rats on the ship," she twisted her nose in displeasure.

"Excuse me, the army?" Cara questioned with raised eyebrows.

"The Mother Confessor made you Commander of the Midlands army," Berdine explained, chuckling at Cara's shocked expression. "You made various changes around here over the years, the troops appreciate the order and discipline you brought to the ranks."

"But when Sarah was born…" Zedd prompted, bringing Berdine back on track.

"With the birth of our oldest princess here," Berdine said affectionately, looking at Sarah. "And especially since she started to exhibit some very peculiar and very Mord'Sith like powers, some ill whispers of what that would mean to the line of Confessors started to rise. Farkas being the most active in spreading these misgivings, half of it being nonsense to pollute the minds of people and turn them to his cause," she said with a disgusted curl of her lip.

"I'm guessing from your face that his cause didn't exactly have the…purity of the line of Confessors at its heart," Cara said as they reached the end of the stairs and paused in a loose circle on the road.

"Of course not, weasels like that concern themselves with their own private goals, not the well being of the masses," Berdine replied. "What he truly wanted was power," she revealed. "He wanted to rule Aydindril in the place of the Mother Confessor."

"And used the girl's heritage as something that could be seen as threatening to the Confessors' line," Zedd mused, the pieces coming all together. "Thus, giving him leverage to start a revolt against Kahlan," he finished.

Before Berdine could reply to the wizard, the sound of hooves was heard fast approaching. They looked down the road to see men from the Home Guard galloping at high speed in their direction; at the front, a figure dressed all in white could be seen searching the streets franticly.

"Mommy," Alys whispered when she recognized the leading rider. "Mommy!" she screamed and felt Sarah pull her by the hand to run towards the horses.

"Alys! Sarah!" the Mother Confessor of Aydindril shouted and dismounted her horse hurriedly, running to meet her lost daughters. "My babies," she whispered with relief and gratefulness as she finally hugged them both. "Thank the Creator I have you back," she cried openly, not able or wanting to hold in her emotions as she squeezed both her daughters in her arms.

"We missed you so much," Sarah whispered, tears running down her face as she embraced her mother, the one she had known all her life.

"I missed you too, sweetie," Kahlan smiled brightly, cupping her oldest daughter's cheek tenderly and kissing her forehead with devotion. "My heart bled every second of every day I spent without you two," she said and bent down to place several kisses on Alys's cheeks until the girl stopped crying and giggled instead.

"Mother Confessor," Berdine called for the ruler's attention as she approached the very pleased trio.

"Berdine," Kahlan breathed with a smile. "How did you find them?" she asked curiously.

"I didn't," Berdine replied and turned to look back at the very stunned four faces that stood in shock closer to the stairs. "They brought the girls here," she revealed, pointing at the group and watching the Mother Confessor's face turn from extremely happy to suspicious in a blink of an eye.

"Who are you?" the Mother Confessor questioned, her eyes piercing a younger version of herself as she instinctively tried to shield her daughters.

Of course she recognized every one of those faces, but she was having a hard time believing how that could be possible; what were the odds of her daughters meeting the younger version of herself right when they needed her. Hardened by all the schemes she had faced until now, she couldn't rule out the possibility of this being a trap.

"She's you, Mother Confessor," Berdine supplied with a little amusement in her voice.

"No," the white clad ruler said, approaching her look alike carefully. "I want to hear her say it," she demanded, her eyes fixing familiar blue's, searching for the truth.

Kahlan was speechless as she watched this regal woman approach her, Alys and Sarah trailing curiously behind her. She recognized her own features, how could she not, but she could see a lot of differences. This woman was clearly older than her, some barely noticeable lines at the corner of her eyes betraying that. She also stood somewhat taller, obviously having mastered the regal pose of the Mother Confessor for many years and it became even more part of her now. The hair was still long and wavy, but it had more curls and it was clearly well maintained, a few braids adorning it in a style that made her stand out in any crowd. Knowing she was being scrutinized for the truth, Kahlan replied without hesitation.

"It's true," Kahlan confirmed with a smile. "I am you," she nodded, not letting her eyes waver. "And they are exactly who they look like they are," she added, motioning to her companions.

"How is that possible?" the Mother Confessor said absentmindedly as she assessed her younger version.

"Same way we met them in the first place," Sarah said next to her mother, motioning to the others. "Time travelling," she shrugged.

"I figured that," the older Kahlan said. "I meant how is it possible that you girls found them?" she clarified, walking towards the other three and eyeing them curiously, but not suspiciously anymore.

"Actually, they found me," Alys told her mother. "I was so happy when I saw them, I almost blurted everything out right there and then, but I remembered Zedd's lessons about how that could do more harm than good and-" she trailed off when she noticed her mother staring at Cara.

The Mother Confessor stared for a long time at the blonde Mord'Sith, studying every little detail about the woman, details she had committed to her heart but she hadn't seen in a long time. Like the careful curiosity she could see in the narrowed green eyes, she hadn't been on the end of one of those looks for a very long time now. Noticing how the blonde was starting to feel unnerved with her stare, she couldn't help but smile fondly at the younger version of the love of her life.

"I'm sorry for staring," the older woman eventually said, still looking at Cara. "This is just beyond unexpected."

"Don't worry, the feeling is mutual," Kahlan replied with a smile, still in awe.

"How much do you know about my daughters?" the Mother Confessor asked, her head tilting curiously as she looked between Cara and Kahlan.

"Everything," Kahlan chuckled. "We know Cara is their other mother," she confirmed, guessing that this was what the older woman was fishing for.

"And that doesn't surprise you?" the Mother Confessor asked, trying to assess the dynamics between the group without asking directly.

"At first it did, it's not exactly a common thing to happen," Kahlan said. "But once the girls explained, it really just made us happy," she said and looked back at Cara, sharing a warm smile with the blonde.

The Mother Confessor watched this interaction between the two women and didn't need to ask anything else to know the two were already involved with each other. Glancing at a relaxed Richard, she smiled, knowing the Seeker had already come to terms with their relationship too. Good, that saved them a whole lot of awkwardness. Her eyes shifted inevitably back to Cara. As she looked nostalgically at the blonde, it was like having her memory materialize in front of her.

"We can imagine how painful this is to you," Zedd said in a lamenting tone, looking from an increasingly uncomfortable Cara to the Mother Confessor still holding her daughters close to her.

"Painful is an understatement," the older woman said, frowning slightly as Zedd kept looking from her to Cara with something akin to sorrow. "But I have my babies back with me again, so everything will be okay," she smiled, combing through Alys' hair.

"Not everything," Sarah whispered, her tearful eyes glued to the floor.

"I don't want you to go," Alys said sadly as she looked at Cara, leaving her mother's side to throw her arms around the blonde in a tight hug and burying her face in the Mord'Sith's leathers.

"Baby girl?" the Mother Confessor frowned and approached both blondes to comfort her daughter.

In this moment, a horse at full gallop ran behind Kahlan, who was watching her older self with Cara and Alys. Distracted with the scene in front her, Kahlan noticed too late as a rope looped over her head and tightened around her chest, effectively binding her arms to her torso and yanked her away, her body hitting the ground with force as she was dragged behind the galloping horse.

"Kahlan!" Cara shouted, already moving to follow the horse.

"You're mine now, Mother Confessor," Farkas turned back with a feral grin, watching his prey drag in the dirt road behind his horse, knowing not a single one of them was fast enough to catch him now.

But as soon as the wizard turned his head forward again, his eyes widened in terror when he noticed a horse galloping right at him in the opposite direction and who exactly was on the saddle. Before he could react in any way, an agiel hit his face with murderous force, sending him flying back off the horse and hitting the ground with a sickening cracking sound.

"Kahlan!" the new rider yelled while dismounting the horse and hurrying to lift Kahlan off the ground.

"Cara?!" Kahlan whispered in disbelief, looking dumbly as the long-haired blonde lifted her back to her feet with utmost care. She looked older, her features not that different but with enough subtleties for her to notice the changes; but there was no mistake, this was Cara.

Cara just stared dumbly at the woman she had just saved from a very nasty ride down the road. Leading the group that was tasked with hunting Farkas, she had been ridding at full speed towards the Wizard's Keep in his pursuit, the magic map in her possession marking the exact spot where the wizard was. When she took the last turn on the road, she watched in horror as Farkas galloped in the opposite direction and snatched Kahlan up. From then on, she saw red and simply reacted. But now, looking closer at the woman in her arms she could see something was not quite right; Kahlan looked different and seemed astonished to see her, as if Cara being there was impossible. With a low angry groan, she turned towards the fallen wizard on the ground.

"Whatever you've done to my wife, you'll fix right now!" Cara yelled as she picked the stunned wizard by the collar and punched him in his already bloody face. "Or I'll kill you and bring you back so many times you won't know the difference between being alive or dead anymore," she spat through clenched teeth, her eyes blazing with murderous intent.

"Cara, wait!" the Mother Confessor shouted, running towards her enraged wife. "I'm okay, I'm here," she said and had to suppress a laugh at Cara's shocked and confused expression, as she almost gave herself whiplash from looking between the two Kahlans.

