Chapter 4

The sunset was peaking through the trees as they walked towards the creek. They trod on in silence for a bit. Kahlan didn't want to have Richard over hear. She would speak with him about it later, but for now she needed to have this conversation in private. Despite the amount of time she'd spent with Cara she still didn't feel as comfortable speaking about her feelings with her as she suddenly did with someone she'd not even known a full day. The love she saw when Aeryn held John in her arms she knew that she'd understand what she felt for Richard. She knew that she'd be able to help her.

"You really love him, don't you?" Kahlan opened with a rhetorical question, one that she knew that Aeryn would answer.

"Yes." She smiled at her. She knew it was an ice breaker type that really didn't need an answer, but since they'd only just met and were about to have a fairly intimate conversation she figured that she would answer any questions she posed no matter how much her actions had already provided the answers. "I never expected it. I was trained not to look for it. It snuck up on us… well me. I think he knew almost immediately."

"They always seem to. Richard knew." Kahlan sighed and stopped Aeryn. "Before we go on I need to tell you something. It's about me, what I am…"

"I've known so many types of people and aliens, nothing will surprise me. I won't be afraid of you, if that's what worries you."

"I wouldn't blame you if you were. Most people in the Midlands are."

"So that's where we've landed? The Midlands?" She pondered the name, thinking if she'd ever heard it in legend or story and it didn't ring any bells. She must have dropped them in a very special, unknown wormhole. Great.

"The New world. Technically, not too far from the boundary to the Old World, right now we are in D'Hara. I'm from the Midlands and Richard is from Westland. Those two lands plus D'Hara form the New World. There used to be boundaries separating all 3 lands. They fell not long ago, however. War has ravaged the people and resources for far too long. Richard. He… He's put an end to it all. We are heading back to my home, Aydindril, and helping people put their lives back together on the way."

"You are lucky to have each other at the end of such a long war."

"Yes. At times it didn't look hopeful." Kahlan felt a tear drip down her cheek, remembering the time she'd killed him. It still hurt that her magic had taken so much of her control and she'd done that. "There are things that have happened that I'm not proud of, but he's stuck with me and I can't believe that I'm lucky enough to still have him with me."

"He loves you, a lot." Aeryn wanted to hug the other woman but she held back. Not comfortable herself with offering physical comfort just yet and she didn't think that Kahlan was ready for that type of action. She sensed that she needed to get something out first. "Tell me what you wanted to tell me."

"I'm what is called a Confessor."

"You're going to have to explain it to me, I've never heard of that before."

"The wizards many, many years ago created a line of women with the power to make men their slaves."

"This sounds pretty good so far." Aeryn chuckled but saw that Kahlan wasn't amused so she stopped and motioned for her to continue.

"Confessors were made the keepers of the law. The Mother Confessor is the highest authority in all the Midlands and she presides over the council. The other confessors are in charge of going from town to town and solving disputes and taking confessions."

"I can get behind a civilization that puts women in charge." Kahlan's smile made her feel that she'd said something right.

"I have the gift to tell if someone is lying to me just by looking into their eyes as they speak. If someone is convicted of a crime, usually a very violent crime they are confessed. I have a power that is always there. I've been trained since I was a girl to control it at all times. It's magic I was born with."

"What does it do, exactly?"

"I make the person I touch and release my power into fall completely in love with me. There first thought is how can they please me. If I confess someone and tell them to die, their heart obeys the command and fails to continue to beat."

"No wonder you are holding back from him."

"I'm not…" the look that Aeryn shot her stopped her from continuing.

"You can tell when people are lying. Well I can tell that you were just about to step into a lie yourself."

"When confessors reach… ecstasy… they can't hold onto the power and the man they are with is confessed."

"You don't want to take Richard, now I understand a little better."

"I can't… well I don't think I can… It's a long story, but I've confessed him while under the spell of my own magic at it's most powerful. It was turned against me and sent me into an ancient form of confession, the ConDar, or blood rage. My magic is more potent than I can control at times." She rubbed her hands over her eyes, drying the tears that had fallen remembering coming out of the ConDar that day and seeing him laying on the ground dead.

