Cecilia
From Sword of Truth Wiki
Sister Cecilia was a Sister of the Dark and among four involved in the Chainfire plot. She is fatally stabbed by Kahlan Amnell.
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[edit] Attributes
Cecilia was an older woman with curly gray hair, which she always kept neat and tidy. She often wore a kindly smile and Richard Rahl always found it difficult to think of her as a potential enemy. After each training session she had with Richard, she insisted on combing his hair off of his forehead and giving him a grandmother like kiss.
It was Cecilia who noted the unshakable loyalty to the Light possessed by Verna Sauventreen and always cautioned her fellow Sisters of the Dark against trying to turn her to the Keeper. Though Cecilia appeared the kindly grandmother, she was far from it. She delighted in the suffering of others and had a tendency to always assume the worst.
[edit] Appearances
First Appearance
- Stone of Tears: Chapter ???
Latest Appearance
- Phantom: Chapter ???
[edit] History
Cecilia appears in the following books of the Sword of Truth series; Stone of Tears, Blood of the Fold, Chainfire and Phantom.
[edit] Stone of Tears
Cecilia is purposely made one of the instructors of Richard Rahl upon his arrival at the Palace of the Prophets, by Sister Ulicia. Ulicia, the leader of the Sisters of the Dark, wanted to know everything going on with Richard, as he appears as a threat to her and the other fallen Sisters, therefore she makes sure each of his instructors is a Sister of the Dark.
As always, Cecilia puts on the demeanor of a kindly grandmother, at all times seeming a relaxed old woman, making it difficult for Richard to view her as a dangerous enemy.
Upon Sister Liliana's failed attempt to drain the gift from Richard, Cecilia, Ulicia and the other four surviving women, who were his instructors, are forced to flee the Palace aboard the Lady Sefa, their identities as Sisters of the Dark revealed.
[edit] Blood of the Fold
Cecilia awakes at the same time as the other five Sisters, aboard the Lady Sefa. Each had shared the same dream, in which their Master, the Keeper, had been replaced by a man named Jagang. Jagang tortured each woman, before ordering them to make their way to his fortress immediately.
The Sister's discussed the situation, deciding that it would be best to follow Jagang's instructions; for the time being. Along the journey, Cecilia participates in the torturing of some of the Lady Sefa's crew so as to encourage the other sailors to make haste.
Sister Ulicia, as the leader of the Sisters of the Dark, came up with a plan to link the powers of the five Sisters, with her as the the director of the dangerous force, in an attempt to assassinate Emperor Jagang. When the Sisters arrived at Jagang's fortress, Ulicia wastes no time in unleashing the full destructive force of the Sister's combined powers. However, it is to no avail; Jagang is a dream walker, meaning that as long as he in a gifted persons mind, their powers are useless against him.
Jagang captures the Sister's and informs them that they are his in every aspect. He gives them to the crew of the Lady Sefa to fulfill their sexual needs. Tovi and Cecilia attempt to escape this fate by pointing out their advanced age, but Jagang is not persuaded.
Later the Sister's are sent back to the Palace of the Prophets, where Verna Sauventreen has been falsely convicted as a Sister of the Dark, clearing their names. The Sisters, with the exception of Nicci, surprise Richard Rahl and inform him that in exchange for allowing them to swear loyalty to him, they give up his captured wifes position. Richard agrees and the Sisters believe they have gained their freedom. They then make their way to Grafan Harbour and unleash their fury upon the crew of the Lady Sefa.
[edit] Post Blood of the Fold / Pre Chainfire
Though Ulicia and her Sister's may have sworn an oath to Richard, she did not believe that it necessarily meant that they could no longer hold to their original oath, to the Keeper, as well. She recognized that Richard's highest morale has always been; life. To her mind, she believed that this would allow the four free Sisters of the Dark to work for the Keeper as long as they were no threat to Richard's life.
This caused a plan to formulate in Ulicia's mind. When the four Sisters discovered a cache of books, a place known as a central site, under the ruins of the Palace of the Prophets, one book stood out beyond all others:Chainfire.
Chainfire was a book written by the wizards of old, detailing a theory that demonstrated the potential to unravel the world of life. It outlined a web, powerful enough to completely erase a persons existence from the minds of all others, even seconds after having seen this person. The wizards, realizing what a catastrophe Chainfire could be if unleashed, created a counter; the Boxes of Orden. However, this played right into the hands of Ulicia and her Sisters.
After destroying the hidden central site, the Sisters set off to find Richard Rahl and Kahlan Amnell. The Sisters succeeded on discovering the camp while the pair slept and were able to avoid their Mord-Sith guard; Cara. They then cast a web on Richard that increased his drowsiness so as to prevent him from waking. They then captured his wife, Kahlan, before quickly leaving the camp. They also cast magic that erased their tracks.
