"Richard Cypher, you are the true Seeker." "Kahlan." "Kahlan Amnell." "Soon you will be the last of your kind." "What's wrong?" "Nothing." "It was just a bad dream." "Tell me about it." "I was in a desert." "There was a bird and a blind girl." "The starless blackbird of Caska." "Trying to sleep here." "That wasn't any ordinary dream." "That was a message." "It belongs to a Dream Caster." "A magical clan of nomads living in a desert far away from here." "Every generation, a blackbird befriends a small child." "That child is then recognized as the High Priestess and has the power to send dreams on the wings of birds." "The girl in my dream, she told me soon I would be the last of my kind." "Could be a warning." "The line of Confessors is in danger." "I have to go to Valeria, make sure my sister's safe." "Valeria?" "That's hundreds of leagues from here." "You can't travel alone." "I'll go with you." "I thought there was nothing more important than taking him and this magic rune to Pamorah to find the Stone of Tears." "Zedd, you go on with Cara and Flynn." "We'll catch up with you as soon as we can." "It's a waste of time." "Why do you say that?" "The Confessors living on Valeria are dead." "When Darken Rahl found out there was a male Confessor living on Valeria, he ordered us to bring him the child." "But when we stormed the island, the mother sacrificed the baby so we couldn't take it." "And the mother?" " She was eliminated." "My sister?" "Dennee is dead?" "There was no pain." "I killed her swiftly." " Kahlan?" " What's happening to her?" " It's the Con Dar." " Kahlan?" "Stay back." " Cara, you have to leave now!" "I only did what I was ordered to." "I can't hold her much longer." "Run." " But I swore to serve you." "That isn't possible anymore." "Get out of here now!" "Are you all right?" "You shouldn't have stopped me." "You were in the Con Dar." "Killing Cara out of vengeance wouldn't help you, only the Keeper." "Richard, this isn't about vengeance." "She's a Mord-Sith, trained to torture and kill." "Who knows where she'll go or what she'll do now?" "I have to find her and stop her." "We have a small problem." "What is it?" " Flynn has gone." "What?" " Only a momentary setback." "I was afraid the scamp might up and leave, so I took precautions." "Magical precautions." " You spelled his shoes." " All we have to do is follow his footsteps." "If we don't find Flynn and get the Stone of Tears, the Keeper will destroy every living thing." "So you can come with us, or you can go after Cara." "If I ever see her again, I'll kill her." "She's a Mord-Sith." "Please, we don't want any trouble." "All I want is a room and a hot meal." "And maybe something a little sweet." "It's much too early for this." "We don't want your kind here." "Nobody wants you." "Why don't you get out of my tavern and go back to whatever vile pit you crawled out of?" "Looks like someone stopped for a nap." "Good morning, princess." ""Figured you wouldn't use magic on me because of the rune."" "But just in case you've spelled my clothes and shoes, I left them behind." ""Good luck finding that Stone of Tears." "Your biggest admirer, Flynn."" "He's clever, I'll give him that." "He's also naked." "How far can he get?" "Ella?" "Get away from my daughter." "It's all right." "Mama's here." "I'm not here to hurt anybody." "Then leave now, before I put this arrow through your eye." " Wait." "Grace, stay away from her." "Cara?" " Yes." "You know her?" "She's my sister." "Please, wait." "I'm sorry about my husband." "He was only trying to protect our daughter." "There's no need to explain." "Can't believe it's you." "It was a mistake for me to come here." "No, please." "You look so tired and hungry." "At least let me give you something to eat." "Could you do me one favor?" "Your leather will terrify the children." "Would you mind changing?" "This should fit." "Remember when we were little and Mother made us those matching dresses?" "Where is our mother?" "After you were taken, the worry and grief made her sick." "When the Mord-Sith came back and took Father, it was too much." "Her heart gave out." "Do you know what happened to Father?" "You don't wanna know." "Well," "I'll let you change." "Hold still, Cara." " Is it almost done?" " Almost." "Wait till your father sees how pretty you look." "You wear it much better than I do." "Ella, pass Cara the potatoes." "Don't move!" "Don't move!" "Her weapons are in the bedroom." "Sirian?" "Why?" "Your husband did the right thing." "I know how badly you want to believe she's your sister, but she's a Mord-Sith." "Your sister's never coming back." "We're looking for a young man with hair the color of sand, blue eyes, about this tall, and a swelled head about so big." "A local tailor found him half-naked in his shop a couple of nights ago, stealing clothes." "By the time we got there, he was gone." "Do you have any idea what direction he might be headed?" "Well, Black Arrow's Point is only a day's journey." "It's a rich town." "If I were a thief, that's where I'd go." " Mother Confessor?" " Yes?" "Please excuse my ill-mannered interruption." "I've been searching for you for days." "I bring an urgent message from the people of Stowecroft." "What is it?" "We've arrested a Mord-Sith." "We need you to execute her." "You don't need me to find Flynn." "I'm going to Stowecroft." "Since