"Who's the Mother Confessor at the moment?" Aeryn was sharp, her mind made leaps in logic and she was more often than not, correct. She figured that Kahlan would be. She wanted to hear it though.

"I am."

"How many Confessors survived this war? You seem like someone that a tyrant would want to eliminate. An enemy that can make his armies fall completely in love with them and turn on their lord and master…"

"You're right, of course. There is only me and my sister left. Only two of us."

"You must breed then. Create more. Richard will make a good father for your children."

"What if I take him with my magic?" The panic in her voice made Aeryn step closer and place her hands on her shoulders.

"You won't. Believe in your love for him and his for you. I can see how much is between you. I bet the people that we've left on our ship called Moya can see it and they don't even know where to look."

Kahlan reached out and pulled her in for a hug. She felt her arms wrap around her and it felt good to get reassurance from someone. A person with an honest opinion and a view that wasn't as close as Zedd and Cara who already felt that they needed to get a room and get rid of the tension between them. having Aeryn take her fears seriously made her feel good and not silly for having fears.

"Shall we go do some dishes?" Kahlan pulled back and led the way to the creek.

"Don't tell Crichton when he wakes up that I was doing anything domestic, I don't want him to get ideas." Both of them chuckled and headed down the bank to the stream.

Kahlan couldn't wait for the next stage of their conversation. She wanted to gain insight into seducing Richard. She didn't want to wait and she knew that Aeryn would have advice on making sure she wouldn't have to. She seemed very sensual and in touch with her body and what it needed. She was open about sex and Kahlan needed to know things.

"Your secret is safe with me, don't worry."

Richard spread out his and Kahlan's bedrolls, right next to each other, as always. They used to try to sleep apart but as time went by they moved closer and closer together. Now they didn't try to resist the pull, he smiled thinking about how they didn't have to. There was no reason to hide it and he knew that her magic couldn't hurt him so he pulled her close every night and cuddled with her until morning.

When he was done with setting up for the night he went over to check on John. He looked like he was starting to wake up. He hoped that his headache had receded but he wasn't too optimistic about it being gone completely. The lump he saw on the back of his skull was quite large and he couldn't imagine that even with the special elixir the swelling would be gone already.

He kneeled down next to him and checked on the wrap. John's eyes blinked rapidly as he came into consciousness. Richard put his hand on his shoulder trying to let him know that someone was there and he wouldn't be afraid. The forest was getting darker rapidly as the sun set.

"Aeryn?" John tied to sit up but there was pressure that he couldn't find the strength to fight against. "Aeryn… Aeryn!" His voice was becoming panicky

"Hey, she's not here." Richard was trying to comfort him but he was struggling harder.

"Where is she? What have you done with her? Where am I?" John was getting more and more agitated.

"John, I'm Richard. You hit your head on the back of your flying machine when you came through some blueish white thing in the sky."

The mention of wormholes made him stop. He stopped moving and tried to think. His head ached and he pulled at the strings of his memories trying to untie the knots of his thoughts. He looked at the man that was holding him down he was familiar. Then it hit him. They'd left the ship and been sucked unexpectedly into that wormhole. He'd hit his head and Aeryn and this man and another woman had somehow extracted him from the module.

"Where's Aeryn?" He was concerned for her. He didn't want her to be hurt or lost in a place he had no idea how to navigate. The place was all unfamiliar and the culture a puzzle he'd yet to begin piecing together. He needed to know that she wasn't harmed. She was his everything.

"She went with Kahlan down to the stream to do dishes." The mention of the washing reminded him that John hadn't had any dinner. "Would you like to eat some stew? We set a bowl by the fire for you."

His stomach rolled, the thought of food didn't sound good quite yet. The bump to his head made him nauseous and he didn't think that throwing up on his caretaker would be anything close to customary.

"I don't think I'm ready for eating quite yet, maybe after I've been awake for awhile longer." John pushed on the other man so he could sit up.

The Seeker gladly moved out of the way and then put his arm behind him to help him rise. He pulled him around a little to prop him against a log.

"How's the head?"

