Parallel Affinity

Part 13.

On Kahlan's orders, the five Mord'Sith carried Richard's body down the exiting passage, while she and Cara, already on the other side of the mountain, assembled a pyre to burn the body. It took them a good portion of the day to gather enough wood for the task. The Mord'Sith waited on the precipice of the cave, maintaining the link between their Mistress and the Shrine, while their sister walked through the forest alongside Kahlan, carrying a pile of dry wood or dragging back large fallen branches. The two women barely looked at each other as they went about the task, each one entirely engrossed in what she was doing, moving on autopilot, too numb from grief for anything else. As they walked to and from the forest, the women came across multitudes of discarded swords and blood-red armour, which they concluded to have belonged to Rahl's army of confessed soldiers. The army could have consisted entirely out of simple farmers for all they knew - the spell would have turned a blood-thirsty soldier out of anyone! Kahlan shuddered at the sight, chilled to the bone by the thought of all the blood-shed that would have occurred across the lands had Cara not broken the spell and killed Rahl. This was the only thing that comforted her in her grief, the fact that they were able to put a stop to Rahl once and for all, that people of the Midlands and beyond were finally safe, from him and Nicci at the very least. In a strange way, Kahlan could picture Richard now... Consoling her, telling her that it was okay, that it was worth it in the end, that he didn't mind dying if the part he played in all of this ultimately led to Rahl's demise and left the world in a better, safer place. Tears flowed freely from her eyes as she held onto the minute comfort of such a consolation, regardless of the fact that it existed only in her imagination. In her heart she knew that Richard would not have shied away from the ultimate sacrifice if it meant fulfilling his duty as Seeker. People were finally safe from the tyrant, the lands were at peace once again, or would be soon, and she knew that this was enough to put Richard at peace too. The thought of this kept her going as she walked back from the forest towards the mountain, carrying a pile of sticks in her arms, preparing to burn his body.

Cara, meanwhile, took a hit to the gut each time she saw Kahlan in tears. She could not shake the feeling that ultimately, this was all her fault, that she had failed the Confessor, that she failed the Seeker and the wizard, that she had let down her friends, her family. If only she had been stronger than she was, if only she could have broken the spell sooner than she did, or worse still, if she had not allowed her judgement to become so clouded by her feelings for Kahlan, Richard might still be alive. For as long as she lived, Cara would never forgive herself for this. And now, the punishment of witnessing the consequences of her ineptitude, of her weakness, by seeing the person she cared about so utterly heartbroken, was the least of what she deserved, she reprimanded herself. She offered to Kahlan to complete the task of assembling the pyre by herself - it didn't seem right that Kahlan should be gathering wood for Richard's body - but Kahlan dismissed the offer instantly. And so, the two of them carried on, side by side, until the pile of assembled wood grew and at last was as large as a flat tent, while the Mord'Sith waited within the cave with Richard's body turning colder by the minute.

~

When it was time, Kahlan approached the five women. She gave them a choice - to remain at the Shrine for as long as they wished and wait for death to find them in its natural time or to step outside the mountain and face death immediately. Without hesitation, the women chose instant death, explaining that a brief extension to their lives, if it were to be without the presence of their Mistress, would serve no purpose. Unsurprised by this unanimous response, Kahlan accepted their decision. She was, however, a little taken aback when they asked, humbly and sheepishly, for a final embrace from their beloved Mistress, as a parting gesture. But utimately, she agreed.

Cara watched from outside of the cave as the Confessor gently hugged each woman in a gesture of farewell, holding each one in her arms for a time as if she were her sister or her child, while one by one the Mord'Sith clung to her as if for dear life, savouring the brief moment of being embraced by the one they so blindly adored. When their farewells had concluded, the women stepped into position, next to Richard's body. They lifted him, parallel to the ground, supporting him on their shoulders, and ceremoniously walked out of the cave, towards the pyre. The instant they stepped outside of the mountain, the cave's entrance sealed up, and the Shrine of the Zoria became forever refused to the Mord'Sith and Confessor alike, turning back into impenetrable stone. And bare moments after that, before the Mord'Sith were able to deliver Richard's body to the pyre, almost all at the same time the women began buckling under the deathly curse of their confession. Blood trickled out of nostrils, out of eyes, as the five desperately fought to fulfill the task of laying the Seeker's body over the assembled pile of wood as ordered by their Mistress. Ultimately, they succeeded, and had just enough life left to lay themselves alongside the Seeker on either side, on top of each other, holding hands, so that their own bodies could be turned to ash too.