Temple 9

Chapter 9
Captain Picard proves to be asleep, still standing in the spot where they left him. This is weird and wrong. Cara wakes him up with a long kiss, because we can't forget the Dominatrices aren't just torturers, they're highly sexualized torturers. \~/
Captain Picard wakes up, and Kahlan is creeped out by his eyes. He addresses them, referring to them as “My two darlins,” pretty much establishing that Jagang is somehow possessing Captain Picard. Kahlan recognizes this immediately, and orders Cara to reestablish control, but – surprise! – she cannot, and Jagang-in-Picard (hereafter Jagcard) ends up smacking her into the wall. In addition to being immune to Cara's Dominatrix powers, Jagcard seems much stronger and more resilient than he should be, casually shrugging off several attacks and flinging Cara around like a rag doll.
Kahlan tells Nadine to run, but Jagcard somehow . . . telekinetically pulls Nadine across the room and grabs her by the throat. Okay.
Kahlan orders the soldiers upstairs to lock them all in the Rape Pit of Rapiness, then decides its time to mindrape Jagcard and end it. Jagcard threatens to crush Nadine's throat, and Kahlan essentially retorts that she's willing to sacrifice Nadine if necessary. We also learn that “Even if [Jagcard] didn't crush her throat, he was touching her, and if Kahlan took him with her power, Nadine would be lost too.”
So this establishes that anyone touching a Mindrapist's victim at the moment of the attack gets mindraped as well. Interesting. I wonder if there are limits on this? If eight people are all touching the victim, does this affect all of them? What if someone is touching a secondary victim; how far does the effect carry? And when Kahlan mindraped Orsk, while she was in the middle of a heap of soldiers, why didn't it affect all of them?
Once again, I'm giving this more thought than Terry did, aren't I?
Jagcard says, in essence, “Don't you want me to tell you my Evil Plan?” \~/ He and Kahlan chat for a few pages, during which Jagcard vomits forth great gouts of exposition.
*He doesn't like how Richard has changed Murderball.
*The Bad Nun's name is Sister Amelia, and she has somehow betrayed Satan and turned back to God. This serves Jagang's goals . . . somehow.
*He has invoked a type of prophecy “called a bound fork. It enforces a double-bind on its victim.” Richard will have to take one action, which will kill him, or another, which will kill him. Sounds good to me.
*Kahlan goads Jagcard about the prophecy until he magically carves it into the walls of the Rape Pit of Rapiness in High D'Haran.
Kahlan tells Cara to stop Jagcard, but Jagcard flings Nadine at her and she collapses, screaming. Jagcard escapes up the ladder, and Kahlan and Nadine pursue her, finding that he has managed to slaughter all the soldiers guarding the Rape Pit of Rapiness, but has lost an arm in the process.
End chapter.
Drinks: 2
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