"Pounding." He put his hand to the back of his head and felt around the injury, flinching when he encountered the lump and gash. The gauze still felt secure, Aeryn had done a good job tending to it.

"So." Richard looked around, seeing if the woods would provide any conversation ideas for a man that was sure to have a concussion. "How did you two get here?"

"It's complicated." John winced as he lowered his palm accidentally brushing the most sensitive part of the injury. "I don't know if the translator microbes will be able to help with some of the language, so I'll explain it in the most simple way that I can."

"Simple is good." It had been a long day and while Richard was used to talk about magic he wasn't sure that any of the terms that Crichton used would make any sense to him at all.

"Wormholes are like a tear in space and time. They form and allow you to travel into another part of the universe quickly. They cover more distance than I can describe in mere seconds instead of taking many years to get places."

"You travel this way a lot?"

"I try to avoid it like my aunt Martha after eating spicy food." The confused look on Richards face mad him chuckle much to the dismay of his head. He groaned and continued. "I have the knowledge to travel through them. Sometimes I can decide where I want to end up, if I've been there before. This time Aeryn and I were surprised by it's forming. I'd never seen one in the area we were flying in and I was…" How should he explain that he'd been too preoccupied with Aeryn's breasts that he wasn't paying any attention to the forming of the wormhole. "I was distracted."

"So distracted you missed a giant blue hole forming?" Richard wondered at his ability to respond quickly to danger if he'd been so surprised by something he seemed to know a fair bit about.

"It was a very powerful distraction." He looked up at the sky, pondering how much Aeryn would hurt him for going into any more detail. Then he shrugged his shoulders. In the situation they were in right now he wasn't worried about her harming him. She needed him just as much as he needed her. "I was trying to get her to turn the ship back to Moya so I could take her to bed."

Richard's cheeks blushed pink and he looked away. Of course. What else would occupy the man's thoughts. He's seen his woman and she was beautiful, they were clearly very much in love, what else would it have been.

"It's hard to keep them from distracting you." He knew that watching Kahlan was dangerous. He'd often thought that he'd been lucky in battle not being stabbed or sliced since he found himself staring at her when he shouldn't be.

"Love will do that to a man." He saw Richard nod his agreement. "They know it too. That is the worst part."

"I don't know about that. Kahlan knowing that I love her to distraction…" He thought about how she would feel if he was injured in a fight because he'd been too busy paying attention to her. "You're right. It is the worst part. It has the power to hurt them."

"I try to avoid that. Of course hurting Aeryn usually ends with me on the ground with a sore set of ribs or head."

"She's quite the warrior, at least what I've observed, until you fall. She was broken when you were bleeding in the back. It was heartbreaking to watch."

The two men sat in silence for a bit thinking about the women in their lives and how much it caused their decisions to change.

"She's a terrible influence too. You're probably going to regret letting her be alone with…" John struggled to remember the woman in white's name.

"Kahlan."

"Yes, thanks, Kahlan for so long." Crichton laughed heartily thinking about all the things that she could be telling the other woman. "If there is anything that she wants and you aren't giving her… Well lets just say you should be prepared to fold, buddy. Aeryn always gets what she wants. Sometimes I make her wait a little longer, but I can never refuse her."

He sat there for a minute. His eyes traveled along the trees that lined the camping area. The fire's flames flickering and dancing in the center. The light cast upon the bark and leaves playing with his eyes. He thought about what his words would mean for him. He didn't want to give in to her and yet it was what he wanted more than anything in the world.

John just watched him think. He could tell that what he'd told him frightened him slightly. He could see the impulse to run after her and rescue her from Aeryn's influence, but he'd held it in check. He could feel him vibrating with the need to jump up and get his fiancée. He almost felt sorry for the other man. He didn't know what he was truly afraid of.

"She's not so bad… ya know?" John put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "She really does mean well. It's amazing how much she's changed since I first met her. She cares now." Richard turned and looked at him again. "About what happens to her, me and other people. She used to just function for the good of the Peacekeepers. Now she lives for us, for herself." A tear crept into the corner of his eye and he brushed it away. "God, I love that woman."