"What? How?" Cara confusedly said, grabbing her wife's hands to reassure herself it was indeed her. "You better start explaining," she said to her wife, looking warily at the younger Kahlan.

"Before I explain," the Mother Confessor smiled enigmatically. "Look behind me," she said, watching the blonde frown in confusion.

"Mom?" Sarah's broken and trembling voice immediately caught Cara's attention.

The group was standing still a few paces away, having run after Kahlan in an attempt to free her from the wizard, but had stopped once Cara appeared seemingly out of nowhere and blocked the wizard's escape. Sarah and Alys had been frozen ever since their mother dismounted and went to aid a fallen Kahlan, they looked like they couldn't believe their own eyes and were afraid to blink and have her mother disappear.

"Mom!" Alys cried finally, bringing both girls out of their stupor and ran to leap into her mother's arms, Cara catching her as the little girl's arms and legs wrapped around her torso. Cara smiled tearfully and squeeze the little blonde tightly with one arm while she pulled a stunned Sarah into her side, her hand cupping the back of the brunette's head as the teen cried on the crook of her neck.

"I got you," Cara reassured both girls and herself too. "It's okay, I got you now," she repeated in a soothing tone, placing comforting kisses on both girl's heads.

"I thought you were dead," Sarah said between sobs. "You died in my arms, I saw it," she mumbled confused.

"Hey kid, look at me," Cara said, brushing the teen's hair from her face and bringing the girl close so their foreheads rested together. "You saw it right, I did die," she nodded and before she could elaborate her youngest daughter intervened.

"Then how are you here?" Alys hiccupped, still crying and clinging to her mother for dear life.

"Raina brought me back," Cara explained, placing another kiss on Alys' head.

"Raina?" Alys frowned, finally lifting her head from her mother's shoulder. "But she was at the hearings with mommy when I left, how did she get to the Keep in time?" she wondered in between sniffles.

"I'm always closer than you think, little princess," Raina chimed in with a smile, coming from behind Cara after dismounting her own horse. "You were taking too long on your sneaky excursion and I went to search for you," she clarified. "Regrettably, I didn't reach you in time to prevent Farkas from taking you, but I got there in time to give your mom the Breath of Life," she winked at a stunned Alys.

"I was never as happy as that day for Raina's overprotectiveness," the Mother Confessor said, moving to check on her younger self but stopped and smiled when she saw a young Cara already at the woman's side, frowning worriedly at the gashes being dragged on the road caused.

"So, who are they?" Cara asked, looking distrustfully at Richard and Zedd, that were both slowly approaching. "What do they want?" she glanced sideways at the younger Kahlan she saved and at the woman that looked like herself.

"Cara, ease up, they're on our side," Kahlan told her wife calmly. "They're us," she reminded with a smile.

"How can you be sure?" the long haired blonde rebuked, clearly not ready to trust anyone. "It could be one more of that wizard's tricks!" she said, glancing sideways at Farkas, still lying in pain on the ground.

"Because I asked her," the brunette answered, looking at Kahlan. "And I can see she's not lying."

"You can read them," Cara accepted, looking at Kahlan and at the two men. "But you can't read her," she pointed out, motioning to an alert Cara.

"No, I can't," the Mother Confessor conceded. "But if she was an impostor or not herself in any way, she could never fool her," the brunette pointed out with a challenging smile, motioning with her head to her younger self while she had a staring contest with her wife.

"Fine," Cara eventually said, not failing to notice how everyone let out a sigh of relief. "But we need some answers," she said, watching her wife nod in agreement.

A gasp of pain brought everyone's attention to the wounded Kahlan and before anyone else could speak, the same voice was heard in sync from two different people.

"Zedd!" both Caras shouted at the same time, clearly meaning for Zedd to do something about Kahlan's wounds.

"I see some things will never change," Zedd laughed good naturedly, as both blondes looked at each other awkwardly.

"Just shup up and help her already," the younger Cara said hurriedly, glaring at the wizard in annoyance.

"It's okay, it's not that bad," Kahlan attempted to assure the irritated blonde with a smile, but Cara just huffed and pouted in annoyance until Zedd finished healing the wounds.

"Aww Cara, look at baby you," Raina said in amusement. "So cute with the pouting," she teased, but pursed her lips when her Commander just glared at her stoically.

"What did you just call me?" Cara looked up from Zedd's work and took a menacing step towards Raina, her hand already pulling out one agiel.

"Whoa, whoa, calm down," the Mother Confessor put herself in between both Mord'Sith and put her hands on Cara's shoulders, in an attempt to dissuade her from attacking the teasing Raina. "Don't mind Raina, she doesn't mean to insult," the older brunette explained, smiling when Cara met her eyes and quickly backed down.

"Oooh, she's wiped already," Raina quipped. "Looks like it started even earlier than I thought," she commented, not bothered at all that Cara had taken the agiel out again, clearly intending to struck her this time.

"Stop," the older Cara said with authority, looking warningly at Raina, who gave her a curt nod. "Both of you," she looked warningly at her younger self, pleased when the woman seemed to back down.

"She has always been too sassy for her own good," Cara drawled and sheathed her agiel, clearly remembering Raina's tendency to just blurt out the most inappropriate things from the time they had served together.

"And don't you forget it, sweet cheeks," Raina winked at a peeved Cara.

"Raina, leave her alone already," Berdine said calmly, smiling when Raina shrugged dismissively but didn't say another word.

"That's the only person in the world that can shut Raina up," the Mother Confessor whispered conspiratorially to a younger Cara. "If anyone is wiped, it's Raina herself," she winked, making Cara chuckle softly.

"Good as new," Zedd announced when he finished healing Kahlan. "Can't say the same about him," he said, motioning to Farkas as the wizard was dragged to his feet by two other Mord'Sith, blood running from a broken nose.

"He will get a lot worse than that," Cara hissed, rubbing Alys' back reassuringly. "Take him away," she ordered with an icy tone.

"This is not over," Farkas said stubbornly, trying weakly to free himself form the Mord'Siths' grasp, but hissed in pain when he tried to move his limp arm, probably broken from the fall. "I will-" he was silenced when Raina violently struck him with the back of her hand.

"What will you do? Use your magic against us?" Raina asked with a fake sweet smile. "Please do," she challenged and chuckled when the wizard glared at her for a second, but ended up lowering his eyes. "I didn't think so."

"Take him to the dungeons," the Mother Confessor ordered. "His friend should be there by now, they can keep each other company until I decide their fates," she said and watched as the Mord'Sith carried the wizard away.

The Mother Confessor turned to her wife and smiled when she noticed Alys still clinging to her mom.

"We should go to the Palace. Can I put you down now?" Cara asked Alys and smiled when the girl just shook her head. "Aren't you the one who insists you're a big girl now and I'm not allowed to carry you around anymore?" she teased lightly.

"I don't care," Alys mumbled, hugging her mother tighter and burying her face on her neck.

Cara and Kahlan shared a tender look, knowing their youngest needed the extra comfort.

"Mom will carry you all the way home, okay baby girl?" Kahlan caressed her daughter's hair and smiled when the girl just nodded with a sniffle.

"We'll need more horses for them," Cara told Raina as she motioned to the visitants from the past.

"Oh, that won't be necessary," Zedd hurried to say. "We won't be staying," he explained but noticed that Raina didn't even look at him and was already talking to a guard about fetching more horses.

"I wasn't asking," Cara looked him in the eyes as she helped Alys get on her horse.

Zedd looked closely back at this Cara and noticed, not without some apprehension, that her reply was not meant as a sarcastic comment at him, like it usually was. This Cara was indeed not asking, she was ordering them all to go with them to the Palace. Zedd understood in that moment that this was not the woman he was used to travel with, this was the Commander of the Midlands army; and one look at Kahlan next to her, watching him as if daring him to disagree with her wife, also reminded him that this was the Mother Confessor, ruler of Aydindril. So, he nodded his head in agreement; it wouldn't be advisable to contradict either of them.

"No, really, there's no need for us to go," Richard insisted, failing to notice Cara's slow intake of breath. "We just wanted to make sure the girls got here okay, we shouldn't stay any longer," he explained, looking proudly at his grandfather for abiding by his wishes for once, but frowned when Zedd just stared at him while shaking his head almost imperceptibly.

"You're not in charge here, Richard, I am," Cara said, mounting her horse behind Alys. "If I'm telling you you'll go to the Palace with us, you will go," she said slowly, fixing the Seeker with an unwavering stare that held a veiled threat behind it.

"It will be our pleasure to go," Kahlan intervened, much like Zedd, sensing that Cara's older self was not giving them an option. "We'll be right behind you," she said as she looked at her older self.

"We just need some answers," the Mother Confessor said reassuringly and smiled at her younger self, trusting the woman would be the best to understand that Cara was not reacting out of malice, but out of carefulness and worry for her daughters.

"Here are the horses," Raina called as some guards approached with the requested animals. "Still not enough, but I guess you two can share, right?" she said insinuatingly at a short haired Cara, who was clearly not as amused with her as her older self normally was.

