Cara was bored. Three months into her reign of the Midlands and D'Hara and she was bored. It wasn't the reigning that was boring, it was the paper work. Paper work was fucking boring. All she did was read and sign, read and sign. She was fucking well sick of it.

Cara strode out of her office in the Confessors Palace and into the outer office that Berdine worked in.

"You're not finished with your paper work, Cara. I know you aren't."

Cara halted and glared at the brunette Mord-Sith who hadn't even bothered to look up from the desk she worked at. She moved quickly to stand behind Berdine. She leant in, molding her body the best she could against Berdine's back.

"Are you questioning me, Berdine?" Cara hissed quietly, barely above a whisper in the other Mord-Sith's ear.

"That depends; will it get you to do the paper work?"

"It could."

Cara drew her agiel, moving it along the curves of Berdine's body, not quite touching, until it hovered over her stomach. The soft whine filled the room.

"Are you sure you want to 'encourage' me to do the paper work? Wouldn't you rather find someone else to do it for me?"

"If that's what it takes, I'll 'encourage' you all you want. You need to do the paper work."

"I think someone needs to be re-trained."

Berdine sighed deeply. "Do what you feel you must, Cara. If you have to re-train me, you have to re-train me."

"Oh, Berdine." Cara said with a dark chuckle. "Who said anything about you?"

She pulled away from Berdine and placed her agiel in the holster at her hip as Raina entered the room, reading a book as she walked.

"Berdine, I may have found something about that statue Rahl mentioned in his diary." She chuckled. "Creator, it gets me every time that he kept a diary."

Cara moved around the desk and plucked the book out of Raina's hands. She tossed it on Berdine's desk.

"Raina, come with me."

The dark haired, dark eyed Mord-Sith nodded and followed as Cara walked out of the office. Cara stopped and leaned against the wall by the door.

"What are we doing Cara?"

"Waiting."

"For?" Raina prompted softly. Cara wasn't really that easy to get along with, she had expectations. The trouble was, she never told anyone else her expectations and punished people when they didn't live up to them. But for all that could be said of Cara, she was a brilliant strategist, and almost always got her way.

Cara smirked evilly. "We're waiting for your girlfriend to come rushing though that door to stop me torturing you."

"Oh. Was she bugging you about doing the paper work again?"

"Does a Lord Rahl like the sound of his voice?"

"You know I have a fair bit of spare time now that most of the people in the realms have fallen into line. I could go though all the work before it gets to you and sort it into stuff you can just sign and stuff you actually need to consider." Raina paused. "And stuff you wouldn't sign anyway."

"I'd appreciate that Raina."

"How much longer are we going to wait?"

Cara tilted her head to the side. "Not much longer. Right now she's trying to continue working to prove to me that I can't control her. She's wrong."

Raina knew Cara was right. No matter how much Berdine despised it, Cara did control her. Cara was a manipulative bitch. She controlled everyone around her. Once Raina had accepted that, life had become a lot easier. She did what Cara told her to do, and most of the time she came out unscathed. Those loyal to Cara often ended up better than those against. Raina didn't know why. Maybe Cara did it consciously to protect, or maybe she was just that good a strategist. Then again, maybe Cara didn't like losing, and really couldn't care less about everyone else. That was probably it.

Berdine didn't burst of the door in front of them, she as Mord-Sith after all, but Cara noticed a definite rush to the tall brunette's stride. She came to a sudden stop as she saw Cara and Raina.

"Where would you be heading in such a rush, Berdine?"

"I…"

"Yes, you. I hope we have come to an understanding Berdine. Raina has kindly offered to help me with the paper work."

Cara took a step forward, her face an inch away from Berdine's.

"I hope we don't have to have a conversation like this again. You won't like the out come. I'll see you later Berdine."

Cara turned and stalked away.

Berdine didn't even bother mentioning the paper work. Once she was sure Cara couldn't hear, she swore.

"Where the fuck does she get off…"

"You have to accept that she controls you Berdine. She can do whatever she wants because she's the Evil Overlord of D'Hara and the Midlands. We chose to help her over throw the last Lord Rahl, she's the new Lord Rahl in everything but name. Of course she will demand obedience; she does want what we did to Darken to happen to her."

"Fine she's our new Lord, but when I agreed to help her I didn't expect her to be…"

"Yes you did! Berdine, this is Cara we're talking about. She may be an absolute hard ass controlling bitch, but you knew that before. You always knew she'd be like this. You're just not happy that you've gone from being near equals to you being her office-research bitch. You don't need to be happy about it; you just need to accept the fact that she holds all the cards and right now, she isn't sharing any of them. Maybe that will change, maybe it won't. But Berdine, she's a damn side better than Darken was."

Berdine pouted at her. "Why do you have to destroy my aggravation at Cara with logic? It's not fair."

Raina wrapped her arms around Berdine's waist and leaned into her, tucking her head under the taller woman's chin.

"Because I like you alive."

Apologies for it being kind of short, but it's all I could get done with Christmas, being yesterday.