The Sisters placed a Rada'Han on Kahlan's neck, cutting her off from her Confessors power and then in an act of pure evil unleashed the Chainfire Event upon the world by placing it around Kahlan. In addition to the Chainfire spell, a number of extremely powerful webs were placed upon her, preventing her from escaping the Sisters grasp.
The four Sisters and their captive then set off for the People's Palace in D'Hara. However, along the way they stopped in the city of Aydindril and planted a corpse in a grave marked as Kahlan's.
[edit] Chainfire
At the People's Palace, the Sisters and their captive are caught up in a devotion to Lord Rahl. Cecilia and Tovi, due to their advanced years, are especially drained from the uncomfortable experience of kneeling with their heads to the ground for such an extended period of time.
Armina, who had been sent to find the whereabouts of the Garden of Life, returns with the knowledge of where the Garden was situated.
Cecilia and Armina are sent to watch the opposite ends of the Garden's hallway, while the other two Sisters send Kahlan to fetch the Boxes of Orden from inside. Tovi is sent off with one of the Boxes and later Cecilia and the other three women leave the Palace to catch up with her, having secured the other two Boxes of Orden and put them into play.
[edit] Phantom
Cecilia, Ulicia, Armina and the captive Kahlan, finally make it to The White Horse Inn. It was here that they were to meet up with Sister Tovi and finally have all three Boxes of Orden in their possession. The inn keeper and his wife, Orlan and Emmy, let the women in out of the rain. At first the Sisters do not realize that the inn keeper and his wife are fighting over the number of women present. Emmy believed there to be only three, while Orlan believed there to be four. However, the importance of the conversation doesn't escape them for long.
The Sisters quickly force Orlan to describe the extra woman that he sees. It soon becomes obvious that he is able to see Kahlan. Armina cannot believe that Orlan is able to see Kahlan, as they had done the verification webs to ensure everything had gone to plan. Cecilia then argues that they did not do the interior webs, only the exterior. However, this practice had not been done since the Great War.
Orlan becomes angered at the gruff way he is being treated by the Sister, but is quickly knocked down by Sister Ulicia, with her oak rod. When he gets back to his feet and almost uses Kahlan's title, Mother Confessor, Ulicia uses her gift to unleash a powerful bolt of lightning that blasts the man in two. She later uses her dacra to kill the man's wife and daughter, but only after discovering that Tovi, was no longer at the inn and had stated she was on her way to Caska.
On the way to Caska, the Sisters and Kahlan are forced to avoid Imperial Order troops, however, they cannot avoid the carnage left in their wake. The Sister's dream of the power they will be able to unleash upon Jagang, once they have opened a Box of Orden. Eventually making it to the Deep Nothing, the land in which Caska is situated, the Sisters begin to sense someone is following them. They later capture the person; a young girl named Jillian.
Jillian says that Tovi has her grandfather captured and that she had sent her to guide her Sisters to her. They also discover that Jillian is also able to see Kahlan. Jillian guides the Sisters through a labyrinth and when they come to a door, using their gifts, the Sisters can sense Tovi beyond it.
However, when they enter the room, it is not Tovi who waits for them, but Emperor Jagang. Jagang informs them that Tovi had been dead for some time now and that their supposed bond to Richard Rahl had never been anything more than a fantasy, he had been using them all along, because he liked the idea of having Sisters of the Dark out in the world who were up to things he could use to his advantage. He also realized that their plans would help him further sabotage Richard Rahl's cause and net him the prize of prizes; Kahlan Amnell. What Jillian had said about her grandfather earlier, had been true, except that it was Jagang, not Tovi, who held him captive.
The Sisters are forced to help Jagang with his preparations with the Book of Counted Shadows. As the book insists that a Confessor is the only way to verify the truth of the book, Jagang and the Sisters have Kahlan study the book to see if she can find a way to do so. She points out that the book says Shadow, not Shadows. The Sisters argue the relevance of this, Cecilia adamant that Kahlan is wrong in her theory that the lack of shadow as a plural, makes the book a fake.
While Jagang listens to the Sister's argue, Kahlan helps Jillian to escape. She kills two guards, takes a knife and then runs with Jillian, knowing she would be apprehended due to the Rada'Han on her neck. As Kahlan turns back, she throws the knife as hard as she can at the open doorway, before anyone had even come through. As the knife reaches the doorway, Cecilia walks through it and is stabbed directly through the heart, dying instantly.
[edit] Notable Quotes
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