when is the Mother Confessor an executioner?" "If they want Cara dead, why don't they just do it themselves?" "Because they've condemned her to the harshest fate possible." "Death by confession." "What do you mean?" "Confession works differently on Mord-Sith." "Once touched, they suffer in agony until they die." "So they don't just wanna execute her, they wanna make her suffer." " They want to make an example." " This isn't right." "The people deserve justice." "Captain Arturis said the Mord-Sith have been stealing girls from their town for years." "And we'll find a way to stop that." "But it sounds like these people wanna punish Cara for every bad thing the Mord-Sith have ever done." "Richard, she killed my sister." "And I am so sorry for that." "But that is exactly why you can't be fair about this." "You've already accused me of wanting vengeance." "This is different." "It's the will of the people." "You say it's the will of the people?" "Then if I can prove to them that Cara's not the monster they think she is, will you spare her life?" "What is it about this woman that makes you always wanna come to her rescue?" "I believe people can change." "Rot in the Underworld." "We've got to do something." "Here." "Drink this." "Drop it." "Are you hurt?" "Takes more than stones to break a Mord-Sith." "Take her out of the stocks." "Put her in jail." "Come to get your revenge." "Is that it, Mother Confessor?" "Get her out of my sight." "Don't fight." "I'm going to get you out of this." "Before her sentence is carried out, the Seeker has requested to speak on her behalf." "We asked you to come here to execute her." "Yeah." "I'm not an executioner, I'm the Mother Confessor." "And before her fate is decided, there will be a hearing." "And who will decide what happens to her after this hearing?" "You?" "The Seeker?" "The decision will be left to three of your town's most fair-minded elders." "And if the elders still want her dead?" "Then I will carry out their wishes." "Hey." " Oh, sorry, sir." "It's fine." "It's fine." "My mistake." "Here you are, sir." " Oh, why..." "Why, thank you, young man." "But I seem to have lost my coin purse as well." " Perhaps you've seen it?" " Sorry, sir, all I saw was the handkerchief." "Why are you wasting time picking pockets when there's real coin to be made with this?" " What, this?" "It's just an old prison tattoo." " Heh, heh, heh." "Either you're lying or you're stupid." "The rune on your hand is a key to one of the most precious objects in the world, the Stone of Tears." "Oh, yeah?" "What do you know about it?" "Oh, I happen to know a thing or two about priceless artifacts." "Now, do you know what you have to do once you get to Pamorah?" "No, why don't you tell me?" "Oh, no, no, no." "I have another idea." "We go to Pamorah together, we get the Stone of Tears, and we split the profits." "And what if I don't like that idea?" "Oh, well, here's another." "Excuse me, madam, but have you seen the local constable?" " I hear there's a pickpocket about." " All right, all right, you made your point." "No matter what, they're gonna kill me." "Not if I can show them the truth." "What truth is that?" "That you're a different person now than you were under Darken Rahl." "That you yourself are a victim of the Mord-Sith." "That's absurd." "Cara, I spent time in a Mord-Sith temple." "I know what they do to break people." "You think because you were poked a few times with an Agiel, you know anything about me?" "Being chosen by the Mord-Sith was the highest honor of my life." "Your pride is going to get you killed." "I'd rather die than grovel on my knees and beg for mercy." "Unless that's an order, Lord Rahl?" "I'm not the Lord Rahl." "And I'm not ashamed of who I am." "What did you think was going to happen when you came back here?" "That they were gonna welcome you with open arms?" "You sent me away." "I didn't know where else to go." "Is there anyone here who would speak on your behalf?" "Maybe my sister." "Because of this woman, all of you here are free from Darken Rahl." "I couldn't have defeated him without her help." "Before you condemn her to death," "I only ask that you listen to the story of how she became what she is." "Mord-Sith are not born, they're broken." "Every one of them starts out as an innocent little girl and Cara was no different." "Grace, tell us about the day Cara was taken." "We were fishing with our father." "I was 12." "Cara was 9." "I got one, I got one." "All right." "Let me show you how to haul it in so you won't lose it." "Look." "What kind of fish is it, Father?" "I'm not sure." "What do you think Cara?" "It's a baby fish." "Think we should put it back in the water so it can grow up?" "She was so sweet." "She couldn't even kill a fish." "And then what happened?" "They came." "Father!" "Father!" "Cara!" "Cara!" "That was the last time I saw my sister." "A few days later, they came back and took our father." "I never understood why." "Not a day goes by that I don't think of my family and miss them." "That my father could have lived to have seen his grandchildren." "Take them fishing." "He wasn't the kind, caring man you think he was." "He was a gutless, selfish, pathetically weak bastard." "How can you say such things?" "Because it's the truth." "He deserved what he got." "Did they...?" "Did they kill him?" "No." "I