"Yes, thank you," Kahlan was quick to reply when she noticed her lover roll her eyes at the Mord'Sith.

"You're very welcome," Raina replied with a slight bow of her head, making Cara even more annoyed with this obvious show of respect to Kahlan when all she was getting were jabbing remarks. "What about you princess? Want to share with me?" she asked Sarah with a genuine warm smile.

"Definitely not," the Mother Confessor shook her head as she circled her daughter's waist and pulled the teen to her in a side hug. "She will be riding with me," she smiled and kissed the brunette's cheek.

"Let's not waste any more time then," a younger Cara said as she mounted one horse and extended one hand to help Kahlan up.

"She's scarier than you," Richard whispered to Cara as he approached them after mounting his own horse, clearly referring to the blonde's older self.

"And here we were thinking she couldn't get any worse," Kahlan said with a teasing grin, circling Cara's waist with her arms.

"It's not necessarily a bad thing," Cara smirked, making Richard and Kahlan chuckle.

"No, it's not," Kahlan agreed with a grin as Richard spurred his horse ahead of them. "And can you guess what else is definitely not a bad thing?" Kahlan whispered in Cara's ear.

"Me being alive?" Cara whispered back while she turned to look at Kahlan's watery eyes. "I guess that's not half bad either," she said teasingly before Kahlan kissed her sweetly. Her being alive after all just proved that one really could not predict what the future had in store, even knowing about it beforehand.

They took off in the direction of the Palace, the retinue of guards and a few other Mord'Sith trailing behind them. Their main objective was complete, they had gotten the girls safe and sound to their parents, but now said parents looked like they needed some answers. Cara could understand that need and was happy to comply, not like Richard that didn't get the hint as fast as the rest of them. Her older self had been perfectly clear when she ordered them to go to the Palace, but the Seeker didn't seem to notice. Another thing she was sure he didn't notice, was the dismissive way in which the older blonde had addressed him. Her older self didn't show him any deference and didn't address him as Lord Rahl, she sounded like she was merely talking to a foot soldier. Richard hadn't noticed, but she certainly did and she needed to know why.

When they arrived at the Palace, the Mother Confessor guided the group to a large room, where they all could talk without being interrupted. They sat down on the divans that were arranged in a way that formed a small spot clearly meant for lounging.

"I noticed some D'Haran soldiers on the way here, not to mention that I'm sure this place has never seen so many Mord'Sith," Cara asked as she sat down in front of the older version of themselves. "What are they doing here?"

"The D'Harans came here with Lord Rahl," Cara addressed her younger self, as she circled Alys' shoulders when the girl sat next to her and snuggled up to her side. "He answered our call for help and came to aid us in fighting the Blood of the Fold," she explained, glancing at her wife, that was sitting next to Alys.

"Who is the Lord Rahl?" Richard asked curiously, taking a seat on a leather covered stool next to Cara.

The Commander of the Midlands army just smirked at him amusedly, but before she could answer the door opened and Lord Rahl entered the room, his red and gold armor with two R's on the chest leaving no doubt to who he was.

"So much for not wanting to be Lord Rahl," Cara whispered teasingly at a stunned Richard next to her, understanding now her older self's amused expression.

"Girls!" Lord Rahl called happily as soon as he spotted Sarah and Alys next to their mothers.

"Uncle Richard!" Alys shouted back and got up to meet the armor-clad man in an embrace as he kneeled to hug her. "I missed you," she said with a happy smile.

"I missed you too," Richard replied as he tickled the giggling girl. "And you…am I wrong or do you seem taller?" he said to Sarah as he got up and hugged the brunette tightly.

"A lot of things happened and some things did change," Sarah chuckled, returning the man's hug. "But I don't think extra inches are a part of it," she shook her head in amusement.

"Something did change, I can see it," Richard said, piercing her with his knowing eyes. "You may not be taller, but you certainly are more confident," he said surely, grinning when Sarah raised her brows in agreement.

"Come meet our guests, Richard," the Mother Confessor invited with a smile. "They are the ones who brought the girls back from the past," she added, waiting to see her friend's reaction to said guests.

"No way," Lord Rahl shook his head in amazement as he looked at the people the brunette was referring to.

"I think we are more surprised than you are," Richard said with a grin, getting up and extending his arm to his older self in greeting. "I would never expect to see myself dressed like that," he said, motioning to the colors of the house of Rahl the other man was proudly wearing.

"Give it time," Lord Rahl said with a chuckle as he gripped Richard's forearm amicably. "You'll warm up to it," he grinned enigmatically.

"How about you girls tell us about what you have been through?" the Mother Confessor asked, tucking a lock of hair behind Sarah's ear as the girl sat back down next to her. "We want to know all about it," she continued while she turned to her other side to kiss Alys' cheek.

"Sarah spent her first days there in a Mord'Sith temple," Alys said before anyone else could speak, not really noticing how her mothers' eyes immediately widened in shock and apprehension.

"Why would you lead with that?" Sarah said exasperatingly to her sister, unlike the blonde girl, she didn't fail to notice her mothers' reaction to the news.

"Because it was badass how you tricked them all!" Alys said excitedly. "You also confessed some, even that one that attacked you in the bath. Although, I don't get why she would choose to attack you naked and unarmed, doesn't seem to me like the most effective way to go about it," the girl shrugged, unaware of the awkwardness she was creating. "But you ended up confessing her too, right?" she continued unaffected, making her sister blush beet red.

"Please, someone kill me now," Sarah mumbled with a groan, rubbing her eyes with her fingers.

Her sister's words, although unintentionally, sounded like something very different from a fight had happened in that bath. Chancing a glance at her mothers' apprehensive expressions she could bet they were imagining the same scenario.

"Oh, way to go princess," Raina piped in cheekily, with an insinuating and congratulatory look at the teen, but quickly cleared her throat as she noticed Cara looking dangerously at her. "The apple really doesn't fall far from the tree," she added, smirking as Cara only took a deep breath and ignored her comment.

Cara looked at her daughter's red face and cleared her throat. The picture painted by Alys immediately made her think how exactly her daughter could have confessed that one naked Mord'Sith and that was definitely an image she did not want in her head. Raina's insinuating comments didn't help matters.

"How…" Cara started after clearing her throat again, but was quickly interrupted by Sarah.

"With my hands on her throat!" Sarah said exasperatedly, not really looking anyone in the eye. "That's how I confessed the Mord'Sith in the bath and all the others, naked or not. Like one normally confesses someone," she added awkwardly.

"How… did you get inside the temple to begin with? That's what I was going to ask," Cara said after an awkward pause. "But that's good to know," she added, clearing her throat yet again. "And what happened in there that made you kill them?"

"I was just defending myself, okay?" Sarah explained. "Those women were constantly trying to provoke me and they took every opportunity to do it, even in the bath. But I know how to take care of myself, not a single one of them managed to touch me," she explained, still feeling uncomfortable with the conversation. "Not that they didn't try," she mumbled, rolling her eyes as she heard Raina laugh.

"Raina," the Mother Confessor admonished kindly, noticing that Cara was about to hit the amused Mord'Sith over the head any minute now.

"I'm sorry Mother Confessor," Raina apologized with a sincere look at Kahlan. "This is just too amusing," she said looking meaningfully at Cara, enjoying how her leader and friend was most certainly in the middle of a freak out.

"Enough about this," Kahlan said pacifyingly, not wanting to prolong the awkward conversation.

"Sarah only confessed them because they were trying to hurt her," Alys said with a frown, defending her sister.

"If they were trying to hurt you, then they deserved to be confessed," Raina told Sarah seriously, but a smirk repapered on her face a second later. "Although, the ones that had the opposite intention in mind would have met the same fate."

"RAINA!" Cara shouted with an incredulous look at her friend.

"Sorry Commander," Raina said sheepishly. "I'm just so glad to see that the girls are okay, I can't help myself. I think I lost my filter," she said, shrugging her shoulders.

"Because you normally have one?" Berdine replied with a light chuckle. "You better find a filter fast, if you want to keep your head on your shoulders," she said warningly, shaking her head when Raina's only answer was a shameless grin.

"You still haven't answered my question, Sarah," Cara sent one last warning look at Raina and addressed her daughter with a worried look in her eyes.

"What question?" Sarah asked, hopping the awkward conversation would end.

"How did you end up in a Mord'Sith temple?" Cara repeated.

"When I jumped into the portal, I ended up outside of a temple," Sarah explained, shifting in her seat to face her mothers better. "I was a little disoriented and the Mord'Sith managed to catch me and bring me inside. At first, they didn't believe me when I told them I was a Mord'Sith, but then they had a wizard come in and attack me with wizard's fire. Once I deflected it, they were convinced and I also got to see that the wizard was Farkas. So, I decided to stay there, blend in and find out if he was keeping Alys there."

"Where were you when Farkas attacked you?" Cara asked, her brow furrowing. "How come he didn't recognize you?" she asked suspiciously, already dreading the answer.

