The road through the Old World to the palace had been long and arduous. Another Sister of Light, Grace, had been lost trying to absorb Richard's Han, despite his acceptance of their proposal. By the time they had finally arrived at the palace was just Richard and Sister Verna, and neither was on the same page. However, it was difficult to not like Richard Cypher, he was a magnetic soul.
The sight of the beautiful castle made Richard hopeful. He was that much closer to controlling his Han, leaving the palace, and seeing Kahlan and his friends again. Richard hoped that they were on their way to finding the Stone of Tears, although he didn't know how they'd get there without a compass.
"We're here, Richard. I'm home," Verna smiled, patting the Seeker on the back before ushering him forward. "They'll welcome us, give us the first hot meal in a long time, and then we'll pray."
"I want to start my training as soon as possible. I don't want to wait for the world to collapse," Richard said in an even tone. He wasn't frustrated with Verna, but with everything. When he had rid the world of Darken Rahl he thought his next adventure would be travelling to Aydindril with Kahlan. Watching her take her seat as the Mother Confessor, restoring peace to the Midlands. All he wanted was to rest, he was so tired of having the world on his shoulders. And now he was supposed to become a wizard?
"You must be patient. The boundary wasn't raised in an afternoon," Verna chided, stepping up to the large, steel door. "Go ahead, knock."
Richard obliged, but his hand hit an invisible barrier and bounced back. He tried again with the same result. "Magic?"
"We can't just have anyone knocking at the door, for security reasons. Only a Sister of the Light and a fully trained Wizard can unlock the door," Verna told him, reaching for the handle and opening the large doors with ease. "Welcome to the Palace of the Prophets, Richard Cypher."
Inside was a paradise. The Old World was mostly a misty forest, hot and wet. The Palace of the Prophets held a magical jungle, but it was neither humid nor sticky. In the foyer there was a waterfall that came down from the ceiling, around the pool that it fell into was all manner of aquatic flora. There were brightly colored bugs that whizzed past Richard and Verna, one of which the latter plucked out of the air and held between her fingers for a moment. Richard looked surprised, and Verna smiled for the first time since she found him.
"You haven't changed one bit, Sister Verna," said a calming voice. From a door beside the cascading waterfall emerged a woman dressed as plainly as Verna. Her hands were folded together as she took in Verna and Richard. When she got to Richard, the Prelate looked a bit surprised, but she quickly recentered herself.
"Prelate, thank you for seeing us. I've finally found Richard, and he has come to learn to control his Han," Verna smiled, bowing her head. The Prelate lifted Verna's head with two fingers below her chin and kissed her forehead.
"The Creator guided you well, as I knew she would. I see your Sisters did not arrive with you. We will hold a memorial for them tomorrow night," the Prelate said, turning her attention now to Richard. "Richard Cypher, we have awaited you for many years. Welcome to the Palace of the Prophets. You are a little late, but not too late to have missed supper," she smiled, patting Richard on the shoulder and pulling him into her as they walked to the dining hall. "It is an honor to have such a powerful wizard and the Seeker of Truth in my presence. I hope you find your place here and find the wealth of knowledge you seek."
"I seek to stop the headaches and get out of here as fast as I can, Prelate," Richard told her, which made her smile.
"Of course, we will get to training tomorrow. For now, let's sup together." The Prelate took Verna and Richard to a large dining hall. There were two long tables with low benches that stretched from the front to the back of the room. There were about 20 men and women that were dressed just like Verna and the Prelate, and about five who were dressed in black tunics and beige trousers. The Prelate saw Richard sizing up the room and leaned in. "We allow the acolytes and Sisters and Brothers to sup together, it creates a sense of unity. I suggest you go and meet some of your peers before you begin training tomorrow morning. I have waited a long time to sup with my friend Verna," the Prelate smiled, walking off to the far side of the room with Verna.
Richard was left on his own, which was fine with him. He was able to properly think now. It was a whirlwind speaking with the Prelate after being in the forest for so long with just Verna. Now was his chance to figure out what was going on at the People's Palace. He sat down beside a young man who couldn't be more than 17 years old. When he sat down, a plate full of food appeared in front of him. No one so much as flinched, so Richard assumed it was commonplace here.
