It had been Berdine's idea to split Cara's time into three month slots. Three months in D'Hara, three months in the Midlands. The first three months had to have been in D'Hara, there was more opposition to Cara's reign there. The Midlands were very traditional. Cara had killed the Seeker of Truth; she was their new ruler, simple. There had been slight resistance in both provinces of course, but that hadn't lasted. The Mord-Sith were always loyal to the ruler of D'Hara, and aside from a few objections from Denna and Triana (whose views were quickly … muted) they hadn't even thought of challenging Cara. Which left Cara with an incredibly loyal group of soldiers at her disposal. They were very effective at 'discouraging' rebellions. Raina had led all the missions, and Berdine had stayed behind (at Cara's direct order, and much to Berdine's chagrin) to translate the diary Darken Rahl had left locked in a safe in his chambers. It detailed all the possible ways he could be brought back from the Underworld. It was important that Cara destroy every single one of those ways, and everyone who would even think of using them. Out of the seven different ways to bring Darken back, three had been discovered and two destroyed. Berdine had found two and destroyed one in the month following the 'incident' (as Raina called it not wanting to aggravate either Berdine or Cara).
Cara was glad that Berdine had finally submitted. It made things easier. Especially when it came to Cara getting her way. And right now she really wanted to get her way, because as boring as paper work was, having nothing to do was worse and there wasn't much to do. Raina took away a lot of the paper work and Cara sure as hell wasn't going to take audiences from the public like was Midland tradition. She couldn't care less about the people's problems; if they couldn't sort it out themselves it wasn't worth sorting. When she was just a Mord-Sith (if anyone could be just a Mord-Sith) Cara had been busy tracking, capturing, torturing, fighting and fucking. Now, out off her favourite things to do, she could only do two. So when she got bored she had to rely on fighting and fucking to amuse herself. Which was never how she wanted it to be as her sisters were always doing something more important. She couldn't even argue with that, she'd set the tasks they were doing and Cara knew that for her to rule well they did actually need to complete the tasks. No one else could keep up with her in either activity, though a few had tried, and had been killed when they failed. It had taken ten palace guards to pose a challenge while sparring, and they couldn't afford for so many guards to be off duty due to injury. Berdine encouraged Cara to spend time torturing Denna and Triana who had been transferred from the different palace dungeons as Cara moved from palace to palace, but they had gotten boring. What she wanted was a new toy, but she wasn't allowed one of the prisoners. Cara showing anyone 'special attention' would make them more important than they were apparently. Cara disagreed, it made then either in pain, or dead.
But if she wasn't allowed a prisoner, she'd just get someone else; someone who could keep up with her. Cara didn't care who they were, as long as they could entertain her. Finding them would be the tricky part. Eh, she'd leave the details to Berdine.
xxxxx
Kahlan had been devastated as she watched that blonde haired bitch fire a bullet into Richard's brain. And then she had taunted Kahlan. Telling her the only reason she had been left alive was to make the Mord-Sith's life interesting. The arrogant, self-centred, evil bitch! It had taken Kahlan two months to slip out of the slightly cationic state she was living in. Eating only when forced to, speaking only when spoken to. If Zedd hadn't been there, she didn't know what would have happened to her, and she didn't really want to find out. The third month after Richard's death had been spent plotting. Kahlan had to find a way to remove the Evil Overlord Cara from the Midlands. She had come up with a simple but efficient plan to get rid of her when Shota arrived. Kahlan was informed that shooting the Evil Overlord with a sniper rifle was not as easy as it sounded, nor would it have the desired outcome. Shota couldn't tell if Kahlan would succeed, if Cara would die or live, but both paths led to dark futures. If she died, both the Midlands and D'Hara would fall into civil war. D'Hara's war would end quickly, once the strongest powers took over, but the Midlands would fight for a long time about who would rule. Eventually they would have a clear ruler; whoever ruled D'Hara. However, if Cara was shot at and lived, she would rage though the Midlands and D'Hara to find her shooter, and find the shooter she would. Eventually, after whole townships had been razed, and innocent people slaughtered. A happy Evil Overlord meant that both realms would prosper. Kahlan was never one to trust easily but knew that Shota was telling the truth. Though, she did start sniper practice again.