"I was in a room, with just a couple of other Mord'Sith," Sarah replied, glancing quickly at her sister. "And I was lucky, I guess, my hair must have been on my face or something. He never expected to find me there, so he probably didn't pay much attention. I was just another prisoner," Sarah shrugged dismissively.

"If I remember correctly about Mord'Sith interrogation techniques, and I do, you were probably chained to the ceiling in that room," Cara said, tilting her head contemplatively. "And the reason Farkas wasn't able to recognize you had more to do with said techniques' consequences than with luck. What did they do to you?" she insisted, looking directly in her daughter's eyes.

"Nothing mom," Sarah huffed. "They just poked me around a few times with an agiel, it was nothing," she shrugged again, avoiding her mother's eyes.

"Those wounds you had when you found us didn't look like nothing," Alys said as she frowned at her sister, knowing that the teen was not telling the whole truth, but not understanding why.

"Those were from sparring matches," Sarah said matter-of-factly and rolled her eyes.

"They hurt you in there," Cara said with a certainty that came from experience.

"No one hurt me, they believed I was just a Mord'Sith, like any one of them," Sarah said smugly. "They even learned to respect me," she added with pride, her smug smirk widening.

"Sarah, look at me," the Mother Confessor got her daughter's attention and held her eyes for a moment. "Are you lying to us?" she asked calmly, knowing there was more to this than her daughter was sharing.

"Why do you ask? Can't you tell?" Sarah challenged her mother, her expression never changing.

As soon as these words left Sarah's mouth, not a sound could be heard from any of the occupants of the room. The Mother Confessor looked from her daughter to her younger self, sitting in front of her, and closed her eyes with a resigned sigh when the woman just mouthed a 'sorry' to her.

"Okay sweetie, you got it, I'm not be able to read you with my power," the Mother Confessor admitted, much to Sarah's satisfaction. "Despite that, I always know when you're lying or hiding something," she added with an amused smile, watching Sarah's smug expression shift to one of confusion. "You see, you and your mom share a lot of traits, one of them is trying to pass smugness and bravado for honesty. Unfortunately for you, none of you can pull it off when it comes to me," she revealed with a chuckle.

"How about me?" Alys questioned. "Can you read me?"

"For now, I can," Kahlan told her youngest daughter, chuckling at the girl's disappointed look. "But if what happened with your sister happens with you too, it won't be for much longer," she revealed.

"Yes!" Alys celebrated before she could stop herself. "Not that I would ever lie to you," she backtracked quickly, glancing at Sarah worriedly who just rolled her eyes at her.

"You just did," Cara said with a small smile, brushing her daughter's hair out of her eyes. "And I don't even need powers to know that," she said, making the girl smile sheepishly.

"Back to the matter at hand, though," the Mother Confessor started, bringing everyone's attention back to her. "Tell us how you ended up meeting our daughters," she said and looked at her younger self, clearly wanting her to tell them about it. The brunette hadn't forgotten about Sarah's time in the temple, but by the teen's reaction, this was clearly something she would have to address in private with her oldest daughter.

Before Kahlan could start though, the door opened again and Zedd walked in. Surprisingly enough, he was the one that didn't look that much different, the years didn't seem to touch him like they did the others, unless you noticed that he did walk with more difficulty. Like Richard had done before him, his first priority was to embrace the two girls that had been lost to them for so long and who he had tried relentlessly to find. Only after reassurances from both of them that they were okay, did the wizard look at the four occupants of the room that did not belong there.

"How is this happening?" the old wizard asked flabbergasted, looking at the younger versions of them. "This is highly unadvisable, not to mention that is extremely dangerous and can have unknow repercussions. They can't be here!"

"Don't you think I know that?" the Zedd next to a younger Richard huffed. "But try telling them that!" he said, pointing at his younger companions.

"Right, I see the problem," the old wizard nodded, sharing a knowing look with is younger self. "Oh well, since you're here you must tell us what happened with the girls? How did you meet?"

"That's what they were trying to do before you interrupted us, wizard," Cara said slowly, making her wife chuckle next to her, and stared at Zedd until the wizard mumbled something intelligible and sat down with his arms crossed, seeming ready to hear the tale.

"We were on the road, looking for the Stone of Tears, when we found out that a man had been confessed, a slave dealer," Kahlan started after everyone looked at her expectantly.

"You ran into trouble with slave dealers too, besides Mord'Sith?" the Mother Confessor asked Sarah, assuming her oldest daughter had been the one responsible.

"Sarah wasn't the one that confessed him," Kahlan shook her head and looked at Alys.

"What?" the Mother Confessor blanched, knowing perfectly well that Alys had never confessed anyone before and how this must have shaken the little girl. "Oh, baby girl," she said as she pulled the little blonde into a hug. "Are you okay?" she asked, cupping the girl's cheeks to look into her eyes.

"It was kind of scary, but I'm fine now," Alys assured her mother with a smile.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there for you, sweetie," the older woman said as she kissed the blonde's forehead. "I know that had to be difficult."

"Well, in a way you were," Alys said and looked at Kahlan, who smiled gently at her. "Not exactly the same, but she helped me deal with it."

"Why did you confess him?" Cara asked her daughter, knowing that since it was the first time the girl released her power it must have been a reflexive action, which meant the girl was in danger.

"He was going to hurt me," Alys told her mother, watching as the woman took a deep calming breath. "I didn't even realize I was doing it, but when I realized what I had done, I told him to be good and he never bothered me again. Then I met them," she said, motioning to the adults sitting opposite her.

"We went to investigate who had confessed that man and we met Alys," Kahlan continued. "She didn't disclose much about herself, but as we talked and asked questions, we eventually figured out she was my daughter and had came from the future," Kahlan revealed with a smile.

"So, you didn't know she was mine too?" Cara asked, combing her fingers through Alys' hair; the way the girl immediately leaned into her mother again showed that the gesture was clearly something the woman did often.

"I'm sure you can imagine why that wasn't our first conclusion," Kahlan chuckled at the older Cara while the woman nodded in understanding.

"Although, looking back now, by the way she talked and behaved we should have known sooner," Richard said teasingly, making the others nod in agreement, except Cara, who just rolled her eyes, but the small smile hinted at her amusement.

"But instead, you thought you were my father," Alys giggled, looking at a blushing Richard, who was trying to avoid everyone's eyes.

"I'm sure that wasn't awkward at all," Lord Rahl said sarcastically, looking with sympathy at his younger self as the man scratched the back of his neck.

"Eventually, we worked it out," Kahlan assured, looking at this older version of Richard and smiling at how at ease he seemed; he evidently had come to terms with being the Lord Rahl and she was sure he used the title wisely.

"I did have a hand in it, but not in the common way," Lord Rahl revealed with a chuckle.

"Eww, gross uncle Richard," Sarah protested, making the others laugh.

"What do you mean by that?" Richard asked curiously.

"You girls didn't tell them?" the older man asked and watched both girls shake their heads. "What I mean is that I was the one that did the ritual so they both could conceive their daughters," he explained, smiling at the gratitude this subject always brought to both his friend's eyes.

"The girls only told us that a powerful spell, one from Panis' hidden collection had been used in their conception," Kahlan explained, her hand resting on Cara's thigh next to her. "But they never told us who had cast it. Wait, does that mean you have your wizard powers back?"

"Yes," Lord Rahl confirmed. "How I got them is a story for another time, but I'm glad I did. If I hadn't gotten them back, I would never be able to perform that ritual, since only exceptionally powerful wizards are able to do it."

"That's an amazing gift you gave them," Kahlan said in awe, but not surprised, Richard was the kindest man she had ever known.

"I would do anything for them," Lord Rahl smiled gently as he looked at the women that more than friends, were his family. "I'm just glad I was able to make it possible. We were blessed with two amazing girls, who I couldn't love more if they were my own," he said kindly, winking at the sisters.

"So, how did you find out they were Cara's too?" the Mother Confessor asked curiously.

"It took us a while," Kahlan said with a chuckle. "Even when we met Sarah, we still had no idea. We easily figured out she was Cara's daughter because that face doesn't fool anyone," she grinned as the others laughed. "And Sarah ended up confirming it unintentionally when she denied it and thought I had known she was lying," she added, grinning when the teen groaned in frustration as they recalled that moment.

"So that's how you figured out I can't read you," the Mother Confessor guessed with a smile, looking at her oldest daughter.

"Since I always thought you could read me, I just told the truth," Sarah confirmed to her mother, who was looking at her sympathetically. "I should have let her talk first though, because then she told me she couldn't read me," she huffed, still not believing how she had dug that hole for herself.

"You would have found out eventually," Cara told her oldest daughter with a shrug. "It did last longer than we thought it would though," she grinned at her wife, who nodded in return, while Sarah just stared at them both unamused.

"For a while we thought Alys was mine and Sarah was Cara's, which came with the kind of complications and misunderstandings Zedd warned us about when it comes to knowing our future," she sighed and looked at Cara, the pursing of the blonde's lips letting her know the blonde too was thinking about their doubts about their relationship. "It was only when Sarah entered the Con Dar that we put two and two together, and in the upset state she was in she ended up revealing everything."

"Con Dar?" Cara asked in shock, looking between Sarah and Kahlan.

