Evening swept through Hartland like it did everywhere else, but when Richard walked inside his grandfather's cozy home, he didn't find Oralia there. Instead, there was Zedd, and his face was pensive, bothered by his own thoughts.

"Where'd Oralia go?" Richard asked, befuddled. Zedd looked up to him, and motioned for him to take a seat at the table. "I sent her for some rare herbs in hopes that I could talk to you alone for a minute." Zedd said somberly. "There's something we need to talk about concerning our guest." Richard looked up to him, genuinely interested and concerned by his tone.

"I don't think this woman is who she says she is, Richard." Zedd continued, sagely.

"What do you mean?" Richard replied worriedly. Zedd grunted and walked over to a cauldron of stew that was over the fire. "I'm afraid she's merely a glamour, with the true individual unknown to us." Zedd said with knitted brow.

"I finally was able to determine the magic that surrounded her. Richard, this is no simple maiden. There is some powerful magic at work here." Richard scooted back his seat, and stood.

"There's no way that's true. I trusted her!" He shouted with barely contained rage. Zedd turned from the soup to examine Richard, but when he did, Richard was gone.

"That boy..." Zedd said with a resigned sigh.

Shota looked down at the water; in it she could see Cara as she walked idly around the palace. The Confessor's child was quickly growing in her belly just as the sorceress had planned. The prophesy, with a little bit of bending, was coming along soundly; the forks taking a positive turn when it was Cara- not Kahlan- who ended up with child. This child will rule the three boundaries. Shota thought with a slight smile.

" And I will make sure that happens." She said aloud to herself.

Cara never let herself be reminded of the one time, so many years ago, that she was pregnant. She never thought about the son who lived so briefly, the son who might have ruled D'Hara had Darken Rahl allowed it. No, as far as Kahlan knew, this was her first child, and Cara wanted to keep it that way.

"How are you doing, Cara?" Asked Kahlan, interrupting Cara's dark thoughts of the past. Cara didn't start at the sound of her voice, but her facial expression changed from hard to soft and she tried to give Kahlan a smile despite what she was trying desperately not to think of.

"I'm sore from head to toe, and not because of the right reasons." Kahlan smiled at that, and Cara was pleased to see a tint of red on Kahlan's cheeks. Cara was very close to giving birth, and suffice to say their sex life wasn't what it used to be. Of course, to Kahlan that didn't matter. She cherished so deeply the moments they would spend laying in bed, her head on Cara's large belly, listening to the noises of her daughter moving inside.

"So, I talked to Martha," Kahlan said with a wide smile, "She says you look like you are well into your third trimester. That means, in a few weeks, we'll finally see her. Cara moved slowly from her chair to the bed, and with a nod at Kahlan, invited her to lay beside her. Kahlan nearly jumped into the bed-it had become a ritual of sorts to lay and listen to the little person inside of Cara. Kahlan lifted Cara's shirt and lightly ran her fingers over Cara's bump. Cara couldn't help but smile at that, despite herself.

"Are you ready?" Kahlan asked, her eyes full of wonder and slight hesitation. Cara layed her hand over the Mother Confessor's, and intertwined their fingers together.

"I am Mord-Sith," Cara countered, "I am ready for everything."

When Nikki got back, Richard was gone, leaving the wizard there to stare at her.

"Where did Richard go?" Nikki asked with a small smile. Zedd didn't return it. Instantly, she knew the game was up.

"I wonder how long you thought you were going to keep this up." Zedd said quietly, his voice harsh and judgmental.

"I-I don't know." Nikki admitted. Zedd raised his hand, making a sweeping motion, and instantly the guise of the young maiden Oralia was gone, Leaving the heavily scarred and horrified Nikki standing there.

"You had many chances to kill Richard," Zedd continued, "But you never did. Why is that?" Nikki stood still, her eyes betraying her by showing the deep fear and confusion she felt.

"Every night, before Darken Rahl went to sleep, he would come into my chambers and rape me. Pretty soon he began to cut me as well, nearly bleeding me dry before having one of his Mord-Sith bring me back to life. All I thought of was killing them all; escaping my chains and crumbling the People's Palace until there was nothing left. I had no where to go. So I changed my appearance to a maiden I had killed on the way here and falsified my wounds so I could kill Richard, and end the line of Rahls forever." Nikki said all this, her voice trembling with fear. Zedd sat there in amazement.

"You are much more powerful than Richard or I." Zedd said quietly. "Why didn't you just kill us?" Nikki closed her eyes, a single tear escaping down her cheek. "Because I didn't want to be myself anymore." Nikki admitted softly.

"Richard was so kind to me, the kindest anyone's ever been. It should have been easy... but I didn't want it to stop." Nikki looked up at Zedd's mystified expression. "If I die, I want it to be by Richard's hand." She whispered. Zedd nodded slightly, and they both sat in that tiny cottage, awaiting a fate that neither of them knew.

"I HATE YOU MARTHA!" Cara cried in desperation. Cara's contractions came mere minutes apart now, and no matter how much the Mord-Sith had bragged she could control pain, it seemed that for Cara, child birth was not included.

"Just keep going, Cara. I love you, keep pushing!" Kahlan grunted in reply. Cara's grip on the Mother Confessor's hand was like a vise, and she was beginning to lose sensation. Martha seemed calm and ready, announcing that Cara was crowning and now after 10 hours of pain, was very close to giving birth to their child. Cara listened with deaf ears as she screamed and pushed with no hope of stopping the pain. Of course Kahlan had tried to send a wizard to ease with the suffering, but in the midst of labor, Cara's body shielded her from any and all things magical.

"You can do it!" Kahlan cheered again.

"STOP TALKING!" Cara roared.

"Okay!" Kahlan responded, laughing with an understanding smile of unbridled joy and excitement. With a look the Mother Confessor caught Martha's eyes, and the woman nodded briefly, indicating that Cara was making drastic progress. Then, with a scream that could be heard well throughout the palace halls, a child born of sheer impossibility was born.

"It's a girl." Martha said with a slight smile that looked very strange on her frown wrinkled face. Kahlan immediately squealed, and the hand that was once crushing hers loosened it's grip in exhaustion. The umbilical cord was pinched and then cut. Immediately Martha took the child and stepped to a water bin to clean the child off and swathe it in a blanket.

"Katia." Cara breathed. Kahlan stroked Cara's sweaty brow. In a moment the midwife returned with the child, and attempted to hand it to Cara. Her eyes wide with panic, she shook her head and told the woman to hand the baby to Kahlan. Kahlan's brow crinkled in confusion, but was happy to take Katia into her arms. Katia's milky blue eyes opened to stare into the identical set of Kahlan's. The tears in those very eyes streaked down Kahlan's cheeks. With a smile, Kahlan pulled back the blanket to see the child's hair. It was sparse, but a very white blonde. She was, in essence, a combination of two very different people, two histories, and two souls. The Mord-Sith's half-lidded eyes met those of the Mother Confessor, and in that moment they both realized that this child's destiny was possibly going to be the cause of war.

Richard was sometimes naive, but he was not stupid. After Zedd told him about Oralia's deception, he was certain that Nikki was involved. He stood before his grandfather's humble cottage, and tightened his grip on the Sword of Truth. In him, he felt a darkness that he could no longer suppress. He was a fool no longer, and Nikki was going to taste his blade. With long strides, Richard stepped toward the cottage; a large step toward his fate as the new ruler of D'Hara. To Be Continued In The Sequel To Calloused: The New Age. Coming Soon...