Here's a new chapter, it seems longer. Hope you'll enjoy it! Please review!
"What do you mean I can't come with you?" Richard asked as he propped himself on one elbow.
"It's my duty, as the Mother Confessor." She replied, emotionless, her eyes still looking at the sky.
"You've already said that Kahlan." He told her sternly. "I'm coming with you to Aydindrill." He added.
"Richard, you can't. You are the Seeker and you have to find the Stone and defeat the Keeper." She explained. "I'm going to Aydindrill alone."
"You could at least look at me in the eyes while explaining that you are leaving me." He told bitterly.
Finally, Kahlan looked at him. "I'm sorry." She muttered.
"Well, being sorry isn't going to make me change my mind." He told her.
"Richard, my duty..." She started but Richard stopped her by saying: "Enough with the duty Kahlan, I thought your duty as the Seeker's Confessor was to stay by my side."
Kahlan sighed and said: "Things have changed, I am the Mother Confessor now and you have Cara by your side to protect you."
"You can go on saving the world, while I..." She added but stopped.
"While you what?" He asked.
"I... I... restore order back in theMidlands." She said.
"Is this why you wanted to stop traveling for one day, so we could spend one last day together before we have to say goodbye?" He asked.
Kahlan looked down and softly nodded.
"I don't understand Kahlan. Why now? Why can't you wait until we defeat the Keeper? Why does it have to be now?" His voice was trembling, all of this made no sense to him.
"Richard, when you became the Seeker, you left your home, your friends and your family behind, because you had a destiny to fulfill. You had to, so you could help people and kill Darken Rahl. But now, I am the one who has to make that decision." She calmly explained.
Richard sat up, and so did Kahlan.
"I'll be safe in Aydindrill, you don't have to worry." She said, placing her hand on his upper arm.
Richard didn't react, he was just starring at the grass, trying to take in everything Kahlan was saying, trying to understand her decision. How could she leave him now, after everything they've been through? How could she give up on their love for each other?
"It's for the best." He heard her say as he was lost in his thoughts.
"For the best?" He asked her, turning to look in her eyes.
"I'm sorry." Kahlan said as she looked down.
"Kahlan, look at me, stop hiding behind your confessor face and talk to me. Tell me what decided you to make such a choice." He told her. "I can accept your decision, but you have to explain everything to me. I know your duty as the Mother Confessor is important to you, but what I don't understand is why you have to go back to Aydindrill now. You've been with me for months now and suddenly, you have to stop being my confessor for being the Mother Confessor." He explained.
"The last Mother Confessor appeared to me in a dream, saying I was the last of our kind, that I had to go back to Aydindrill and take upon her work." She explained, tears filling her eyes.
"It was just a dream Kahlan, it doesn't mean you to go now." Richard complained.
"Four nights ago, I couldn't sleep so I took a walk in the forest. I met a Night Wisp. She told me the exact same thing Richard." She added.
"Why didn't you tell me back then?" He asked.
"Do you think this is easy for me? Being torn like this between the man I love and my duty as the Mother Confessor?" She asked back, her tears couldn't be contained anymore.
Richard sighed, he hated to see her like that, he wrapped his arm around her shoulder, pulling her against him, he kissed her head.
"What are we gonna do?" He asked.
"There is nothing we can do Richard, I have to leave and you have to find the Stone of Tears." She explained, pulling away from him.
"We should go back to the camp." She stated, getting on her feet. She started walking back to the camp without waiting for Richard. The walk back was quiet, Kahlan walking far away from Richard. He didn't say a word, still shocked by what he just heard. Deep inside of him, he knew something was wrong. He felt like he couldn't defeat the Keeper if Kahlan wasn't by his side, he wouldn't have the strength. But deep down in his heart, he knew she was right, he knew she has a duty, just like him, theMidlandsneeded her. He wasn't ready to let her go, but he had to, and once the Keeper wouldn't be a danger to them anymore, he'll go to Aydindrill and spend the rest of his life with her.