"When Farkas threatened Alys I snapped and entered the Con Dar," Sarah told her mothers who were looking stunned at her. "After that, it was a whole mess that ended up with aunt Dennee imprisoning me in the Palace's dungeons and wanting to kill me," she explained succinctly.

"We never knew if you had the ability to enter the Con Dar," Kahlan said pensively, caressing her daughter's cheek. "I guess now we do," she said with a sigh. "What did he do to your sister that made you that angry?" Kahlan asked, her hands closing into fists in anticipation of the answer.

"He was holding Alys hostage, demanding she traded her life for Alys'," Sarah explained, looking at the younger Kahlan. "When I entered the Con Dar, he made the smart move of vanishing with Alys instead of facing me," she explained. "He told us he was taking Alys to Aydindril, so I just took off and entered the city by force, which didn't make aunt Dennee very happy, so she knocked me out and imprisoned me."

"And Dennee's plan was to kill you?" the Mother Confessor asked, raising her brows when Sarah nodded.

"She didn't though, she changed her plan," Cara intervened, bringing the older women's attention to her. "She killed me instead, but the kid brought me back with the Breath of Life," she said with a grin at the absolutely shocked faces of their older selves.

"My sister killed you? And Sarah gave you the Breath of Life?" the Mother Confessor asked doubtfully. "Are you both lying to me just to test me? Did you plan this to amuse yourselves?" she questioned, looking between Sarah and Cara with amused suspicion.

"Although that does seem like something they would do," Kahlan said, glancing between Cara and Sarah, who just smirked at her. "Unfortunately, they are telling the truth," she confirmed, watching her older self sober up and look at Cara worriedly.

"How exactly did my sister managed to kill you?" the Mother Confessor asked, still finding this strange.

"Because Cara let her do it," Richard replied with a grin. "She let Dennee confess her to clarify some things, as she put it," the Seeker explained.

"You let my sister kill you?" the Mother Confessor asked Cara, her expression going from worried to irritated. "And as if that wasn't bad enough, you let her do it by confessing you?" she continued, her voice raising in volume.

"Yes," Cara simply said, not really able to maintain eye contact, this woman managed to be even more stern than Kahlan; it looked like the brunette improved her scolding skills with age.

"Are you aware that you were extremely lucky?" the Mother Confessor continued with a deep frown. "Sarah was never able to give the Breath of Life before."

"I knew that," Cara replied before thinking, sighing when she watched the Mother Confessor grow even angrier at her words.

"You're mad," the older brunette said in disbelief with a shake of her head.

"You know what?" Cara replied peeved. "I already got one of these lectures, I don't need another one."

"Is that so?" the Mother Confessor said, looking at Kahlan for confirmation, which the younger woman gave her in the form of a nod, not looking amused either with this subject. "Good, because you certainly deserved one," she said and turned to look at her wife. "How many times are you going to die on me?" she asked, the sensitive subject making her vent in frustration.

"Don't look at me like that, I have nothing to do with this," Cara replied at her wife. "I remember as much of all this as you do," Cara reminded the irritated brunette, although she understood the woman's frustration.

"Silver lining, mother," Sarah said with a careful smile. "I can give the Breath of Life, that's great news," she said, trying to appease her still distressed mother.

"Yes, I guess so," the Mother Confessor conceded, sparing one last annoying look at Cara. "And the Con Dar? Looks like your powers are growing with you."

"You should have seen it mommy, it was so cool!" Alys said excitedly, again not noticing the chastising looks she was getting from her mothers. "Farkas was holding a knife to my throat, all smug and taunting us, and suddenly Sarah's eyes went all black and she got really intense. Made Farkas pee a little in his pants, I bet; then he puffed us out of there before Sarah could reach us," she finished with a nod, but paused when her mothers clearly weren't finding this as amusing as she was. "What?"

"That's not something I would describe as 'cool'," the Mother Confessor said, looking pointedly at her youngest daughter. "Where did he take you?" she questioned the girl.

"He took me to this cabin in Aydindril's woods. He held me there, chained to wall, a Rada'Han around my neck and two Mord'Sith guarding me," Alys explained, looking between her worried mothers. "But I didn't give up!" she grinned proudly, looking pointedly at Cara.

"I see you listen to me when I talk, after all," Cara smiled at her daughter with a raised eyebrow. "So, who got you out of there?" she asked.

"No one!" Alys grinned. "I got out of there all by myself," she said proudly, watching her mothers frown at her in puzzlement.

"How exactly did you manage that?" Cara questioned, pondering all the obstacles her daughter would have faced in order to escape.

"I killed the Mord'Sith and ran," Alys said quickly, as if it was a simple thing to do.

"How did you confess them if you had a Rada'Han on?" Kahlan wondered with a frown.

"She didn't, she pissed them off and goaded them into a fight instead," Sarah clarified, busying herself with picking at her nails.

"You provoked them?" Cara asked, her eyes widening as she tried to decide if she should be proud or angry at the girl's recklessness, probably both.

"You know that's a skill she's particularly good at," Sarah reminded her mother, sticking her tongue out at her sister and mouthing 'payback' when the girl glared at her.

"Alys Mason Amnel, you deliberately provoked two Mord'Sith into a fight you knew there was little chance of you winning?" the Mother Confessor said slowly, rubbing her forehead to calm her nerves.

"I fight Mord'Sith all the time!" Alys protested. "I fight mom, Raina and Berdine almost daily," she justified, trying to avoid what she knew would be a reprimand from her mother.

"The difference being that our goal is to teach you," Cara reminded her daughter, while the girl pouted. "And theirs was to kill you."

"You're the one who's always saying that we should never give up and fight for ourselves," Alys pointed out, refusing to back down. "So, as you can see, I only did what I was told," she smiled a little too sweetly.

"She sure has a way with words," a short haired Cara snorted in amusement.

"Yes, she's a very clever girl," Cara drawled sarcastically, her eyes never leaving her daughter's, who was quickly losing her bravado and becoming increasingly uneasy under her mother's stare. "However reckless it might have been, I have to admit you did the right thing," she nodded slowly, as if still considering her words. "And when your mother stops having a heart attack, she'll agree with me," she continued as she looked at her wife.

"You say that like you're not having one too," the Mother Confessor shot back, glaring sideways at her wife. "You just hide it better," she pointed out as her wife tilted her head in silent agreement. "But your mom has a point. Even if what you did, what you both did, has me at the verge of a heart attack, you also showed that you were brave and resourceful. I'm proud of you both," she finished with a smile, hugging both girls to her.

"They saved our lives, you know?" Kahlan informed them. "Sarah brought Cara back with the Breath of Life and Alys protected me from wizard's fire when Farkas attacked me," she revealed.

"Farkas managed to get to you?" Cara asked concernedly and at Kahlan's nod she turned to her younger daughter. "But you deflected the wizard's fire?" she guessed, smiling when Alys just grinned proudly and nodded.

"I don't know how much more I can hear about the apparently multiple times you girls were in danger before I really have a heart attack, but I guess I owe you a thank you, that was a really courageous thing to do," Kahlan said and kissed Alys' forehead. "How were your hands?" she asked with a frown.

"They got burnt, but Zedd helped and they got back to normal in no time," Alys explained as her mother took her hands and inspected them nonetheless with a deep frown. "If you owe me a thank you why do you look like you're going to ground me?" she asked worriedly.

"I'm not going to ground you and I'm proud of what you did," the Mother Confessor told her daughter with a sigh. "That doesn't mean that I'm comfortable with it. I never want you girls to get into arms way," she explained, brushing the blonde's hair back.

"Then you're not going to want to know I also stopped a dacra from stabbing uncle Richard in the face," Alys smiled carefully, as her mother's eyes widened once more.

"And you really don't want to know how she got stabbed with a dacra on her back," Sara grinned mischievously.

"Spirits, what didn't happen to you two during these days?" the Mother Confessor shook her head in disbelief.

"Its fine, mommy," Alys dismissed her mother's concerns. "We dealt with it," she shrugged.

"You've dealt with it?" Kahlan asked, sharing an amused look with her wife.

"Sure! Mommy, you have to face it," Alys sighed and turned to look at her mother with a serious expression. "We're growing up."

At this remark, nobody in the room was able to hold their laughter. Kahlan took a moment to look at the family sat together in front of her as the girls teased their brunette mother. Kahlan smiled to herself as she noticed that the four of them seemed really happy together; she could see the relief in the women's eyes and the happiness radiating from the girls. Kahlan turned to look at Cara next to her and felt a giddiness in her stomach; she couldn't wait to experience every minute of her future with Cara and the family they were going to build together.

After they all talked more about the time the girls spent in the past, the Mother Confessor asked for the midday meal to be served. As they ate, they continued to share information. They talked about Farkas' plans, the part the Blood of the Fold played in said plans and what the possible consequences of all this may be. They continued to trade little anecdotes of what had passed between them and the girls in the past, amusing everybody with how both girls managed to avoid telling them the truth in many creative ways. While Alys was making everyone laugh at how she had tricked Cara and managed to kiss her on the cheek when they first met, Kahlan addressed her older self.