did." "She is boasting about murdering her own father." " What more do you need to hear?" "Why she did it." "What the Mord-Sith did to make her do it." "Because an innocent little girl doesn't just turn into a killer for no reason." "Mother Confessor, you are forcing the people of this town to relive terrible days." "And for what purpose?" "So she can mock us?" "It's false pride." "She's covering up how she really feels." "I'm sure of it." "No one has to sit and listen if they don't want to." "The hearing will continue." "Thank you." "He's right, Richard." "You're putting the people of this town through a great deal of heartache." "I hope it's worth it." "I was once captured and tortured by the Mord-Sith." "And this is what they tormented me with." "The Agiel." "It causes unimaginable pain." "I can only hold it because I was tortured with one." "Is there anyone in the hall brave enough to feel its effects?" " I will." " Sirian." "I have to warn you, this is going to hurt worse than anything you've ever felt in your life." "You'll only be proving what beasts the Mord-Sith are." "They used this on Cara to train her." "And she was a 9-year-old girl." "Tell us what happened when you were first captured." "I was taught strength and endurance." "Please, I want my mother." "When I was awake, I was beaten with the Agiel." "And when I tried to sleep, the rats gnawed on my fingers and toes." "Even when I slept in a ball, they'd feast on my ears." "How long did that go on?" "Not very." "The Mord-Sith gave me the opportunity to kill my tormentors." "You don't have to suffer these little beasts any longer, Cara." "If you wanna get rid of them, all you have to do is kill them." "I don't wanna kill anything." "Would you rather they kill you?" "Then listen to me carefully, Cara." "In this world, it is kill or be killed." "If you want to die the death of a thousand little nibbles, that is your decision to make." "But if you consider your life more important than a rat's, then you must kill them." "It took me some time to find the courage to learn to withstand the pain of the Agiel." "But in the end," "I killed every rat in that cell." "Cara, no one can blame you for killing the rats." "Under those circumstances, who wouldn't get rid of them?" "But your own father." "What did they do to make you kill him?" "They didn't force me to do it." "They gave me the honor." "Cara, look who's come to see you." "Father!" "Please, take me away from here." "Oh, no, Cara, he didn't come to rescue you." "He came to sell your sister to us." "You're lying." "My father wouldn't do that." "How do you think we found you?" "He told us exactly where you'd be fishing." "We paid him handsomely for his little girl and now he wants to sell us the other one." "If you don't believe me, ask him yourself." "Father?" "Tell your daughter what you did." "Look at him, Cara." "He's so ashamed, he can't even bring himself to say it." "He sold you." "I know this hurts, Cara." "But now you see how ugly common families are." "They betray each other because they're greedy and weak." "But now you have the Mord-Sith." "We're your true family now, Cara." "We love you so much." "We'll even give you the honor of killing the monster who betrayed you." "They put the Agiel in my hand and I killed him." "What they did to you..." "Made me powerful." "You were a little girl." "They manipulated you." "You so badly wanna believe that, don't you?" "That I didn't have a choice." "You didn't." "This takes away the choice, Cara." "The Mord-Sith can make a person say or do anything they want with this." "It almost made me kill the person I love most." "But you didn't, did you?" "Because your love for her was strong enough to overcome everything they did to you." "My father's love for me wasn't." "He cracked like an egg." "The day I killed him, the sisters of the Agiel welcomed me into their family." "Where are your sisters now?" "Last I remember, your family beat you to within an inch of your life and left you for dead at the bottom of a ravine." "If it weren't for the Mord-Sith making me into what I am now, you'd be dead." "Yes." "Why did you save my life?" " Because you're the true Lord Rahl." "Oh, my." "But you didn't believe that at the time." " What are you trying to get me to say?" " That you're sorry for killing your father." "That you never wanted for any of this to happen." "That the Mord-Sith took your life from you." "They're the ones that are trying to take my life." "You believe I'm your Lord Rahl?" "You too proud to save your own life?" "Fine." "Then as Lord Rahl, ruler of D'Hara, master of the Mord-Sith," "I command you to tell me everything." "Stop this." "Who are you?" "I was Cara's school teacher." "What the people of this town are doing to her is horrible." "I remember Cara as a little girl." "She was such a good student." "So smart, always wanting to please." "Certainly, the Seeker has proven his point." "We shouldn't be punishing her, we should be pitying her." " She is a depraved murderer." "Yeah." " We should've killed her by now." "Yeah." "Silence." "Guards, don't let anyone leave." "I wanna speak to you." "I don't trust the school teacher." "Somebody agrees with me, defends Cara, and now you don't trust her?" "It's not because she agrees with you, Richard." "It's because I can't read her." "There's only one kind of