An opportunity came five months after Richard's death while Kahlan was shopping for food. She'd found a poster stuck to the supermarket door. The Evil Overlord was holding a competition. The best fighters from both nations were competing for a place in the court. The Evil Overlord needed a sparring partner, and Kahlan knew there was no one better than herself in the Midlands. She would leave her mask and white dress behind, leave the Mother Confessor behind and fight as Kahlan Amnell. The Evil Overlord wouldn't even know what hit her, and then she'd pay for killing Richard.
xxxxx
Cara was still bored, but apparently Berdine was working on it. In a month, the best fighters from both D'Haran and the midlands would gather in the Confessors Palace (she really needed to rename the place) to fight for the few honoured spots available as the Evil Overlord's sparring partners. Though, Cara had read the terms and conditions that every contestant had to sign before entering, and decided that 'sparring partner' was being polite. It basically said that the winners would be her slaves that she could do anything with for a two year period. Most of them wouldn't even know what they were getting into. Who read terms and conditions anymore?
xxxxx
Berdine could not believe that she was organising an event just to entertain Cara. Sure Cara had less active things to do, but there was plenty other things for her to occupy her time with. Why could Cara not like reading? Getting books was easier than getting willing slaves. By Rahl, the blonde drove her insane. Not that she'd complain about Cara to anyone but Raina where she was sure she wouldn't be overheard. Berdine did not want a repeat of three months ago. She wasn't willing to risk Raina's health, and knew Cara knew that. Bitch. At least Cara was quieter and easier to deal with since the incident and since she found out what Berdine was planning. Hopefully that would extend for the next month, allowing her to finish her plans for the competitions. Maybe she could convince Cara to hear the Midlands people speak. It would keep her occupied. Now, how to sell it to Cara...
xxxxx
"You can be as bitchy as you want to them and they'll just take it. They won't even look at you evilly because they all think you'd kill them."
Cara snarled and turned around, shoving Berdine against a wall.
"That's because I would just kill them. You're coming very close to death too."
Berdine had learnt a long time ago that Cara's threats of death against her were just that; threats. If she got so annoyed that she struck out she'd just bring her back to life. Now, if Cara threatened to torture you, that was serious. She meant it.
"Come on, you get to terrorise and threaten death, both of which you love to do. What's bad about it?"
"Hearing their whining, snivelling problems that I really don't give a fuck about?"
"And then you get to shoot them down and squash their self-esteem. I repeat, what's bad about it?"
Cara growled and threw her hands in the air.
"For fuck's sake. Fine, I'll give it a try. And leave me alone."
Now Berdine needed to figure out how to sell seats to the D'Haran's in the Confessors Palace. She suspected there would be a high concentration of Mord-Sith in the hall.
xxxxx
Cara glared at the amount of Mord-Sith in the hall. Either Raina (Cara had quietly promoted her to head of security) thought there would be trouble, or her sisters were bored and had heard (most likely from Berdine) that she would be 'entertaining' the people of the Midlands. She couldn't begrudge them being bored, but she could be annoyed about it. Berdine stood at her side, ready to protect Cara or spout the information she had absorbed around the Midlands ruling system.
Few people had problems worthy of her, or problems that concerned her at all. Fuck it; if he planted a tree on your land, it's yours. You don't want it? Cut the damn thing down. It means something special to the neighbour? Then move it. It wasn't high level sorcery! It was petty, and more than once Berdine had to place a hand on her shoulder to stop Cara from hitting the people in front of her.
Berdine hadn't been quick enough when one man had accused Cara of stealing from the people of the Midlands. He had come into the hall bowing after some woman complaining about another woman stealing her fiancé. Cara hadn't been sympathetic to the woman, and the man's manners had been a welcome change.