"Do you mind if I talk to you for a second?" Kahlan requested her quietly. "Alone, it's a private matter," she added, looking around.

"Of course," the Mother Confessor acquiesced with a small frown of curiosity. "Let's go to the office," she smiled comfortingly, glancing at her wife and sending her a reassuring smile when the blonde looked at her questioningly.

The Mother Confessor watched with amusement as Kahlan walked anxiously in front of her. She let the nervous woman to her musings, knowing that she knew her way around the Palace. Once they got inside her private office, the older woman closed the door gently and waited for her younger self to collect her thoughts.

"So, what did you want to ask me?" the Mother Confessor prodded gently, sensing the nervousness of the other woman.

"It's about Cara," Kahlan started with a deep breath. "There's something I need to know and due to the nature of the subject, I'm not comfortable with bringing it up with just anyone," she said, licking her lips nervously. "And here I have an amazing opportunity to clarify it with…myself, so I have to take advantage of it."

"I see," the older woman smiled, already having an inkling to what this was about. "You can ask me anything you want," she encouraged.

"Why can't I confess Cara?" Kahlan blurted out, her cheeks reddening. "When we are intimate, I mean. We found out, after a stupid accident nonetheless, that she's not affected by my powers at all. I can't confess her. I didn't lose my power, I feel it like I always have, but it doesn't affect her," she said quickly, pacing nervously from one end of the office to the other.

"I suspected that was what you were going to ask," the Mother Confessor chuckled gently. "The fact that you can't confess her, has nothing to do with your power and everything to do with Cara," she said, but at Kahlan's confused look she continued. "Cara's love for you is greater than confession, there's no magic in this world that can make her love you more than she already does," she explained with a bright smile.

"I know she loves me, but to overthrow confession?" Kahlan said in awe. "That's insane, not to mention unheard off," she shook her head.

"I don't know if it's unheard of or if it happened before and was kept quiet for some reason that I really never cared to wonder about," the Mother Confessor said calmly. "But the truth is none of that matters," she shrugged. "The only thing that matters is that her love for you could not be greater and trust me, it will only grow," she said with a knowing smile.

"Cara actually told me that, you know?" Kahlan said with a chuckle. "After we… realized that she couldn't be confessed, I was racking my brain for an explanation and hers was that she just loved me so much already that confession had no affect on her," Kahlan shook her head in disbelief. "I will never hear the end of it when I tell her she was actually right," she rubbed her forehead with a resigned sigh.

"That I can confirm," the Mother Confessor laughed. "To this day she brags about how she managed to beat confession and her simpler answer trumped my 'tendency to complicate everything'," she explained, knowing by how Kahlan nodded along with her words that the younger woman had probably also heard all this before.

"So, I don't need to worry about confessing her, ever?" Kahlan asked again, looking for confirmation.

"No, that will never happen," the Mother Confessor shook her head and smiled reassuringly.

"That's really good to know," Kahlan grinned and sighed in relief. "Sarah and Alys are really great girls," she mentioned, changing the subject. "You should be proud, you did an amazing job with them," she complimented.

"We have our ups and downs, like any other family raising two girls and one of them being a teenager," the older woman smiled and shrugged meekly. "But I've come to realize that as much as the way we raise them has an impact on who they are, at the end of the day they are their own person, you know?" she pondered.

"I think I know what you mean," Kahlan nodded. "I had a little taste of parenting these days I spent with them and sometimes I felt myself at a loss with something they would say or do, it showed me that they are not just going to do exactly what we tell them to," she said pensively. "Especially Alys, she would come up with some things that we never expected to hear a child say and took us all by surprise," she elaborated with a small laugh.

"Yes, well, my Alys is a master at bending words to her benefit," the older woman grinned.

"I bet she gets in a lot of trouble for that," Kahlan guessed. "Sarah doesn't seem like she gives you half the trouble."

"You're right about one thing, Alys does get in a lot of trouble that usually starts with her opening her mouth," the Mother Confessor agreed. "But it's the kind of trouble we can usually see coming," she added. "Alys is very talkative and when she doesn't like something, she doesn't shy away from letting us know by protesting and arguing until she can either change our mind or exhausting us into giving in," she explained with humor. "But Sarah… she doesn't talk much and that ends up being a lot more troublesome."

"What do you mean?" Kahlan asked curiously.

"When Alys is upset or angry, she'll tell us," the Mother Confessor started. "When Sarah is upset or angry, she'll show it."

"Like throwing tantrums, you mean?" Kahlan asked, not sure if she was understanding fully what the other woman meant.

"No, more like finding ways to do whatever she wants anyway," the older brunette chuckled. "Of course she knows she has to obey us and there's rules to follow, and she does, always has, but if following those rules go against her own conscience, she'll choose to follow her conscience and deal with the consequences latter," she explained further.

"Sounds like someone I know," Kahlan chuckled, thinking about her blonde lover.

"Yes, probably why Sarah and Cara sometimes clash so much," the Mother confessor nodded. "Sarah has always been very emotionally independent, even when she was a little girl," she mused. "Don't get me wrong, she's very affectionate and she has a strong bond with us, but she always needed her own space, she always needed to process things in her head first before asking anyone for help or comfort."

"When she thought Cara was dead here, she never said anything about it to any of us, not even Alys," Kahlan revealed, remembering how the teen had never told them about her mom's death, even when she tried to make her open up when she had been so clearly upset about something. "She thought she could fix it, but when Zedd told her it wasn't possible, only then did she unburden herself and told us all about it. But until then, she suffered alone the loss of her own mother."

"Sounds like my Sarah," the older woman smiled sadly, the impossibility of being there for her daughter in that difficult time hurting her despite her knowing it was impossible. "She probably wanted to spare Alys the pain too; she protects her little sister as fiercely as she sometimes argues with her," she said with a good-natured roll of her eyes.

"Oh, they can bicker all right," Kahlan nodded emphatically, recalling the many times she witnessed the girls argue avidly with each other.

"We've learnt to stay away from their fights," the Mother Confessor said. "We only intervene when blood shedding looks like a possibility," she said, sharing a laugh with her younger self.

"I can see many similarities between them, but they are also very different from each other," Kahlan mused. "Alys is very impulsive and easy going," she continued. "Sarah is a lot more serious and seems to think three times before doing or saying anything."

"Despite Alys being a lot more impulsive and reckless, Sarah is a lot more dangerous exactly because she's quieter and thinks a lot before doing something," the Mother Confessor replied.

"Alys said that one time Sarah managed to fool everyone and flee Aydindril," Kahlan said questioningly, watching the other woman nod.

"That's a very good example of how we had to be a lot more careful with Sarah," the Mother Confessor said with a sigh. "One day I took her to visit some villages nearby Aydindril. I wanted her to have contact with a different reality than the city. Sarah must have been around Alys' age actually. We spent the day talking with various people and every child wanted Sarah's attention, they kept asking her to go play with them," she chuckled, as she remembered how the kids tried to lure Sarah into their games. "I encouraged her to go and she just nodded and left with the group of kids. I was pleasantly surprised because, although she is very social, Sarah always preferred to play alone or with some selected friends, she was never one to run around with a bunch of kids she didn't know, much unlike her sister, who just runs along with anyone willing to get into mischief," she chuckled fondly. "So, I wasn't that surprised when I found out she ditched the kids pretty quickly and I ended up finding her sitting behind a cabin with a girl around her age. I discovered that the girl had recently lost her mother to a disease and Sarah was just sitting there, comforting the crying girl," she smiled thoughtfully.

"That's was really sweet of her," Kahlan commented.

"It was, but when I told her we had to leave she refused and asked me to spend the night there, so she could help her new friend," the Mother Confessor continued. "Of course I couldn't just leave my daughter there or stay there for the night, I told her that the girl would eventually be alright and we needed to go back home," she explained. "If it were Alys, there would have been an argument, she would have cried and I would have needed to drag her home, but Sarah just stared silently at me for a second, went back to hug her friend, whispered something in her ear and marched in front of me to our carriage."

"Seems to me like she was pretty reasonable," Kahlan said, but raised her brow wen her older self just pursed her lips and took a deep breath.

"That same night, Sarah tried to convince Cara to take her to the village so she could see her friend again," the Mother Confessor continued. "Cara tried to appease her, telling her they would go there again another day and she could talk to the girl, but no one would be leaving the Palace just so she could visit her friend," she explained. "Sarah just did the same thing she did with me, she didn't insist, she just went silent and looked like she accepted our decision."

"She escaped from the city, didn't she?" Kahlan said, recalling what Alys had told them and watched the other woman nod at her. "How come no one stopped her?" she asked in amazement.