When Kahlan finally reached the camp, she sat on her bedroll and wrapped her blanket around her shoulders. Even if the sun was going down in the sky, it wasn't particularly cold, but she thought that the warmth of her favorite blanket would comfort her a little. She hated herself right now, she hated what she was doing to Richard, the pain his eyes, the pain in her heart, it was too hard for her to handle. She felt herself unable to hold her confessor face longer, as tears fell down her face. She hated the idea of leaving Richard in his quest, she hated to be the Mother Confessor.
"Kahlan?" Richard whispered as he knelt next to her. "Kahlan." He softly repeated.
She was so lost in her thoughts she didn't hear him the first time.
Drying her wet face with his thumb, Richard gave her a kiss on the forehead.
"I know it's hard, but it's going to be okay Kahlan." He whispered, this time kissing her softly on the lips.
"Don't." She said, stopping him, still not looking into his eyes.
"Stay away from me, please." She added, pushing him away with her hand on his chest.
"Not a chance, if this is our last night together, I'm planning on holding you and kissing you Kahlan Amnell." He told her with a smile.
"Richard, please. Don't make it harder than it already is." She said.
"Fine." He said as he got to his feet. "You'll stay here, and I'll sit there, at the other side of the fire, not looking or not talking to each other while we spend our last hours together… if that's what you want." He added before sitting on a log away from her.
After some minutes of a long and heavy silence, Richard got on his feet.
"Kahlan, somebody's coming." He said sternly. Kahlan got up as well and both took their weapons as Richard moved closer to her. They waited for their opponent for a few seconds when three armed men came running straight to them. Richard didn't wait for them to come closer to Kahlan and met them to fight. Fighting with two of them, Richard quickly looked to see Kahlan dealing with the last man, she was having the best of him and he'd soon be dead or confessed. He suddenly felt pain in his chest, looking down he saw blood on his shirt, realizing a sword hurt him, he clenched his jaws and killed the two men fighting against him. When he turned to Kahlan, it was to see her killing the third man.
"Are you okay?" He asked her.
She was looking at the man at her feet and simply nodded.
"Stay here, I'll put those bodies away." Richard said.
Once he came back, after disposing of the three bodies, it was already dark. Kahlan was warming herself next to the fire she had started. Looking up at him, she noticed his bloody shirt.
"You're hurt!" She said getting up.
"I'm okay, it's just a little scratch." He replied with a smile.
She walked up to him to see by herself.
"You call it a scratch? I call it a serious injury." She told him.
"It doesn't even hurt Kahlan, it'll heal up." He said, still smiling.
"This 'scratch' starts on your chest and finishes on the side of your ribs, it's bigger than one of my knives. Take your shirt off and lay down so I can clean your wound." She ordered him. She turned to get her bag pack with everything she needed to clean the wound. When she walked back next to Richard, he was laying on his bedroll, shirtless with both of his hands behind his head, still smiling.
Feeling his intense gaze on her, Kahlan smiled as she was cleaning up Richard's wound. He reached to her face to brush a lock of hair away from her face.
"Thank you." She told him.
"You're welcome." He replied.
She looked up at him to find him still smiling. "Enough with that silly grin Richard!" She ordered him. "Your wound his quite deep and it probably hurts a lot." She added.
"Maybe, but it also makes you talk to me, look at me and stay close to me." He truthfully replied.
"Did you get hurt on purposed?" She asked him, in shock.
Richard couldn't help but laughed at the expression on her face, causing the pain of his wound to spread all over his body making him wince more that he wanted.
"No, of course not." He replied, trying to hide the pain as much as he could. "I got distracted by a beautiful woman fighting by my side." He added, looking straight into her eyes.
"That's not really clever." She replied.
"I just wanted to make sure she was okay… I love her so much I couldn't stand her to get hurt." He said, looking down at her hands still working on his wound.
"I'm pretty sure she's mad at you for getting yourself in danger just to make sure she was okay when she knows very well how to handle a fight against only one man, especially if he's not a D'Haran." She replied.
