Written for legendland.
Marvel
All her years of fighting for what she thought was right—her Sisters and Lord Rahl, source of the strength that justified her existence—had come down to this.
One moment, stretched infinitely long, looking into the Mother Confessor's cold eyes.
Cara thought she saw condemnation therein, and welcomed it. She deserved worse.
When she thought of the deceit that had convinced her to take her own father's life, she wanted to die. That betrayal hurt the most—more even than the dark future in which the Mother Confessor's son, instead of her own, had ruled.
She waited for the all-consuming agony of Confession, reflecting that it could hardly make her feel worse than she did already.
As Cara died, she saw Kahlan. One moment, stretched infinitely long, looking into Kahlan's suddenly human eyes…
Cara read everything therein, as if she were the Confessor: hot rage, that had turned to cold fury, for what Cara had done to Dennee Amnell; corrosive bitterness directed at Richard, who had denied her vengeance and sought to protect Cara over the woman he swore he loved more than life itself; guilt, for leaving the sister Cara had murdered alone and vulnerable; fear, for Richard's life, as he once again ventured into the unknown on an impossible quest; pity, for Cara's losses, her father and her innocence together; grudging respect for Cara's competence; and shrewd, almost clinical judgment, that Cara's remorse was real.
Kahlan removed her hand from Cara's neck.
Cara hardly dared breathe, recognizing how close she had come to a death she surely deserved and almost desired—and marveled at what she had seen in Kahlan's eyes.
Surely, the weight of her crimes had driven her mad, to think she could read a Confessor's thoughts.
And how could anyone possibly feel so many conflicting emotions at once?
What bothered Cara the most later, though, was neither Kahlan's pity nor her hate—it was the superiority, the 'I spared my sister's killer, let all marvel on bended knee at my mercy.'
Mostly because, almost every day, Kahlan made Cara want to marvel on bended knee.