"Richard Cypher, you are the true Seeker." "Keeper of the Underworld, hear our prayer." "Though we walk in this world, we live only to extinguish the light." "We bow before you and faithfully do your bidding." "Sisters, twice now, Nicci has failed to kill the Mother Confessor." "She shames us all in the eyes of the Keeper." "But we can succeed where she has failed." " How?" " By taking her han." "She's too powerful." "Which is why we need to increase our strength." "Some of you will have to sacrifice your han." "How will we decide?" "We've already decided." "Great Keeper of the Underworld, as I walk on the path to eternal darkness, grant me the strength to carry your will." "Merissa, do you really think your han can compete with mine?" "I'm not here to compete with your han." "I'm here to take it." "There are only four of you." "Either you overestimate your power or you underestimate mine." "Each of us already killed two sisters, and each of those two sisters had previously killed five." "So you see, Nicci, the odds aren't 4-to-1, but 40-to-1." "Sister Nicci." "Lord Rahl, have I displeased the Keeper?" "The stench of your failure passes through the veil to sicken him even in the Underworld." "Yet there is one way you may regain his favor." " Tell me." " Bring me the Stone of Tears." "Lord Rahl, the compass which points to the Stone of Tears only works in the hands of the Seeker." "Well, then, if you cannot control the compass, you must find a way to control the Seeker." "What about the Mother Confessor?" "Prophecy says the Keeper is doomed to fail as long as her pure heart beats." "We can address the problem of the Mother Confessor's beating heart, once you get the Stone from the Seeker." "I may know a way to control the Seeker, find the stone, and kill the Mother Confessor." "A strand of the Mother Confessor's hair." "You have served the Keeper well." "What's wrong?" "Oh, I just didn't sleep very well." "Cara won't be back from her hunt for a little while" " if you wanna get some more rest." " I'm sure it will be fine." "Richard." "I was chasing a buck." "I found something better." "Where are the rest of your sisters?" "Answer him." "Cara, stop." "What has she done to me?" "She's cast the Maternity Spell." "It replicates the connection between the mother and a child in the womb." "Whatever happens to the mother happens to the child." "Kahlan's survival is now completely dependent upon mine." "A spell of that magnitude would require all of your han." "She can't use any other magic." "I don't need any other magic to get what I want." "An Alkalis stone." "I'm sure you know it's deadly." "If you don't do as I say, all I have to do is bite down and the Mother Confessor will die." "And what is it that you want?" "You're going to lead me to the Stone of Tears." "And if any of you attempt to follow us, Kahlan will die." " And so will you." " I serve the Keeper." "I'm not afraid of death." "Neither are the four powerful Sisters of the Dark who are trying to kill me and take my han." "Since I can't use my magic, I need your protection." "If you want her to live." "Kill her." "Cara can bring me back with the Breath of Life." "To revive her, you'd have to revive me." "And we'd be right back where we started." "I'm going to the bridge now, and if you're not with me by the time I get there, the Mother Confessor and I will meet the Keeper together." "We can't let her do this." "She's using my life as a weapon against you." "Right now we don't have a choice." "Zedd will find a way to undo the spell." "Whatever happens, do not let her get the stone." "I won't let anything happen to you." "Then you best not let anything happen to her." " Do you know how to break the spell?" "I do, but..." " But what?" " The only way to break the bond is to re-establish the stronger bond." "The one with Kahlan's real mother." " My mother's dead." "There may still be a way." "The Maternity Spell extends through death." "So does the bond with your mother." "I could summon her spirit from the Underworld." "I'd be able to see her again?" "It wouldn't last more than a few moments." "But it may just be long enough to re-establish the bond and break the spell." " Then do it." " Conjuring the dead isn't that simple." "It's a complicated spell." "It requires many ingredients." "The most important being an object that belonged to your mother." "Something she treasured." "When Dennee and I left home, we were lucky to get away with the clothes on our backs." "My father has everything my mother owned." "Do you know where we can find him?" "Last I heard, he was living in Gramalia." "Even if we find the stone and you destroy it, even if you kill yourself and take Kahlan with you, you won't win." "Your fight against the Keeper is futile." "In the end, he will win." "He always does." "Life is fleeting." "Death is eternal." "They found us." "Run." "Gramalia is just over that ridge." "My father's estate is just west of that river." "If he's still there." "How long has it been?" "Fifteen