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Title: Confession
Fandom: Legend of the Seeker
Rating: PG
Character: Kahlan
Word Count: 480
Notes: Written for Legendland's confession challenge, inspired by this image.
Summary: Confessors are feared throughout the Midlands...
-o-
When they are finally ready to take up their duties, leave the Valley of Thandor and step out into the world, it takes time for Dennee to grow used to how feared Confessors are. She is a bright and merry soul, and it pains Kahlan to see the shadows that form on her face and that grow in her heart as she finally absorbs the dropped gazes, the wary silences, and understands what they mean.
Even Dennee – bright and merry Dennee – cannot doubt that they are feared, feared and hated in equal measure. Dennee never says as much to her sister, but the knowledge of it must bite deep because it turns Kahlan's sister's smiles to solemnity, her laughter into sighs.
Kahlan, at least, already understood how the dread of the Confessor's touch could make even the strongest, kindest, and best of men turn into little more than vicious and half-terrified beasts, threatened and made savage by it. Their father is nothing if not an abject lesson in that, driving home how the world sees them, how it fears them and how the worst of them would render Confessors tame, controlled and shorn of their magic. Dennee should have realised before now how fear robbed men of their senses, but she was so young when their mother died, still a child when they finally found sanctuary in Thandor, away from their father's rage.
But Kahlan remembers. She was wary and solemn long before she stepped beyond Aydindril's gates.
And she does step beyond them once she is of age, walks out with a sure stride and steady heart in spite of her own fear. There is joy to be found in this duty; in moving amongst the people she serves, providing comfort and counsel as far as she can. It's written in her bones, carved deep into her heart, and it makes the loneliness bearable, the knowledge that it is not power but sacrifice that drives the Confessors.
It is a sacrifice she is willing to make.
And once Darken Rahl stalks the lands, people have something new to fear, someone far crueller and more capricious than any Confessor who has ever lived. He hunts her Order down, one by one, savage and unyielding in his drive to deprive the Midlands of any succour, any hope of withstanding his ambition.
But his actions simply lead Kahlan to a greater truth, a greater understanding than she has ever known.
The same people she's served, the ones who have feared, even hated her for her whole life, hide her now, her and the rest of her Order. They lie for the Confessors, and die for them, protecting them with their life's last breath. And Kahlan will return the favour, fighting for them until she has no strength left.
For Confessors are the voice of justice in the Midlands, and Kahlan intends to be heard.
Fandom: Legend of the Seeker
Rating: PG
Character: Kahlan
Word Count: 480
Notes: Written for Legendland's confession challenge, inspired by this image.
Summary: Confessors are feared throughout the Midlands...
-o-
When they are finally ready to take up their duties, leave the Valley of Thandor and step out into the world, it takes time for Dennee to grow used to how feared Confessors are. She is a bright and merry soul, and it pains Kahlan to see the shadows that form on her face and that grow in her heart as she finally absorbs the dropped gazes, the wary silences, and understands what they mean.
Even Dennee – bright and merry Dennee – cannot doubt that they are feared, feared and hated in equal measure. Dennee never says as much to her sister, but the knowledge of it must bite deep because it turns Kahlan's sister's smiles to solemnity, her laughter into sighs.
Kahlan, at least, already understood how the dread of the Confessor's touch could make even the strongest, kindest, and best of men turn into little more than vicious and half-terrified beasts, threatened and made savage by it. Their father is nothing if not an abject lesson in that, driving home how the world sees them, how it fears them and how the worst of them would render Confessors tame, controlled and shorn of their magic. Dennee should have realised before now how fear robbed men of their senses, but she was so young when their mother died, still a child when they finally found sanctuary in Thandor, away from their father's rage.
But Kahlan remembers. She was wary and solemn long before she stepped beyond Aydindril's gates.
And she does step beyond them once she is of age, walks out with a sure stride and steady heart in spite of her own fear. There is joy to be found in this duty; in moving amongst the people she serves, providing comfort and counsel as far as she can. It's written in her bones, carved deep into her heart, and it makes the loneliness bearable, the knowledge that it is not power but sacrifice that drives the Confessors.
It is a sacrifice she is willing to make.
And once Darken Rahl stalks the lands, people have something new to fear, someone far crueller and more capricious than any Confessor who has ever lived. He hunts her Order down, one by one, savage and unyielding in his drive to deprive the Midlands of any succour, any hope of withstanding his ambition.
But his actions simply lead Kahlan to a greater truth, a greater understanding than she has ever known.
The same people she's served, the ones who have feared, even hated her for her whole life, hide her now, her and the rest of her Order. They lie for the Confessors, and die for them, protecting them with their life's last breath. And Kahlan will return the favour, fighting for them until she has no strength left.
For Confessors are the voice of justice in the Midlands, and Kahlan intends to be heard.