"She left her bedroom and told the guards she encountered in the corridor that she woke up from a nightmare and was going to sleep in her mother's room, so they let her go," the Mother Confessor said. "She hid whenever she encountered someone and, when she got the chance, jumped inside the baker's cart that leaves the city to bring fresh bread and pastries to the villages," she told a stunned Kahlan. "She got to the village, found the girl's house and entered through her bedroom window. When the girl's father found Sarah and his daughter both asleep a few hours later, he panicked when he recognized her. By then, Cara had woken up and the guard on duty asked her how Sarah was, since she seemed frightened enough the night before to go sleep with her mothers. This immediately put Cara on alert because Sarah wasn't with us and she rarely wanted to sleep with us; she liked to cuddle in our bed, play and giggle, but when sleep made itself known, she always preferred to sleep on her own bed, her own space. By the time we were both leaving the Palace to go look for her, that girl's father was at our door, both girls with him and swearing he had no idea how Sarah got to his house."

"Spirits, you must have been so worried," Kahlan emphasized. "Why did she do something dangerous like that?"

"Because she made a promise," the Mother Confessor replied with a chuckle. "She had promised that girl that she would bring her a doll to help her get through the pain of loosing her mother, apparently that's how she got over the pain of loosing a puppy she once had," she explained.

"But to go through suck great lengths," Kahlan frowned. "Anyone could have brough the doll to that girl," she reasoned, still amazed that Sarah managed to pull off something like that with no fear of what could happen to her.

"But Sarah was the one that made that promise," the older woman clarified. "She told me that she couldn't sleep knowing that that girl would suffer more because she didn't do what was right, what she had committed to do."

"So her conscience is her moral compass, then?" Kahlan smiled.

"Definitely," the Mother Confessor agreed. "Or as she likes to say, 'if she sleeps well at night, it means she did the right thing'," she chuckled.

"I see now how Sarah could be a lot more trouble than Alys," Kahlan said, her eyes widening in understanding.

"Yes, but with age she lost most of that recklessness," the Mother Confessor replied. "She's still very stubborn and doesn't bother with arguments she knows will take her nowhere, but now she does it in a more responsible way," she clarified. "Being my first born, also means she's next in line to be Mother Confessor one day, and she takes that duty very seriously. She absorbs every lesson and every training, always looking to better herself. But when she is sure she is right or she's doing the right thing, not even me or Cara can dissuade her."

"She's a force of nature already," Kahlan said contemplatively. "I can only imagine what she will become."

"You and me both," the Mother Confessor smiled. "And my little Alys is a tornado on her own right. Also, I think she's the only person in this world who can make Sarah change her mind once it's made up," she mused with a fond smile. "Sarah claims it's because it's easier to cave than to have Alys nag at her until she does, but I know that to Sarah, her sister's opinion is already more important than anyone else's."

"The bond between them is obvious to anyone who spends two seconds with them," Kahlan pondered, having noticed how the girls had a particular way of communicating with each other. "Alys really looks up to Sarah."

"She does, she idolizes her older sister. And Sarah doesn't want to let her down, ever. She sees herself as a role model to her little sister," the Mother Confessor agreed with a fond smile. "That doesn't prevent Alys from being furious with Sarah sometimes, but she truly adores her."

"As long as there's no bloodshed, right?" Kahlan chuckled.

"You think I'm saying that figuratively, but I'm not," the Mother Confessor warned. "One time, Alys was so mad at Sarah for something I don't even remember anymore, that she punched her sister in the face hard enough to split Sarah's lip," she recounted as Kahlan lifted her hand to her mouth to cover a gasp.

"Oh wow," Kahlan exclaimed, trying not to laugh. "What did Sarah do to her after that stunt?"

"Absolutely nothing," the older brunette shook her head with a smile. "As much as she threatens Alys, she never once struck her sister in retaliation," the Mother Confessor revealed.

"Because Alys is younger than her?" Kahlan guessed, but frowned when the older woman shook her head.

"No, because she can do a lot worse," the Mother Confessor grinned. "She waited for dinner, until we were served these delicious little pastries that we only get once in a while, and she snatched Alys' pastry right from under the poor girl's nose and ate it," she said as they both laughed.

"I see Sarah doesn't forget easily," Kahlan chuckled.

"No, in that she's nothing like Alys," the older brunette said as her laughter died down. "Alys is very reactive, she'll kick and scream, but eventually she lets things go. But Sarah, she's always plotting two steps ahead and waits for the chance when she can do the most damage," she explained as Kahlan raised her eyebrows impressed. "And trust me, having her pastry stolen hurt Alys more than any punch Sarah could have dealt her."

"Poor Alys," Kahlan cooed. "That must also make her constantly wary of her sister."

"Actually, in a way it's good for Alys," the Mother Confessor replied with a tilt of her head. "It forces her to be less impulsive and pause to think about ways to gain the upper hand, so as to avoid being played by Sarah all the time."

"Seems like they play off of each other pretty well," Kahlan mused. "And for that to happen, the bond between them has to indeed be a strong one," the younger brunette continued.

"Yes, I think the bond between them is stronger than we even realize," the Mother Confessor pondered. "And I hope it stays like that for the rest of their lives," she smiled and looked pensively at her younger self for a moment. "Can I tell you something I never told anyone, not even Cara?" she asked carefully.

"Of course," Kahlan nodded, her curiosity being peaked. "Anything."

"I think Alys' personality is how Cara would have been if she hadn't been broken by the Mord'Sith," she confessed, looking at a pensive Kahlan, who was obviously pondering this too. "Alys is impulsive, witty, fearless, intelligent, cunning and loves with all her heart, but she is all this with no reservations, no fear of getting hurt or mistrust from anyone," she explained. "Cara had those reservations forced on her by the Mord'Sith and it became a part of her, a part that suits her and indeed makes her stronger, especially now that she can reconcile all of what she is and feels. So, when I look at Alys, I can't help but wonder if that's the part of Cara that never suffered through torture."

"I see what you mean and I think you have a point," Kahlan agreed, musing about it herself. "I certainly never talked about this with Cara, but I caught myself a couple times wondering about the type of person she would have been had she not been a Mord'Sith," Kahlan revealed. "But it's still something hard for me to imagine, because I see her grow every day; being Mord'Sith is part of who she is and lately she doesn't let that hold her back from changing for the better," she explained and looked at the other woman to see if she understood what she meant.

"I know what you mean," the Mother Confessor nodded. "She is definitely the bravest person I know; not because she rushes into a battle without flinching, but because she let herself be vulnerable to all the emotions she once had bottled up and taught to be weaknesses and instead successfully reconciled the woman and the Mord'Sith inside her."

"We were really lucky to find her," Kahlan smiled as the other woman smiled back and nodded in agreement.

"We should go back to the others," the Mother Confessor said. "I'm looking forward to hear more of the adventures my daughters went through," she smiled.

"Are you happy?" Kahlan asked before they could leave.

"Extremely happy," the older woman replied with utmost sincerity, her smile widening. "I feel…fulfilled," she clarified and with one last smile, turned to open the door of the office.

Kahlan smiled at this response. She was already so happy with Cara that she couldn't imagine that that feeling could grow even more. But, apparently, it would.

Cara watched her wife leave with the younger Confessor for a moment and turned to look at her own younger self, chuckling to herself when she noticed that the woman was already staring at her. Taking this opportunity, she got up and motioned for the blonde to follow her.

"Sarah had a rougher time in that temple than she was letting on," Cara said without preamble, when the younger blonde reached her in a corner of the room. "She said she dealt with it, but I know my daughter and this has to be bothering her; it couldn't have been easy, even with her tolerance for pain," she continued, looking back at the others around the table, still laughing and trading stories, which left her and the younger blonde with some privacy to talk. "How bad was it?"

"Bad, they did a number on her. She was in a really bad shape when she found us," Cara revealed, watching the older woman grit her teeth. "I think she was being evasive with you earlier because she doesn't want to worry you with how much she suffered in there. And she certainly doesn't want Alys to know about the gory details."

"I know that," the older woman nodded pensively. "Sarah is not the most forthcoming person when it comes to sharing what bothers her, but eventually she'll open up. Kahlan, especially, won't rest until she does," she said with a small smile. "I just… hate that she had to endure something like that. That's probably one of my worst nightmares," she revealed with a sigh, knowing the other woman understood her perfectly.

"I get it. It's truly unfortunate that she ended up outside a temple when she crossed the portal," Cara empathized with the older woman. "But I don't think the physical pain was what troubled her the most in there," she added.

"What do you mean?" the older woman frowned.

"Earlier today, when she thought she was never going to see you again," Cara started, as the other woman sighed. "She came to me with questions about how Mord'Sith were made and how they lived," she explained, noticing a knowing look on the older woman. "I'm not sure how Richard is dealing with it now, but it wasn't exactly a peaceful and hurt free environment, and Sarah seemed… shocked by it all."

"Richard goes about it in a different way, as you might imagine," the older Cara started. "Mord'Sith now get their powers from magic and combat training," she explained. "It's still an extremely rigorous training, that still starts at a young age, but there's no torture and they're not children, only willing young women."

"I see," Cara nodded pensively. "Makes even more sense that Sarah would be so shaken by what she went through in that temple. Not just the torture, but all the power struggles and dynamics between them," she clarified, as the older woman nodded along thoughtfully. "But as I was saying, what troubled her the most was how you could have turned out the way you are having grown up in that environment," she explained, noticing a small smile appear on the other woman's lips.