"She's very stubborn always thinking that one day I'll stop worrying about her." He said.
"Stubborn, huh?" Kahlan said raising an eyebrow with a smile.
Richard sat up and he looked deeply in her eyes and said: "Stubborn, beautiful, strong, powerful, charming..." With each word, his face was coming closed to hers.
"And sexy..." He added before kissing her on the lips, letting his hands rest on her tights.
"Yes, she's really really sexy." He said, his hand now traveling up and down her tights.
"She's also the Mother Confessor who could destroy your soul." She said sternly, using a hand to stop him.
Richard sighed deeply.
"Now lay back please, I have to finish cleaning your wound." She ordered.
Richard did as he was told, still starring at her as she worked on his chest in silence.
"We should try." He stated after a while.
Has he did get her to react he continued: "We should try to... hum... you know... try, together."
He didn't know if this was more a question or a statement.
"I think you're being delusional because you've lost a lot of blood." She coldly replied, well knowing what he was talking about.
"Think about it, I'm the one to get you out of the Con Dar, you never hurt me with your powers, maybe you can't hurt me." He explained.
Kahlan closed her eyes and said: "Richard, stop... please."
"Why? Don't you want this as much as I do?" He asked.
"I do... spirits, I do." She whispered.
As he was about to talk, she silenced him by placing a finger on his lips.
"I blame myself and my power everyday for not being able to give us what we want. It's a burden I carry every single minutes of every single day. I used to feel guilty for being who I was because of the way people looked at me, feared me. Now I feel guilty for loving a man and not being able to give him what he needs, what he wants, what he deserves. And that guilt is killing me. Everyday." She explained.
"I love you so much and I want you so much Richard, but I can't love you in 'that' way, as much as I would like to, I can't risk it. I won't." She added.
Her words hit Richard harder than the sword did during the battle. Now he was the one feeling guilty, for teasing her, pressuring her.
"Kahlan, come here." He said and he sat up, wincing again in pain. One of his hands reached of her and he stroke gently her cheek with his thumb. He tried to control his breathing, shorten by the pain of his wound.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to sound like a drunken jerk trying to get you to do things you don't want to." He said, tears filling both of their eyes. "I didn't know that you felt so much guilty. I... I don't need this from you Kahlan. I'm not going to lie to you, I want you, I want to make love to you but I don't need it. Everything I need is to have you to next to me, to see you smile, to love me back. I can live without being able to make love to you, but I can't live without you loving me back." He added.
He kissed her softly on the lips and said: "I don't need you to love me in 'that' way, I just need you to love me."
Kahlan noticed Richard breathing faster and faster, certainly due to the pain his wound was causing him in that position.
"You need to rest Richard." She told him sweetly.
"Not before you tell me that you are going to stop feeling guilty." He said.
"I'll try." She replied.
"Try is good." He told her as she pushed him back to rest.
He closed his eyes and tried to gain control of his breathing. Kahlan put everything she used to clean Richard's wound and as she was about to get up, he grabbed her hand and said : "Lay with me."
"Alright." She replied. He was surprised she didn't argue with his request but she knew how tired and hurt he was and if she wanted him to rest, the best way was to rest with him. She settled down next to him, lying on her side, she rested her head on his chest, her ear listening to his heart beat. She rested a hand on his chest and heard him whisper: "Closer."
She looked up at him, kissed him on the lips and said: "You sure know how to use your condition to get what you want."
He smiled and said: "You wouldn't want me to catch a cold, lying like this shirtless on the ground."
She shook her head and adjusted her body over his, half straddling him, half on her side. She buried her face in the crock of his neck, with her hand back on his chest, she could feel his heart beat.
"Better." He whispered, bringing his hand on hers while the other was caressing her hair.
"I love you." He whispered, sleep getting the best of him.
"I love you too Richard. Don't fight sleep." She replied.
"Promise me you'll be here when I wake up." He said.
"I will my love." She told him.
With that, Richard fell asleep, even if he wasn't in the best shape, he had the woman he loved in his arms.