Richard didn't know what to say to him. He knew how he felt. He'd watched Cara go through a similar transformation and even Kahlan had experienced change to a lesser degree. The walls that she'd been taught to hold around her heart her whole life had been crumbled by him. She willingly let him see all of her now. She never hid away behind the ice that protected her heart and soul. It was like it was all melted away or at least she'd allowed him inside the protective palace.

"This is going to be a disaster for me…"

"What can possibly be that bad about them alone together chatting?" John was curious about the way these people thought. How they handled different situations interested him. He'd seen a wide variety of reactions to putting people or aliens in a corner.

"She's going to tell her to convince me to… I won't be able to stop her." Richard groaned and put his hands over his face.

"Convince you to what? It can't be that terrible, I mean, you're going to marry the woman."

"Convince me to make love to her." Richard knew his face was red. Why was he suddenly feeling so open with this stranger? Had he really just blurted that out with little coaxing? He glanced over at the other man. His eyes were sparkling with amusement and his mouth was gaping open and a smile had turned the corners upwards.

"Oh, man! That's all?" John laughed and then saw the look on Richard's face. Maybe it wasn't something that was good in their culture… He pulled himself in check. He wished that was the only thing that he'd been worried about with Aeryn. Sex between them was never the problem. Or was it always the problem? Until it became more than just sex perhaps. "Sorry, Richard, Is that a bad thing here? Where I come from it's one of the closest ways to show someone how much you love them."

"It's not that. I just…" Richard stood up and started pacing. He couldn't sit and talk about this. The nervous energy combined with his desire for Kahlan made it impossible for stillness. "I want it to be perfect. Perfect and beautiful and amazing for her."

"You love her?" John knew it was a silly question but Richard needed to see what he knew to be true.

"Yes. With everything I am."

"Then it will be."

"Simple as that?" Richard stopped and crouched down by the fire. He picked up the stick nearby and poked at the logs. Stirring the flames to new heights.

"Not always." John wished he knew more about them before trying to help with this kind of situation. He was pretty good at sticking his nose where it didn't belong. But Aeryn had planted the nose of his module right in the middle of a place they didn't belong. "Look I don't know. I know that with Aeryn and I it wasn't always perfect, but I wouldn't give a moment I've spent with her in my arms up."

"You think I'm being stupid? Wasting time?" Richard often felt the same. Every time she looked at him with the longing in her eyes he wanted to break the promise to himself and take her.

"I think you're being nobel. I think that you love her so much that you think you are doing what's best for her. I also think that you're scared."

"I've faced hundreds of men who wanted to kill me. There were creatures sent from the underworld by the Keeper himself wanting to taste my blood on their tongues, I slaughtered them without blinking an eye. I've plunged head first into the unknown to save this world, twice. And you think I'm afraid to take Kahlan to bed." Richard huffed with indignation, the idea was preposterous.

"Yeah, I think you are." John just looked at him watching as the wheels in his brain processed what he'd just said.

What if he was afraid? Richard didn't know what to make of it. Fortunately John continued to speak.

"You might be worried that she'll be disappointed or that she won't like everything you do to her. Maybe that you won't be enough for her?"

"I'm her first." His fingers made a fist, squeezing his nails against his palm. He shouldn't have said that. But he wanted help, he needed John to understand why this was so important for her. He told him briefly about confessors then. Richard explained how she'd never expected to find love that she would be able to hold onto with both hands. She never knew it was even a possibility for her kind. He told him of the heartbreaking journey that they'd been on. How they suffered for so long in silence until they'd been bursting and their feelings had just started to slip through. The stolen kisses the turned into longer sessions of kissing because it was safer. He poured out his heart to this stranger. It felt good.

"She seems like a strong woman." John knew that with Kahlan's past she had to be bursting to have him. he couldn't imagine going that many years and not getting to enjoy sex with someone he cared about.

"The strongest." Richard's grin was full of pride for her.

"You won't break her. Let her love you. Let her show you something that's only for you. Let her do it before it kills her holding it in. Don't let her become bitter about waiting."