"Hi, I'm Richard," he offered, looking over at the boy. He said nothing. "I just got here and thought I would try to make some friends. What's your name?" The boy turned a set of large, brown eyes towards Richard, and again said nothing.
"You'll have to excuse Bron, he's taking a vow of silence," a young girl piped up, no more than 10 years old. "I'm Merri, nice to meet you Richard. You'd better eat, supper is almost over, and then it'll be time for evening devotion." Richard nodded, not one to pass up a hot meal after travelling for a year and a half. "You never want to pray on an empty stomach. If Sister Lynn hears your stomach growling, she thinks you're being ungrateful and you get the switch on your hands." Bron lifted his hands to show Richard large, red welts that looked a few days old.
Richard noticed a bright blue bird sailing overhead, and that's when he saw the roof above them- hanging plants cascaded down from the ceiling, an unknown light source beaming on the tables. It was as if the palace was half building, half environment.
"How long have you been training here, Merri?" Richard asked, stuffing his mouth with mashed potatoes.
"A little over 2 years, I believe," Merri answered after a moment of thought. "The Sisters and Brothers of Light have taught me so much, I can't wait to finish my training."
"How long does training usually last?" Richard asked, and a few Sisters looked up. Merri smiled at him, and he noticed a large gap between her two front teeth.
"As long as it takes. They don't tell us, probably so we don't get discouraged if we're slow," Merri answered, stuffing the rest of her mashed potatoes into her mouth and getting up. "Come on Bron, we're on dishes today," she said. "It was nice meeting you, Richard," Merri said, taking the silent boy with her into the kitchen.
Why did they need to wash dishes when the food appeared like magic?
"Panis Rahl?" Cara spat, pulling her arm back to stab him with her agiels. Kahlan was quick to hold her arm back and stop her from hurting him any further.
"Cara, we need him to talk. He knows something," Kahlan told her, and the Mord-Sith looked at her with a quizzical expression. "He got us this far, he hasn't killed us yet."
"He's a Rahl, he'll do it when we least expect it. We're disposable," Cara told her, yanking her arm out of Kahlan's grasp. "Just pawns, right Lord Rahl? Fodder, cows, more blood for your magic churn—" it was clear that something nasty was bubbling up inside Cara, and she couldn't hold it back. It kept burning at the back of her throat.
"Cara, please, calm down. We need him," Kahlan told her, watching the pained way that Cara's eyes kept trained on Panis. "What do you mean you're Panis Rahl? He's dead."
"He is Panis," Zedd told her with a shake of his head. "He looks exactly like the man I once knew. That would explain the ease of his magic. Everything I know, Panis would know. I taught him magic."
"That doesn't explain why he's here, why he led us down here and is helping us. If this is even help," Kahlan said evenly, her eyes on Cara just in case.
"I too am not so fond of the dead rising, if I can be believed anymore. I wasn't lying when I said all those things. I was just keeping who I was a secret- I told you, I didn't want to tell you who I was. I knew this would happen, that you wouldn't trust me, but you must."
"Why? We can find the stone on our own, we have the compass," Cara spat, pursing her full lips.
"That's my concern. You're a Mord-Sith, you don't even possess magic. Only the Seeker can power the compass. Something must be wrong with it," Panis said, looking from Kahlan to Cara. Right now, they were the two most terrifying women in the world. One could enslave him for life, one could torture him for an eternity. If they didn't get to him, Zedd would burn him to a crisp on the spot.
Panis turned his focus to Zedd. "Please, the world doesn't have much time. You can feel it, Zedd. The world is getting pulled thinner and thinner. The veil is tearing. Soon there will be no more Land of the Living. I know I haven't been a good man, but I have changed. And even if you still want to kill me… so be it. But let me help you first. Let me do some good for this world. Let me unwrite the wrongs my son has done."
