Parallel Affinity

Part 24

Tears fell down on her. Tears fell as if from an open  sky. They fell and washed over her face, watering it as if it was a  beloved garden, someone's beloved rose, leaving clear trails river-long  over her soot-stained face.

Eyes closed, Cara felt tear droplets land on her face and call her back to the waking world.

Kahlan's tears.

  Even in an unconscious state, Cara could tell that they were Kahlan's  tears. No other tears in the world carried such weight to them, no other  tears in the world had the power to revive her from a state of  almost-death... or, as was the case in the Shrine of the Zoria once upon a  time, help her emerge from slavery of Rahl's confession spell. Kahlan's  tears were the triggering point of the love the two women shared,  declared or not, piercing through the veil of magic, bringing them back  to one another. And now, in a matter of life and death, they worked  their own magic in just the same way. Tears washed over Cara's face as  Kahlan cradled her head in her lap and called to her... Called to her, as  she lay limp and lifeless, believed by everyone around her to be dead...  And revived her... Revived her subtly but revived her. Revived and tickled  her.

Cara made a face... And groaned.

"Spirits... Did you hear that?!" a vague voice pierced through Cara's deafened ears. "Tell me you heard that too!"

Cara felt her head being moved, being handled by someone's hands.

"Cara?! Cara... Oh Spirits, please let her live..."

As gentle as it was, it sent pain shooting through her entire body. Cara groaned again, kept her eyes closed.

"You heard that, right?!" the same voice spoke again. "She is... she is alive! Please, please come back, Cara... Oh Spirits, please bring her back!"

Cara  groaned again, deliberately this time. All she knew in that moment was  that she did not want this person to worry, that she needed to let them  know that she was still living... But she was not yet at a place where she  could speak. But it was enough.

Kahlan wept tears of joy now. Cara was alive. It was all that mattered. It was a miracle.

"You are my miracle..." she whispered through sobs of relief.

"Be careful with her head," Cara heard another familiar voice say.

  "I can't believe this..." Kahlan wept openly, paying hardly any attention  to her surroundings. "You're—you're actually alive...! I thought I had  lost you forever, Cara... I thought I had failed you..."

  The voice wept and wept, while kisses descended over Cara's forehead.  Kisses, tender and desperate... And a hug that threatened to choke her  much as the ConDar nearly did only a brief time ago.

"I don't think she can breathe easily like that," the second woman voiced her concern.

Cara felt the hug ease up.

  "I can't believe this... Alive! You really are full of wonder, Cara  Mason," Kahlan whispered through her tears, smile beaming. "You have the  strongest heart of anyone I have ever met. It is no accident you were  the one chosen for the prophecy..."

"What prophecy?" a third female voice inquired.

"Oh... It's... It's nothing," Kahlan replied.

Cara peeped open one eye.

  The glare of the setting sun came too harsh and hurt her sight, she  closed her eyelid again. But what she saw... What she saw for that brief  second was exactly the sight she had seen once before, a sight she had  so longed to see again, from that one time when she was wounded and  Kahlan had stayed by her side all night and all of the next morning,  looking after her. The image of Kahlan, illuminated by the morning light  had never left Cara's mind... It had become her safe place, her  happiness, and at last it had rematerialised once again, now as the sun  set over Ashford, and set the world on fire with its golden glow,  illuminating Kahlan's face as though she were otherworldly.