hrhrionastar | Love is Cruel: Chapter 7 of 13

Title: Love is Cruel: Confession
Pairing: Richard/Nicci (background Richard/Kahlan, Rahl/Kahlan/Cara)
Rating: PG-13
Length: 963
Spoilers: whole series
Summary: Post-Tears, Richard wakes up to find he's not at the Pillars of Creation anymore...and someone very familiar is in the cell next door. Written for madmguillotine, on seekerrarepair.

Confession

Nicci didn’t know why she’d waited.

She could have tricked the Mord’Sith into letting her go—she would have chosen the comparatively innocent one, not the one with the sharp cheekbones and sharper eyes—it wasn’t as though she were completely helpless.

And she knew, looking into the innocent Mord’Sith’s eyes, that she, Nicci, had killed far more people than her young jailor.

Not that it was a competition—and, if it were, surely she was the loser.

Instead, Nicci worried over her feelings and her plan like a child with a sore tooth. She couldn’t think of anything else but Richard.

And she remembered a song the Prelate used to sing to her, when she was just a girl in a tiny, mediocre village, with a large, mediocre family, who hardly even knew who the Creator was.

‘Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud…”

Nicci twirled a lock of dirty hair around her fingers as she thought, trying to let the song fade from her mind.

But it wouldn’t leave her, not when they brought Richard back, looking half-dead, and she heard his breathing slow into sleep, and thought she could listen to him forever…

Not when the Mord’Sith came with the evening rations and Richard tried the plan and Nicci heard the whine of agiels and feared for him, and blood pounded in her head and her eyes burned—

But he walked out, cool as anything, and just stood there, looking so exhausted and triumphant—

And Nicci thought, this is it, this is when he’ll leave me and go find the Mother Confessor, and at least when Darken Rahl kills me I’ll know he lives, but how dare he forget me already—

And he peered anxiously at her, and she was so relieved he wasn’t going to abandon her down here that her voice had a definite edge when she reminded him, ”the key, before the other one comes back!”

And Richard let her out of the cell, and then out of the Rada’Han, and Nicci felt the power swirling through her, lighting her senses on fire, and it was still strong, maybe even as strong as before, even though after what Darken Rahl had done to her that was impossible—

Love is kind…

But Nicci thought of Richard, standing before her at last, and the Mother Confessor, his only love, as she had heard often enough—

And she thought, sometimes, love is cruel.

She reached out deliberately and grasped Richard’s throat. She could feel his pulse beating erratically, no doubt from the fight, and she could feel the sharp pain of the agiel he still held, humming upward through his skin into hers.

Nicci thought of how beautiful he was, and then she relaxed all her defenses.

She felt her eyes fade to black, the swirling power of Confession, its white fire burning through her veins and out her fingertips—

Richard’s eyes started to darken, but only at the edges, and then the power was momentarily spent, and Richard was staring at her—

And he wasn’t falling to his knees and swearing to serve her.

Something was wrong. Something was wrong with her.

And this is news? some buried part of her demanded sardonically.

Nicci swayed, feeling faint.

Richard caught Nicci’s upper arm in an almost bruising grip, sensing she was about to fall. He shoved his borrowed agiel in a pocket and grabbed her other arm.

“I tried to Confess you,” Nicci said softly, frowning.

Richard was frowning, too. “It didn’t work,” he stated positively. He had felt the power wash over him and retreat, almost like when Kahlan—

But that had been because—

“How is that possible?” Nicci demanded, staring down at her hands as though worried she was broken.

Richard was remembering what Zedd had said at the Pillars of Creation. “I think I know,” he said grimly.

When he asked himself the question—did he love Nicci?—some deep, buried part of his soul seemed to send him a resounding affirmative.

No matter how hard he tried to deny it, Nicci had stolen her way into his heart.

Knowing the truth made Richard feel better, even though the thought of his betrayal of Kahlan made him cringe.

He looked into Nicci’s eyes, and, maybe because he had accepted his own feelings, he read the truth of hers.

She was no longer impassive, no longer unknowable—

Richard felt dizzy, drowning in her eyes. And he knew exactly why she had tried to Confess him, knew precisely the sort of wrenching conflict waged in her heart—the pain of finally realizing what she had done, in her long years of service to the Keeper—the lives she had ended, or ruined, the devastation she had wrought—her anger, that he had made her feel guilty—her incandescent fury and fierce joy that he had triumphed over the Keeper, and that he was alive.

Holding Nicci, Richard thought he had never truly understood what he was fighting for until now.

Her redemption meant everything. She was not poison—she was light.

Richard drew her closer, wanting to crush her lips against his—

And then there was the faint sound of the Mord’Sith stirring in his abandoned cell, and Richard came to his senses.

He didn’t let go of Nicci’s arm, just pulled her down the hallway with him and drew his agiel, wishing for the Sword of Truth.

“We have to go,” he told her. “Now.”

Was it possible to love two people at the same time? What was Richard going to do?

But he had no time to think of that. Rahl would be on their heels soon enough.

And Richard had a Confessor to save.

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