years." "Close family." " Cara." "It's all right." "When my father was confessed to my mother, of course, he was completely devoted to us." "But when she died, we found out who he really was." "I was 5, Dennee was only 3." "He forced us to confess people so he could build his own fortune." "Men with wives, families." "Turned into slaves." "They gave him everything they had." "There was one man, Devon." "When we confessed him, his wife was devastated." "She begged us to give her husband back to her." "I remember thinking that next to my mother, she was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen." "My father thought so too." "He made us confess her and order her to his bed." "You had a power, he didn't." "You could have confessed him." "Well, I know that now, but he was this huge, terrifying man, and we were just little girls." "You shouldn't talk about this, Kahlan." "It's upsetting you." " It's not that." "What is it?" "It's Nicci." "Wait." "Wait." "I've seen this before." "This whole field is loaded with dragon's-breath mines left over from the War." "If we cross it, the Sisters won't be able to follow us." "They won't need to." "We'll be dead." "I can get us through." "Follow my footsteps exactly." "Hurry." "They're getting closer." "We can't go through." "It's too dangerous." "Nicci's been hurt." "Which means Richard's in danger." "Don't move." "Dragon's breath doesn't explode when somebody steps on it, but when somebody steps off it." "Stay low and don't move." "Now, I'm gonna put down the rock, you shift your hand." " Do you understand?" " Yeah." "Now." "Okay." "Come on." "They're too far." "Don't waste your dacra." "I have another idea." "I've tried every spell I know." "The wound won't heal until Nicci heals hers." "And she can't use any magic." "We'll just have to keep it clean then." "Your father isn't at the manor." "He moved?" "Something like that." "Well, well." "Hello, Father." "If you've come to pass judgment on me, you're too late." "I don't need to judge you." "I'm sure you're guilty of whatever it is you've been locked up for and more." "I'm sure you didn't come all this way just to insult me." "I've come for my mother's things." "Where are they?" " I burned them." " I doubt that." "My mother's jewels were very valuable." "And as much you hated my mother, we both know you love wealth more." "Don't you have a palace filled with jewels in Aydindril?" " What do you want with mine?" " They aren't yours." "Unfortunately, that's true." "They belong to a warlord named Aramis now." "When Rahl fell, Aramis seized control of Gramalia and threw everyone who opposed him into jail." "My estate was the most admired in the province, so Aramis took it and everything in it." "Then we'll get the jewels from him." "Aramis doesn't even know that he has the jewels." "What do you mean he doesn't know?" "Oh, my dear daughter." "I'm not a fool." "Life has taught me that in a single moment, you can lose everything." "I buried the jewels, your mother's and all the rest, on the grounds for safekeeping." "Where?" "Tell me." "Or what?" "You'll confess me?" "Would you make a love-slave of your own father?" "A sorceress put a dark spell on Kahlan." "Whatever happens to the sorceress happens to her." "If you don't help us, your daughter could die." "One word from the Mother Confessor could get me out of this hellhole and I could take you there myself." "I can arrange a short furlough." "Heh, heh, heh." "That's..." "That's not good enough." "I lost six years of my life when I was confessed." "I have wasted months behind these bars." "I will not lose any more time." "Do we have a deal?" "It's gotten worse." "There's a farm up ahead." "We'll stop there and treat it." "My hand is fine." "You're only worried about Kahlan." "If you don't treat this properly, it's going to fester." "That will slow us down." "Is that what you want?" " How does that feel, dear?" " Better." "Thank you." "Why is your husband destroying his crop?" "Our fields have been overtaken by snakevine." "It feeds on whatever we grow." "A few weeks ago, the vines overran our neighbor's garden, crept in at the window, strangled their little boy while he was playing in front of the hearth." "Poor child." "You know, the Sword of Truth can cut through just about anything." "I could help your husband kill the snakevine." "Bless you, Seeker." "He's been in that field for days." "Edwin." "Edwin?" "Tell them you don't have time." "Edwin, this is the Seeker." "He's going to help us." "I'm so sorry, but I don't have time to help you after all." "I'll come back as soon as I can." "I could've killed the snakevine." "It wouldn't have taken long." "Do you always stop along your quest to help people?" "No wonder you haven't found the Stone of Tears." "Even if you had solved their problem, what about the people at the next farm?" "And the next?" "Just because I can't help everyone doesn't mean I shouldn't help anyone." "That's exactly where you're wrong." "What would you do with a