"Overlord, my name is Brendon I have come before you to speak on behalf of all the people of the Midlands."
He bowed again. Cara grinned at him.
"Does that mean that if you piss me off I get to kill everyone in the Midlands?"
That startled Brendon. "Uh... Supreme One.."
"Oh, I like that." Cara turned her head to Berdine. "Take a note of that Berdine."
She turned back to Brendon and waved a hand at him before settling her chin into the palm of her hand, cupping the side of her face.
"Don't bother trying to answer. What have the people of the Midlands got to say to me?"
"Mistress, we worry about the latest increase in taxes."
"What about them?"
"They are too high/ while you have an excess of money to spend on whatever pleases you, we are struggling to feed our families. Paying the taxes is taking the food from our children's mouths."
Cara was up from her chair and down the dais before Berdine could stop her. She circled Brendon while taking to him.
"It sounds awfully like you're accusing me of stealing from my people."
He didn't back down, which Cara vaguely admired, but not when it was being directed at her.
"Well, essentially, yes you..."
The rest of the sentence was stopped by Cara's hand around his throat.
"First off." She hissed at him, her face close to his. "If I wanted all the money in either of my realms, I would get it because they are MY REALMS!"
She pushed him back, causing Brendon to fall to the floor.
"Secondly, I may not have been a ruler of a realm for long, but I have led my sister Mord-Sith for years. I treat D'Hara and the Midlands like I did my sisters. As long as my orders are followed, I will do my best to make sure that my people are safe and that they prosper, and I am too fucking stubborn to accept a half-arsed improvement. Taxes have increased because there are no longer any import or export taxes to and from D'Hara as well as the deflation of prices. The Midland coin is worth more now than it has been in the past five years. I have done that, not the people of the Midlands, ME! Food should actually be cheaper. If it's not, it's not my fault that the food sellers are too greedy to decrease their prices."
"But the poor..."
"The poor pay fewer taxes than the rich bastards you obviously represent. The taxes depend on income. Now get the fuck out of my home before I show you Mord-Sith hospitality!"
Brendon all but ran out the doors. Cara stormed out of the room, calling behind her.
"I am done with this. Fucking people!"
xxxxx
Cara found herself in her office. She wanted to break something, someone. She wanted to take her anger of that man out of something. She could tear up her office, it could all easily be replaced, but what was the point of that. Chairs didn't bleed and books didn't scream. Her desk wouldn't beg for mercy. Berdine entered the room and placed a hand carefully on Cara's stiff shoulder.
"Denna and Triana are always there."
"I don't want them." Spat Cara, turning and glaring at her adviser. "I want new blood. Blood I haven't tasted. Before you say I can't, I know. Fuck, I know I have this responsibility to be perfectly poised, to be this unmovable figure head. But I am still Mord-Sith, I still want the hunt, the kill and the pain. I need it, it's a part of me and I can't…"
Cara took a deep breath, calming herself down.
"I can't suppress that part of myself. It'll kill me."
"I'm sorry I've been trying to force you to. I'm not like you, hell, none of the Mord-Sith are. You'll get fresh blood in a month, until then we can find other ways to feed your need for violence."
"Such as?"
Berdine smirked. "Well, Dahlia has just arrived from D'Hara, but I have another idea. That man was a fool, but he did bring up a point. The sellers in the Midlands apparently haven't lowered their prices, and with the new tax increase it will be hard on the people. We could 'encourage' some of the sellers to decrease their prices personally."
Cara nodded. "That'll do, let's go."
"Cara, I let you see people in jeans and a tank top because we were still in the palace, but you are not going out on an official outing in anything but your formal wear."
"For Rahl's sake! Bloody harpy!"
Apologies for not posting anything for a while. I was on an island, and had no internet. I'm not even joking. My uncle has a batch on Waiheke Island and we stayed there for a week.