Kahlan and Cara knew that this was Zedd's decision to make. There was something in his eyes that went back years, and while she couldn't quite understand what he was thinking, she could understand that look. The primal fear that comes when you stare your past in the face. There were entire worlds in Zedd's head, so both Cara and Kahlan gave him a moment. Kahlan could tell that the Mord-Sith was getting impatient for action, but she was surprised that Cara kept her cool.
"I am going to put my feelings behind me, but only so that we might complete Richard's quest. This is for my grandson, not for you," Zedd said coldly, extending a hand to Panis and helping him up. The shock on Panis' face was palpable and it was clear from the stunned way he got up that Zedd's kindness was unexpected. It was easy to forget that the skinny, old man was a Wizard of the First Order, and a powerful ally.
"Right… this way," Panis said, nodding to Zedd as he went down the hallway. "The room is just up here, we were close anyhow."
The trio followed Panis Rahl suspiciously through the narrow corridors, of which the rooms on either side were getting fewer and fewer. It seemed as though Panis knew a puzzle of some sort with the doors- he would open some and not others, but no longer was he keeping up the farce of going in and expecting to find the stone. They were close, they could all sense it.
It occurred to Kahlan that once they found the Stone of Tears and sealed the tear in the veil that she would go back to Aydindril, possibly with Richard still stuck in the Old World. It also dawned upon Cara that this would be her final circus before she would once again be cast aside. Richard was the new Lord Rahl, but it seemed he was insistent on ceasing the line of Mord-Sith. She would become a relic of a more painful time in D'Haran history, and she saw herself being pushed from this inner circle and left to her own devices. Cara's trajectory had gone from being a Mord-Sith to Darken Rahl's trusted associate to leader to Richard Rahl's pet Mord-Sith. To friend. To a trustworthy ally. But Cara had no idea how long her usefulness would last.
Suddenly, a light emerged from an opened door. Wind blew out from the room in a hurry. Cara rushed forward with her agiels outstretched looking for danger but finding none. It was a small room with barely enough ceiling height to fit Cara. Zedd and Kahlan stood in the doorway and peered in, Panis slowly following Cara inside.
It was a box on a table at the edge of the room that caught Panis' attention. He immediately went to it and put his hand on the lid. Cara's agiel connected with his hand and he bellowed in pain. Kahlan and Zedd looked on incredulously as Panis drew back his hand.
"I've never felt one of those before," Panis said with a wince. "I fled before-"
"Before it got too upsetting?" Cara asked, raising an eyebrow but not appearing curious in the slightest. Panis' eyes fell and he stopped for a moment. Cara rolled her eyes and opened the box herself.
Inside was a pale little stone. It was smaller than she would have expected, not even worth putting on a pendant. It was the frailest thing that was cradling the world in its grasp. Cara had a difficult time tearing her eyes away from it, and from the first time in 15 years she had the desire to cry.
Then the feeling was gone. Panis had bundled the stone in a velvet cloth and held it out to Cara.
"Take it, it's yours. I have no desire to save the world," Panis smiled, and the Mord-Sith nodded to him. The feeling did not return once Cara held the stone within the velvet, which she was thankful for. She turned back to see Kahlan staring at her, a tear rolling down her face. Zedd was beside her with a smile on his face, tears welling up in his intelligent eyes.
"I wish Richard were here," Kahlan told her, smiling a bit at the silliness of her statement. Cara looked at her, unsure of what to say, and held the stone out to her. Kahlan held it gingerly with her hands as she felt Cara's push against her skin.
"We should move as quickly as possible, the more time we spend here, the less of a chance we will have to escape the crowd in the courtyard," Zedd told them worriedly, and just as he said that the ceiling above them shook. Muffled roars came down and echoed through the narrow tunnels as if to embolden Zedd's warning. Kahlan took the pack off her back and tucked the Stone of Tears into it, making sure she tied the top before tossing it over her shoulders. She brushed her hair back and Cara caught her warm, calming scent. It took Cara to a soothing, crackling place where the sun was setting and the breeze was sweet. A place far away from responsibility and the hurt that the crowd above had brought to the surface. She wished to stay in that place, but those daydreams were a weakness. It was better to live in this world than to rot away in an imaginary meadow.