horse whose leg was broken?" "You'd put it out of its misery." "This world is like a lame horse." "Helping people only prolongs their suffering." "The treasure's in a clearing past those trees." "If you can catch one of the guards by surprise and confess him, you could order him to kill the rest." "No." "We'll wait until nightfall and slip in unseen and get the jewels without killing or confessing anyone." "Isn't that what you do?" "Confess people?" "You don't know anything about me." "Frederick, why don't you and I circle the grounds, see what we're up against?" "He may be a bastard, but his strategy was sound." "It was brutal and cowardly." "Just like he is." "I believed the worst about my father, but I was wrong." "It isn't the same." "You were tortured into thinking your father had betrayed you." "I know what my father did." "I lived through it." "You survived." "It made you stronger." "Cara, I don't wanna talk about it." "I'm sorry." "I didn't mean to snap at you." "I'm just very tired." "You're exhausted." "We need to stop and rest." "You're only trying to stall our journey to give your friends time to break the spell." "If we keep going without rest, we won't be able to fight the Sisters when they attack again." "It's going to rain soon." "If we spend the night at the tavern we passed, by the time we set out in the morning, the rain will have washed away our tracks." "You warm enough?" "I'm sure Kahlan's very cozy." "But if I get a chill, I'll let you know." "I'm going to see if somebody in the tavern will sell us some horses." "They're changing shifts." "Now's our chance." "You all right?" "I'm fine." "Just a little dizzy." "Barkeep, get the lady another glass of wine." "This is the spot." "Can you hold this?" "It's heavy." "Just hurry." "Hit me." "You heard me." "If that's what you want." "Unh." " Kahlan." " Kahlan, are you all right?" "Over here." "You're bleeding." "Again." "I can't move." "Get off her!" "I was only doing what the lady asked." "You spoiled all my fun." "Why?" "You went back to help those farmers even though I told you not to, didn't you?" "Now you know the consequences of disobeying me." "If you do it again, Kahlan will pay the price." "You have Kahlan's blood on your hands, Richard." "But perhaps you'd like to make it up to her." "Hm?" "We can make her feel better." "What kind of monster are you?" " Kahlan, are you all right?" " I think it's over." "Do you need to rest?" "No." "I feel a little better now." "That should help the swelling." "I used to take care of people too." "It's true." "When I was a young novice, all I wanted to do was serve the Creator and become a Sister of the Light." "To prove I was worthy, I volunteered to go on a service mission and give aid and comfort to men in prison." "There was one prisoner." "He liked to hear me sing hymns." "He asked to pray with me alone, and I told the guard it would be all right." "As soon as he left, the man forced himself on me." "I went back to the Prelate and told her what had happened." "I admitted I wanted to kill the man." "But the Prelate said the Creator had given me a great opportunity to grant the sacred gift of forgiveness." "What did you do?" "I went back and tried to forgive him." "I prayed to the Creator to let the light shine through me, but the man forced himself on me again." "I was so ashamed." "I didn't wanna tell the Prelate that I had failed." "But that night, when I went to sleep," "I dreamed of slicing his throat with my dacra, and I knew that was a message from the Keeper." "A promise that if I served him, he would protect me." "So the next day I went back, and I slit the prisoner's throat." "That was the last rotten breath he ever took." "I didn't feel a shred of guilt or horror at what I'd done." "All I felt was powerful." "And that's when I knew I had truly become a Sister." "A Sister of the Dark." "What happened to you was wrong." "The whole world is wrong." "That's why the Keeper wants to end it." "And I thank him every day for giving me the strength to help him." "Nicci, you are strong." "But I don't believe a person's strength comes from the Keeper or the Creator." "Your strength is yours and yours alone." "And what you do with it is up to you." "I was sure once I saw her things that I'd remember, but I don't even know which are hers, let alone which ones meant anything to her." "When I was under confession," "I bought this for your mother in celebration of your birth." "I got her these earrings to match when your sister was born." "Your mother wore them every day." "I can't believe I forgot." "Maybe there are other things you don't remember." "I remember enough." "Like when we used to have lunch together?" "And you liked it when I would cut your apples in the shapes of stars." "And then I would lift you up to feed the cores to the horses." "You only did that because you were confessed." "You're right." "I didn't choose to be with your mother or to have children." "I was forced." "You've spent three days subject to the