person that I can't read." "Who is this woman to you?" "She told you." "She was my teacher." "Remember, I've ordered you to tell me the truth." "All of it." "I am telling you the truth." "She taught me everything." "I want my mother." "Miss Crantan?" "Here, with my true family, I am called Mistress Nathair." "You were always my favorite, Cara." "That's why I chose you." "You took a child." "How could you?" " Grab her." "Kill her." "Yeah." "We trusted her with our children." " Monster." " Guards, subdue him." "How many children have you taken from this town?" "Twelve girls have gone missing over the years." "And they were all her students." "Mother Confessor, we've heard enough." "We've made our decision." "For what she's done, it is our will that this woman die by confession." "She has shown no remorse." "It is our will that she also die by confession." "Yes." "Will the Mother Confessor abide by the wishes of our elders?" "I will." "I've never seen such a carnival act." "One shoots fire out of his hands, the other carries a magical torture stick." "And the Confessor?" "Make her mad, her eyes turn red and, boom!" "And the Seeker." "Ha!" "If he was so good at seeking, you would have think he'd have found me by now." "I think that old Fool of the First Order gave the Sword of Truth to the wrong farm boy, that's what I think." "Do you ever stop talking?" "Well, since I've got this, I guess you're stuck listening to me, aren't you?" "Have another drink?" "What the...?" "Oh, don't bother trying to move." "I put an elixir in your drink." "Why?" "Because I suddenly realized I only need one part of you." "And it's not the part that talks." "Wait." "Wait." "No." "Hey, hey!" "Help!" "Help!" "Help me!" "Help." "Hey, hey, hey." "Shut up." "Shut up or I'll do much worse to you than just cut your hand off." "Fool of the First Order, eh?" "Argh!" "Can't move." "That lunatic put something in my drink." "Dear Spirits, you're lucky I found you or you'd be dead by now." "You can make whatever he did go away, right?" "I can't use magic because of the rune, remember?" "You just have to wait until it wears off." "Thank you." "If you weren't such a muttonhead, you'd know better than to run away from the only people in the world who can keep you safe." "I'll see you in the Underworld, Mother Confessor." "Oh, what have I done?" "Oh, please, forgive me." "Your remorse is meaningless." "You only feel that way because you've been confessed." "Wait." "Before you confess her, there's something you must know." "The Seeker was right." "We forced Cara to believe a lie." "Confess her." " The hearing is over." "Confess her." "No, you don't understand!" "I must tell the truth." " Confess her." " Confess her." " Come on." " Let her speak." "I tortured her father for weeks." "If you want this to stop, all you have to do is tell your daughter that you sold her." "Never." "But no matter what I did, his love for his little girl was too strong." "He wouldn't break." "Finally," "I decided that if he wouldn't say what I wanted him to say, then I..." "I would take away his ability to speak at all." "We burned his throat." "You were so young." "And it was so easy to make you believe what we wanted." "Tell your daughter what you did." "Look at him, Cara." "He's so ashamed, he can't even bring himself to say it." "He sold you." "You wanted so badly for him to say that it was all a lie." "But he couldn't say it, even if he wanted to." "Confess me." "I deserve it." "Confess her." "I have looked into this woman's eyes and I see now that she is truly remorseful." "Her life was taken from her as a child." "I will not take it from her again." "You said you'd abide by our decision." "As Mother Confessor, it is within my authority to overrule that decision." "Then we'll kill her ourselves." "Stop!" "Confess her." "The Mother Confessor follows no one's orders." "If you don't confess her, I'll shoot you." "And then I'll shoot her." "The Mother Confessor's word is final!" "Where's Cara?" "We decided it was best if she didn't come." "Because of Dennee?" "So you wouldn't have to wake up every morning and see the face of the person who took your sister's life." "Where will she go?" "I don't know." "She saved my life." "And you spared hers." "Kahlan, what you did for her, even after you found out about Dennee..." "Thank you." "When I saw that crossbow aimed at my head," "I thought of the warning in my dream." "If I die, the line of Confessors could perish forever." "I'm not going to let anything happen to you." "Ever." "What you know about Wizards could fit inside the teacup of a Night Wisp." "Don't get offended." "All I'm saying is, sometimes your powers seem a little irregular." "Am I glad to see you two." "What did you do to him?" "Let's just say I made him realize there are certain advantages to traveling with a carnival act." "I notice there's one fewer of us." "What happened to Cara?" "Some food for your travels." "I've mended the dress." "You're welcome to keep it." "I thinks this suits me best." "Promise me we'll see each other again." "Why are you here?" "I can never forgive you for what you did to my sister." "But if anything ever happens to me, the Seeker will need protection." "Father, do you like my new dress?" "Look at you." "Smart and beautiful." "I can only imagine what you're going to grow up to be someday."