"What did you tell her?" the older blonde asked curiously.

"Since I had no idea how I would be in twenty years, I only spoke of my experience. I told her Kahlan was the one that made me think about things differently," Cara replied as she shrugged. "But Sarah and Kahlan both ended up ganging up on me and telling me Kahlan only nudged me in a direction I was already heading."

"Looking back, I'm inclined to agree with them," the older woman nodded. "But Kahlan and the girls certainly turned my world upside down," she mused with a smile.

"The girls' birth…changed you?" Cara asked, not really sure how to put into words what she wanted to know.

"It did, without a doubt," the older blonde confirmed. "Let me give you an example you'll understand," she continued, looking directly at the younger woman's eyes "Do you feel the bond to Lord Rahl?"

"Of course I feel the bond," Cara furrowed in confusion. "Why? You don't?" she asked, her eyes widening.

"I feel a faint thing, like a ghost of what it once was," the woman said contemplatively.

"How is that even possible?" Cara's frown deepened in disbelief.

"Because I feel a connection far greater than the bond to the house of Rahl," the blonde explained, watching amusedly as her younger self tried to understand.

"No Mord'Sith has ever lost the bond," Cara shook her head, still not quite understanding how this was possible.

"No Mord'Sith has ever had a family of her own," the older woman pointed out, giving the blonde time to ponder it. "When you came back as a baneling, why did you do it?" she asked, trying to make the other woman understand using as an example something she knew she had already been through.

"I had to protect Richard, help him with the quest," the younger blonde replied almost automatically.

"Hmm," Cara smiled knowingly. "You can lie to everyone, including a Confessor, but you can't lie to me, I'm you, remember? I've lived what you lived," she said, watching her younger self shift uncomfortably. "Now, it's just the two of us here, who was the first person that crossed your mind when you woke up in the Underworld?"

"Kahlan," Cara said sincerely.

"Kahlan," the older blonde nodded, as if that name alone explained everything. "The weakening of the bond didn't happen overnight, it took years, but it started earlier than I first realized and without me consciously knowing," the older blonde explained. "Kahlan started it, the girls finished it."

"So, the bond you have with them," Cara said, looking back at the girls. "Replaced the bond you had to the house of Rahl?" she tried to clarify.

"Exactly," the older woman smiled, watching her younger self contemplate this with surprise. "I'm loyal to Richard because he's my friend, not because he is Lord Rahl," she further explained. "I guess I ended up doing what he always asked of me, after all," she chuckled.

"I did wonder why you talked so dismissively at him earlier," Cara revealed, thinking back at the way this woman reacted when Richard didn't want to accompany them to the Palace.

"Were he anyone else, he would have gotten an agiel to his gut," the older women smirked. "I don't like to have my orders questioned."

"I don't think he even realized you were ordering us to go with you," Cara raised her brow. "He can be a little clueless sometimes."

"Yes, surprising trait in the Seeker of Truth," the older woman quipped and they both shared a small laugh.

"Hmm…" Cara started hesitantly after a moment of silence between them.

"The answer to your question is 'yes'," the older woman replied, smirking at the other blonde's confused expression.

"I'm not even sure what I was going to ask, how can you know?" Cara challenged, but her eyes squinted in curiosity.

"You want to know if I'm happy," the older woman started confidently. "If being in Aydindril, home of the Confessors and far away from D'Hara, makes me happy. If being in a role of leadership, instead of serving someone, is a role I'm comfortable with," she continued, noticing the younger blonde never contradicted her. "If the life I have is one I chose or if it's one I endure just to be with Kahlan and the girls. Am I close?" she asked, a mischievous glint in her eyes.

"You've articulated my thoughts better than I think I would," Cara conceded with a chuckle. "And your answer to all that is 'yes'?" she questioned as the other woman nodded.

"I have a better life than I ever imagined or hoped for," the blonde said with a sincere smile. "A life I never even knew I wanted until I got it, with a purpose chosen by me, where I make my own decisions and have unconditional support from the people I love," she continued, the smile only growing. "A life with Kahlan, that gave me a family that is everything to me," she finished, looking at her younger self in the eyes and knowing she had not only answered all the unasked questions of the woman, but had also put some lingering fears to rest.

Cara stood still, considering what the older woman told her and couldn't think of anything else to say. Her older self seemed to realize this and just gave a curt nod, accompanied with a knowing smile, before turning to go back to the table, leaving her alone to ponder this information. Cara followed her with her eyes, watching the woman approach her daughters and both girls beam up at her, the smiles they shared testimony to the happiness of having been reunited. Turning to the door, she saw Kahlan walk back in, the Mother Confessor walking beside her as both talked amicably. Once Kahlan noticed her, she watched as she excused herself and joined her, instead of following the older brunette to the table.

"What are you doing here all by yourself?" Kahlan asked gently, brushing blonde hair out of Cara's face.

"I was just talking to her," Cara said as she motioned to the older blonde that was currently sitting back at the table.

"Did she tell you something that upset you?" Kahlan questioned with a small frown, getting a little worried by Cara's quiet mood. "Please tell me it's not bad news?" she pleaded with an almost imperceptible whine in her voice.

"No, no bad news," Cara quickly assured her lover, taking one of the brunette's hands and bringing it to her lips, placing a soft kiss on the even softer skin. "I think that's why I'm a little dazed, I guess I'm more used to bad news," she shrugged and at Kahlan's raised eyebrow she explained. "She told me she's happy and that life has given her everything she could have asked for and more."

"I can relate to you then," Kahlan replied with a knowing smile. "I just had a similar conversation with much the same revelation," she told the blonde, recalling how happy her older self seemed.

"I just never thought I would be happy, you know?" Cara mused as Kahlan nodded understandingly. "I was always certain I would die young in some battle, fighting in the name of Lord Rahl."

"But turns out you fight in your own name instead," Kahlan finished the thought, lifting her hand to caress the blonde's cheek.

"You mean I fight in your name," Cara corrected, leaning into the touch and kissing Kahlan's palm gently, her eyes never leaving the brunette's.

"That too," Kahlan agreed. "But I think it's more than that. I've been noticing subtle things and I think they both share the power in Aydindril," Kahlan explained, looking back at the older women that were happily hearing their daughters' stories. "This is not like it's in our own time, where I'm the sole ruler in Aydindril; I think they share a lot of responsibilities," at Cara's questioning look, she explained further. "There's never being such a thing as a Commander of the Midlands army," she pointed out and smiled when Cara's eyebrows rose in understanding.

"I attributed the way she was giving orders to a personality trait," Cara smirked as Kahlan chuckled. "But looking at it from your perspective, I think you're right," she nodded, recalling what little the older woman had told her about her role in Aydindril.

"Talking about being right, I have something to tell you," Kahlan started, placing her hands on Cara's shoulders. "It's about our little conundrum with confession," she hinted as she let one hand trail down to Cara's chest, where she could feel the silky skin beneath her touch.

"You asked her?" Cara questioned with excitement in her voice as she threw a quick glance at the older Confessor.

"I did," Kahlan nodded. "And she gave me an answer," she continued cryptically and pursed her lips.

"So?" Cara prompted curiously, finding Kahlan's reluctant demeanor strange.

"I'm not sure I want to tell you," the brunette sighed dramatically and rested her forehead on Cara's shoulder.

"I was right, wasn't I?" Cara said smugly while Kahlan just groaned. "Who would have thought, the simplest answer turned out to be the right one," she kept teasing the brunette as she hugged her close to her, patting her back in a mock soothing manner.

"Spirits, you'll never let me hear the end of this," Kahlan complained as she lifted her head to face a very pleased Cara. "But yes, you were right. Turns out, your love for me is indeed greater than confession," she revealed, trying to sound disappointed but the radiant smile on her face betraying her true sentiment.

"Can you say that again, please?" Cara requested, the grin never leaving her lips.

"Your love for-"

"No, the other part," Cara interrupted the brunette, her grin turning mischievous.

"You were right," Kahlan deadpanned with a roll of her eyes as Cara laughed.

"I do like the sound of that," the blonde nodded and kissed Kahlan's pout away.

"Why doesn't that surprise me?" Kahlan asked rhetorically as she circled her lover's neck and pulled her into a longer kiss.

"But I like the sound of me loving you so much that you can't confess me even more," Cara said softly against Kahlan's lips before kissing the brunette once again.

"Me too," Kahlan smiled happily, ending the kiss but pecking her lover's lips multiple times. "I'm so lucky to have found you," she smiled as she looked into shinning green eyes.

"So am I," Cara replied gently. "So, do you want to get out of here for a while and put the theory to the test?" she said seriously, but with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

"You've got to be kidding me?" Kahan said as her eyes widened and she glanced at the others. "If we leave this room, I bet everyone will suspect what we are up to," she whispered admonishingly, her cheeks reddening at the thought.

"I was kidding," Cara smiled and kissed the brunette's red cheek soothingly. "I just enjoy seeing you all flustered," the blonde grinned deviously before kissing a stunned Kahlan one last time and pulling the brunette along with her to join the others at the table.