whims of your sorceress." "I spent six years confessed to your mother." "Confessors don't choose honorable men as mates." "So you're saying I deserved it?" "Look at this." "Her name was Leah." "I made this for her." "Her father was a stone carver." "And when I asked for her hand in marriage, he offered to teach me everything he knew." "I took to stone carving right away." "I'd found my calling." " What happened?" " My father." "No son of his was going to be a stone carver." "Or married to the daughter of one." "Oh, he had more ambitious plans for me." "He got me a commission in the Dragon Corps." "I couldn't wait until my service was finished so that I could get back to what I'd loved." "But before I could, your mother confessed me in battle." "Whatever happened to you doesn't justify what you did to us." "For years, I was terrified of what you were going to force us to do next." "Dennee cried every night, and I couldn't even comfort her because you had bound our hands." "There's no excuse for what I did." "But you should know that as afraid as you were of me," "I was even more afraid of both of you." "Knowing that with one touch, my own children had the power to destroy me again." "Found something?" "Her necklace." "Now all we need is sunlight." "The spell won't work without it." "Just be a few more hours now." "I'll get more wood for the fire." "That was no ordinary spider." "It was sent by the Sisters of the Dark." "I only have a few hours left, at most." "We need to get you to a healer now." "There's only one thing that can save me from this poison." "The nectar of the Midnight Blossom." "It only grows in complete darkness in the Caves of Arborea." "We passed those caves yesterday." "It can't be coincidence that the one thing we need to save your life is so close." "It's a trap." " The Sisters will be waiting for us." " If they wanted you dead," " why not use a stronger poison?" " They want me to go to the caves so they can kill me with their dacras and steal my han." "We don't have a choice." "If you don't get that flower, you'll die." "And so will Kahlan." "You'll be fine once the spell is removed." "It's Richard I'm worried about." "Once the spell is broken, Nicci will be able to use her magic." "Richard can handle Nicci." "This should help with the swelling." "Can you speed it up, Wizard?" "If I die, make sure Richard knows it wasn't his fault." "You're not going to die." "No." "Kahlan." "Hold on, Nicci." "Damn it, Nicci, fight." "Come on." "Stay with me." "Come on." "Don't do this." "Don't give up." "Kahlan, I'm right here." "I love you so much." "I love you so much." "Can you hear me, Kahlan?" "I love you." "Can you feel this?" "And this?" "And this?" "I love you." "You're alive." "Kahlan?" "Can you stand?" " I think so." "They're here." "They're trying to smoke us out." "We need your magic to fight them." "Break the Maternity Spell." "Even if I wanted to, I don't have time or the ingredients." "Mama?" "My beautiful Kahlan." "There's so much that I wanna tell you." "That I wanna ask you." "Kahlan, this won't last much longer." "You'll need to touch hands." "From the day you were born, I knew your destiny would be extraordinary." "Mother, I'm not strong enough." "I need you." "Even when you were a little girl, your heart was as good a guide as I could ever be." "I'm so proud of you, Kahlan." "Please don't go." "My magic." "It's back." "It worked." "Then Richard's life is in Nicci's hands now." "No." "I could still force you to lead me to the Stone." "I will fight you until my last breath." "Prophecy says you'll find the Stone and give it to the Enemy of the Light." "You're more use to the Keeper alive than dead." "Thank you for getting me out of prison." "I know you had your reasons, but thank you." "At the manor, you saved my life." "We're even." "Father." "Despite where these came from, I suppose they're yours." "I don't have any use for them." "Maybe you can start a new life." "An honest one." "You know, it's not too late to become a stone carver." "Kahlan." "These belong to you and your sister." "I want you to have them." "I'll keep this and I'll do as you said." "But not because the Mother Confessor told me to." "Because my daughter asked me to." " How did you find me?" " I spelled your shoes." "That old trick." "You think I'd let you walk off with that witch without knowing how we'd get you back?" "I'm sorry for everything that happened to you." "I'm fine, now that I know you're safe." "You seem to be all in one piece." "Good to see you too, Cara." "What happened to Nicci?" "She's still out there." "The Keeper is not pleased." "Actually, I've been thinking about the Keeper." "And since it appears you still run his errands, perhaps you could deliver a message for me." "Tell your master I no longer serve him." "Don't tell me the Seeker has gotten to you." "My loyalties aren't with the Seeker." "Nor are they with the Creator or the Keeper." "My strength is mine and mine alone." "And from now on," "I serve only myself."