The Legend of the Seeker: Trinity

Chapter Fifteen: Bound

On a starry night, a dozen Sisters of the Dark chant in the woods. "Keeper of the Underworld; hear our prayer. Though we walk in this world we live only to extinguish the light. We bow before and faithfully do your bidding."

One of the sisters removes her veil and looks around. "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?" Another asks.

"By taking her Han." She answers. All the Sisters in the circle lift up their veils.

"She's too powerful."

"Which is why we need to increase our strength. Some of you will have to sacrifice your Han." She looks at the group of Sisters but no one immediately volunteers.

"How will we decide?"

"We've already decided." The four chosen Sisters reach out to the Sisters on either side of them and take their Han. Now the circle of twelve has become a circle of four.

Alone in the woods, Nicci prays to the Keeper. "Great Keeper of the Underworld as I walk on the path to eternal darkness, grant me the strength to carry your will." She senses the approach of her fellow sisters and kneels to the ground as they take out the dacras and throw them at her. The weapons stop in midair before even getting close. Nicci stands and addresses the Sisters. "Marissa, 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." The Sisters walk closer to Nicci, who remains calm.

"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 four to one but forty to one." The four sisters are now close enough to grab their dacras, only for Nicci to mutter a spell and disappear in a flash of light.

Nicci appears in a cave and uses her powers to set a log alight. She stares at the fire and begins chanting. The flames grow and Darken Rahl appears in the center, Nicci kneels.

Rahl looks at her. "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." He sneers, making the woman look down in dejection. "Yet there is one way you may regain his favor."

This causes her to look up with eager eyes. "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? The prophecy says that 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."

Nicci looks at the flames, lost in thought. "I may know a way to control the Seeker, find the Stone and kill the Mother Confessor."

The traveling heroes sans Richard lie sleeping around a campfire. A blackbird flies in close to Kahlan and looks down, plucking a hair from Kahlan's hairbrush before flying away.

The crow lands close to Nicci, who walks over and takes the hair from it. "A strand of the Mother Confessor's hair, you have served the Keeper well." She walks away from the bird and over to a cauldron with liquid bubbling in it, she drops the hair in and begins to chant as she stirs the liquid. She brings up a ladle of the brew and pours it into a cup and drinks the cup down.